7 Day Classical Tour of Greece

7 day classical tour trips cross Greece with a host and centre on ancient history. This page follows Laconia, the south-eastern corner of the Peloponnese. Topics include Sparta, the Menelaion, Amyclae, Leonidas I, the Spartan army, the Taygetus range and the Eurotas river. Spartan laws, training and sanctuaries come next, and four brief answers close the page. Related pages cover the classical Greece tour, the 5 day classical tour and the Peloponnese road trip. Wider choices sit under Greece tours.

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What is a 7 day classical tour?

A 7 day classical tour is a trip of seven days through Greece, centred on ancient history. Laconia is a historical and administrative region in the south-east of the Peloponnese peninsula. In the classical age of Greece, the region was Spartan territory.

In a 7 day classical tour, the word classical refers to the history of ancient Greece. Since 2011, Laconia has been run as a regional unit, one layer of local government. Its capital is Sparta. The English word laconic means blunt and concise in speech. It is believed to come from the name of this region.

Citrus and olive groves share the Evrotas Valley in Laconia with pasture lands. On a 7 day classical tour, a grove means a small orchard of fruit or olive trees. Citrus is the family of sharp, juicy fruits such as oranges and lemons. Pasture is grassland kept for grazing farm animals.

The Vaphio tomb site in Laconia produced advanced art of the Bronze Age. A tomb is a chamber or grave for the dead. The same site showed cultural links with the Minoan culture of Crete. The Bronze Age is the era when people made tools and weapons of bronze. Minoan refers to the early civilisation of Crete.

• Parnon: The Parnon range rises to 1,961 metres in the north-east of Laconia.
• Roman rule: Laconia belonged to the Roman Empire between the mid-2nd century BC and 395 AD.
• Slavic settlers: Slavic tribes moved into the Peloponnese during the 7th century AD.

Orange production in the Evrotas Valley is the largest in the Peloponnese. On a 7 day classical tour, the name Peloponnese means the large peninsula of southern Greece. Production here means the total amount of a crop that local farms grow.

Why does Sparta matter on a 7 day classical tour of Greece?

A 7 day classical tour connects with Sparta, a prominent polis of ancient Greece in Laconia. During the 7th century BC, Sparta became the foremost military power on land among the Greeks. A polis was a Greek city that ran its own affairs.

In classical antiquity, the Spartan state went by the name Lacedaemon. The capital, Sparta itself, grew from linked villages beside the Evrotas River. For a 7 day classical tour, antiquity means the ancient past before the Middle Ages. A capital, in this sense, is the town from which a state is governed.

The historian Thucydides wrote that Sparta had no splendid temples or grand buildings. He added that the city was not built as one continuous town. Instead, it resembled a cluster of villages, like the old towns of Greece. On a 7 day classical tour, a historian means a person who sets down past events in writing.

In 1907, researchers located Athena’s Brazen House sanctuary on the acropolis, above the theatre. The word acropolis names a Greek city’s raised stronghold, built on high ground. A sanctuary here means ground kept sacred to one god. On a 7 day classical tour, brazen describes objects of brass, a blend of copper and zinc.

• Leuctra: Sparta kept its military lead until a defeat at Leuctra in 371 BC.
• City wall: The wall’s circuit measured 48 stades, an ancient unit, or nearly 10 kilometres.
• Roman visitors: In the Roman era, Sparta turned into a destination for tourists.

The so-called Tomb of Leonidas is a four-sided building of huge stone blocks. It holds two chambers and was possibly a temple. So-called shows that the name is traditional. On a 7 day classical tour, a chamber means an enclosed room inside a building.

On a 7 day classical tour, which Bronze Age story does the Menelaion tell?

A 7 day classical tour draws its Bronze Age chapter from the Menelaion. This archaeological site lies at Therapne, on a ridge about 5 km from Sparta. The hill complex there dates back to the Mycenaean civilisation of the Bronze Age.

Its four hills are the Menelaion, the Northern hill, Aetos and Profitis Ilias. Homer’s Iliad, an ancient epic poem, tells of the rich realm ruled by Menelaus and Helen. Scholars believe the site behind that story was this Mycenaean complex. On a 7 day classical tour, Mycenaean refers to the late Bronze Age culture of mainland Greece.

