5 Day Classical Tour of Greece

5 day classical tour trips are small-group journeys with a host across the Peloponnese and central Greece. Their theme is the ancient past. The topics run from Corinthia, Peirene and the Corinth museum to the Hexamilion wall and the Nemean lion. The Nemean Games, Agiorgitiko wine, Mount Kyllini, Arcadia, Mainalo, Mantineia and Tegea follow, then four short answers. Related trips are the 4 day classical tour, the 7 day classical tour and the classical Greece tour. Other trips sit under Greece tours.

Bookings made through the GetYourGuide widgets on this page earn Classical Greece Tours a commission, at no extra cost to the traveller.

What is a 5 day classical tour?

A 5 day classical tour is a trip across Greece with a host, built on ancient history. Classical refers to ancient Greece and the art, myths and ruins it left. Corinthia, a Peloponnese regional unit, spreads around Corinth, in the north-eastern corner of the peninsula.

The host of a 5 day classical tour is the person who leads the group. On the map, Achaea lies west and south-west of Corinthia. Argolis lies to its south, and Arcadia to its south-west. The Gulf of Corinth and Attica sit to the north, with the Saronic Gulf to the east.

A gulf is a large bay cut deep into the land. Farmland and pasture spread along the eastern coast of Corinthia. Olives, grapes, tomatoes and vegetables grow in those fields. Away from that coast, the rest of the land is mountainous. Kyllini, in the west of the unit, is its tallest mountain.

Notable sites in Corinthia include Ancient Corinth, Acrocorinth, the Corinth Canal and the thermal springs of Loutraki. Thermal springs carry water that leaves the ground warm. For a 5 day classical tour, the ancient names on that list carry the classical theme. For local government, Corinthia splits into six municipalities. Each municipality has its own elected council.

• Census: In 2021, Corinth had 30,816 residents, Kiato 9,907 and Xylokastro 5,378.
• Income: Goods and services, factories, tourism and farming bring in the main income.
• Border: The old Corinthia prefecture, the unit before today’s, split from Argolis for good in 1949.

Fault lines run under the land around Corinth. Each fault is a break in deep rock where one block can slide past another. The Corinth Fault and the Poseidon Fault are two of them. Both names belong to the setting of a 5 day classical tour.

Which legend does a 5 day classical tour draw from Peirene?

A 5 day classical tour draws on the myths of Corinth, and Peirene belongs to them. Greek legend set this fountain, or spring, inside the city of Corinth. In this sense, a fountain is a natural spring framed by stonework.

In myth, Peirene was also a nymph, a nature spirit. Her name means of the osiers, or made of willow twigs. Wicker is woven work of thin, bendy twigs. By the sea god Poseidon, she became the mother of two sons, Lecheas and Cenchrias. Her story gives a 5 day classical tour a Corinthian family tree.

The Corinthians kept a small sanctuary for Peirene beside the fountain. Sanctuary here means ground kept holy for worship. Honey-cakes were offered to her there in the dry months of early summer. Pausanias, a Greek travel writer, tells why the spring flowed. In his account, Peirene wept for her son until her tears became the spring.

In 5 day classical tour lore, Corinth had a second spring, the Upper Peirene. It rose inside the walls of the acropolis. An acropolis is a city’s walled hilltop. Pausanias says the river god Asopus put it there. It was his reward to Sisyphus for news of how Zeus carried off Aegina.

• Gateway: Pausanias saw two gilded, or gold-covered, chariots on a gateway, carrying Phaethon and the sun god Helius.
• Statue: A bronze Heracles stood a little past that gateway, before the entrance to the water.
• Parents: Different sources name her father as the river god Asopus, King Oebalus or the river god Achelous.

Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek myth, was said to favour Peirene as his watering-hole of choice. A watering-hole is a spot where animals come to drink. That detail gives a 5 day classical tour one more Corinthian legend.

What does a 5 day classical tour gain from the Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth?

A 5 day classical tour gains a large store of finds from this Corinthian museum. The building stands inside the archaeological site of the ancient city. Archaeological describes the study of the past through objects dug from the ground.

Its rooms hold objects from the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on the slopes of Acrocorinth. Demeter was the goddess of grain, and Kore, meaning maiden, was her daughter. A display runs from the Geometric Period to the Roman destruction in 146 BC. The Geometric Period is named after the line patterns on its pottery.

