B.C., D.C., Arcadia and Ancient Red Bull

Walking the backstreets of a Greek town, I heard music with a special twang. It sounded like someone was strangling a yodeler. Greeks tap their feet to relatively exotic music that comes with a strong whiff of the Middle East. The 19th-century writer who noted that Greeks can’t dance to European music and vice versa was probably on to something.

In many ways, Greece marks the cultural divide between east and west. And Greece, the only country in the European Union not connected with the rest of the EU, is the only country in the EU with its own distinct script on Euro currency.

Driving into the heart of the Peloponnese peninsula, we passed into Arcadia. Our guide explained, “This was the ultimate boonies in the ancient mind: land of Pan, fauns dancing in glades, Virgil, Ovid and scenes from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

History has been hard on Arcadia. One town spelled out 12.13.43 on its hillside — the day all its men were killed by Nazis. Nearby, in the remote town of Dimitsana, men were generally spared from the draft because of their prized ability to make gunpowder — a complex family recipe of ground-up goat droppings, charred twigs and lime.

It’s a rough land with simple wines. A local vintner said there’s no fine $50 bottle of Greek wine. I asked him, “What if you want to spend $30?” He said, “Fine, you can buy three $10 bottles.” You drink Greek wines quickly — whites within a year, reds within two or three. In Greece for wine, I go with the rotgut — retsina(it makes you want to sling a patch over one eye and say “arghh”). But I prefer the good local beer and the cloudy, anise-flavored ouzo.

If a tourist complains about the food, it’s “fish with heads and the same salads every day.” I like fish with heads — squeeze lemon luxuriously all over it and eat everything but the wispy little tail. And the same salad every day reminds me how every day I wish the USA valued taste over looks in its produce. An ethic that I find makes eating feel right is to eat things that are in season and grown locally.

Visiting ancient Olympia is a Peloponnesian pilgrimage for modern tourists. And it was a Mecca of ancient Greece as well. All wanted to come here once in their lifetime. The ancient Olympic Games were more than an athletic fest. They were a tool to develop a Panhellenic identity.

Every four years, leading citizens from all corners would assemble here. Athletes — aristocratic youth — would stay here to train for months, brainwashed without knowing it to be Greeks. There were no losers…except quitters and cheaters. (Drinking animal blood — the Red Bull of the day — was forbidden. There were actually official urine drinkers to test for this ancient equivalent of steroids.)

The modern games are still all about people coming together. The five rings emblem represents the five continents. (While the USA recognizes seven continents, the rest of the world — which considers the Americas one and Antarctica not one — counts only five.)

Ancient games were men only. Women weren’t allowed in our modern games either until only 1928. In 1936, Hitler’s Nazi Olympic committee designed the first ritual torch lighting — which we enjoy essentially unchanged to this day. In 1936, they ran the torch from Athens to Berlin. On March 24, 2008, the torch will be lit at ancient Olympia and begin its journey all the way to China.

There’s a lot of B.C. stuff here in Greece. Pretty soon B.C. can become D.C. On nameless hills, you’ll pass stony remnants of people from centuries…D.C. Just because something’s B.C. doesn’t mean it’s got to be seen. Be selective in your ancient sightseeing.

Comments

7 Replies to “B.C., D.C., Arcadia and Ancient Red Bull”

  1. In 1989 we visited Olympia, a city of ancient Greece, that was the site of the original Olympic Games, 3,000 years ago. We have visited the locations of 15 of the first 21 winter Olympics, and we have visited 19 of the locations of 25 modern Olympics.

    As we left Leonidio, on the way to Kosmás, on the Greek Peloponnese, the road was terrible. Some kind Greek had placed small stones around one huge hole, to notify the next driver.

    As we were leaving Kosmás, a camper from England blocked our way. The road they had just been on was unbelievable, and asked about the road we just came on. I assured her that while it’s almost impassable, it just had to be much worse than what they had already seen.

    Well, I was wrong. The road didn’t get worse, it just plain disappeared. In low gear and in heavy rain, we drove on dirt and over rocks, up and down chuck holes around boulders and trees, slipping in the mud with little rivers flowing in ruts formed by previous vehicles.

  2. Could you explain what is the unique script on Euro Greek currency? Do you mean the paper Euros? Euro coins have unique country emblems depending upon the country where minted. I don’t have any euro coins from Greece.

  3. The Greek 1 euro has an owl on it. The image was taken from an ancient coin. You can find the details by using google for euro coins. The ruins at Olympia impressed me. The fallen columns demonstrate how the sections of stone were stacked to look like one giant column.

  4. The Greek 1 euro has an owl on it. The image was taken from an ancient coin. You can find the details by using google for euro coins. The ruins at Olympia impressed me. The fallen columns demonstrate how the sections of stone were stacked to look like one giant column.

  5. As an ancient historian (in training), I must disagree, all B.C. (and a few hundred years of AD) is a must see! How about a few pictures for those of us stuck in the states studying for exams? I’m very curious about the fire damage around Olympia.

  6. The Owl is the traditional symbol of Athens. Each city-state had a “mascot”. Re: continents… it was a Euro-centric world that somehow divided Europe and Asia. Perhaps they should drop to 4 circles?

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