The elites of this early Sparta wore gold jewellery. They also traded widely across the Mediterranean Sea. Their refined way of life was the opposite of the plain lifestyle that Classical Sparta later chose. On a 7 day classical tour, an elite is the small group at the top of a society.

Around the 8th century BC, Spartans raised a large hero-shrine right on top of the ruins. A hero-shrine is a sacred spot raised in memory of a hero of legend. A ruin is the broken remains of a building. On a 7 day classical tour, a legend is an old story handed down, not proven history.

• First digs: Ludwig Ross dug the hill in 1834 and found small lead figures left as offerings.
• Mansion 1: The first large house rose about 1450 BCE and fell soon after, possibly in an earthquake.
• Gift to Helen: A bronze vessel from the 7th century BCE carries a line offering it to Helen, wife of Menelaus.

The shrine honoured Menelaus and Helen. Spartans worshipped the pair as divine ancestors. In a 7 day classical tour, divine means godlike, and an ancestor is a forebear from long ago. Menelaus was a king of legend, and Helen was his queen.

How is Amyclae linked to a 7 day classical tour through Laconian history?

A 7 day classical tour finds one of its older stories in Amyclae, an ancient city of Laconia. It stood south of Sparta, on the western bank of the Eurotas river. A bank is the raised ground along the edge of a river.

Homer mentions Amyclae in his poems. On a 7 day classical tour, Homer is the early Greek poet credited with the Iliad and Odyssey. Tradition says that King Amyclas founded the city. A founder is the person who first sets up a city. Amyclas was the father of Hyacinthus, a figure of local legend.

The Spartan king Teleclus conquered the town shortly before the First Messenian War. The First Messenian War was the war in which Sparta took Messenia. According to an old tale, false alarms about an enemy approach had scared the townspeople again and again. So they passed a law that nobody was to speak of the enemy.

In the 7th or early 6th century BC, a colossal bronze statue of Apollo was made at Amyclae. Its shape was a thick column with arms, which held a spear and a bow. Apollo was the Greek god of music, light and archery. On a 7 day classical tour, colossal means far larger than life size.

• Hyacinthia: This Amyclae festival ranked second in importance among all Spartan festivals.
• Open doors: Helots, the enslaved people of Spartan lands, and foreigners had the right to join the celebrations.
• Ruins today: The ruins lie 2 km north-east of Amykles, a modern village named after the old city.

When the Spartans finally came, nobody dared to announce them, and the town fell in silence. From this tale came the proverb quieter than Amyclae itself. For a 7 day classical tour, a proverb is a short, well-known saying.

In the story of a 7 day classical tour, who was Leonidas I?

A 7 day classical tour brings up Leonidas I, a Greek king of the city-state of Sparta. Born around 540 BC, he died on 11 August 480 BC. A city-state was an independent city that governed itself and the farmland around it.

Leonidas ranked as the 17th king from the Agiad dynasty. That Spartan royal house claimed descent from the hero Heracles. A dynasty means a family whose members rule one after another. Around 489 BC, he took the throne. He followed his half-brother, King Cleomenes I. On a 7 day classical tour, a half-brother shares only one parent.

His name means descendant of Leon. The name honours his grandfather, Leon of Sparta. Taken word for word, the name can also mean son of a lion. In the Greek language, the name Leon means lion. On a 7 day classical tour, a descendant is a child, grandchild or later relative.

In August 480 BC, Leonidas left Sparta at the head of 1,200 men. Of these, 900 were helots and 300 were Spartan hoplites. Helots were enslaved people owned by the Spartan state. A hoplite was a heavily armed Greek soldier who fought on foot. His aim was to meet the Persian army of Xerxes at Thermopylae.

• Joint rule: Leonidas shared the Spartan throne with a second king, Leotychidas II.
• Hero cult: Spartans honoured Leonidas as a hero until the 2nd century AD.
• Modern statue: A statue of Leonidas was raised in Sparta in 1969.

Each year, the city of Sparta held the Leonideia, a festival in honour of the king. Taking part was open to Spartans alone. For a 7 day classical tour, a festival means a time of public celebration on set dates.

Which Spartan army details give a 7 day classical tour its military side?

A 7 day classical tour links Laconia with the Spartan army, the main ground force of Sparta. Its ranks were made up of citizens. They trained in the discipline and sense of honour of a warrior society. A ground force is an army that fights on land.