The gallery called Corinth, a powerful city-state, holds finds from the Tenea cemetery. A cemetery is a place of graves. A city-state, a key 5 day classical tour term, was a self-ruling city with its own farmland. A second section shows Corinth’s trade, art, home life, beliefs, burials and wars.

Corinth later turned into a Roman colony, meaning a settlement of citizens from Rome. For a 5 day classical tour, the Roman gallery carries the story past the classical age. Glazed plates from the Byzantine era and from Frankish rule fill part of it. Frankish rule was the period when western European crusader lords held the city.

• Grave slabs: The healing-sanctuary gallery shows Byzantine stelae, upright grave slabs, from an early Christian cemetery.
• Atrium: The atrium, an inner court, holds inscriptions and finds proving a Judaic community in Roman Corinth.
• Krater: A Mycenaean krater, a large mixing bowl, carries a chariot scene and came from the Julian Basilica area.

In 2015, new large-scale works went on show in the east and south wings of the museum. A wing is a side section of a building. Large-scale here means big in size. Those rooms give a 5 day classical tour fresh material on Corinth.

What story does the Hexamilion wall hold for a 5 day classical tour of the Peloponnese?

A 5 day classical tour has a gateway story in the Hexamilion wall. Its Greek name means six-mile wall. The wall crossed the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow neck of land joining the Peloponnese to the mainland.

Builders raised it between AD 408 and 450, under the emperor Theodosius II. AD marks years counted from the birth of Christ. An emperor ranks above kings. One end met the Gulf of Corinth, the other the Saronic Gulf. The classical age that names a 5 day classical tour came centuries earlier.

The wall stood 7 m high and 3 m thick along its 7.5 km length. Its core was rubble and mortar, with squared stones on the outer faces. Rubble is rough broken stone, and mortar is the paste that binds it. The Hexamilion counts as the largest archaeological structure in Greece.

For a 5 day classical tour, the wall holds pieces of an older sanctuary. The temple of Poseidon at Isthmia was built straight into it. Greek myth gave Poseidon rule over the sea. A temple is a building raised as a home for a god. Isthmia was a holy site of Poseidon near the isthmus.

• Towers: Under the emperor Justinian, extra towers brought the total along the wall to 153.
• End of use: Once the Ottomans had conquered the Peloponnese in 1460, the wall fell out of use.
• Remains: Parts still stand at the Isthmia sanctuary of Poseidon and on the south side of the Corinth Canal.

The wall guarded the one land route into the Peloponnese from mainland Greece. Sea wraps a peninsula on all sides but one. On a 5 day classical tour map, the Hexamilion therefore marks the old land gate of the south.

What makes the Nemean lion part of 5 day classical tour lore?

A 5 day classical tour inherits a monster tale from Nemea, where Greek myth placed a lion. Killing it was the first of twelve labours, or great tasks. King Eurystheus, the cousin of Heracles, set those tasks for the hero.

In the myths behind a 5 day classical tour, the lion’s golden fur resisted every attack. For that reason, no mortal weapon was able to kill it. Mortal means human, as opposed to divine. Its claws were sharper than any human sword. They were able to slice through even strong armour. Armour is metal clothing for battle.

Hesiod, an ancient Greek poet, gives the lion a divine guardian. In his telling, the goddess Hera raised the lion. She then sent it to spread terror across the hills of Nemea. Hera was queen of the Greek gods. For a 5 day classical tour, this version ties the beast to the gods themselves.

The lion’s lair was a cave with two entrances. Heracles blocked one and went in through the other. In the dark, close space, his club left the beast stunned. He then killed it by choking it with his bare hands. A club is a heavy wooden stick used as a weapon.

• Skinning: Athena told Heracles to cut the pelt, or furry hide, free using a claw from the lion itself.
• Stars: Zeus set the Nemean lion in the sky as Leo, a named group of stars.
• Royal pelt: The Alexander Sarcophagus, a carved stone coffin, puts a lion’s pelt on Alexander the Great’s head.

Homer, the poet of the Iliad, mentioned lions 45 times in his poems. The Iliad is an epic, a long poem about heroes and war. Lions therefore run through the old poetry that a 5 day classical tour draws on.

What sporting past does a 5 day classical tour find in the Nemean Games?

