Category Archives: Passengers’ journals

Robin Cormack is well known to our guests on Aegean Odyssey, as one of our most popular guest lecturers. He has travelled with us on several occasions lecturing on his specialist subject of Byzantine history. On this voyage, Robin was interested in a different era of ancient history and the way two famous ancient sites are accessible to guests – an interesting departure for this expert of Byzantium history!

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“Aegean Odyssey left Istanbul on the evening of 27 August and thereafter life on this cruise became very busy.

Even the wind and swell which prevented the excursion to Lemnos on the next morning came with a fantastic dividend – the changed schedule gave the opportunity to see Mount Athos in the afternoon light. We also had enough time to get as far along the peninsula as the monastery of Simonopetra, the building on a rock so much loved by 19th century visitors (men of course), and illustrated in Robert Curzon’s famous book, Visits to Monasteries in the Levant (1849) – these photographs show the rock and the building in 1849 and as we saw it from the Aegean Odyssey.

The Monastery of Simonopetra, Mount Athos

We went on to Izmir (for Ephesus and Pergamon) and soon to some of the best “ruins” in Greece. It was all especially nostalgic for me, as my very first visit to Greece was on a student scholarship to look at Minoan and Mycenaean archaeology, but I perversely came away then with an ambition to find out more about the Byzantine monuments of Greece instead. So in the 1960s I first went to Athos and walked the overgrown paths to many monasteries – from Simonopetra to Vatopedi.

There may be no women allowed onto Athos, but I soon found out there were dozens of female cats and frogs living there. I have to admit that I got an ambition after staying on Athos to have a study in Cambridge that gave the same atmosphere of other-worldliness. The photograph here shows what we added to our house to fulfil the ambition – my Athonite study!

Robin Cormack's Athonite study

Then on to Santorini – a highlight of this cruise and we left the ship in local tenders.

My first visit to Santorini some years ago was actually to see the small 12th century Byzantine church at Episkopi, but today the excitement is all on the newly opened excavated city at Akrotiri, which was buried in the massive eruption of around 1600 BCE, and still being explored and conserved.

The site of Akrotiri is famous for the wallpaintings found in the houses, but these have all been moved to the Archaeological Museum in Athens, and this led me to compare the presentation of this site with our next visit, the Minoan (and earlier) Palace at Knossos.

Akrotiri, one of the painted rooms, now in the Archaeological Museum in Athens

Sir Arthur Evans was a pioneer in his excavation at Knossos in reconstructing some of the buildings of the Palace. He did this between 1905 and 1930, and is often criticised for being ‘too imaginative’ in his recreations of the wall paintings and rooms. But at least the visitor to Knossos can instantly visualise the ruins as a place once inhabited and enjoyed.

The throne room at Knossos

In comparison my reaction to the presentation of houses of Akrotiri felt too pre-Arthur Evans in conception (can one say ‘19th century’?).

There is no systematic attempt to help the visitor appreciate the wonderful paintings and where they were originally found there. I yearned for photographs, panels and captions around the buildings (photographs held up by the guides is not enough).

Akrotiri as we saw it

The final stop on the cruise was Nauplion, and a morning at Mycenae. The (relatively) new museum at Mycenae is a delight, and adds so much to a visit to the “tomb of Agamemnon” and the Lion Gate.

What is striking to me about the museum is the way its presentation so consciously spurns Homeric references and treats the archaeology as evidence of history and not of myth. After all, did Agamemnon ever exist as a historical person? I was particularly drawn to the cases which show the finds from the ‘House’ with the idols – male, female and snakes. They are major material for the study of early religion in Greece and beautifully displayed, and photography is allowed. I came away from the museum determined to find out more.

The Museum at Mycenae

Two footnotes:
1. This was the first time I have travelled with a kindle, and now I am sold on it. After the visit to Mycenae, I wanted to re-read the great book on the site and how Mycenae has been re-interpreted through history – by Schliemann and by other visitors. Hey presto, my kindle instantly downloaded the book – Cathy Gere, The Tomb of Agamemnon: Mycenae and the Search for a Hero (Profile Books, 2006). This helped me answer many questions on the ship that day. It also told me something I never knew – that one bank in Nauplion copies the architecture of the tomb of Agamemnon.

A bank in Nauplion copies the architecture of Agamemnon's tomb

2. Secondly one not so clever experience for me – a screw and lens dropped out of my glasses in the museum at Izmir and I spend the rest of the cruise wearing my prescription sunglasses. This gave me a new meaning on seeing the world through rosy-tinted glasses, and an unwanted image of me wearing dark shades at night! An image thrown away now I’m back in Cambridge. Moral – in future I will travel with a spare pair of spectacles!”

