Owner: Musings from Ancient Greece URL:http://greekgeek13.livejournal.com/ Join Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 05:44:57 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Take a magical journey to ancient Greece! A mythology and classics major takes you to the sites and museums of Greece, sharing her photos and telling stories about the myths, history, gods and goddesses of the Greek world. Site statistics:Click here
Travel Diary: Delphi Wanderings 2007-09-10 01:34:14 The rest of the group headed off to lunch in a nearby town, but I'm never satisfied with the modern world when the ancient beckons. The museum closed at three. So I returned with one couple and gave them the best guided tour I could manage, lavishing love on familiar old sculptures and helping them pick out mythological scenes. "Ah, here's Hercules killing the lion!" and "here's Theseus offing some robber he met on the road to Athens," and "hey, look at this tiny Odysseus clinging to a sheep."Afterwards we took a taxi to the next town and had a late lunch of fried feta cheese(!) in a lovely rooftop cafe overlooking the valley, Greek music playing. I snapped a few photos of the stone village with its stairs, cheese shops...(Read on...)Also in this section:Delphi
Photo Gallery, with aheck of a lot of details aboutthe archaelogical site tuckedinto the photo descriptions Read more:Travel
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Travel Diary: Delphi Museum 2007-09-05 01:08:06 4th May 2005An early morning trek to the DelphiMuseum
on the hill below the site landed us in the mob of a French cruise ship moored in the Bay of Corinth at the mouth the valley below. However, the museum offered up its treasures as well as people: the Siphnean Treasury, an early classical building whose sculptures stand at the beginning of Greek art's golden agea giant Sphinx from Naxos, originally towering over the site on a great columnKleobis and Biton, whose myth I'll explain belowMany charming votives (small pieces of art offered to the gods)A fine kylix (flattened vase) decorated with an image of the god ApolloGold and ivory statues of Apollo and his sister Artemis, burned black in an ancient fireThe bronze Delphi charioteer (right), a famous example of the early classical styleYet another Antinoos (emperor Hadrian's late lamented lover), this one styled as a strapping bodybuilder(Read on...)Also in this section:Photo Gallery of the MuseumThe Myth of Kleobis and Read more:Travel
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Myth of the (ahem) Week: The History of the Golden Fleece 2007-09-03 17:27:07 Many people have heard of Jason's quest for the GoldenFleece
, but where did the Fleece come from?It all started (as so often in societies taught to fear and devalue women) with a wicked stepmother.(Read on...) Read more:History
Cafepress "It's All Greek to Me!" store revamped 2007-09-02 04:47:42 Whew. My Cafepress store has looked boring-basic-bland ugly ever since I started it a few years ago.Much like customizing a Livejournal template, tweaking Cafepress shops is not for the faint of heart. I kept wimping out. I have finally untangled the large pile of graphics, garments, and goodies into a neatly ordered collection, and created the best interface I can manage. It's not as nice as this one, but...Ahhh... MUCH better.Sorry for the delay on the Delphi chapter, but the Christmas rush is beginning. I really needed to spend some time on the business end of things enough to make it resemble a business. Read more:Greek
Commercial Break 2007-08-23 02:36:37 I finally got around to doing a few T-shirt/card/mug/gift designs for some of the male gods, twits that they are.Er, well, one of these isn't a twit. I like Asklepios.Anyway, there's a cute "Get Well Soon!" card with the Greek god of healing, and I finally broke down and made a Zeus design because I happened to get a good photograph of that Bronze Zeus Whose Proper Name I Can Never Remember.Here they be: For these and the rest of my ancient Greece photo art gifts, check out my It's All Greek To Me! online shop. Read more:Break
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Myth of the (ahem) Week: The Man Who Was Almost Too Clever to Die 2007-08-13 14:23:53 This is another edition of the rotating Mythology column on Ancient Greek Odyssey: A Traveller's Journal.Many people recognize the symbol of the man forever rolling a rock uphill, only to have it roll back down again. Sisyphos has become a symbol for futility. Do you how he got himself into this no-win situation?This week I'll tell you about a little-known trickster figure of Greek mythology.Zeus, up to his usual tricks, hauls off a young lady named Aigina to the island that later bears her name. Apparently Sisyphos witnessed the abduction, and when the girl's father goes looking for her, Sisyphos tells him that Zeus is the culprit.The father of the gods is none too pleased at having his latest affair outed, and he sends Thanatos (Death) to collect Sisyphos. But the trickster manages to capture Thanatos, and for a time no mortal can die. Perhaps because wars can't easily won without a tally of corpses, Ares eventually shows up to free Thanatos, who promptly nabs his Read more:Clever
