Archaeology Odyssey

Archaeology Odyssey takes the reader on a journey through the classical world as seen through the eyes of the top archaeologists in the discipline. Written with you in mind, the experts explain the latest in classical research in a way that is accessible to the general public. Read the complete series today!

Travelers’ Notebook

Getting There: Kourion is 6 miles west of Lemesos, along a good road. Plenty of parking space is available. The ruins of Kourion and the Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates are open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., June through September, and from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. the rest of the year. Admission is approximately $2 for Kourion and 75¢ for the sanctuary.

A Massacre Ordained by the Gods

Not all Greeks stood together to repel the invading Persian army in 480–479 B.C. Thebes, hostile toward Athens, allied itself with the Persians. Before the Battle at Plataea, in which the Persian general Mardonius was soundly defeated, the Thebans invited their Persian allies to a banquet—a story touchingly recounted by Herodotus in Histories 9.15–16 (translated by Robin Waterfield):

Field Notes

Four-volume Corpus of Mosaics to be Published by the British Museum

Not until the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D. did the Romans finally depart Britain, a land they first invaded in 55 B.C. Their remains still litter the landscape: Hadrian’s wall in the north, the elaborate palace at Fishbourne on the southern coast and hundreds of mosaics throughout the region.

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