Spartan soldiers carried the same hoplite equipment as their Greek neighbours. Their distinct marks were a crimson tunic, a crimson cloak and long hair. Crimson is a deep red colour. On a 7 day classical tour, a tunic is a simple shirt-like garment. A cloak is a loose outer wrap worn over the shoulders.

Sparta’s own shield emblem was the face of a gorgon. A gorgon is a female monster of Greek myth. An emblem is a badge or picture that stands for a group. The Spartan king fought in the front rank of the battle line. His shield carried a sun symbol.

Shields were so important in the Spartan army that losing one was a sign of disgrace. Losing a sword or a spear, by contrast, was seen as an exception. Disgrace is deep shame in the eyes of others. On a 7 day classical tour, a spear is a long pole with a sharp point for thrusting.

• Early emblems: Early Spartan shields, from the 7th to 6th centuries BC, bore a personal emblem.
• Main weapon: The chief weapon of a Spartan soldier was the dory, a type of spear.
• Long hair: For Spartans, long hair still marked a free man, as it had in older times.

Spartan mothers sent their sons off with a short saying: with this or on this. The words meant come back as victor, after a controlled retreat, or dead upon the shield. For a 7 day classical tour, a retreat is an orderly pull-back from the enemy.

Where does the Taygetus range fit into a 7 day classical tour?

The 7 day classical tour gains its mountain story from the Taygetus, a range in southern Greece’s Peloponnese. The range was one of Sparta’s natural defences. A natural defence is a feature of the land that guards a place against attack.

In myth, the range took its name from the nymph Taygete. A nymph is a nature spirit of Greek myth. From Byzantine times until the 19th century, the mountain also went by the name Pentadaktylos. In Greek, that name means five-fingered. On a 7 day classical tour, Byzantine describes the Greek-speaking empire ruled from Constantinople.

The central part of the range is known as Skoteini Plevra. The name means the dark side. Villages there get less sun at dawn and in the late afternoon. On a 7 day classical tour, a mountain range means a chain of linked peaks. Dawn is the first light of the day.

In 464 BC, an earthquake levelled Sparta. It came from a slip of 3 to 4 metres along 20 kilometres of the Sparta fault. A fault is a deep fracture in rock along which the two sides move. On a 7 day classical tour, a slip means the sudden shift of rock along a fault.

• Beehive tombs: The Arkina site near Arna holds three beehive tombs, domed graves of stone, still unexplored.
• Sun worship: The peak called Taleton was dedicated to Helios, the Sun, who received horse sacrifices.
• Forest fires: Blazes in 2005 and 2007 destroyed large parts of the forests on the central west side.

The Taygetus range spreads across three regions of the Peloponnese: Arcadia, Laconia and Messenia. Each of the three was once called a prefecture. On a 7 day classical tour, a prefecture means an older district of local government in Greece.

Which river tales give a 7 day classical tour its Eurotas chapter?

A 7 day classical tour of Laconia ties into the Evrotas, also called the Eurotas. It is Laconia’s main river and one of the chief rivers of the Peloponnese. Ancient Sparta rose on its banks, which gave the city fresh water.

The springs of the river rise at Skortsinos, just north-west of where Laconia meets Arcadia. A spring, in this sense, is ground water rising naturally to the surface. The river runs for 82 kilometres from north to south. It empties into the Laconian Gulf. On a 7 day classical tour, a gulf is a large inlet of the sea.

Early names for the river included the Bomycas and the Himeras. Later it became the Evrotas. In the Middle Ages its name changed to Iri. In recent times it took back the name Evrotas. On a 7 day classical tour, the Middle Ages means the centuries that came after ancient times.

According to Pausanias, King Eurotas cut a channel to the sea to drain marsh water from the plains. Once the land was dry, he named the remaining stream after himself, the Eurotas. A marsh is low, wet ground that holds water. Pausanias was a Greek travel writer of the second century AD.

• Drainage basin: The land that drains into the river covers 2,239 square kilometres.
• Wells: The Evrotas Valley holds about 7000 wells, which pull water from the ground.
• Old mistake: Even Pausanias believed the Eurotas and the Alpheios were joined under the ground.

