The Greek World         

Limited to 28 persons, this class may be taken for University credit and fulfills three units of the University IC requirement. Permission of the instructor is required to register.  Enrollment priority will be given to currently-enrolled CSULB undergraduate students.

Breakfast is provided at the hotel.

Lunch is not included but rather is taken either as one large group (if we are on the road) or in smaller groups (if there is free time on any given day).

Dinner is provided only as indicated below. On some occasions we will eat together; on others, you will have a chance to discover new places.
 

Dec. 30	We leave LAX in the afternoon.
Dec. 31	We arrive Athens in p.m. A bus will take us to the Plaka Hotel, in the heart of the Plaka, the oldest part of Athens. Dinner tonight is included. We will go to the hotel roof garden to watch as fireworks illuminate the Athenian Acropolis.
Jan. 1	Because of jetlag, breakfast will be between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m, after which we will meet to discuss the basics of the day and to provide an introduction to the course. Next, we walk through the Plaka, Athens' restaurant and shopping quarter, and talk about how to get around in modern Greece. Lunch will be in one of the oldest squares in Athens. Dinner tonight is on your own, and you are encouraged to discover Greek tavernas with unique menus and delicious entrees.
Jan. 2	We will be picked up at our hotel at 6:00 a.m. for the bus ride to the airport. We fly to Crete on Olympic Airlines, are met at the airport, and are taken by private coach to the archaeological sites of Phaestos and Gortyn on the southern coast of the island of Crete.The highlight of the day is a visit to the ancient palace of Knossos, excavated and partially reconstructed by Sir Arthur Evans, before returning to our hotel for a lecture on Homer's Iliad. Dinner tonight is included.
Jan. 3	After breakfast at the hotel, we stroll to the Herakleon Museum where the treasures of Minoan Crete are displayed. There will also be a walk around the sixteenth-century walls of Herakleon to visit the tomb of Nikos Katzantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ. The walk is followed by the conclusion of our discussion of Homer's Iliad. New Year's dinner tonight is on your own.
Jan. 4	After breakfast, our bus takes us to the airport for the short flight to Athens. Upon arrival, we transfer to a deluxe motorcoach and drive to Corinth where we see the ancient city and climb the Acrocorinthus. We then drive to Nauplion, the first capital of modern Greece immediately following its independence from the Turks.   We will spend three nights at the Hotel Dioscuri, whose balcony rooms have an excellent view of the harbor. This afternoon we will conclude our discussion of Homer's Iliad. Dinner tonight is included.
Jan. 5	At 9:00 we will leave for Tiryns and gaze at the Argive Plain where Achilles raised his horses. We then make the short drive to Mycenae, the mythical hall of Agamemnon. After touring the palace uncovered by Heinrich Schliemann and visiting Agamemnon's tomb, we lunch at the modern town of Mykines. This afternoon's lecture on Mycenae and the Dorians is followed by a review of the first third of the course. Dinner tonight is on your own.
Jan. 6	Our first Mid-Term will be at 8:00 a.m. We leave at 9:15 to drive through the Argolid to visit the well-preserved ancient theater and archaeological site of Epidaurus. Back in Nauplion there is time to explore the Venetian fortress of the Palamidi with its spectacular views of the Argolid, before lunch in the town square. This afternoon's lecture is a brief introduction to Greek drama. Dinner tonight is on your own.
Jan. 7	We leave at 9:00 and drive through the Peloponnesus to the fabled town of Sparta. Our tour of the Byzantine citadel of Mystra will be followed by a discussion of the Agamemnon and Libration Bearers, the first two plays in Aeschylus’ trilogy. Dinner is provided at our hotel, the Maniatis.
Jan. 8	At 9:30 we leave by bus for a scenic trip through the Peloponnese; we visit the lonely site of the Temple of Bassae, followed by lunch at a little country taverna at Andritsena. We then continue on to ancient Olympia, site of the Olympic Games, and check into the Hotel Europa. At the hotel we will conclude our discussion of Aeschylus and begin our exploration of Greek Lyric Poetry. Dinner tonight is at a local taverna, the Praxiteles.
Jan. 9	At 9:00 a.m. we visit the ancient sire and museum of Olympia. In the afternoon we discusss Greek Lyric Poetry. The evening is free and you are on your own to shop and/or absorb the atmosphere of a typical Greek village.
Jan. 10	This morning we leave for Delphi and check into the Acropole Hotel. On the way we visit the picturesque Achaea Klaus winery, one of the oldest in Greece, and then cross the Gulf of Corinth by ferry. You are free to spend the early afternoon walking around the modern town of Delphi, one of the most beautiful sites in Greece. The late afternoon lecture will cover Greek Expansion and Colonization. Dinner (included) is at 7:30 in a little mountain village called Arachova.
Jan. 11	This morning we visit the Delphi Museum, home of the Charioteer of Delphi. The afternoon lecture covers Athens and Sparta. Dinner and the evening are on your own.
Jan. 12	After breakfast we take the short walk to the site of ancient Delphi, perched on its mountainside overlooking the Gulf of Corinth, where we spend the morning touring the most sacred shrine of ancient Greece. This afternoon you are encouraged to hike the hills surrounding the village of Delphi, one of the most beautiful sites in Greece. The afternoon lecture will cover the Persian Wars. Dinner tonight is on your own.
Jan. 13	The Second Mid-Term is at 8:00 a.m., following which we leave for Athens by way of Thermopylae, site of one of Greece’s most famous battles. Our arrival in Athens is followed by a discussion of Sophocles' play Antigone. Dinner (included) is at 7:00 p.m. in a nearby Plaka taverna.
Jan. 14	This morning we visit the Agora, Athens' ancient marketplace and civic center, as well as the Theater of Dionysus. In the afternoon we have a lecture on the rising tension between Athens and Sparta as a prologue to the Peloponnesian War. Dinner is on your own.
Jan. 15	This morning we visit the ancient Acropolis and its excellent Museum, surely the high point of the Greek archaeological sites followed by lunch in the Plaka. This afternoon there will be a discussion the Peloponnesian War and Aristophanes' riotous comedy Lysistrata. Dinner tonight is on your own.
Jan. 16	This morning we tour the National Archaeological Museum. The afternoon discussion completes our consideration of Lysistrata.
Jan. 17	Our final day in Athens begins with the Final Examination. The remainder of the day is unplanned and you are free to do as you wish. This evening brings us together for our gala farewell dinner at 7:00 p.m.
Jan. 18	We leave for LAX in the morning and are scheduled to arrive at LAX by 5:00 p.m.