, Almost
Travel Diary: Delphi, the Sanctuary of Athena 2007-08-13 01:45:56 Following the road and the old pilgrim's path in reverse, we come to the outflow of the Kastalian Spring, whose falls upslope are hidden by gnarled trees. Beside the modern road is an ancient walled enclosure with broken steps leading down to a pool where suppliants once bathed. It is studded with purple flowers, and acacias grow over it, covered in ivy. Beside us, a moss-bedded stone channel in the rock bears a swift-flowing freshet down to the pool. I risk a drink and wash my face in the cold mountain water.Athena
beckons us on. Farther along the road, on the opposite side from Apollo's sanctuary, we descend long dusty switchbacks in the afternoon sun. We soon wish were were back at the Kastalian Spring! We nearly give up, despite the ancient gray-green olives all around us promising that the goddess' sanctuary is near.(Read on...) Read more:Travel
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Delphi, Sanctuary of Apollo: First Impressions 2007-08-11 20:42:07 Mountains rise around us, blue in the haze, their sheer rock walls laced with waterfalls. At last, rounding the shoulder of Parnassos, we see the ruins of a little round temple to the left, far below on the olive-clad slope, which Anna our guide identifies as the Temple of Athena Pronaios. Just past it the road bends left sharply, following a fold in the mountainside; to the right through dark trees we see the sacred spring where pilgrims once purified themselves. Past that, the sanctuary of Apollo
mounts Parnassos' steep heights with grayish-pink columns peeping through dark cypress.(Read more...)Also in This Section:Maps of Delphi Read more:First
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Travel Diary: The Road to Delphi 2007-08-10 21:14:39 It's been a busy month: finishing my coursework for my PhD program, preparing for the dissertation, preparing for surgery! Nevertheless, I haven't been entirely idle. In addition to an in-depth webpage on Volcanoes, I have gotten back to Greece. Next up, Delphi
! So far the page is just getting started, but I've gotten the first two sections written. Preview: "Know Thyself" was inscribed over the entrance to the famous temple at Delphi. According to Dr. Christine Downing, this is not a call to Jungian self-analysis, but a reminder that we are mortal.Delphi's god is Apollo, Pythian Apollo, "Apollo who shoots from afar" or "the god that comes from afar." He is not really the sun god -- that's Helios -- although in later times the distinction between them became blurred. Rather, he is the god of "clarity, consciousness, clear boundaries, distinguishing things, and day."Temples to Apollo arise on sites once sacred to Gaia, Mother Earth. These are human-built struct Read more:Travel
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Travel Diary and Lecture Notes: Eleusis! 2007-07-14 19:04:29 The freeway follows the route of the old Sacred Way to Eleusis, fourteen miles through refineries, quarries, and a run-down factory town surrounding the ancient sanctuary. It is so small to have held something to great, even with the added fountains (long gone), stone courtyard, walls and gates added by the Romans.Outside the gates, the foundations of a temple of Artemis and Poseidon -- strange bedfellows! -- remind me of Chris' words that the cults did not always follow the familiar patterns of myth. Poppies, verbena, and little yellow flowers sprout in profusion between cut stones and spill out into a meadow that Persephone no doubt appreciates.(Read on...)Also in this Section:Lecture notes on the Myths of Demeter and PersephoneRe-telling of the Demeter/Persephone myth (slightly revised)Recommended links on EleusisPhoto galleryLecture notes on the Eleusinian Mysteries and Thesmophoria Read more:Travel
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Ancient Greece Odyssey: Spit and Polish 2007-07-12 03:17:11 As you can probably tell, my recent graduate studies have kept me a little busy. Also, I have been working a little on new designs for my It's All Greek To Me! Gift Shop. Here's one of the new designs: However, I just received an exciting nudge to help me get back on track. Seth Goldin, the CEO of Squidoo and a fairly widely-known expert on web marketing and the internet in general, mentioned AncientGreeceOdyssey
