Day Three
Wednesday, June 29th
Today was a really fun day. We started with a short bus tour with Irini. I did not know the influence Germany had on the city of Athens, let alone that the first king of Greece was from Germany. I have a lot of German blood in me, and I like seeing how much culture is shared and how power changes between European countries. Mainly, I like to see European countries conquer each other instead of screwing over African and Asian countries, but that’s another entry I don’t need to write right now. From there we saw the Olympic stadium and learned that the marathon race is still held from here every year. Hopefully the people who run it don’t die in the same style as the man who first ran it. I also learned that Atlanta, aka Coca Cola, stole the first hundred year anniversary in 1996 from Athens. I’m not a fan of Coca Cola or capitalism, so I’m on Greece’s team for this one.
During our driving tour I really enjoyed seeing the neighborhood for the extreme left/anarchists. I find Greek politics incredibly fascinating. I have always thought that if I lived in Greece, I would probably be an anarchist or at least align with them (I’m really only rebellious from the comfort of my couch or behind a computer screen, I could never vandalize the side of a building). The social aspects in Greece is very interesting; in these areas, the police aren’t welcome and there are lots of riots and graffiti, which clearly isn’t ideal, but shows the political unrest that is found here. Political unrest shows that people are unhappy, and I can’t wait to learn more about why the country is so divided.
Today our main thing was going to the Archeological Museum. I really enjoyed this because I got to see so much that I’ve seen in pictures or heard about in class. The excavation of Mycenae was interesting to learn more about and see in a museum, especially when it came to learning more about the people there. It was cool to see Agamemnon’s mask, even if it is culturally and historically impossible that it’s actually his. If the Trojan War happened it would have been in 1200 BC, but the mask was from 1600 BC. So, it wasn’t Agamemnon’s, which I’m okay with because I don’t like Agamemnon and I really like that mask, so he doesn’t get that mask. From Mycenae, they found nineteen bodies and beautiful, elegant jewelry and gold bees. The main thing that was discovered was that this society honored war and hunting. They also had these gold ornaments for babies, but they kinda just looked like golden aluminum foil to me and creeped me out. There was a cool lion hunt dagger I really liked. The Mycenaeans took over Crete in 1400 BC, which shows the age of this stuff. It is still hard to wrap my brain around just how old the things we are looking at are because they are so beautiful and it doesn’t seem like that age is possible for items that look like something that could be created today, and I hope I never lose that fascination and awe by human creation.
We saw a statue of either Zeus or Poseidon (it’s totally Zeus) that shows a new form of statues that are harsher than before. Most of what we have are marble statues, so bronze statues that survived are precious. There were a lot of bronze statues, they just didn’t survive. Marble, though, was less harsh and had more detail, so I’m glad it survived.
There are a lot of grave markers displayed- one that stands out is that of a woman depicted as holding a child. It meant she died in child labor, which clearly holds a ton of symbolism, but it was sorta just sad and that is all I could process.
Our last stop of the day was the Agora. I thought we were going to the Areopagus and we didn’t so I was bummed, but I guess I’ll get over it. In the Agora we saw entire temples that Romans moved to new places. We went and saw a temple for Ares and another for Hephaestus and Athena, which I found absolutely beautiful. The Agora museum was small but nice.
I got my nose double pierced last night and my nose was bloody and crusty all day and nobody was telling me (shout out to Jordan for thinking I knew and leaving me looking like a fool), but otherwise today was incredible. It was my last day with Megan and I’ll miss her! But I can’t wait for what is ahead.
