That afternoon, I went back to the National Archaeological Museum to fully explore the vase collection on the second floor. When you think of Ancient Greek vases, one particular form usually comes to mind - the black figures on a red clay pot. This is, of course, a very common form of pottery, but it's certainly not the only one. This was the first time I had ever seen such a wide range of pottery in one condensed location, and it put the scope of ancient pottery in a lot of perspective.
The Geometric styles of the earliest pottery is much more beautiful in person than in pictures as in the pictures it just looks like an overwhelming amount of design that doesn't fit together on a pot. In life, you are forced to look at the details one at a time and the geometry tells stories in and of itself. It's much easier to portray huge ships and immense armies on a pot where everything is tiny and repeated. Some of those designs look like epic battles straight from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies.
As the Geometric style progressed, the figures began overtaking the repeated patterns, which begin to form a sort of border for various scenes. They also got more abstract, and you can tell that the artists were starting to have fun with their work, sometimes mimicking the pot's shape with the design on it, and sometimes anthropomorphizing their work.
Hello!
How are you today?
I don't recall if there was a purpose to this practice or not, beyond artistic expression (I know Professor McGowan told us this in Ancient Greek Art and Myth, but I can't remember!) but it's very funny to look at, and the faces instill an oddly natural happiness when you look at them. I can't tell you how many disaffected tourists smiled at these in the museum.
Before going any further into Archaic and Classical pottery, which is the style of figures on either black or red clay that most people are so familiar with, I cam across something that I never expected to see.
Wood.
Real ancient pieces of wood with the paint still on them that had not decomposed since they were created in 540-530 b.c. I have no idea how that happened (the plaque didn't say) but they were still so beautiful after so long, and it amazed me that they are in such great condition!
Back to pottery, this plate of Herakles and Athena, which I love for its tenderness, is much more typical of many people's idea of Greek pottery. Look at the amazing detail in their hair and clothing, though. I cant imagine holding my hand stead enough to draw that in paint or etch it in clay.
Two lovers. This seemed, to me at least - based on what I was seeing elsewhere in the museum, to be unusual subject matter. The pose, the expression and the melding of the two figures into one with the drapery of their garments is all superbly executed, though. The ancient artists were much more prone to experimentation than I ever believed or understood.
A lengthwise view of one sculpture hall in the museum. There are about 20 of these on the first floor alone. This place is HUGE.
Young boy on a horse in bronze, with scale models. It's the largest piece in the museum that I had no previous knowledge of. The craftsmanship (not to mention the level of preservation) is astounding!
Friday night was the JF's birthday. her parents and brother were in town to see her and they took a large group of us out to dinner. It was quite fun, even though we didn't go to the Japanese restaurant for sushi like we had planned (JF is a bit tired of Mediterranean cuisine). We went to Applebee's instead. Rest assured my non-existent craving for American food over Greek food is still non-existent. Still, it was a fun and lovely night.
Saturday morning I woke up to do laundry and spent most of the day planning out the Thanksgiving trip to Italy. Everything is set except for a place to stay in Milan (anyone have suggestions? Put them in the comments!) I'm pretty excited about that! I woke up far too late to go take sunrise pictures on the Acropolis and thus have missed my daylight-savings-time window. I'll just have to try again near the end of the semester when the sun is rising at 7:30 again.
Saturday night, when I finally left the apartment, I went to the Greek National Opera to try to get rush tickets to Marathon-Salamis. I haven't seen much opera, but of those I have seen, I decided that understanding the words wasn't a high priority for overall enjoyment. I would have had no trouble getting a seat, but I got especially lucky in that, while waiting for the student rush line to open, an older woman walked up to me and gave me a ticket that she wasn't using, then left before I could do more than thank her. Pity, as I would have loved to give her something in return. It was an 8th row orchestra seat, so it probably cost her about 70€.
The opera itself was phenomenal. I had googled the synopsis before going and found that I didn't need to know the individual lines beyond that at all. The singing was fabulous, the costumes were incredible and the set was overwhelming. It was very freeing not to have to pay attention to the words (in Italian with Greek subtitles) and just concentrate on the stage itself. There was an especially powerful moment in the third act where the main characters all traveled to Delphi to receive the famous oracle on how Athens could defeat the invading Persians ("Put your faith in your wooden walls" ie. ships). They recreated onstage what I believe to have been the creation of the Delphic oracle and the relationship between the god Apollo and the first Pythia who prophesied for him. The ballet at that point was mind-blowing.
As an extra surprise, after leaving the opera, there was a group of accordion players just outside looking to catch generous, music-loving patrons. They did catch quite a few and some people leaving the opera joined in the song and dance with them. The whole scenario felt straight out of a movie and I couldn't stop smiling all the way home.
The four main accordion players
And from the back, trying not to be too obvious with my flash. They were quite friendly about the pictures.
I got back to the apartment around 11:30 to the great surprise of my apartment mates watching "Hocus Pocus" (with Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker) while eating popcorn and homemade rice krispies. So I got to join in the last 20 minutes of that as well. M has a guest who she was showing around the town, and K's mom came in this morning right after I woke up (again, very late).
I have to go back to classes tomorrow, which will be good in that it will get me back on a regular schedule, but I will miss the freedom and exploration of these last two weeks. Also, I'm going to miss the lack of homework. Still, the semester must move on and Italy and London draw ever closer.
Happy Halloween from a country where the holiday isn't celebrated (though I'll bet All Saints day will be) and Καλημέρα!
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