in his blog yesterday! Keenly aware that I was liable to get some surprise visitors, I scurried around tightening up prose, adjusting graphics, clarifying links and changing the towels in the bathroom.I meant to get to work on the next section, Eleusis, and in fact I have been working on that section, but I'm finding it tricky to balance wanting to share the wonderful stories and information from Chris Downing's lectures with NOT wanting to post the text of her lectures word-for-word, since that's her work not mine.Stay tuned! Read more:Polish
Myth of the Week: Phaethon and the Chariot of the Sun 2007-06-26 23:14:27 Phaethon was the son of Helios the sun-god and the ocean-goddess Klymene. (Apollo is said by some to be the sun-god, but originally, he was the god of reason, clear thinking, prophecy, clarity, and light, not simply the physical orb of the sun). Now Phaethon was raised as the foster-son of Merops the King of Ethiopia, and one day his best friend Epaphus the son of the King of Egypt began to taunt him about his parentage."Son of Helios?" the other boy said. "A likely story. Your mother is ashamed to admit her liaison with some commoner, and so she claims a lofty lover who's too far away to deny it."Phaethon was much distressed by his friend's taunts. He went to his mother asking after his father, although she had told him before. "Helios," she promised him. "I swear by the River Styx, the dread river of the underworld on which the gods of Olympus themselves swear binding oaths. Your father is Helios. If you doubt me, you can go to him yourself, for his halls are to the east no Read more:Chariot
Myth of the Week: Danae, Perseus and Medusa 2007-06-25 19:12:42 Every culture has to grapple with "Why do bad things happen to good people?" The ancient Greeks thought there was an inhuman, impassive, terrible force called Fate, which not even gods could escape. Nevertheless, many Greek myths talk about what happens when people try to avoid their destiny.Danae and PerseusKing Akrisios had a daughter of surpassing beauty, Danae, but no son. Eventually he sent a messenger to the Oracle at Delphi to ask what hope he had for an heir. He received a grim prophecy in answer: he would have no son, but his grandson would kill him.Then Akrisios selfishly locked his daughter in a bronze-walled chamber beneath his house. He commanded servants to feed and care for her, but refused to let her out. How many daughters have felt walled in by a father's fears? But walls couldn't stop Zeus, the promiscuous father of the gods. Smitten by her beauty, Zeus slipped through a high window in a shower of golden rain and seduced her.Zeus never stuck around after su
Travel Diary, Third Day in Athens (Theater of Dionysos) 2007-06-25 18:49:02 Heads full of famous art, we were bussed back to the hotel for a late lunch. But food could wait -- Athens' archaelogical sites and museums closed at 2:30! I had seen something tucked against the lower slopes of the Acropolis that I did not want to miss.(Read on...) Read more:Travel
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Excerpt: Third Day in Athens (National Museum Cont'd) 2007-06-25 18:40:50 Next were the classical and Hellenistic art galleries, and I could have spent days here. A few samples of its fine collection:Bronze Zeus of Artemesion(Taking aim with a thunderbolt)Classical Period, c. 460 BCEThis imposing statue, like most bronze sculptures, was recovered from a shipwreck in the Mediterranean. Bronzes are very rare, since metal is usually melted down and recycled. Many marble sculptures are in fact copies, often by later Roman artists. Added treestumps and supports are usually a telltale giveaway of a copy.(Read on...)Also in This Section:Photo gallery of classical and Hellenistic Greek sculptureGifts featuring images of Greek art Read more:National
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Myth of the Week: Philemon and Baucis 2007-06-25 18:33:14 They say that Zeus and Hermes sometimes travel on Earth in mortal guise, Zeus feigning to be an old bearded beggar, and Hermes his youthful companion.Long ago on one such outing, the Thunderer and the Trickster came to a wealthy town at the bottom of a valley with verdant olive orchards and vineyards ringing the hills around. But this abundance was not offered to strangers. Children threw rocks at them. Doors slammed in their faces. Dogs chased them out of town again. Sorely vexed at this violation of xenia, the ancient tradition of hospitality, Zeus was minded to level the whole settlement with a well-aimed thunderbolt.Then sharp-eyed Hermes noticed a poor little hut on the hill above the valley, and suggested they make one more trial of the locals' hearts. So they climbed a winding goat-path and found warm welcome at the door. The elderly couple, Philemon and Baucis, had very little, but offered the best they had: goat cheese, well water, and a savory stew of garden herbs and go
