Wow! We visited the Acropolis (the mountain where the Parthenon and other incredible monuments are) today with the Monuments of Greece class today: INCREDIBLE! I'm not going to lie when I say the museum kind of bored me a bit. I think I would have had a better time if we weren't being dragged to different places and could have seen things on our own. However, the treacherous climb to the Acropolis was totally worth the slight sunburn on my neck and exhaustion I am suffering from. Words can't even begin to express the feeling I got when I stood in front of the Parthenon, a famous Christian temple. People were pushing past me -it was a hectic tourist day apparently- but all I could do was stare at it. The teacher had lost me by that point anyway. This is my culture! I am so proud to be Greek; I should probably tell my dad that one. The Temple of Athena -the goddess of wisdom- is spectacular. There's a spot missing from the marble slabs where vegetation is growing. Apparently, Zeus striked (spelling??) the ground with his trident against Athena and that's why nothing is there. How cool is that?!?! We also saw the auditorium of the Theatre of Dionysos. It could hold up to 15,000 spectators! Wow! I can't wait until my theatre class goes there and we get to stand in the same spots ancient actors did! Anyway, sorry for not writing more, but I am sweaty and disgusting from hiking today. Time to wash my laundry and take a shower! I miss everyone...so so much.
Christian temple? Didn't the parthenon have statues of Greek gods?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the climb like? It seems like a lot of rocks on that hill.
maybe i'm wrong..i should probably check on that...they're tons of rocks, but none that you climb over
ReplyDeleteCouple corrections there, Aleka. The Parthenon was originally a temple dedicated to Athena. (After all, the Parthenon was built in the 5th century BC, before Jesus was born on earth, so it can't have originally been a Christian temple.) It's probably called the Parthenon because Athena was the virgin goddess, and the Greek word for virgin at the time was "parthenos". Michael did mention that it was later co-opted by Christians and Muslims as a church and a mosque, respectively. In the sixth century AD, Christians dedicated the Parthenon to (who else?) the Virgin Mary, while it became a mosque in the fifteenth century only a decade or so after Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as to the vegetation-filled hole, it was Poseidon's trident, not Zeus'. The myth had Athena and Poseidon competing to be the patron deity of the new city, and each got to offer a gift for the city. Athena offered the olive tree, which turned out to be very useful; Poseidon offered a spring of water, but it turned out to be salt water like the ocean, so the city picked Athena. On my blog (http://jb-fidei-defensor.xanga.com), when I get around to narrating that day, I'll probably quote a few of the original sources for that myth, so you should check it out then.
And thank you for reminding all of us that you're sweaty and disgusting.
haha thank you JB. i had an extremely hard time following what Michael was saying =)
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