Mycenae & Epidauros

The Lion's Gate

After studying the Lion's Gate in West Civ and in Art&Arch for two months, we finally got to see it in person. Mycenae was an archeological site, yet it had different architecture from the other Greek cities. There were amazing Tombs which look like giant honey combs raising from the ground, and have perfect acoustics: if you stand directly across from someone else and talk into the wall, they can hear you if they put an ear to their wall.

Entering a Tomb

We performed a scene from Agamemnon in the Tomb of Clytemenestra, and then a few groups and individuals took the spotlight for a bit as they sang and impressed us all with their talents. This was however not compared to what we would experience later that day in Epidauros.

Overall Mycenae is an ancient city in ruins, discovered by Heinrich Schliemann, who unfortunately took many of the artifacts of his many site discoveries for his private collection, but who also opened up these ancient worlds for us.

In the afternoon we went to Epidauros. The most impressive theater I have ever seen.

The amphitheater was bigger than any I had seen, the bleachers were almost completely in tact, and there was a small circle in the middle of the stage. They told us that if you sang, spoke, yelled from this small circle, your voice would bounce into the stage and come back to you. And that is exactly what happened.

Our RA Joey went first and began to sing a piece from Les Miserables. It was the most beautiful sound I heard all trip. I climbed up all of the bleachers, and could hear Joey's voice as if he was standing right next to me. He captivated us all.

Joey Singing in the little white circle on stage

The best thing was that many people in our group then realized what a great experience this could be and took a chance at singing in front of everyone. I knew we had really talented singers, but I did not know we had that many. Over 20 UDers went to the circle and expelled their amazing voices for us to enjoy.

Beautiful Epidauros

The scenery surrounding the Epidauros Theater was also extremely beautiful, but I almost did not pay attention to the mountains for the first time, since I was so enchanted by the magic of that the place created with music.

Sitting on the bleachers

Both Mycenae and Epidauros were short visits and we headed back to Nafplion for the night, so it was another short and slow day in which we were all able to appreciate skills that some had been hiding, and enjoy our time in a different way.