Excerpt: Third Day in Athens (National Museum) 2007-06-25 18:27:48 After a quick bus tour of the city, past the Corinthian temple of Zeus, Hadrian's Arch, and the stadium of the first modern Olympics, we arrived at the NationalMuseum
, Athens' largest collection of ancient art.The rooms are arranged in chronological order, and contain a hit parade of art history students' "must know" artifacts.The first room covers the Mycenaean period, remembered centuries later by the classical Greeks in myths, cults, and Homeric epic. The Mycenaean period for them was like the age of King Arthur for us, a time of great kings and legendary warriors like Achilles.(Read on...)Also in This Section:Photo Galleries of Greek art (Mycenaean, archaic)Recommended Links on phases of Greek art (art history) Read more:Third Day
Excerpt: Third Day in Athens (Acropolis Cont'd) 2007-06-25 18:21:47 Finally, we were given all of 15 minutes to explore the Acropolis on our own before racing back down the hill to meet the bus. I do not recall now how I managed to do as much as I did in that brief amount of time![...]At the west end of the Erechtheion I found Athena's sacred olive (said to be sprung from the original tree).(Read on...)Also in This Section:Recommended links on Erechtheion TempleRecommended books on Greek art and archaeologyGifts featuring photos of Acropolis monuments Read more:Third Day
Excerpt: Third Day in Athens (Acropolis Museum) 2007-06-25 18:05:40 We moved to the small Acropolis Museum
, half-buried in the hill just east of the Parthenon.Now I'm going to get a little dry and dusty, and teach you some art history! It will help you notice more when you look at Greek art.The Acropolis Museum is full of Archaic (pre-Classical) sculpture, figures with enigmatic smiles, almond-shaped eyes and hair like Egyptian wigs...(Read on...)Also in This Section:Recommended links on Greek art and sculptureGifts featuring Greek art Read more:Third Day
Excerpt: Third Day in Athens (Acropolis) 2007-06-25 17:44:07 Our first day with the rest of the tour group!A bus whisks us to the foot of the Acropolis around 9:30, saving another long hike. We have our exercise, however, making a rapid forced march up the winding Greek path and Roman steps to the Propylaia.From there the city stretches out below, with another fine view of the Temple of Hephaistos and Agora and the modern city beyond. We don't dilly-dally, passing the empty cage of white scaffolding (carefully painted to match the local marble) indicating the ghost of the Nike Temple above us on our right, the columns of the north wing of the Propylaia that housed paintings in antiquity on our left (see photo). Then we pass through the Propylaia itself and catch our first glimpse of the Parthenon...(Read on...)Also in This Section:My Parthenon and Erechtheion Photo GalleryRecommended Links on Acropolis and/or Parthenon Read more:Third Day
Slideshow of My Greece Photos 2007-06-25 17:36:58 So that's the end of Ancient Greece
Odyssey Part I. I finished off the page with a slideshow of some of my better photos:Ancient Greece Odyssey Part II picks up with my visit to the Acropolis, the Parthenon, and two of Athens' best museums. Read more:Slideshow
Lecture Excerpt: Chris Downing on Athena and Athens 2007-06-25 17:29:40 The Acropolis is Athena
's, but also shared. Most of the restored Acropolis is hers, but there were also altars, statues, shrines, temples to Pytho (Persuasion), Artemis, and Poseidon.(Read on...)Also in This Section:Recommended Links: Persian Wars, Parthenon websitesOnline shopping: Images of Athena Read more:Chris
, Downing
Lecture Excerpt: Chris Downing on Greek Religion 2007-06-25 17:24:14 Most evenings, Dr. Chris
tine Downing
would give a talk related to the next day's itinerary. These are my notes from her lecture.Greek
religion began with rituals -- of purification, of protection, etc. It was animist.Jane Ellen Harrison said: in the beginning, there were no gods and goddesses.There were ghosts, angry spirits with humanlike will. There were nymphs, daimones (spirits) in every rock and stream. They were sources of fertility, disease, death, the weather.Human's relationship to them consisted of fear, awe, gratitude.Even later in antiquity the rituals were to prevent/dispel disease, plague, drought, famine, etc. Many spirits were of those killed in battle or unburied. The Furies -- the Erinyes (female spirits of vengeance) -- were fearful and baleful.(Read on...)Also in This Section:Recommended Links: Greece timeline, good websites on Greek religionRecommended Books on Greek mythology and religion Read more:Religion
