Yes, I know that my two loyal blog followers have been
wondering where I’ve been!!
Friday afternoon we went to the National Museum, which is in
a not so great part of town (picture the MET being located in the worst area of
NYC). There we learned about prehistoric
art and saw some really great work. A
good deal of the work in this museum is the type of stuff you find in textbooks
and now I get to say that I saw the real deal!
Mask of Agamemnon (read the Iliad by Homer)
Saturday morning consisted of going to the National Museum
and learning about sculpture….
The picture of this usually shows a trident in the left hand.
Angle wise he'd be stabbing himself in the head. It was probably
thunderbolts.
In the
afternoon we headed to the Acropolis Museum that opened the summer after the
last time I was there. We got a great tour
(by one of the top professionals in the field) of the pieces of art and architecture
there, including the frieze along the top of the Parthenon. The museum is really great and anyone who has
the chance to come to Athens should definitely check it out.
Sunday… Sunday was Canada Day. In the morning we did a walking tour of the Olympeion (to the right) and learned about the history of the structure.
We also encountered a huge dust storm, which did wonders for my just
washed hair. Then we went to the Tower
of Winds. It had a water clock on the
inside that kept pretty accurate time (it’s not there anymore) and the bronze
vain pointed to the god that represented that direction of wind.
Next we headed to see the remains of Hadrian’s library
(Hadrian was a Roman emperor, he liked to build things, end of story). In the afternoon we learned about how the
modern day layout of Greece came to be and then we walked around Athens and
looked at the various places of worship that had been built in the area to meet
the ever-changing religious demands of the population.
Monday we marched on up to the top of the Acropolis and had
the chance to go behind the “velvet rope” and learned about how the Propylaia
(entrance to the Acropolis) was constructed. The former head of restoration for the project lead us around and told
us about the history of the structure.
He also showed us how they used tools to match the cut of the old marble
in order to restore broken pieces.
In the afternoon we headed back to the National Museum and
may have gotten a tiny bit lost in the not so great neighborhood… but we made
it!! At the museum we learned about
Classical and Hellenistic sculpture and stelai. We also learned about the process for making bronze statues. I spent the evening in the library…
Love this bronze sculpture!!!
Tuesday!! We headed
out to Eleusis and along the way we saw the remains of a Temple to Aphrodite
and an old roman bridge. Eleusis was
along the “sacred way” and some scholars believe that this is where Demeter
headed when she was searching for Persephone (kids, I read this story to you in
seminar second semester).
After that we
headed to two fortification sites:
Eleutherai and Aigosthaina. Both
fortifications still have a great deal of their walls left and so we had the
chance to climb around those and to truly appreciate the magnificence of the
structures.
Climbing on a fortification wall over 2,000 years old...
In between these two sites
we went to Plataea, where a battle was fought between the Persians and Greeks
after the Greeks had defeated the Persians at Salamis. I’m including a picture of the area because
it was amazing to try and picture the huge Persian army moving across the
land. We also had lunch on a hillside
outside of a church (true story).
To the left you see a small hill. The Greek army hid
behind there to surprise the Persians.
Finally, beach time!!
However the water was freezing!!!
Off to bed now. Early day
tomorrow at the agora and then to the pool to celebrate the 4th!! I hope everyone enjoys their holiday!
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