Another Weekend in Athens

A surprising amount has happened since I got back from Santorini. When everything re-opened on Friday after National Resistance Day, we all went to the Open Market to stock up on food for the week. It feels really nice to be cooking for myself again, rather than eating out all the time. However, I didn't buy nearly enough as I'm already running low on a lot. There will be a lot of creativity in the dinner department this week.

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!

Peloponnesus Days # 4, 5 and 6: Olympia and Delphi

The last two days the hotels both charged for their internet usage, so I decided to explore the towns instead of using my last bit of money to sit inside blogging.

So, Friday morning, far too early, we got on the bus and left Sparta for Olympia. The bus ride was much longer than anyone really expected, and we ended up getting to Olympia too late to do both the museum and the site in the same day, which pushed our schedule back a little bit for the rest of our time in the Peloponnese. I wasn't thrilled, as two full days in Delphi had been a very exciting prospect, but as it turned out, I wouldn't have spent a minute less in Olympia, so no worries.

The Bus ride took us over these mountains and gave some rather spectacular views when the rocking motion didn't want to make us close our eyes from fear and/or hypnosis.

Our quaint "rest stop" along the way. Not your typical tour bus pit stop. :-)

The spring where we all filled our water bottles. Also, the best water I've had in Greece yet!

 First view of the site of Ancient Olympia. The columns have been stood back up, but almost none of that is reconstructed stone work. Truly incredible!

For those who don't know: Olympia is the original site of the Pan-Hellenic Olympic Games, beginning in 776 b.c. This means gymnasiums (pictured above), temples (pictured below), stadiums (pictured far below) and lots and lots of treasuries and offerings from all over the Ancient Aegean world, including Grecian colonies in other areas of the world. The site is huge and splendid in every way, and we didn't being to cover it in the three hours we spent there.

Frontal view of what remains of the Temple to Olympian Zeus, plus reconstructed full-scale column and scale tourist (you can just see him in white on the left side of the picture if you squint.)

JK sizing up one of the column pieces from the original temple. That is a mid-size cross section of one enormous column. Many laying around us were even larger.

Across the way from the temple to Zeus was a temple to Hera, his wife. It was a little smaller, of course, but still very prominent. 

We actually were able to go a little inside of the temple to Hera and look around a bit at what the inner structure of an ancient temple might be (sans grass, of course).

This round structure (only part of which is re-stood-up here) is called a Tholos (which is Greek for "round thing"). No one knows what they were used for, but they seem to crop all over in the darnedest places. They're usually called "religious" and left at that.

The grand entrance to the Olympic Stadium. Even in 400 b.c. everyone's trying to out-do each other for showiness at the Olympic Games.

And the Stadium itself. We held a race where we all had to run barefoot across the stadium and back, just as they did in ancient times. Surprisingly, the guards were fine with this (apparently it's bad form to preform in a theater, but isn't to run on a track. Oh well.) The stadium is about 191.7 meters long, so I was a bit winded after that sprint, but I was proud not to come in last. 

We stayed in Olympia that night without much event or ado, got up early again and went to the Museum attached to the site on Saturday morning. The museum was fantastic, containing, very much intact, the friezes and pediments from the original temple of Zeus as well as some lovely roman sculptures, a great bronze collection and the famous statue of Hermes standing with the baby Dionysus on his arm (no picture because there were already quite enough in this post!) It was a lovely walk through and I would have liked more time there, but I guess I just have to go back later. 

After racing out of the museum around noon, we all grabbed our lunches in a little town called Nafpaktos on the way to Delphi. Nafpaktos, as far as I could tell is a town on the water that makes most of it's money trapping tourists with it's picturesque beach-front tavernas as they make their way toward Delphi. There is one main street and beyond that it gets a little run-down and shabby. There was also a creepy looking state-fair sort of attraction being set up, which did not help the general atmosphere. I was too busy thinking about Delphi to pay too much attention to the town, anyway.

We got to Delphi just in time to do a small portion of the site (which is so large that is divided into an upper and lower section anyway) and to have dinner before checking into the hotel.

The Tholos structure at Delphi. No one knows what this was used for either.

View overlooking the remains of two temples and a treasury, looking back on the Tholos.

I had a quick dinner that night and proceeded to walk around the town essentially on my own. The "towns" at these sites (with the huge exception of Sparta) all tend to be little tourist traps with hotels, shops and tavernas, and no real sign of the people who live there. Delphi, unfortunately, was no exception to this, but I did go into one store (and spent about an hour there) where the man running the shop was very surprised to find I knew a little Greek. He had the most lovely chess sets, which I would have gladly bought could I explain the 75€ to myself and figure out how to get one home, but we got to talking over the items (in Greek, whenever I could) and then about family life and what I was doing in Greece. He wanted to invite me to dinner, and was very sad that I had already eaten. I got to meet his precious daughter, Eirene (which means "Peace" at least in Ancient Greek), and we listened to Leonard Skynard and Johnny Cash in his shop together. His colleague also dropped by the store for a while and they explained their mission to find the Nymphs, Druids and Fairies on top of Mount Parnassos (the great mountain that Delphi is founded on top of), and showed me pictures of what I think were fireflies inside the caverns. It was fun to talk to them at least, and the colleague told me that I had a very positive aura and was no ordinary tourist. That made me feel good, even if it was a sales pitch, which I'm not sure of even now. 

