Medicine is and always has been the Divine Art. To primitive man, the ability to heal and cure disease seemed to be magical, even miraculous. The gospels of the New Testament are filled with the miraculous healings of Jesus. Every traditional culture has its gods, demigods, and heroes who are associated with the art of healing.
To the ancient Greeks, medicine was a gift from the gods. Greek mythology is full of symbolic legends and allegories explaining the nature and origins of the art of healing. In these myths and the gods and goddesses associated with them, we can find the basic, fundamental archetypes that have guided and shaped the art of healing in Western civilization from its very inception. These archetypes still guide the physician today, and all those who come to him for healing, whether they realize it or not.
Greek mythology is a wonderful source of wisdom and inspiration for the physician. By studying the Greek myths, we can gain valuable insights into the nature of health and disease, and the way of the healer.
DAY 1: Athens
- Arrival at Athens airport and transfer to a 3* Superior centrally located hotel
- Afternoon walking tour in Plaka and in surroundings of the Acropolis
- Return to the hotel, dinner & overnight
Day 2: Athens
- Breakfast in the hotel
- Athens city tour, visiting the most important monuments, then visit the Acropolis and the Parthenon and the new Acropolis Museum
- Free time for lunch
- Afternoon meeting at the hotel for lessons
- Dinner & overnight at the hotel
Day 3: Athens
- Breakfast in the hotel
- Visit to a private hospital in the morning and a state hospital in the afternoon, in both places we will meet with doctors to explain the health care system in private and in public sector in general
- Free time for lunch (in between)
- In the afternoon we will visit the village S.O.S. for abandoned children
- Return to the hotel, meeting in the hotel and dinner there
Day 4: Athens
- Breakfast in the hotel
- Meeting with a Doctor, specialist in phycology and psychiatry, where he will explain the results of the economic crisis in the Greek society
- Aroundt 12 :00 departure to visit the central market of Athens with the fruit market, the meat and fish markets as well
- Lunch at Monastiraki area, the old city of Athens and the flea market area
- Meeting with a dietician and during our Mediterranean meal with fresh salads and olive oil we will speak about the Mediterranean diet and food and why the people on Ikaria island in the Aegean sea live so long and reach many times more than 100 years of age. A unique phenomenon.
- In the afternoon we will visit a greek confectionery and we will taste a greek dessert which they will make in front of our eyes
- Return to the hotel meeting room and dinner in the hotel
Day 5: Delphi
- Breakfast in the hotel
- Departure by bus, to visit Delphi archeological site and museum with a professional guide
- Free time for lunch and in the afternoon olive oil tasting with some snacks with homemade bread, feta cheese with oregano etc. We will taste 2 different types of olive oil produced in Delphi area and in the valley of Amfissa in Delphi where you can find more than one million five hundred old olive trees in one valley!!! We will also taste olives, production of the same area and all this will be done in the olive trees groves in a special place we have organized for this event. We will learn why the area has such a fine olive oil production, the way they make the oil and the effect of the olive oil in human health, body and soul
- Return to the hotel in Athens meeting in the hotel, dinner & overnight
Day 6: Corinth Canal – Epidaurus – Mycenae – Athens
- Breakfast in the hotel
- Departure by bus with a professional English speaking guide to visit the Corinth Canal,then ancient Epidaurus, famous for its theatre & its acoustic and the museum of Epidaurus. There we will see tools for operations in the head and the body used during the 5th century BC that means more than 2.500 years ago. The role of Epidaurus as well as god’s Aesklipios – Aesculapius in Latin, will be explained by our professional specialized guide during our visit there.
The theme of the day will be Aesculapius and cure during the ancient times in Greece
- Free time for lunch
- Visit Mycenae, the Acropolis, the famous palace of king Agamemnon that was the leader in the Trojan war as well as the museum and the tomb of his father Atreus.
- Return to Athens, hotel meeting, dinner and overnight
Day 7: Athens
- Breakfast in the hotel
- In the morning we will visit the National Archeological museum of Athens, where we will see a lot of the things they found in Mycenae and in other places around Greece, like Santorini and other islands and we will have a full idea of the Greek civilization. We will also visit the special Antikithera mechanism which is the first ever computer built by humans and we will have an explanation by our professional speaking guide about the mechanism and what was that and how it was used in the ancient period.
- Free time for lunch, to taste the Greek souvlaki our national food
- Return to the hotel, meeting in the hotel
- Farewell dinner in a Greek traditional gourmet restaurant or in a traditional greek restaurant in Piraeus (Mikrolimano) with fish menu
- Return to the hotel & overnight
Day 8: Athens
- Breakfast in the hotel
- Transfer to the airport for departure