From dlupher@ups.edu Mon Oct 2 00:02:03 2000 Received: from mxu2.u.washington.edu (mxu2.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.9]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.05/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id AAA108738 for ; Mon, 2 Oct 2000 00:02:02 -0700 Received: from mail.ups.edu (main.ups.edu [192.124.98.219]) by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id AAA18165 for ; Mon, 2 Oct 2000 00:02:01 -0700 Received: from [207.207.116.71] (wyatt1dhcp71.ups.edu [207.207.116.71]) by mail.ups.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id AAA06863 for ; Mon, 2 Oct 2000 00:01:55 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <39D79271.29B1F2EE@charm.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2000 00:01:35 -0700 To: classics@u.washington.edu From: David Lupher Subject: Re: Glades & grass at Argos Diana Wright wrote: > It also has the site of Lerna, >too, which is a lot less interesting than it should be. Foolhardy though it may be to take issue with Diana Wright on anything concerning her beloved Argolid, I would just like to venture the view that Lerna is well worth a visit. My family and I visited it this summer, on our way from Nauplion to Monemvasia, and we found it a delightful stop. (Gosh, I could swear that part of our inspiration to do so was an off-list suggestion from none other than Diana Wright, but I am not sure about this--- we owe her so many good hints.) The Early Helladic "House of Tiles" is a most impressive structure, whatever its original function may have been. Yes, the corrugated roof detracts a bit, but no worse than that at the Palace of Nestor. And it was fun to poke around the EH and MH houses and fortifications surrounding the "house." Though we failed to locate any hydras, we did see some nice swampy frogs. And the caretaker was eager to point out things and to enliven the time he whiled away on this not exactly crowded site. (We were the only visitors during our visit.) Which suggests another thread: would anyone care to propose (strictly for the eyes of this list only, of course) classical sites which receive *less* than their due share of visitors? (I believe that while I was away there was a thread on overcrowded sites. Perhaps the undercrowded sites deserve a thread too.) In addition to Lerna, I'd propose Gortys in Arcadia, near Karytaina. We spent two or three hours in this delightful and extensive site (Asklepieion, baths, walls and towers of the acropolis, etc.) at the mouth of the lovely gorge of the Lousios (Gortynios) River, which has "the coldest water of any river in the world" (acc. to Pausanias, 8.28.2). And guess how many visitors shared the site with us? That's right. Not a one. True, the dirt road to the site has its interesting moments, and I did shut my eyes as my wife squeezed our Renault across the Turkish bridge just across the river from the site, but I did expect a few other brave souls tramping these ruins. David Lupher Classics Dept. Univ. of Puget Sound .