Ancient pathways: Richmond students go to Greece

After convening in Boston for a pre-orientation dinner to reflect on our expectations for the trip, we arrive in Athens. For some of us, this is our first time flying on an airplane or visiting a country where English isn’t the primary language. The students are studying ancient Greek language and culture, and we’re all excited to see how the actual objects and places align with their imaginations.

Professor Elizabeth Baughan: “We went straight from the airport to Eleusis, and just like the initiates in the Eleusinian Mysteries, we arrived tired, hungry, dazed, and confused. Then we went to Corinth for lunch and explored the site and museum. This was a favorite for some of our students.”

The day starts with walking tours of the coastal city of Nafplion, the Treasury of Atreus in Mycenae, and the stadium of the Nemean games. That evening, we visit a biofarm with an orange grove. The owners lead us in a cooking class using their own oranges, olive oil and flour. We make stuffed tomatoes and handheld cheese pies to go along with our dinner of steak and potatoes, tzatziki, organic bread, home-grown olives, feta, and dessert. The night turns out to be one of the best nonacademic experiences of the trip.

Josh Walker, ’26: “In the morning, we drive to the top of the Palamidi Fortress, a Venetian castle from the 1600s. I’m amazed by how well the stories and history of Greece have been preserved. Not only have we looked at the ancient sites, but we’ve heard about the stories of the kings, architects, generals, and common folk who lived there. My favorite is seeing how we can uncover and reconstruct these stories thousands of years later.”

We tour the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia and race at the ancient stadium there. The starting lines are marked with two rows of marble where you’re supposed to put your toes. The ancient Greeks would have run it barefoot, but the students keep their shoes on. We congratulate the winner with a crown made from an olive branch that a tour guide snipped nearby. Baughan: “It was a good, healthy competition.”

We stop at the Patras Museum on the way to Delphi and tour the museum at Delphi that evening. Everyone admires a bronze charioteer statue, and several students give presentations at the museum. At some point during the trip, every student gives a report of some kind highlighting a particular artifact, monument, or other item of interest.

Walking around the Oracle of Delphi, we’re struck by the grandeur and wealth. We know we’re experiencing only a fraction of the magic of what would have been here in antiquity. There’s an unmistakable message that this was a cultural and economic powerhouse.

Winston Cox, ’27: “I never considered that it might be so high up on a mountain. It made sense for such an inaccessible place to be considered sacred. It’s an example of how it was much easier for elites to access sacred and religious sites.”

We planned a stop in Thebes but skip it because the archaeological museum was closed. Instead, we have a great lunch outside Delphi and then go straight to Athens. After checking into our hotel, we enjoy a welcome drink and snacks on a nearby rooftop with views of the Acropolis.

Our dinner is a mix of typical Greek dishes: zucchini fritters and cheese croquettes, beef giouvetsi, oven-baked lamb, and vegetable ratatouille. Then, a couple of professional dancers demonstrate Greek folk dances and invite us to join in.

We see two sides of Athens. First, we meet with the director of excavations in Ancient Agora. He tells us about the view of the island of Salamis — where one of the first documented naval battles took place — from the entrance to the Acropolis, and how that informed the meaning of the buildings on the Acropolis. A few hours later, we’re standing at the Acropolis, looking back at Salamis, just as he described.

At the Acropolis Museum, we see ancient sculptures and inscriptions alongside casts of pieces that are currently in the British Museum in London. It starts a conversation about whether the objects should be returned.

We’re on the move. We visit the Brauron archaeological site and sanctuary of Artemis, then stop for lunch in Lavrion and drive along the coast to Cape Sounion to visit the Temple of Poseidon. The temple sits high on a cliff above a remote beach — an infamously striking view for ancient ships on the ocean.

Here, Reece Steidle — who has three majors: creative writing, Latin, and classical civilizations — shows us where the Romantic English poet Lord Byron’s name was scratched into the Temple of Poseidon.

Our final day of tours. We take a one-hour ferry to the Saronic island of Aegina to visit the Temple of Aphaea. We have a farewell dinner of sourdough bread with pickles and olives, a cheese pie with phyllo, vegetable briam with feta cream, baked fresh fish, and grilled chicken with risotto. And we reflect on the past 10 days.

Reece Steidle, ’27: “Seeing the things I had only heard of — walking around and feeling the impressiveness of the sites — helped me understand the impact they must have had on ancient Greeks. To read an inscription in the place it was originally written — not in a reprinted book 2,000 years removed — was truly fascinating.”

Walker: “The trip helped me fit my fragmented knowledge together. I understand now how the history fits with local geography, how myths informed culture and history.”