[ATHENS]	The cradle of western civilization, the birthplace of democracy. Visit the Acropolis with the wonderful Parthenon, the ancient marketplace where Socrates taught, and the magnificent Archaeological Museum. Stay in the center of the Plaka, the old city at the foot of the Acropolis, near the fabulous flea market, restaurants and shops.	[SPARTA]	Fabled city of a civilization run as a military camp and home of beautiful Helen, whose face "launched a thousand ships." Visit the incredible Byzantine ghost town of Mystra, with its abandoned churches, homes and palaces strung out along the lower slopes of snow-capped Mount Tagaetos. Stay in the comfortable Hotel Maniatis, convenient for shopping or a short walk to ancient Sparta.
[CRETE]	The greatest of the Greek islands, and the center of Minoan Civilization. We stay at the modern Hotel Atrion in the center of Herakleon. Visit the labyrinth that housed the Minotaur in Knossos and the uncovered ruins of the palace of Phaestos, as well as the fabled Herakleon Museum with its famous frescoes and snake goddesses.	[OLYMPIA]	Our bus carries us across the forbidding mountains of Arcadia to the western coastal plain where the village of Olympia nestles along the banks of the River Alphaeos. In-depth visits to the Olympia Museum (Praxiteles' "Hermes and the Infant Dionysus" and the pedimental sculptures from the great temple of Zeus) and to the site of the Olympic Games provide an opportunity for some to run in the original Olympic Stadium while others picnic on its grassy slope. There is also time to explore the village on your own
[NAUPLION]	A beautiful little Greek fishing village on a perfect bay at the foot of the medieval fortress of the Palamidi is our base for three nights while we explore the dramatic region of the Argive Plain and the peaceful setting of Epidaurus. Visit Corinth, with its Bema where St. Paul spoke to the Corinthians, and climb the Acrocorinthus for a 360-degree panorama of the Corinthian gulf and plain. See Mycenae, high on a mountaintop with its venerable Lion Gate and royal Grave Circle, Agamemnon's Tomb and the incredible fortress of Tiryns, all remains of the people who fought the Trojan War. The Great Theater of Epidaurus with its astonishing acoustics gives us an ideal site for a lecture on the Greek Theater. Balcony rooms in the lovely Dioscuri Hotel look down on the bay of Nauplion and the Venetian island fortress of the Bourzi.	[DELPHI]	Perched high on the cliffs above the sacred plain with the Corinthian Gulf far below, Delphi, home of the god Apollo, is the most sacred spot in ancient Greece. Our hotel's balcony rooms provide spectacular views of the chasm below and the sea beyond. Visits to the Museum (Charioteer of Delphi) and to the sacred precinct are punctuated by side trips to the ski resort of Arachova on the slopes of Mount Parnassos (home of the nine Muses) and to Thermopylae where Leonidas and his small, courageous band of Spartans won immortality during the Persian Wars. Follow the path of ancient pilgrims who for twenty centuries have walked the sacred way on a journey to consult the Oracle of Apollo.