Homer’s poems never once use the name Evrotas for the river. Those poems claim to recount the stories and the geography of Mycenaean Greece. On a 7 day classical tour, geography means the layout of land, rivers and places.

Who was Lycurgus, and why does a 7 day classical tour recall his laws?

A 7 day classical tour traces a region tied to Lycurgus, the legendary lawgiver of Sparta. A lawgiver is a person who sets down the main laws of a state. Legendary here means known through old stories rather than through firm written records.

Ancient writers credited Lycurgus with the eunomia of Sparta. Eunomia is a Greek word for good order, a city kept steady by its laws. His reforms touched politics, money and daily life alike. A 7 day classical tour moves through the Sparta of his laws, yet little about him is certain.

The reforms tied to his name go by the title Great Rhetra. A rhetra was a formal decree, a fixed rule set down for the whole city. Modern scholars place the Great Rhetra at a time before 736 BC. In BC dating, a larger number marks an earlier year in history.

Herodotus, writing in the late fifth century BC, gave the oldest surviving account of him. Lycurgus is missing from the poems of Tyrtaeus, the earliest Spartan source to survive. That gap has led historians today to doubt that he was real. A 7 day classical tour treads a land where Spartans honoured Lycurgus as a god.

• Royal claims: The Agiads and the Eurypontids, the two royal houses of Sparta, both claimed descent from him.
• Cretan model: One Spartan tradition says he based his reforms on laws already used in Crete.
• Far journeys: Certain versions of his story send him as far as Egypt, Spain and India.

In a story told by Plutarch, an adolescent put out one of Lycurgus’ eyes. An adolescent is a person between childhood and adulthood. His opponents then backed down, and Lycurgus forgave the youth. A 7 day classical tour crosses the Spartan country where the tale unfolds.

How does the agoge fit into a 7 day classical tour of Spartan history?

A 7 day classical tour traces the region of Sparta, home of the agoge. The agoge was the training each boy needed for Spartiate status. A Spartiate was a full citizen of Sparta. No boy of that class won citizen rights without it.

Boys of the citizen class entered the agoge at the age of seven. They left it at the age of 21. The name has its root in a Greek verb meaning to lead. The first stage, the paides, held boys of about 7 to 14. Paides is a Greek word for children.

The paides learned the basics of reading and writing. They also raced, wrestled and joined in choral dances, where a group danced and sang together. A 7 day classical tour ranges over a land where each boy belonged to an agele, or pack. An older youth, called an eiren, led each pack. The plural of agele is agelai.

The boys went through the agoge in bare feet. Each boy aged 12 or more received only one cloak a year. Plutarch wrote that the boys made their beds from reeds. A 7 day classical tour moves through the land where they pulled those reeds from the Eurotas River.

• Roman visitors: In the Roman period, the agoge turned into a sight that drew Roman tourists.
• Chosen three hundred: 300 young men called hebontes were picked for the hippeis, an honoured unit of foot soldiers.
• Land grant: Each graduate received a kleros, an allotment of farmland worked by helots, Sparta’s tied farm workers.

Every pack answered to the paidonomos, a title meaning boy-herder. He was an upper-class official in charge of the whole Spartan system of schooling. A 7 day classical tour crosses the region where this official kept watch over every pack.

Which rituals tie a 7 day classical tour to the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia?

A 7 day classical tour traces ancient Sparta, the city that held the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia. It ranked among the leading religious sites of that city-state. A sanctuary is ground set apart as holy. A city-state was a city that ruled itself.

Four villages first made up Sparta, and all four shared the cult of Orthia. Their names were Limnae, Pitane, Cynosura and Mesoa, and the sanctuary stood in Limnae. Here a cult means worship of one deity through fixed rites. A 7 day classical tour treads Eurotas country, where the site sits on the river’s south bank.

The first sanctuary was believed to date from around 700 BCE. BCE counts years in the same way as BC. A second temple rose around 570 BCE. Builders set its altar and limestone temple on a bed of river sand. Limestone is a pale stone formed from shells under ancient seas.

The cult gave rise to the diamastigosis, a name meaning harsh whipping. Cheeses were piled on the altar, with adults holding whips on guard. Young men tried to snatch them past the whips. A 7 day classical tour winds through a land where this was a rite of passage. Such a rite marks a step into adulthood.

