GREECE – Nestor’s Palace and Messene

3-10 September 2022

A week in the south-west Peloponnese, staying with our kind friends Christopher and Sarah Cornell. We visited (among other things, of course) two classical sites, the Palace of Nestor and also ancient Messene, neither of which I had really heard of and which are decidedly not on the regular tourist trail.

I’m describing them, as I often do, partly to fix them in my memory and to stop all the memories merging into each other.

Nestor’s Palace

First, the Palace of Nestor. It was only discovered in 1939, the explorers having been inspired by the discoveries, many years before, of Troy and Mycenae, which made classical scholars realize that old Homer hadn’t just made it all up and that what the Iliad described may have been based on real history (but see below the note I've added after writing this).

Homer talked about “wise King Nestor” who sent ships to join the fleet of Agamemnon in the siege of Troy. Where did he live? Near Pylos, but where? The explorers (Greek and American) had the idea of asking locals whether they knew of any “old walls”. Miraculously, it worked. They found the remains of a large palace perched on the top of the mountain overlooking Pylos and the Bay of Navarino in the distance.

For me, the main interest relates to the amazing story of the deciphering of the ancient script known as Linear B – see below. The actual site consists of low walls, indicating endless rooms and whatever, all somewhat manicured and much of the flooring covered in protective earth. Not very exciting. It is all covered by an impressive shelter (see below) to protect it while the meticulous digging continues.

Linear B

The deciphering of Linear B was one of the great achievements of classical archeology and I have to confess to finding it fascinating.

The hero of the story is Michael Ventris, an English architect (bizarrely) who studied linguistics in his spare time, was plainly a genius, was fluent in a dozen languages - and was killed in a car crash at the age of 34 just before the publication of the book describing his great discovery. The key thing about the decipherment was that it proved that the language was Greek. Shock, horror! Everyone had assumed that it was some other ancient and forgotten tongue. It meant that there must have been Greek-speaking people in the area some hundreds of years before anyone had thought.

The connection with Nestor’s Palace is that previously Linear B had been found only in Crete. But then hundreds of tablets were found in Nestor’s Palace.

When we were there, there was a group being led around by a very pleasant and knowledgeable young American and I naughtily hung around so that I could hear what he was saying and even ask him some questions. He was saying two things that caught my attention. He seemed to be saying that there was a woman archeologist who was involved and who hadn’t been given any credit; and secondly that, when the decipherment became known, the classical establishment reacted in horror and went into attack mode. They vilified poor Michael Ventris and even suggested that he’d fabricated some of the tablets. How interesting! And how similar to situations today where the educational establishment gangs up against new theories! I will be following it up.

Pylos and the Bay of Navarino

Pylos (pronounced Peelos, rather than Pyelos, as it was when I grew up) is a delightful harbour town. It’s very near the palace of Nestor and on the side of the Bay of Navarino, the latter well-known from the days of Greek independence.

The bay is large with a small opening onto the Ionian Sea. In 1827 the Ottoman Turks arrived in the Bay to support Egyptian troops who were abusing the locals. Ships from Britain, France and Russia, under the command of Admiral Codrington, blocked them all in the bay and slaughtered them. This is celebrated in Greece as part of the war leading to their independence. Happily, it all seems very peaceful now.

Ancient Messene

We need to have a short explanation, because of the tendency of the Greeks to name their cities with very similar names. Messene is definitely not to be confused with the more famous Mycenae, the city on the other side of the Peloponnese that was the residence of King Agamemnon, the famous leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War. It is also not to be confused with ancient Messene that is quite a few miles away from the modern town.

Ancient Messene was a discovery. I get the impression that the excavations have only really got going relatively recently. Yet it’s apparently the most extensive site in Greece and it’s certainly vast, involving much walking.

It goes back to the earliest times. The founder was King Aristodemus, who I didn’t warm to. He got into a bit of trouble and decided that the way forward was to sacrifice his daughter to the gods as she was a virgin and the relevant gods needed virgins. His daughter’s boyfriend spotted an opportunity and caused her not to be a virgin. Papa Aristodemus was enraged at this and promptly murdered her. This story should be the basis for an opera libretto. Perhaps it is: love, religion, murder, sex – what more could you want?

The site is certainly extensive. It’s positioned in a wide bowl under the neighbouring mountain, with a spectacular view towards the south. You can wander around the theatre, the agora, various temples, some of which have been partly reconstructed, a palestra for wrestling, and a large stadium. There is a curious burial structure containing eight graves under a kind of stupa (see below).

Restaurants

We didn’t just visit ancient remains. We sampled the local restaurants and tavernas. One of the best was in the village Arsinoe, near ancient Messene, run by Stavros and his wife – by far the most friendly of all the restaurateurs we found. He was proud to show us photographs of the large number of wild boar he had shot, as well as the weapon he had used to dispatch them.

Otherwise our favourite was Socrates, a taverna (or was it an estiatorion? there is a difference), in Chrani, the village near where we were staying.

Also, Zorba, a harbour-side taverna in Koroni, the delightful town towards the tip of the Peloponnese.

Street in Koroni

Wine

We tended to drink the perfectly drinkable local wine - red, pink or white, called BioVin – available in very disagreeable plastic bottles, but amazingly only 4 euros a litre. Who cares about the bottle?

Tony Herbert

12 September 2022

NOTE ABOUT THE TROJAN WAR

I need to modify what I said about the Trojan War. I implied that we all now think that Homer was basing the Iliad on a real Trojan War, even if he did much embellish it. But now some people think that he did make it up after all.

A good friend of mine has pointed out that, in a general collapse of civilisation at that time, Mycenae was totally destroyed many years before Troy was. So, the idea that Agamemnon led his Myceneans in sacking Troy looks doubtful, to say the least. What did happen, and whether there was a Trojan War at all, seems to be still wrapped in mystery.

Tony Herbert

25 October 2022