Alexander at Thermopylae

Nothing much is left of this once so highly strategic pass. All we can see today is a flat rather fertile plain gently sloping down from tall mountain walls to the sea at the distant horizon.

Hard to imagine that it was here that the historical Battle of Thermopylae took place in 480 BC between Leonidas of Sparta and King Xerxes of Persia. For two full days Leonidas, the leader of the Greek city-states, was able to pin down the Persians at this pass until he was betrayed by a local resident who guided the enemy troops behind the Greek lines – a tactic that was to be used repeatedly by Alexander during his eastern campaigns. When Leonidas realized that he was trapped, he dismissed the bulk of the Greek army and fought a last stand with his 300 Spartans.

This act of bravery can only have fired Alexander’s imagination, especially considering that for him this battle took place less than 150 years earlier. Meanwhile, other battles had been fought here like the one his father led on his way to Chaironeia two years before and in which Alexander took part.

Today there is nothing to remind us of Alexander’s (or Philip’s) passage at Thermopylae, only a memorial monument erected in honor of the Spartan King Leonidas. The centerpiece is a most splendid modern statue of Leonidas in classical style carrying the famous inscription “Come and take them”, i.e. the words addressed by the Greeks to Xerxes who demanded their surrender. On either side of Leonidas runs a relief depicting battle scenes ending on the right-hand side with a marble figure of Taigetos, representing the highest mountain in the Peloponnese, and on the left-hand side the personified Evrotas, a river of Laconia. This monument stands pretty much at the edge of the old coastline that follows the adjacent modern highway.

It is here at Thermopylae that Alexander, after the murder of his father, summoned the members of the Amphictyonic Council, basically responsible for managing the oracle of Delphi. With their pledges of support, he can rally northern and central Greece to his cause – a minor detail in his later campaigns but a very important one in these early days of his kingship.

Thermopylae, meaning literally Hot Gates, is named after the hot springs that bubble up near the historical pass. The hot springs are still working today and it is quite exciting to sample the hot water temperature as the soldiers of Leonidas and Alexander must have done. What a rewarding way to get in close touch with the past.

From Agamemnon to Alexander the Great, Exhibition in North America

A brand new exhibition The Greeks – Agamemnon to Alexander the Great has started at the Montreal Archaeology and History Museum at Pointe-à-Callière, Canada (12 December 2014 – 26 April 2015). From here it will move to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Canada (5 June 2015 – 12 October 2015), followed by the Field Museum in Chicago, U.S.A. (26 November 2015 – 17 April 2016), to end at the National Geographic Museum in Washington DC, U.S.A. (till 9 October 2016).

It is clear that this original exhibition spans over 5,000 years of Greek history, from the cradle of Western civilization up to the fascinating era of Alexander the Great. On display are more than five hundred artifacts, collected from twenty-one different Greek museums.

This exhibition is divided into six specific periods to meet famous men who shaped Greece, like Homer, Leonidas of Sparta, Plato, King Philip II of Macedonia, Aristotle, and, of course, Alexander the Great. Our heritage is still felt in our politics, philosophy, arts, architecture, mathematics, medicine, and sports, and this exhibition just proves it.

Starting as early as 6,000 BC, they quickly moved to the legendary players of the Trojan War, with Agamemnon sailing to Troy to recapture beautiful Helen, who was residing with Prince Paris. A war that lasted for nearly twelve years involved much more than a girl, even a princess. Attention is given to the early discoveries by Heinrich Schliemann of the treasures of Troy and the Royal Tombs of Mycenae.

The visitor is then taken to the days of Alexander the Great, who succeeded his father, King Philip II of Macedonia, at the age of twenty. By conquering most of the world as it was known then, he turned that world into an entirely new one with new ideas and new fashions. His legacy is still being felt today, 2,500 years later.

About twelve centuries separate Agamemnon and Alexander, and in between, Greece knew its Golden Age in which Pericles “invented” democracy, a democracy by the people and for the people. During the 5th and 4th centuries BC, Greece and Athens in particular saw their first great philosophers, while theatre and arts, in general, flourished to an unknown level. The exhibition also makes room for the Olympic Games, which were founded in 776 BC and attracted athletes from all over Greece to compete every four years.

Some exceptional pieces have left Greece for the first time and constitute highlights at this exhibition. Among them are gold offerings from the Tombs of Mycenae, including the famous mask attributed to Agamemnon; a typical figurine from the Cycladic island of Amorgos dated to 3,000 BC; a superb Minoan ritual vase from Crete; bronze helmets and gold funerary masks from Boeotia; and, a very illustrative funerary vase from Delos showing how Achilles avenged the death of his friend Patroclus. The scene would not be complete without a statue of Homer and other famous historical figures, a convincing votive relief of Asclepius with his staff around which a snake is coiled (an emblem still used in medicine today), and finally, a marvelous gold wreath made of lifelike branches of myrtle, the symbol associated with Aphrodite.

The absolute topper, for me, is Alexander himself! Two statues of this great man have left Pella for the occasion: Alexander represented as Pan and the Head of the Young Alexander. 

[Pictures from the Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History]