Sparta

So this weekend was the class trip to Sparta. I knew from the start that there wasn't going to be much, as the Spartans were not known for their great engineering talents, but rather their amazing abilities at war (See 300) if you need to know more. As the writer Thucydides wrote in the 5th Century BCE (that's BC, it's a history thing), "Suppose the city of Sparta to be deserted, and nothing left but the temples and the ground-plan, distant ages would be very unwilling to believe that the power of the Lacedaemonians was at all equal to their fame." After developing into the powerful city-state that beat Athens near the end of the 5th century BCE and establishing a hegemony throughout Greece, Sparta wound up losing power fairly quickly. It had a brief resurgence during the Roman period, but soon, very few people lived there. With the building of the city of Mystra in the Renaissance, the Eurotas Valley became completely abandoned. Therefore, when King Otto I, the first king of Greece, came to power, he ordered the construction of a city on top of the ancient site. This has led to a major headache for archaeologists, as the ancient ruins are now located under people's personal property.

Anyway, enough of my history tirade. As i have said, there wasn't much, and none of the sites were developed in any way. However, that doesn't mean that the sites were not impressive. While they lacked the refinement of the Acropolis, each ruin possessed its own charm. Our first visit was to the Menelaion, which was the ancient temple dedicated to Menelaus, the first king of Sparta and his wife Helen (of Helen of Troy fame). This was a rather simple temple, but as it was built during the 8th century BCE, it demonstrated some impressive architetural knowledge with its large, well-fitted stones. Also, from here we got our first view of the modern Spartan city, and the infamous Mt. Taygetus. This mountain range rose out of nowhere to be as high as the clouds. The river Eurotas is one of the few rivers in Greece which runs 365 days a year, making the valley incredibly fertile. Also near the Menealion was a Mycenaean villa, basically a large house which was fairly well reconstructed and impressive in its own right.

After lunch and a hike back, we checked into the hotel, then went for a hike to the Temple of Artemis Orthia and the Acropolis. The Temple of Artemis Orthia is fairly well known throughout the ancient world. Don't worry if you haven't heard of it, I hadn't until i became a history dork. But you may remember it as the temple where the Spartan youths were divided into two groups, one in front of the main altar holding whips, and the other group in front. The boys with whips were to keep the other boys from grabbing pieces of cheese off the altar. The ceremony would not end until blood was spilled on the altar. Kinda bloody and unnerving, but better than later on when it became an endurance contest with the last man standing after a whipping winning the "contest."

The Acropolis is especially impressive. It's now part park, part private property. There were a number of ruins on the hill (Acropolis doesn't refer to just the one in Athens, an Acropolis is a large hill), namely a Roman era theater. This theater rivals that of Epidaurus in my opinion, and is going to be excavated again soon. With a view of the Eurotas Valley and Mt. Taygetus, you'd be hard pressed to find a more gorgeous view. There were remnants of a Roman bath and a number of inscriptions. After a long day, we went back to the hotel, went to dinner, had some fun, and went to sleep.

In the morning, we visited the Sparta museum, which was in sore need of restoration and repair. Nevertheless, it still contained a number of important works of art from Sparta, including some impressive lead and bronze figurines. After this, we went on to the the Amyklaion, a temple to Apollo. This temple lacked any remains pretty much at all, and the only highlight was finding some cool pottery shards which sadly i could not keep. Sadly, we had to kill time here, so many of us just sat back and enjoyed the sunshine. Our final visit to the Caidas, the great pit where the Spartans would throw their prisoners, a somewhat recent cave in/earthquake made the site unsafe, so we were unable to travel inside. A somewhat big disappointment.

On the whole, what we saw was impressive, but there was not much beyond what you could see in a day or two. The modern city itself was even disappointing, with many dilapidated buildings and run down streets. I don't recommend Sparta for those who have no knowledge of ancient history, as you'd be terribly lost and confused without it, and even then, you still may be disappointed and confused.