Greece Trip 2019 Athens-Delphi-Olympia-Tolo

During the October half term, 24 boys and three staff from Sherborne flew to Greece to visit some of the most significant sites of the ancient Greek world. Beginning in Athens at the Acropolis Museum, the boys saw the history of the religious centre of the ancient city through artefacts and models; all the while, the fortified hill of the Acropolis itself was visible through the museum’s huge glass walls. Once up on the Acropolis and through the ceremonial gate, the boys got a close-up view of the remains of the Parthenon, a marvel of craftsmanship employing mathematical ratios in combination with organic architectural ‘illusions’ to give the appearance of perfect form. The walk back through the historic centre of Athens, in heat equivalent to a British summer’s day, involved stops at both a museum and – perhaps more importantly for some – a gelateria.

Slightly off the well-worn path of school tours of Greece was the next day’s boat trip to Aegina, where the boys got a taste of Greek island life while exploring the temple of Aphaia, a unique and beautifully-designed Doric temple. The final stop in Athens was the National Archaeological Museum, featuring a wealth of objects not only relevant to the boys’ Classical Civilisation examination courses, but also influential in the wider perception of ancient Greek life and their concepts of beauty. There was even an exhibition even recreating some of their perfumes.

A winding coach journey up into the mountains then brought us to the ancient pilgrimage site of Delphi, where on set days of each month a priestess would have delivered the Oracle of Apollo’s prophecies. Set high in the mountains, the isolation of the town, and the effort it must have taken to reach without motorised transport gave a clear sense of the importance to the ancient Greeks of their religious and political networks.

From Delphi, our route took us down into the Peloponnese, to Olympia, where in 776 BC the ancient Olympic Games were first held. The boys were able to explore the remains of the mixture of sporting and religious buildings of the site, re-enact the stadion (a near-200m sprint race) on the original Olympic track, and get up close and personal with the sculptural remains of the temple of Zeus, which once housed a gold and ivory statue of Zeus – though, sadly, nothing remains of this particular wonder of the ancient world.

The final hotel of the trip was in Tolo, south of Corinth, and was our base for exploring a range of ancient sites; the boys were also glad to be able to have some time on the beach between excursions. First up was an early morning visit to Mycenae, the legendary home of Agamemnon, with walls built from stone blocks weighing tens of tons; the ancient Greeks believed that only giants could have built them, and they have stood for over 3000 years. That afternoon the boys got to experience sitting in what was regarded as the most perfect of ancient theatres, its acoustics allowing even those on the very back row of its 14,000-seat auditorium to hear performers’ unamplified voices. Other sites included Tiryns, a citadel similar to Mycenae located in the plain of Argos, and the final visit was to Corinth, an almost entirely Romanised colonial outpost situated on the Greek Isthmus. From there it was a relatively short coach ride back to Athens, and the flight which brought us back into the UK to be welcomed by the particularly British rain and darkness.

Nicholas Hall, Classics Teacher