Peloponnese Trip III: Bassae and Messene

We did two sites after leaving Olympia; contrary to what I said in the last post, Mystra was the day after this.

First up was the temple of Apollon the Averter of Evil at Bassae. But before we get to the temple itself: kittens! More kittens! Multiple kittens! Adorable kittens!

While we were occupied poking stray cats with bits of grass, Sheila managed to get an actual look at the temple before she had to do her site report on it. And here you can see it. That thing in the background is part of the big structure the Ministry of Culture has built in an attempt to preserve the temple. The structure itself was built around 430 BCE, and remained in use until the 2nd century CE, after the community that built it was absorbed into Megalopolis, a city inconveniently far away. It has some weird architectural elements that are common in this part of Greece, but which we didn't see elsewhere on the trip. For one thing, this temple is built on a north-south axis, instead of facing east (like a normal temple) or west (like a later Christian church). It does, however, have a big doorway in the east wall. I think that's so that the light from the sunrise would reach the cult statue. I don't know if you can make it out in this shot, but you might be able to see the base of another of the temple's more unusual features. As well as the typical exterior columns, this temple had two rows of Ionic columns inside. Even odder, there was one Corinthian column, perhaps the first in Greece, front and center. There's a theory that this was an aniconic cult statue, but our professors didn't buy that, and it would be extremely odd for the period. Instead, it's likely that they took the actual statue with them when they abandoned this temple for one closer to Megalopolis, which would explain why nobody's found one at this site.
Looking through the temple, on the north-south axis. you can see the columns on the interior and how well they line up with the exterior ones on the north and south walls.
Misc temple shot.
No humans allowed inside the temple!
Veni. Although he came, unlike Caesar he neither saw or conquered.
Another exterior shot.
They were really adamant about not letting humans in.
I can't make up my mind if this view is from right before we left Bassae or right outside the museum at Messene, though at the moment I'm leaning towards the former.

The Spartan ruling class was able to devote themselves exclusively to warfare only because they had a massive slave class to do their farming and prop up the Spartan state. Some of these slaves came from Lacadaimonia, the territory immediately surrounding Sparta. Others came from Messenia, the next valley over to the west. After their victory in the Persian wars, the Spartans, who controlled through alliance and intimidation most of the Peloponnese, and the Athenians, who controlled in the same manner the islands and much of the Aegean coast, entered a period of cold war. When that war inevitably turned hot, the result was the Peloponnesian War, which devastated much of Greece but left the Spartans as the dominant power in the region. Their good fortunes didn't last long, and after defeating the Spartan army, the Thebans, under the innovative general Epamenondas, broke Spartan power for goo by freeing their slaves. As part of that campaign, Epamenondas founded the city of Messene for freed Messenians, which was heavily fortified and was supposedly built in 85 days. It's also had a lot of money thrown at it in recent years by the Greek Ministry of Culture, and thus looks great for modern tourists. Bring a parasol, though, since there's very little shade.

The Messenians cooperated with the Romans early on, and did very well under the first few centures of Roman rule. So it's not surprising to find a few nice Roman statues in the site's museum.

Here is one of the neater buildings at the site. Being an unusually planned community, the people at Messene decided to clump together their temples instead of spreading them around all willy-nilly. In addition to the structure in the center, you can see that it was surrounded by four stoas, many of which also had religious use. Among the more prominent gods worshiped here are Asklepios, the god of healing, Messene, the personification of the region, Artemis Ortheia ("the straightener") and the cult of the Roman Imperial household also had dedicated space in later periods.
In addition to being the Homeric virgin huntress and protector of nature, Artemis was also associated with pregnancy, childbirth and children, especially girls. The Messenians would take her cult statue out into the courtyard at night for a coming-of-age ritual for their daughters, and here you can see Rachel sitting on the statue's more usual resting place. That ritual is particularly interesting because the Messenians' former masters, the Spartans, also had a rite-of-passage ritual in honor of Artemis Ortheia, but for boys. Oh, and it was much more brutal and occasionally killed a few of the participants, but that's Sparta for you.

Stoa ruins. The propped up bit of decoration is from the second floor.
Looking into the courtyard. That long, short thing in the fore/mid-ground is the altar for the entire complex.
A beautiful odeon with Dr. Bloy.
The same building, but without any doctors of classical archaeology in it.
It's small compared to a theater, but that's the price you pay for covered structure.
There's still a very nice view of the floor, though.
The athletic complex in the distance.
A little closer...
Sheila, Deanna and Ana looking out at the stadion from the shade.
VIP seating.
Dr. Bloy took a picture of all of us with the curved bit of the stadion behind us.
The building at the far end of the stadion. This is probably the shrine built to honor the hero Demophon, a sculptor native to Messene.
It's got a neat foundation made from alternating layers of different kinds of marble.
Leaving the site, we stopped the bus a few minutes down the wall to get out and play on the site's walls. They weren't that difficult to get on top of, for how high they are. Here's a shot of some of my comrades up in a tower. Zoomed in you can make out Doug and Deanna with AJ behind them. Several people climbed up into that tower from the wall right below it. I decided against it because they didn't appear to be an easy way back down. I had climbed down the wall again and was on my way to the other side of the tower to see if the other side was a little friendlier, but by the time I got there Aleko was yelling at us to get back on the bus.

We arrived in the modern town of Pylos a little before sunset started. The view was lovely. We only stayed there for the night, before setting out in the morning for ancient Pylos and Mystra.