Hunt Reynolds - Blog #2

     The road to Nafplion was long and curvy but offered fantastic views of the Greek countryside.  The mountains, covered in olive trees, shrubs, and fir trees, were just as neat to see as the ruins and towns along the way.  I loved seeing the small farms and homesteads scattered through the countryside. The landscape in Greece is very diverse compared to the forested hills and agricultural plains of rural Indiana. The town of Nafplion was the prettiest town we have been to so far. It reminded me of the little, seaside European towns Ernest Hemingway writes about in his literature. 

     The Ancient Theatre in Epidaurus and healing Temple of Asclepios were very impressive sites. Standing at the theatre in 2018, it is hard to comprehend how in the world the ancient Greeks crafted a piece of architecture that would rival any modern theatre in sound quality. As Professor Seaman said, even a modern theatre in California could not produce the quality and volume of sounds as those in the ancient theater.  This point corresponds with a theme I wrote about in my first blog: the difficulty for modern construction to resurrect ancient architecture. This theme runs through my mind every time we visit a new site.  There is no way that today’s society could only use their hands and bodies to build sites made out of stone. 

    The Temple of Asclepios’s story is fascinating.  Learning about how the ancient Greeks used sacrifices to the God of Healing to cure sicknesses was very interesting.  In an anthropology course last fall, my class learned about different medical approaches and philosophies taken by different cultures across the world. The professor taught us it is generally unwise to jump out and call different medical approaches inferior. I think this lesson applies in the ancient Greek’s case.  Does slaughtering to the God of Healing really work? Of course we say “no” today but people in the past truly believed it did. Even if it does not work in real life, it allows for intriguing stories and histories of the past to be told and passed on.