• Sickle prize: Young men who danced at the sanctuary competed for a sickle, a curved farm blade.
• Clay masks: Gifts left for the goddess include clay masks of old women or of hoplites, armoured foot soldiers.
• Roman seating: Builders added an amphitheatre in the 3rd century CE to hold the visitors.

Pausanias recorded a second name for the cult image: Lygodesma, meaning willow-bound. The name came from the willow thicket where the image was found. A willow is a tree that grows by water. A 7 day classical tour crosses Spartan ground where that image stood.

What can a 7 day classical tour gain from the Archaeological Museum of Sparta?

A 7 day classical tour traces Laconia, where the Archaeological Museum of Sparta dates back to 1875. It ranks among the oldest archaeology museums in Greece. Archaeology studies past peoples through the tools, pots and walls they left behind in the ground.

Thousands of artefacts fill its collection, gathered from the ancient Acropolis of Sparta and the rest of Laconia. An acropolis is the high, walled heart of an old Greek city. The pieces span the Neolithic to the late Roman era. The Neolithic was the New Stone Age, when farming began.

Seven rooms with about 500 square metres of floor put just a slice of the holdings on show. Years after the opening, the museum was largely neglected. Neglected means left without proper care or attention. A 7 day classical tour treads a region where the bulk of these pieces sits in warehouses.

In July 2020, the Greek culture minister approved plans for a new Archaeological Museum of Sparta. The same plans also cover the renovation of the existing building. Renovation means repairing and updating an old building. A 7 day classical tour explores Laconia, whose finds reach this museum unless Gythion or Neapolis holds them.

• Room II: This room holds finds from the shrine of Artemis Orthia, a holy site of Sparta.
• Room V: Samples of Roman mosaics, pictures made from small set stones, fill this room.
• Room VI: Building parts from the temple of Apollo at Amyclae form a major section of the collection.

Room IV keeps prehistoric finds from the wider Laconia region. Prehistoric describes the ages before people kept written records. Room VII holds works of Laconian sculpture, the carved art of the region. A 7 day classical tour crosses the Laconian land where these finds were dug up.

Where does Geraki sit within a 7 day classical tour of Laconian villages?

A 7 day classical tour traces Laconia, home of the village of Geraki. The village is named after a nearby medieval fortress. It served as the seat of Geronthres, a former municipality. A municipality handles the local affairs of its towns and villages.

Geronthres takes its name from ancient Geronthrae. Since a local government reform in 2011, the larger Evrotas municipality has included it. About 1,700 people live in the wider municipal unit. A 7 day classical tour moves through Parnon country, where Geraki castle sits on the western slopes.

Dutch excavations point to a first settlement on the acropolis hill in the late Neolithic period. Excavation means digging with care to recover traces of the past. In the Early Helladic period, the site held an administrative centre. Broken clay seals support this. Early Helladic is the name for the early Bronze Age on mainland Greece.

Settlement went on until close to the end of the Middle Helladic period. Diggers have found nothing yet from Mycenaean times, the late Bronze Age. The first signs of new settlement date from the Iron Age, when iron tools spread. A 7 day classical tour roams a region where the hilltop was left empty again in Roman times.

• Barony: Around 1209 the Barony of Geraki, a lord’s estate, became one of twelve original lay baronies of Achaea.
• Castle builder: Guy of Nivelet received the barony and built the fortress of Geraki near ancient Geronthrae.
• Border watch: The fortress was built to keep watch over the Tsakones of northern Parnon.

Geraki fell to the Byzantines in the 1260s, though the exact date is unclear. The Byzantines were the Greek-speaking heirs of the eastern Roman Empire. The village itself holds churches from the Byzantine era. A 7 day classical tour crosses Laconia, where these churches still stand.

On a 7 day classical tour, how did the Gerousia rule ancient Sparta?

A 7 day classical tour traces Sparta, whose Gerousia served as its council of elders. It was also called the Spartan Senate. The body held judicial, legislative and supervisory powers. Judicial work concerns courts, legislative work concerns laws, and supervisory work means keeping watch.

In the Archaic and Classical periods, the council had thirty members. The two kings sat in it, alongside twenty-eight citizens called gerontes. Geron is the Greek word for an old man. Each geron had to be at least sixty, the age when army service ended for Spartan citizens.

