From Delphi to Athens

Greetings,

Today we left Delphi and drove to the Monastery Osios Loukas. This monastery is dedicated to Holy Luke but not the Luke of the Gospel of Luke but another Greek Luke from the 11th century AD. He was a hermit and a healer. It is an amazing building in a beautiful location overlooking a green valley. This site also was under attack during the Greek Revolution in 1821. The revolution resulted in Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Inside the church are beautiful ceiling mosaic with scenes from the Life of Christ, his baptism, washing the disciples feet, etc. Also there are images of Peter and Paul and many of the apostles. There are frescos in the crypt under the church which depict Thomas touching Jesus side after His Resurrection.

The monastery was built to honor Holy Luke and St. Barbara.

We then drove quite a while (about 3 hours) across the mainland of Greece to the coast and the city of Marathon. This is the location of a major battle between the Athenians and the Persians. Many people believe that this is the most important battle in the history of the west. Because here the Athenians out numbered two to one defeated the Persians and preserved Greek control and thereby the birth of democracy etc. This battle took place in 490 BC with the Athenians under the command of Miltiades. There were about 10,000 Greeks and about 25,000 Persians. After the victory of the Greeks about 6,000 Persians died in this battle while only 192 Athenians died. These 192 were buried in a tumulus on the battlefield and the tumulus is still there. We visited it today. This became an important symbol for the Athenians and was remembered by the Romans and us today.

After we we visited the Plain of Marathon we went to a small but nice museum of Marathon. It contains some of the objects found into he tumulus when it was excavated (and they found the remains of over 1000 men) this is important confirmation of Herodotus.

Also in the museum were some fine examples of Greek pottery and some amazing statues from a Temple to Isis built on a nearby island in the 2nd century AD.

We then ate a late lunch near the seashore. I had a Greek salad which has cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, and olives with Olive oil and seasonings. It was nice way to end the trip.

We then drove the 26 miles to Athens and our hotel the Amazon hotel. After checking in and celaning up I came in post this report and check my email and also post my grades for my classes at Ohio University Southern campus. I taught two classes this quarter, History of the Middle East since 1800 and the History of Ancient Greece. I must admit this is the first time I have posted grades on a course on Ancient Greece while being in Greece!! I posted grades for Athens Ohio from Athens Greece!!

Tomorrow we go to the Acropolis and the National Museum.

John Wineland, Athens Greece