Sunday morning was another early one, but with good reason. We had to complete the Delphi Museum and most of the site by about noon. The museum was fine, though nothing spectacular with a few exceptions of a Sphinx that stood about 8 ft tall, two very famous Kouros (young male nude) statues, and the friezes and pediments from around the temple of Apollo and the Athenian treasury. It was fun, but I'm glad for the sake of seeing the actual site that we only spent about an hour inside. 

Then there was Delphi.

For those who don't know, Delphi is the site of the most famous Oracles and Prophecies of the ancient world. People from all over Greece, the Byzantines, Italy, Egypt and as far as Asia and - I think - Gaul came to visit this Oracle for advice. It was said to be founded by Apollo himself, who was a god of prophecy among many other things, and a Pythia (a very special priestess) was chosen to sit on the tripod and receive Apollo's messages of the future. She would go into a trance (possibly induced by chemical vapors rumored to be on the site) and speak in tongues, which would then be translated by the surrounding priests into a prophecy in hexameter verse. Welcome to the ancient version of rock-paper-scissors. It also held athletic games similar in scale to the Olympic games every four years and was one of the best known sites of the Ancient world, often called the naval of the world in it's heyday.

First view going up the mountain. This site is immense!

Picture of the Athenian Treasury along the way up. This is a reconstruction, but from what I understand they had a fair bit left to work with while reconstructing the site.

The enormous altar of Apollo, with JK standing in for scale. It was less massive from the other side, but still looked more like a defensive wall than an altar.

 A special secret tunnel one level below the temple. No one really knows it's purpose (though it was probably something to do with the smoke or general mysticism of the Oracle). When we passed by there was no guard and no rope, so our professor encouraged us to go through which I did (twice). It was actually quite a mystical experience as, even though it is a short tunnel, the structure of it is such that there is a point with no light whatsoever. A priest/ess or messenger might feel truly connected to the god at such a moment, so we felt it might serve as a right of passage of sorts as well. The second time I went through, a guard very politely asked me to get out. I was disappointed, as the site still wasn't roped off, but I understand why they don't encourage people going through. 

 

The other entrance/exit of the tunnel. There is a third, but I don't seem to have snapped a shot of it. (I am told by a roommate that she got a picture of me exiting the tunnel, which I will steal from her in due time.) 

A small view of the site from within the tunnel. It's pretty cramped in there, but it's fun to crawl through. Reminds me of an ancient Discovery Zone or McD's Playplace of sorts. 

The immense temple of Apollo to go with his enormous altar. The ramp is still in just gorgeous condition.

Ariel view of the temple and its inner structure. This thing is so big. I cannot stress that enough. It's a fair minute-long walk to pass by it lengthwise.

The theater at Delphi, which is less impressive than that at Epidaurus, but still quite nice.

Some remaining column pieces at the far end of the site. We all got to explore on our own for about an hour between the lecture and time to leave. I was extremely grateful for that.

Looking along a drain pipe back towards the main site and JK, ES and LV from my group. Isn't the scenery overwhelming? It's hard to pay attention to the little ruins with the giant mountains sitting there.

Looking down on the Athenian treasury and surrounding ruins from the temple level.

We left Delphi around 12:30 and stopped for Lunch just a short while later in Arachova, which is another town which seems to make most of it's money from tourism. It did seem like more of a town existed that was readily available to tourists, however, which was a refreshing change, especially getting ready to come back to Athens, even for a little while, where tourism is only the norm in the summer.

Arachova from across a valley. We ended up picnicking, as we did for lunch most days.

We returned to Athens about 5:00pm (around 4 hours ago now) and I am very ready for bed. M, G and I are all going to Santorini tomorrow morning, and our boat leaves at 7:25, meaning we have to be at the port at 6:15, so we have to leave the apartment around 5:30 at the latest, so we have to be up by... by... early... *sigh*. I'd best go to bed now. I do not know at all whether or not our hotel/hostel will have internet, and may decide against bringing my computer entirely. We shall see. There will be pictures Friday at the latest.

I hope you all have enjoyed your virtual tour of the Peloponnese. Please gather all of your thoughts and exit the web-page carefully. Thank you again and Καληνύχτα!

A Full Day at the Museum

I overslept this morning by about 4 hours and thus completely missed the Acropolis morning shots I had been planning on. Just one more things for after the Peloponnese trip. So instead, I once again left the apartment a little before noon, camera in hand, and got on the bus, this time headed for the National Archaeological museum. Now I've been to this museum before, but I had only seen a portion of it (the Minoan and Mycenean galleries) and I didn't really know what to expect. Most of the museums around here have been very interesting but small - not because there isn't a lot of stuff, but just because there are so many museums that everything is pretty spread out around the city. This museum was an exception. It's not the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but it's by far the most organized, extensive and interesting museum I've seen so far. They also let you take pictures almost everywhere - and the one place they don't allow pics, they don't allow drawings either, so sketching was out. I took over 250 pictures, and my camera died before I finished the second floor. I need to go back and spend another full day, with a fully charged camera to try again. In the meantime, here are some images from today's adventure!