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Professor Robin Cormack

Prof ROBIN CORMACK, COURTAULD INSTITUTE OF ART, LONDON

Emeritus Professor Robin Cormack is the author of many publications on the art history and culture of the Mediterranean, particularly on the world of Byzantium. He teaches at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge. His current books in progress are on Classicism and on St Catherine’s Monastery at Sinai. His most recent book Icons was published by the British Museum, and focuses on how to study this art form from the collection in the museum.

Robin was also curator of the highly successful exhibition “Byzantine 330-1453″ at the Royal Academy, London in 2008/9. For him Sicily is the key to exploring the meeting of the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, the Arabs and Western Europeans in an extraordinary mix of ideas.

If you have ever enjoyed Dr Mannack’s company on board Aegean Odyssey, or had a chance to read his blog from last year – you will certainly have become a fan of his unique style and personality, just like the rest of us.

Dr Thomas Mannack in Delos

His vast knowledge, sense of humour and vibrant personality are always welcome on board our ship – so we were delighted when he stepped in at short notice, after the exams were finished in August, to accompany us on the ‘All Things Begin with the Greeks’ cruise. His blog below outlines his impressions from the visit to Akrotiri Thera, the recently re-opened archaeological site on the beautiful island of Santorini.

For a chance to enjoy Dr Thomas Mannack’s unique style of lecturing on board Aegean Odyssey, why not join our ‘View of Jerusalem’ cruise in the beginning of April, 2013?

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“I was a guest lecturer on board of the Aegean Odyssey as a late replacement on a cruise from Istanbul to Athens. After a cruelly early start in London I reached the ship at 14.00 hours in time for snacks and a refreshing drink in glorious sunshine. The crew remembered me from last year, and friendly joshing ensued: “oh, no, it’s Mannack again, let him walk the plank”, and “clap him in iron before he talks about pots.”

We left Istanbul in the evening ahead of a thunderstorm. The next morning was clear and sunny as were all the following days on another perfect cruise. The ship is wonderful with exceptionally friendly and courteous staff, a comfortable cabin, my favourite restaurant in the open air, and – best of all – the company: passengers, who were humorous, interesting, and – above all – interested, filling the lecture-theatre even after long and hot days, and Robin Cormack, a coryphée on Classical and Byzantine art.

The destinations were wonderful too. This time, I had a clear favourite, the recently re-opened site of the Bronze Age settlement of Akrotiri in the island of Thera/Santorini.

Santorini, surrounded by smaller volcanic islands

Our ship sailed into the blue waters of the caldera, the crater of a volcano that had exploded some time around 1500 BC and destroyed most of a large, prosperous island. Today, a circle of islands remains of the rim of the crater, and beautiful towns and villages of white houses with blue roofs nestle on steep cliffs like snow on mountain tops.
An airy building protects the remains of the Bronze Age town, the ancient name of which is lost.

The site was brought to life by an excellent guide. We walked among magnificent ruins a few centimetres above 3.500 year old streets: the houses are two or three storeys high with doors and windows clearly visible. The ash of the volcano has protected the buildings, but wood and other organic matters have decayed and perished, leaving hollow spaces in the hardened ash.

Akrotiri site in Santorini

The excavators poured plaster of Paris into these cavities with spectacular results; my favourite is the plaster cast of an intricate table, now housed in the Prehistoric Museum of Fira.

The ancient town was rich since the walls of the houses were decorated with spectacular paintings. Strong earthquakes, which cracked stone staircases, may have given early warning of the devastating explosion, because the inhabitants appear to have saved their jewellery; only a golden statuette of an ibex remained in a cavity under the floor of one of the houses.

Akrotiri, pots

We left this enchanting place sailing past a new and menacingly dark island that has risen from the still active volcano underneath the azure sea.”

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Dr. Thomas Mannack is Reader in Classical Iconography at the University of Oxford and an internationally known expert on Greek decorated pottery. He studied Classical Archaeology, Ancient History and European Archaeology in Kiel, Heidelberg and Oxford, and gained a first class doctorate at Kiel University. Dr. Mannack has taught Greek and Roman Art and Architecture in Oxford and at King’s College, London, and regularly examined Finals papers in Greek, Egyptian, and Roman art for the University of Oxford.

He has published books and papers in English and German on Greek pottery, including the Greek and Cypriote pottery in Winchester College, Greek sculpture, and the reception of ancient art. He has been invited to present papers by many universities and academies including New York, Berlin, Tours, Brussels, Munich, Copenhagen, Vienna, Basel and Zurich.