Day Trip to East Attica
On Friday, February 22, we took a day trip to East Attica. Attica is a peninsula region of Greece that encompasses Athens and projects into the Aegean Sea. Since Athens is in this region, it's easy to take day trips around the region to see different things. That's precisely what we did!
We left our apartments at 8:30 and traveled to Brauron (today it is known as Vravrona). Brauron was an ancient city of Attica and it was the home to a fairly large cult to Artemis, the goddess of hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, the Moon, and chastity. The reason for this actually originates in the second Trojan War (the one Homer wrote about). The most popular version of the story is that King Agamemnon of Mycenae had to kill his daughter, Iphigenia, as a sacrifice to Artemis in order for the winds to be strong enough to carry his ships to Troy. However, there is another version in which Artemis switches out Iphigenia for a deer at the last second and escapes from Aulis and runs away to Tauris or Taurica, modern-day Crimea. She served as a priestess to Artemis there, and is rescued by her brother Orestes, who was sent by Apollo to collect a sacred statue of Artemis and bring it back to Athens. The two return to Greece, and Athena declared that Iphigenia should establish a temple to Artemis at Brauron.
We saw the remains of the temple and they were fairly impressive for being so old. The earliest temple actually dates to the 6th century BCE, but the Persians destroyed most of it in 480 BCE and took the cult statue back to Susa (modern-day Shush in the Khuzestan province of Iran). The temple was then reconstructed in the 420s BCE.
There was also a shrine to Artemis Brauronia on the Athenian acropolis, and during Arkteia, a festival in celebration of Artemis occurring every four years, young Athenian girls (of marriageable age) processed from that temple on the Athenian acropolis to the temple at Brauron, where they spent time together essentially preparing for marriage and motherhood.
After we saw the site and accompanying museum, we went to the beach at Marathon to have lunch. Marathon was an important site in the Persian Wars, and the beach at Marathon is where the Persians first landed during that battle.
As I said, the Battle of Marathon was an important battle in the First Persian War. It took place in 490 BCE and was the first attempt by King Darius I of Persia to subjugate Greece. The Persians were ultimately defeated by Athenian forces (aided by Plataeans), even though they outnumbered the Greeks by several thousand. Marathon is also the birthplace of the marathon race. The marathon race commemorates the run of the Athenian soldier Pheidippides. Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens (26.2 miles, you guessed it), to report victory to the Athenians, before dropping dead.
The first site we visited at Marathon was the tomb of Marathon. It looks like a big mound. After the battle, the Spartans arrived and agreed that the Athenians won an important victory. They buried the fallen Athenians and Plataeans on the battlefield, which was something that wasn't typically done. Athenians usually buried their dead in a cemetery and marked the location with a grave stele (kind of like an ancient tombstone).
At Marathon we also saw an archaic grave circle with bones dating back to the Mycenaean period (ca. 1300 BCE). That didn't have anything to do with the battle, it was just neat to see.
We then went to the Marathon museum and saw some of the artifacts recovered from the city before returning home.
All in all it was a nice short day with lots of learning. I liked the trip because we got out of Athens but it didn't bring the preparation of a weekend trip. And, being able to say I visited Marathon was pretty cool.
We left our apartments at 8:30 and traveled to Brauron (today it is known as Vravrona). Brauron was an ancient city of Attica and it was the home to a fairly large cult to Artemis, the goddess of hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, the Moon, and chastity. The reason for this actually originates in the second Trojan War (the one Homer wrote about). The most popular version of the story is that King Agamemnon of Mycenae had to kill his daughter, Iphigenia, as a sacrifice to Artemis in order for the winds to be strong enough to carry his ships to Troy. However, there is another version in which Artemis switches out Iphigenia for a deer at the last second and escapes from Aulis and runs away to Tauris or Taurica, modern-day Crimea. She served as a priestess to Artemis there, and is rescued by her brother Orestes, who was sent by Apollo to collect a sacred statue of Artemis and bring it back to Athens. The two return to Greece, and Athena declared that Iphigenia should establish a temple to Artemis at Brauron.
We saw the remains of the temple and they were fairly impressive for being so old. The earliest temple actually dates to the 6th century BCE, but the Persians destroyed most of it in 480 BCE and took the cult statue back to Susa (modern-day Shush in the Khuzestan province of Iran). The temple was then reconstructed in the 420s BCE.
There was also a shrine to Artemis Brauronia on the Athenian acropolis, and during Arkteia, a festival in celebration of Artemis occurring every four years, young Athenian girls (of marriageable age) processed from that temple on the Athenian acropolis to the temple at Brauron, where they spent time together essentially preparing for marriage and motherhood.
After we saw the site and accompanying museum, we went to the beach at Marathon to have lunch. Marathon was an important site in the Persian Wars, and the beach at Marathon is where the Persians first landed during that battle.
As I said, the Battle of Marathon was an important battle in the First Persian War. It took place in 490 BCE and was the first attempt by King Darius I of Persia to subjugate Greece. The Persians were ultimately defeated by Athenian forces (aided by Plataeans), even though they outnumbered the Greeks by several thousand. Marathon is also the birthplace of the marathon race. The marathon race commemorates the run of the Athenian soldier Pheidippides. Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens (26.2 miles, you guessed it), to report victory to the Athenians, before dropping dead.
The first site we visited at Marathon was the tomb of Marathon. It looks like a big mound. After the battle, the Spartans arrived and agreed that the Athenians won an important victory. They buried the fallen Athenians and Plataeans on the battlefield, which was something that wasn't typically done. Athenians usually buried their dead in a cemetery and marked the location with a grave stele (kind of like an ancient tombstone).
At Marathon we also saw an archaic grave circle with bones dating back to the Mycenaean period (ca. 1300 BCE). That didn't have anything to do with the battle, it was just neat to see.
We then went to the Marathon museum and saw some of the artifacts recovered from the city before returning home.
All in all it was a nice short day with lots of learning. I liked the trip because we got out of Athens but it didn't bring the preparation of a weekend trip. And, being able to say I visited Marathon was pretty cool.
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