Excerpt: Second Day Wandering Athens (Agora, City) 2007-06-25 17:09:00 Panorama of Agora and Athens from Areopagus HillTemple of Hephaistos, left; Stoa of Attalos, RightDistant left: Marble Quarry for Parthenon, still in useDescending the heights, we cut through the edge of the Agora, where a few ruins were still open to visitors, including the foundations of a temple to Hekate. There I got my first taste of what was to become a familiar sight of which I never tired: red, red poppies overrunning the old stones, wild barley grasses rustling in the wind.(Read on...)Also in This Section:Book Recommendation for Greek Mythology Read more:Second
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Excerpt: Second Day Wandering Athens (Acropolis, Agora) 2007-06-25 17:02:52 On Sunday we slept in, then set out from the Central Hotel to see what the city might show us. Squares were filled with people breaking their Easter fast on roast lamb spitted over open coals just as Homer described. There was music and dancing everywhere.(Read on...)Also in This Section:Glimpses of Agora and AcropolisCustom gifts with photos of Greek temples! Read more:Second
, Wandering
Myth of the Month: The Trojan War, a Quick Sketch 2007-10-01 20:02:14 Wee update... I'm healing from surgery, yay!We've all heard of the Trojan
War -- but why were all the Greeks over there fighting Trojans, anyway? What was in it for them... well, besides fame, booty, captive slave girls, and generally running amock without the missus around to nag?(Read on...) Read more:Month
, Quick
Mythology Blog: MYTHPRINT (for now) 2008-02-29 00:06:20 So, what have I been doing (besides getting ready to buy a home)?Well, the Myth of the, ahem, week column never worked quite right on the front page of Ancient Greece Odyssey. Let's own up -- I was trying to get refreshing content to bring visitors back to that page, because it helps keeps its Google search rank up. So I was changing that section. But it interrupted the flow of my travel narrative. Also, the 2500 character limit was a bit short for telling some myths. So I've decided instead to create a separate mythology blog, and just have the RSS feed on my Greece Odyssey lenses. This means digging up all my old "Myth of the Week" columns and rewriting, reposting them, before proceeding onward with Mr. Herakles. I'm almost there.Along the way I've included a few new non-Greek myths -- H Read more:Mythology
Travel Diary: Mycenae (Treasury of Atreus) 2008-02-04 08:13:30 The Lion Gate of MycenaeThen the goddess the ox-eyed lady Hera answered:"Of all cities there are three that are dearest to my own heart:Argos and Sparta and Mykenai of the wide ways."Iliad 4.50-52, Lattimore translationIn Ancient Greece Odyssey Part II, I showed you the treasures Heinrich Schliemann found there, which now reside in the Athens National Museum. Now let me show you where they came from. Excerpt from my travel diary:"Today we pay our respects to the stern bastion of Mycenae, a short drive inland from the bay of Nafplion. We head into the surrounding farm country fenced by low hills, punctuated with knobby outcroppings. Orange groves scent the air just outside the city outskirts. As always, the profusion of flowers on banks and meadows is breathtaking, spilling into groves of d Read more:Travel
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Answers to Common Questions about Ancient Greece and Mythology 2008-02-03 21:12:50 Squidoo, the odd service I use to host AncientGreece
Odyssey, has a tool that tracks what phrases people have Googled to find a lens.I noticed a lot of fact-finding queries like "ancient Greece timeline" and "pictures of Greek gods and goddesses." After a while, it became clear a lot of students were dropping by looking for Cliff Notes answers. I've got a ton of information embedded in my travel diary, but it's not organized as a quick reference; it's a story, an journey. Some people need "just the facts, ma'am."I don't want to do students' homework for them, but I've prepared mini-answers to their top questions and provided links to more in-depth sites on those topics.Here's the FAQ page: Ancient Greece Odyssey: Answers to Common
QuestionsCovered so far: Timeline of Ancient Greece | Char Read more:Mythology
Myth of the Month: Herakles and the Hydra 2008-01-29 05:35:26 Last month I told you about the first of Herakles' twelve labors, slaying the fearsome Nemean Lion.It's time for labor number two! As I mentioned before, Herakles' labors are mostly exterminator jobs, and this one is no exception. Herakles was called in to save the town of Lerna (somewhere near Sparta, I believe) from the many-headed serpent called the Hydra
.Some versions of the tale say Hera had sent the monster in yet another attempt to off her bastard stepson. However, her tests of his skill always increase his fame, his kleos, as his name hints: he is the Glory of Hera! I've always wondered if some preclassical versions of the Herakles myth had Hera more closely tied with him, and that something happened about the same time that Zeus temples were built on top of the foundations of olde Read more:Month
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