A 5 day classical tour has a sporting chapter in the Nemean Games. They ranked among the four Panhellenic Games, contests open to Greeks from every city. Nemea staged them every two years. One account gives every third year instead.

In the early days, entry was limited to warriors and their sons. The games then had a warlike character. Later, entry opened to all Greeks. A grove, or small wood, between the towns of Cleonae and Phlius held the contests. That grove gives a 5 day classical tour a rural setting for ancient sport.

The programme mixed horse-racing, running in armour, wrestling and chariot racing. Discus, boxing, spear-throwing, archery and music contests completed it. The diaulos was a foot race twice the length of the stadion. At Nemea it measured about 355 metres. A stadion was the basic sprint, one length of the stadium.

Equestrian events, those with horses, ran in a hippodrome, a racecourse for horses and chariots. Only these horse events allowed women to join in. Victory went to whoever owned the horse or chariot, not to the rider or charioteer. For a 5 day classical tour, a charioteer means the driver of a racing chariot.

• Moving venue: At different times, the games were held at Cleonae, Corinth or Argos.
• Tunnel: An arched, or vaulted, entrance tunnel of the later stadium dates to about 320 BC.
• Roman revival: The emperor Hadrian brought back horse-racing for boys, which had fallen out of use.

In 1994, a society formed to bring the Nemean Games back to life. No medals are given. Winners wear crowns made of wild celery and palm branches. For a 5 day classical tour, the revival links ancient sport with the present day.

Where does Agiorgitiko wine stand in a 5 day classical tour story?

The 5 day classical tour story has a wine chapter, and Agiorgitiko is its red grape. As of 2012, no red grape variety in Greece was planted more widely than this one. A variety is one named kind of grape vine.

Growers have long raised the grape in the Nemea area of the Peloponnese. Local people there call its wine the Blood of Hercules. The nickname rests on a legend: after killing the Nemean lion, Hercules drank wine from this grape. In 5 day classical tour stories, Hercules is the Roman name for Heracles.

A second legend links the wine with King Agamemnon. It was said to be a favourite in his palace. Agamemnon, in Greek myth, commanded the Greek army at Troy. The name Agiorgitiko means, word for word, St George’s grape. Its name gives a 5 day classical tour a Christian thread beside the myths.

Agiorgitiko tastes very fruity and spicy, with notes of plum. Its colour runs deep, but it lacks acidity and body. Acidity is the sharp, fresh taste in a wine, and body is its weight. Depending on how it is grown and made, it ranges from soft to very tannic. Tannic means drying in the mouth.

• Berries: Its clusters are small, and so are the thick-skinned berries on them.
• Hill vineyards: Jancis Robinson, a wine writer, praises wines from hills of 500 to 600 metres around Koutsi.
• Nemea rule: Inside the Nemea wine zone, the grape makes red wine only, and pink rosé is banned.

Growers plant the vine in dry, poor soil. The hard ground leads to fewer grapes, but each one holds more flavour. The grapes ripen after the middle of September. For a 5 day classical tour, the vine shows how growers work with hard ground.

What myths tie Mount Kyllini to a 5 day classical tour of Corinthia?

A 5 day classical tour gains a mountain of myth in Kyllini, also called Ziria. It is famous for its link with Hermes, the messenger of the gods. At 2,376 metres, it ranks second in height among Peloponnese peaks.

On a 5 day classical tour map, the mountain sits wholly inside modern Corinthia. In the old regional map, that ground lay in the north-east of Arcadia. Much of the upper mountain is barren and rocky. Below 2,000 metres, forest covers a large share of the slopes. Barren means bare of plants.

Myth also gave the mountain a nymph of its own. Cyllene, the nymph, took Pelasges as her consort in the oldest times of legend. A consort is a husband or partner. One tradition says Lycaon, son of Pelasgus, built a temple to Hermes of Cyllene. Lycaon was the mythical first king of Arcadia.

Among the stories behind a 5 day classical tour, Pausanias describes a carved image of Hermes here. Wooden images of gods, he noted, used ebony, cypress, cedar, oak, yew or lotus. This one, he wrote, was carved from juniper instead. Juniper is a scented evergreen tree. Ebony is a hard black wood.