Gerontes were elected by acclamation and held office for life. Acclamation means choosing by loud shouts rather than by ballots. Each candidate passed alone before the Assembly, which shouted for its choice. A 7 day classical tour journeys through a land where a jury judged those shouts. The jury sat shut inside a windowless building.

Aristotle called this way of choosing the Gerousia childish. He saw the council as the part of Sparta’s mixed constitution for the fine and noble. A constitution is the framework of laws that shapes how a state is run. A 7 day classical tour explores a region where the Gerousia was the highest court of law.

• Victory wreath: A newly elected geron crowned himself with a victory wreath, according to Plutarch.
• Stand-in vote: When a king missed a meeting, his closest relative on the council voted for him.
• Shorter terms: In 227 BC, King Cleomenes III is believed to have made each term last one year.

By the reign of Augustus, from 27 BC to AD 14, the council had shrunk to twenty-three members. A 7 day classical tour crosses old Spartan land, where even kings fell under the council’s criminal courts. Criminal courts deal with serious wrongs against the law.

Why do the helots matter to a 7 day classical tour through Laconia?

A 7 day classical tour traces Laconia, where helots formed the majority of the population in Spartan times. The same held true in Messenia, the other territory ruled by Sparta. Helots were a subjugated group, meaning a people held under Spartan power.

Tied to the land, helots worked mainly in farming. Their labour supported the Spartan citizens in economic terms. Debate over their exact standing has run since ancient times. According to the writer Pollux, helots held a status between free men and slaves. Status means a person’s rank or position in society.

The writer Hellanicus linked the word helot to Helos, a village in the south of Sparta. Each helot gave up a set share of the harvest, known as the apophora. A harvest is the crop gathered each season. A 7 day classical tour moves through a region where helots kept the leftover crop.

The lands of Laconia and Messenia were very fertile. Fertile ground yields rich crops. Like slaves, helots were able to work as artisans or traders. An artisan is a craft worker such as a potter or smith. A 7 day classical tour winds across a land where, in 425 BC, certain helots owned boats.

• Brasidians: In 424 BC, 700 helots who served Brasidas gained freedom as the Brasidians.
• New status: Helots who gained their freedom were known by the Greek name neodamodes.
• Liberation: The Theban commander Epaminondas freed the bulk of the helot population after the Theban-Spartan War.

Herodotus gave figures for Plataea, a battle fought in 479 BC. He counted seven helots for each of the 5,000 Spartan soldiers. A 7 day classical tour crosses Laconia, where keeping such numbers in check was a major Spartan concern.

What do travellers ask about 7 day classical tour, and what are the answers?

7 day classical tour circuits trace the plains around the Eurotas River, which the city-state of Sparta controlled. That state took shape during the Greek Dark Ages. Its citizens and their neighbours, the perioeci, shared one name: the Lakedaimonians.

Before a 7 day classical tour, who were the ephors of Sparta?

The ephors formed a council of five Spartan men, chosen afresh every year. Their title joins Greek words for over and to see, so an ephor was an overseer. An overseer watches over the work of others. King Cleomenes III abolished the office of ephor in 227 BC. Abolished means brought to an end.

Ahead of a 7 day classical tour, what were the Spartan syssitia?

The syssitia were shared meals for men and youths, above all in Crete and Sparta. In Sparta they formed a daily banquet that citizens had to attend, like an army mess. An army mess is a hall where soldiers eat together. Not even the two kings stayed away without good excuse.

In the history behind a 7 day classical tour, who were the perioeci?

The perioeci were second-tier citizens of the Spartan state until about 200 BC. Second-tier means one rank below the full citizens. Their name means those dwelling around, from Greek words for around and house. They handled crafts and manufacturing, including the weapons and armour of the Spartan army. Manufacturing means making goods in quantity.

What links the word laconic to a 7 day classical tour of Laconia?

A laconic phrase is a short, blunt statement. The term comes from Laconia, the region that holds the city of Sparta. Its ancient people were famous for terse remarks. Terse means brief and to the point. When Philip II of Macedon threatened to invade Laconia, the Spartan ephors replied with one word: If.

Featured photo: George E. Koronaios, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (File:Modern Sparta and Mt. Taygetos.jpg).