A display case of broken marble hands. I love the attention to detail on the part of the museum here. They could display these all in a line, or they could not display them at all, but they choose to make a composition not unlike a sketchbook here to draw people's eyes to the detail in every piece of the statues. I will say I have huge amounts of respect for every statue, even those of "lesser quality and complexity" after a single marble carving class!

A sphinx!

A very tall (about 7 feet with pediment) Kore (read: unknown female). I can finally show what I've been talking about in every sculpture post up to this point - the color! I really believe in the painted statues now and can see how it was supposed to look. A little red remains here and it makes the marble even more lovely.

 Detail of the feet and intricate garment of the Kore above.

Another, much smaller Kore. Here you can really see the paint left on the statue.

Same as above. I'm in so much awe over how much detail went into every tiny statue.

Zeus about to kick some mortal/immortal butt. This is an incredibly famous statue, and it was a bit of a shock to suddenly run into it unexpectedly. He stands over 7 feet, and then is on a plinth (museum patrons for scale), so you can see he's a bit imposing. One guy in the museum tried posing in front of him for a picture and the guard got really upset. It was really amusing, though, and I wish I'd been quick enough to take the picture myself before the guard started yelling.

Advancing Nike (victory) from a temple somewhere. I love how she leaps out further than her weight can support. When you walk around the statues, you can really feel the movement.

Best find of the day: an entire hall dedicated to Athena statues, including this miniature reproduction of the Athena Promachos (ready for battle Athena) that would have stood, covered in gold in the Parthenon. Much prettier than the drawings and tourist reproduction make her out to be. :-) This one is out of ivory like the original would have been.

This very odd statue of Athena is based off the east pediment on the Parthenon. I'm fond of the statue as it, but extremely confused by its inscription to Artemis... SS and I couldn't figure that out... 

I love the broken marble faces in the museums. They are so powerful in that they look alive at first glance and then they suddenly become unrecognizable and inhuman as you walk around them. They also look like modern art which continually blows my mind.

There were many lovely large scale grave steles (basically a giant, intricate family tombstone) but this was the most powerful for me. The woman on the right (seated) is an image of the deceased, and her infant son reaches out to her, struggling against its surrogate mother. Some things are truly universal.

Lovely large statue of Artemis. I love her loose, thrown together outfit and modern/awesome shoes.

Boy on horse. Giant. Awesome.

Go, go, Gryffindor! (Actually pediment topper from Temple to Asclepius - healer god).

Another grave stele. I love the emphasis on the hands grasping each other and the gesture of supplication towards the chin. Beautiful.

 A pair of bronze arms. Again, the museum's emphasis on composition in the littlest things. It's so helpful to draw the eye to detail.

A pair of posers who didn't get caught, providing both humor and scale reference to the hand of Zeus.

An example of ancient "meta" (a word which derives from Greek, after all!) This is a statue of Aphrodite who is leaning on (you guessed it) a statue of Aphrodite. Goddess of vanity, indeed!

Bronze torso of Octavius, I assume on a horse, originally. The plaque didn't say. But I like how his clothes flow out.

Sculpture of a sleeping Maenad (follower of Dionysus) surrounded by the busts of Roman rulers and one scale tourist.

I love this statue for many reasons (the elongated fingers that don't reappear in art until Goya, the way the metal folds under the out stretched arm, the too slender torso that elongated the figure, etc.) But the first thing I saw (and probably the first thing you saw, too) was the smashed in face. I'm so glad they didn't try to reconstruct it. It looks so much like a Picasso I have a little trouble believing that it's from the 3rd century AD or so. 

Downstairs by the cafe, a large mosaic of geometric patterns and probably Aphrodite. Also, a museum worker on break.

Back inside, on the second floor now, some ancient marionettes! They're only a few inches high and so cute!

this red figure pot looks like many others, and I don't really know what's going on in it, but there is something unusual. Some of the original gold leaf remains intact on the pot! How cool is that?! I can barely get that stuff to stay on my modern day paintbrush long enough to get it on canvas!

Lastly a depiction of Herakles (Hercules) destroying some priests who deserved it (I forget the details of the myth). I'd seen this pot before in pictures, but was amazed by it in person for its unusual completeness and a small detail you won't be able to see unless you zoom in. Herakles' hair is painted with raised, individual shining black paint. And it survives perfectly! I stared at that for a full minute trying to comprehend it. The technique is flawless and gorgeous!

After this, my camera died. So, expect more pictures, primarily and particularly of vases after the Peloponnese trip (which I should really start packing for eventually.) After coming back from the museum, I got a gyro for lunch/dinner and went to a screening of Rent that JK was hosting in the student center at CYA. Very fun, even if there weren't as many people as expected. More popcorn for the rest of us. :-P

Tomorrow is classes as usual, and then we leave for the Peloponnese Tuesday morning at far too early (8:00am). It will be worth it.

Kαληνύχτα!