Author: Jaden Perry | Major: Classical Studies and History | Semester: Summer 2025
The Matala Beach in Crete with Christian Burial Caves imbedded into the cliffside.
Athens, Greece is home to some of the world’s most famous and important artifacts and monuments of antiquity. From the miniscule ostracon shards used by the Athenians to vote and exile tyrants, to the great complex known as the Parthenon, Athens holds what is possibly the richest history known to man. This is where our story begins.
My name is Jaden Perry, and I attend Fulbright Honors College where I study History and Classical Studies with a minor in Political Science. This summer, I traveled with Professor Daniel Levine and George Paulson on a month-long expedition in Greece visiting a multitude of ancient sites, museums, and some of the most picturesque places I’ve ever encountered. The Summer 2025 U of A Faculty -Led: Classics in Greece Program took me and 18 other students through the lush country; From Athens, to the island of Crete where I stayed in the cities of Chania, Rethymno, and Heraklion, to the island of Naxos, back to Athens, then to the mainland cities of Delphi, Olympia, and Nafplion before we finally for the third and last time made our way back to Athens.
As a Classics major whose interest in life is to pursue the study of ancient Greek and Roman culture and language, this program was the absolute perfect opportunity to further my knowledge on these subjects and cultivate new experiences from the regions that I was able to visit. My favorite playwright Euripides, for example, had his works “Medea” and the “Bacchae” performed in the City Dionysia festival presented in Athens. On our second day, we explored the famous theater that hosted these plays, which was conveniently located directly underneath the Acropolis. It felt as though I was having an out-of-body experience getting to see where these plays, that genuinely changed the trajectory of my life, were initially performed. If this had been my only experience visiting a property that I studied about prior to this trip I would have still been impressed, however throughout the remaining days, I came to see many other familiar sights. The Perseus Vase at Eleusis, the metope of Herakles’ 11th labor from the Temple of Zeus, and especially the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae were all key elements in my studies at the University of Arkansas, so getting to look at them, I mean genuinely look at them up closely, was an experience unmatched.
Each place we visited encompassed thousands upon thousands of steps walking, but each one was worth it because instead of being cooped up in a classroom, our lessons were taught outside in the real world. We would visit sites such as the Palace of Knossos in Crete with Dr. Levine and Γεώργιος (this is what we were instructed to call George) leading the way. We would stop at certain places within the sites, and they would explain to us the significance of the materials there. Key terms such as “lustral basin”, “horns of consecration”, and “venetian fortress” have replayed in my head for the entirety of the trip due to our professors drilling these concepts into us at every museum and archeological site. Although scholars are still unsure what the purpose of a lustral basin was, it didn’t stop us from getting excited every time we got to see one! The immense extent of knowledge that Dr. Levine and Γεώργιος had regarding every single temple, fortress, column, wall, painting, sculpture, landscape, tomb, artifact, mosaic, and so much more was unbelievable, I felt as though my brain was stuffed full of detail after fact constantly, and yet still I found myself eager to learn more.
During the duration of the excursion, each student was required to keep a journal that they would write in almost everyday detailing their experiences, what they thought of regarding the activities for that day, and whatever else they could think up. We were encouraged to take full creative control of our journals, to have fun with them as they said, so I filled the book with my observations and thoughts as well as my drawings of the monasteries, temples, book covers, and small pieces of postcards and museum tickets that we visited. Along with the journal, we were assigned to do a Site Report which basically encompasses a fifteen-to-twenty-minute presentation about a specific topic pertaining to a site or complex that we visited at the location itself. My report was on the Temple of Hera at Olympia where I got to lead my classmates around the structure and point out to them the variations of the temple columns and I even had them pretend to be sculptures that the 2nd Century BCE geographer Pausanias wrote were once in the temple in his “Description of Greece”!
Even with all of the educational components of this study abroad trip, I was still able to explore the cities I was in and create my own experiences with the free time I was given. I scampered on cliffside burial caves at the Matala Beach in Crete, I started and finished Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis at a beach on Naxos Island and was fortunate enough to visit a locally owned orange orchard in Nafplion where I was treated to a lunch with entirely home-grown product and made orange cookies from their own supply!
My time in Greece was the most extraordinary and unique experience of my entire life. I genuinely believe that if I travelled with any other professors other than Daniel Levine and George Paulson I would not have felt the same sense of belonging and passion for the culture and history of Greece that I endured. I could not recommend the University of Arkansas’ Summer Study Tour in Greece more for anyone interested in the study of both modern and ancient Greek history.