I woke up early intending to go get tickets to the Dora Stratou first thing in the morning, but the Student Affairs person wasn't in her office right when the building opened (surprise, surprise), so I went to the Acropolis Museums instead. It was just breathtaking! It's not the actual marbles from the Parthenon, of course (those are in London) but the building is built to the scale of the Parthenon, so they have the casts and reproductions in the exact places that they would be on the building. However, pictures are NOT allowed in the museum (even without flash) so I sketched instead. :-) I haven't sketched in forever, but I really enjoyed sitting the museum for hours while the international tours crowded around me and the piece I was sketching, several of them paying more attention to my pencil than to their tour guides. I also got to help out a few people who were struggling with their mythology, which made me very happy. I'll get the sketches up soon, but having neither scanner nor camera with battery, it will have to wait until tomorrow.
One thing I can't capture on paper with pencil, beyond scale and beauty, however, is the color and detail left on some of the sculpture. I had never been able to picture the marble statues and reliefs painted brightly and embellished with gold leaf until today when I saw the remnants. It's incredibly beautiful and shockingly fitting to the pieces. One Kore (maiden figure) still had red hair and some dye left in her eyes, as well as blue spirals on the hem of her gown. It was my favorite of the many many Korai (plural form) by far! Some other pieces, remnants, especially two decorative snakes had similar designs on them and it made them intensely beautiful and much more realistic, despite their not looking real and the design being completely unnatural. I've never been so moved by art. So yeah, sketches up tomorrow (and I may go back -again- to make some more).
Outside the museum I saw my first Greek riot (from a very safe distance.) I've made lots of jokes about the Greeks being very organized about their rioting, but I realized exactly how true that is until today. A tiny riot formed on the steps leading down to the museum and people raised signs and chanted for a few minutes until someone blew a whistle. They retreated a few steps and started up again, and the whistle followed. This continued all the way back up the stairs and a little way into the street until the group, with no apparent communication, decided they'd made their point and lowered their signs and walked away quietly chatting with each other. No wonder they send out such calm e-mails. Everyone here knows exactly what to do in these situations and it's like it would be poor table manners to go against the standard.
Around 1:30, I made my way back to the Academic center for lunch and the Dora Stratou Tickets, after which I walked back to the Ancient Agora. I spent two hours just getting lost in the area (and found a museum while doing so). I somehow managed to get behind a roped off area, but I never jumped any ropes or crossed any lines, so I'm not entirely sure how it happened. No one seemed the least bit upset, so it didn't matter, really. Just a few pictures:
Aquaduct!
Outside of the Agora Museum. It's a reconstructed Roman Stoa, so looks pretty good. :-)
The little stone marker outside this building says "Nymphaion", which is of course incorrect given it's current state. The only thing remaining of the Nymphaion is the foundations. The rest is a Byzantine chapel called "Church of the Holy Apostles".
The Agora is really cool, but doesn't photograph well because it always looks like a bare field with rocks in photos. So most of my pictures are column details and cool brickwork.
Example 2.
And again. :-)
This was cool - it's a marble stand for a brass tripod, altogether about 8.5 feet tall. It was the first prize in a theater competition. What on earth would a playwright do with that?
With the above picture we're going to play a fun little game called "Guess the God/Goddess". Go on, take a gander. Even just guess if it's male or female. Play the jeopardy theme song if you like. Ready?
The answer is Apollo. Apollo, who is the youthful god that was every young ancient Greek man's idol. Why do they think this is Apollo? Those feminine feet are wearing feminine shoes under the hem of that dress! This is a strong male god, guys! Don't put him in a peplos! *confused and upset on behalf of the god*
Anyhow, that concluding that rant, I decided to go back to the Acropolis museum and sketch some more. I had also planned to go up to the Acropolis itself for sunset, but it closed earlier than I expected. I'm going to try again tomorrow (or maybe later depending on their October hours), because the marble turns such a lovely orange in the deep sunlight. It's incredibly beautiful. Also, I really like taking pictures up there. In case you haven't noticed. :-)
I saw this young boy on my way back from the Acropolis. He was quite good, especially for his age. It's great to see kids enjoying music, but not so much when it's their source of income at such a young age. I contributed a little to his pile of coins.
I went back to the apartment for a little dinner, then walked right back out with K and SE to go see the Traditional Greek Dancing show at the Dora Stratou (FINALLY!) It was absolutely incredible. I really want the dance lessons to start now, and I'm willing to seek them out if for some reason they don't work out through CYA. I think K would do that with me and we've almost convinced SE (though she won't admit it) to join us. I can't do the dancing proper justice, so I'll just have to show you a clip.
Incredible, yes? They performed songs and dances, all live, for about an hour and a half. They named all of the dances, and mentioned the location of origin for several, but I couldn't write them down, so I don't really know which is which. The people in the row behind us knew the words to several songs and it made me want to learn Greek folk songs. Perhaps something to ask during Modern Greek on Monday? Our teacher might be willing to dive into that. After all, "Happy Birthday" has very specific uses and quickly gets awkward when sung out of context.
After all that, and being given a flower by a Greek stranger (who wanted to know why I walked so quickly), I'm back at the apartment and should have been in bed hours ago. I'm going to try going to the art supply store tomorrow. I'm constantly inspired to create here, and I really want to try my hand at some sculpture now. Hopefully they'll have clay. You'll be able to tell which are mine without my captioning them, I'm pretty sure. :-P
Kαληνύχτα!
P.S. K has discovered our apartment's "band name": Tiny Riot. Our first two hit singles will be "Don't Put Him in a Peplos" and "The Curator F***ed That Up". :-)
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