Early in 1982, my mother announced that a proposed trip to Athens had been cancelled by a friend. Rashly, I said I would take her as a birthday present, but in autumn so as to avoid the heat. So it was that a little over 40 years ago, in October 1982, we set out for distant Athens. Little did I expect to catch, on my first evening in Greece, that most contagious of travel diseases, Hellenophilia. (My mum had already succumbed to the condition, and went on to make her final visit aged 91). As the 40th anniversary of that first trip approached, I pondered how best to mark it. It had to be another visit to Greece, of course – my 38th! And I wanted it to be somewhere with engrossing archaeology, but sufficiently off the beaten track that I had not previously visited it.
Unsung archaeology
Volos presented itself as the ideal candidate. This major port in Thessaly lies at the head of the Pagasetic Gulf, which is bounded by the peninsula of Mount Pelion on one side, low mountains to the west, and the broad plain of Thessaly to the north. In ancient mythology, this region is famous for being the site of Iolkos, the city where Jason grew up before being sent on his quest for the Golden Fleece. As we will see, debate rumbles on about the precise location of Jason’s Iolkos, but it was presumably one of the important prehistoric sites known to exist in the area. Mount Pelion, meanwhile, was home to Jason’s tutor Chiron, a wise centaur. Judging by the warlike and wild character of that strange race, as depicted on a metope from the Parthenon, the noble and nurturing Chiron must have been a phenomenal one-off.
So what does Volos have to offer the quizzical visitor? First, a note of warning. If you are hoping for forests of bleached white columns set against an azure sky, you will be disappointed. In fact, the only visible remnants of Classical Greece in the area are fragments of stonework and a few columns that can be seen in Palaia (Old Volos), where they have been reused as a balustrade around a church perched on a hill (largely a prehistoric mound). This church, like all the churches in Volos, is very recent. It is a consequence of earthquakes in the 1950s, which destroyed the city, and are the main reason why Volos is now a smart modern town. Glimpses of antiquity can still be found amid this modernity, though, including the excavated remains of possible Byzantine buildings at the port end of Old Volos, and the ruins of a basilica beside the church. The dedicated visitor will find, tucked beneath the north side of the hill, five enormous information panels detailing the results of investigations into prehistoric Volos. In terms of actual traces, however, there are only two inaccessible covered pits to behold.
The privatisation of objects