• Pleiades: The Pleiades, a group of sisters in myth, were born on Mount Kyllini.
• Tiresias: Hyginus records that the seer, or prophet, Tiresias changed sex on Cyllene after striking two snakes.
• Shepherd god: A hymn, or song of praise, to Pan recalls Hermes tending curly-fleeced sheep on Kyllene.

Much of the mountain lies within a park. Roads pass near its southern and western slopes but rarely climb it. A park here is protected natural land. For a 5 day classical tour, Kyllini remains a mountain of myth more than of roads.

Which gods and heroes does a 5 day classical tour borrow from Arcadia?

A 5 day classical tour borrows a mountain heartland from Arcadia, a region in the central Peloponnese. The region owes its name to Arcas, a character in old legend. In legend, the gods Hermes and Pan both made their home there.

For a 5 day classical tour, ancient Arcadia means the highlands at the heart of the peninsula. Highlands are high, hilly or mountain country. The Alpheios river had all its headwaters inside it. Headwaters are the streams where a river begins. Yet none of the headwaters of the Eurotas belonged to Arcadia.

Arcadia was home to the cult of Despoina, also called the Arcadian mysteries. Cult here means the worship of one god, with its own rites. Mysteries were secret rites shared only with chosen worshippers. Despoina means the mistress, a title rather than the goddess’s true name. Only the initiated ever learned her real name.

The Arcadians counted among the oldest tribes of Greece. A tribe, in 5 day classical tour terms, is a people sharing one line of descent. Agapenor led their troops in the Trojan War. Agamemnon himself supplied the ships, since Arcadia had none of its own. The Trojan War is the legendary Greek siege of Troy.

• Capital: From 370 BC, the city of Megalopolis served as the capital of Arcadia.
• General: Philopoemen, a Greek general who lived from 253 to 183 BC, was called the last of the Greeks.
• Great Bear: Callisto, daughter of Lycaon, was turned into a bear and became the constellation Ursa Major.

Artists of the European Renaissance praised Arcadia as an unspoiled, harmonious wilderness. The Renaissance was a rebirth of European art and learning. Harmonious means peaceful and in balance. For a 5 day classical tour, Arcadia is both a real highland and an old ideal.

Which heights does Mainalo add to a 5 day classical tour in Arcadia?

A 5 day classical tour draws on Arcadian peaks, and Mainalo tops the Menalon highlands. Its summit, known as Profitis Ilias or Ostrakina, reaches 1,981 metres. That makes it the highest point in Arcadia. Summit means the very top of a mountain.

Ancient myth names the mountain after Maenalus, a son of Lycaon. Lycaon appears in legend as a king of Arcadia. In antiquity, the slopes were held especially sacred to Pan. Antiquity means the ancient past, before the Middle Ages. For a 5 day classical tour, Pan is the god of shepherds, flocks and wild country.

The ancient Mount Mainalos was in fact a different peak, scholars now believe. They place it at Agios Ilias, a mountain 25 kilometres further south near Asea. Apano Chrepa was its name across the 19th century and into the early 20th. A scholar is a trained specialist in a field of learning.

The mountain holds wide forests of Greek fir and Crimean pine. Firs and pines are evergreen trees that bear cones. The Natura 2000 network calls these forests the best example of both trees in the Peloponnese. Natura 2000 links protected wild places across the European Union. Those woods give a 5 day classical tour an evergreen side.

• Size: The mountain runs 15 to 20 kilometres in length and 5 to 10 kilometres in width.
• Protection: In March 2011, Mainalo became part of a Natura 2000 site covering 226.4 square kilometres.
• Birds of prey: Goshawks, sparrowhawks, buzzards, kestrels and peregrine falcons all live on the mountain.

Mainalo’s ground is made mainly of lime, among other chalky rocks. Chalky, or calcareous, rock is rich in calcium, the mineral in chalk. In 5 day classical tour terms, Mainalo is therefore a mountain of lime under fir and pine.

Which history makes Mantineia worth knowing for a 5 day classical tour?

The 5 day classical tour story of Arcadia names Mantineia, an ancient city of the region. Two significant battles of classical Greek history took place there. The city itself formed around 500 BC, when neighbouring villages joined together.

Poseidon, the sea god, was the patron of the city. A patron god, in 5 day classical tour terms, is the guardian god of one city. Diotima, who shaped the thinking of the philosopher Socrates, reportedly served there as a priestess. A philosopher studies questions about life, truth and right action.

By 420 BC, Mantineia was a democracy. Democracy means rule by the people, from the Greek word demos. Aristotle described an unusual feature of the Mantinean system. The people chose a special committee, and that committee elected the officials. That method sets Mantineia apart in 5 day classical tour accounts of Greek democracy.

The Mantineia Marble dates to the 4th century BC. Its carving shows Apollo and Marsyas in a contest from myth. A muse, a goddess of the arts, plays a Greek pandouris in the scene. The pandouris was an ancient Greek lute, a stringed instrument. Today the marble is on show at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

• Dam: The dam of Mantineia near the city ranks among the advanced works of ancient technology.
• Wine: Mantineia is a protected wine name for a pale wine made from the moschofilero grape.
• Folk sound: The daouli, a drum, and the karamoutza, a wind instrument, were the commonest instruments in local villages.

In the local folk music, 7/8 is the commonest meter. A meter is the repeating beat pattern in a piece of music. In 7/8, each bar holds seven short beats. For a 5 day classical tour, that uneven pulse marks the folk sound of Mantineia.

How does Tegea shape a 5 day classical tour story of ancient Arcadia?

A 5 day classical tour gains an old Arcadian power in Tegea. The town ranked among the oldest and strongest of ancient Arcadia, lying in its south-east. Legend names Tegeates, a son of Lycaon, as its founder.

In the Archaic period, nine villages called demoi joined to form one city. The Archaic period came just before the classical age of Greece. A deme, plural demoi, was a village district. That union is called a synoecism, from the Greek for living together. It opens the Tegea chapter of a 5 day classical tour.

The Temple of Athena Alea burned down in 394 BC. It was rebuilt in grand style to designs by Scopas of Paros. For a 5 day classical tour, Scopas matters as a sculptor and architect from Paros. The main pediment showed the hunt for the Calydonian boar. A pediment is the low stone triangle over a temple front.

Bronze votive gifts of the Geometric and Archaic periods were shaped as horses and deer. A votive gift is one offered to a god to honour a vow. In the days of the writer Strabo, Tegea was the only Arcadian town still lived in. Strabo was a Greek geographer, a writer who described lands and places.

• Late Roman times: Tegea lived on after the Goths, a Germanic people, sacked it in AD 395–396.
• Medieval name: By the 10th century, Tegea was called Amyklion, later shortened to Amykli and Nikli.
• Cretan claim: Tegeans said Kydonia and Gortyna on Crete took their names from sons of King Tegeates.

The ancient site now lies inside the modern village of Alea. Before 1915, local people called that village Piali. A village is a small country settlement. For a 5 day classical tour, Alea is therefore the present-day address of ancient Tegea.

What do travellers ask about 5 day classical tour, and what are the answers?

5 day classical tour stories raise four questions about lesser-known names. Levidi is a small town in Arcadia. Feneos takes its name from ancient Pheneus. Orchomenus was an Arcadian city, not the Boeotian one. Lake Doxa, in western Corinthia, was made by people.

Before a 5 day classical tour, where is Levidi?

Levidi stands on the north-eastern slope of the Mainalo mountains. Its height is about 850 metres above sea level. The plain below it is a closed basin of karstic origin. A basin is low land with higher ground all round. Karstic land is limestone that water has worn into caves and sinkholes.

What ties Feneos to the myths of a 5 day classical tour?

Herodotus, the Greek historian, wrote that the river Styx rises near Feneos. In myth, the Styx flowed through the underworld, where the dead dwelt. The Roman poet Catullus wrote of seasonal floods on the plain. He said Hercules drained them through an underground channel during his twelve labours.

On a 5 day classical tour, what was ancient Orchomenus?

Homer gave Orchomenus the epithet polymelos. An epithet is a describing word attached to a name. Polymelos means abundant in sheep. The city’s chief monument is its theatre, built in the 4th to 3rd centuries BC. It held 4,000 spectators. A spectator is a person who watches a show.

Ahead of a 5 day classical tour, what is Lake Doxa?

An artificial lake is one made by people rather than by nature. A small river, also called Doxa, both feeds and drains it. That river then empties out onto the Feneos plain. On a tiny peninsula within the lake rises a little chapel to Agios Fanourios. Agios means saint in Greek.

Featured photo: Carole Raddato, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.