PapaMarshall

Day 6 – 1/17/2020 – On to Athens

Up (early), Suitcases down to the lobby by 6:30, quick breakfast, on the bus by 7:00, off to the airport. The flight to Athens was a short hop so by 9:30 we were back on a bus and headed to the National Archaeological Museum.

The students had a “scavenger hunt” assignment which we were free to join. We didn’t. We wandered thru the place marveling at the extraordinary materials on display and taking the odd picture or two. Here are a few.

If I haven’t confessed before, one of the things I do is take photos of goddess and funerary figurines. It’s interesting to see how these representations are similar (or different) across time and culture. This one is carved from marble, from the island of Melos and dated between 2300 and 2000 BC
These are clay and stone from Mycenae and date to 1500-1200 BC.

I’ll spare you the rest of the 200 odd photos I took of these types of figures. But here are a few other significant finds:

What’s a Grecian earn? This one’s from the “geometric period” (900-700 BC)
Hippopotamus from Egypt ~4000 BC
Bronze statue of either Zeus or Poseidon (I’m guessing Poseidon) from 4th century BC
The Jockey of Artemision , Bronze, 150-140 BC
Arrowheds from the Battle of Thermopile. (You may remember this battle from the movie “The 300.”)
Exceptionally preserved statue of Venus from 3rd Century BC
Black Figure vase 540-520 BC
Solid gold death mask, Mycenae, 16th c BC (probably not the mask of Agamemnon in spite of what you may have heard)
Gold covering for body and face of an infant, Mycenae, 16th c BC
Complex vessel with receptacles for multiple ritual offerings, Kernos, 2300-2000 BC
Funerary relief slab showing two Amazons fighting a Greek warrior, mid 4th c BC
Bronze statue of a youth, from the Antikythera shipwreck, 340-330 BC
Bronze head of a boxer, Olympia, 330-320 BC
Theatre mask found in Athens, marble, 2nd c BC
Fragment of a bronze sword
The hilt and shoulder are made of gold filigree with cloisonné and lapis lazuli inlay (sort I didn’t get the date, but it’s very early Iron Age)
Red figure Kylix, Attica, ~460 BC

Eventually museum fatigue took over and it was time to meet the students to head for our hotel. We got checked in and slept.

After our naps we headed out to do a bit of exploring and ran into others from the Geezer class. This turned into a group exploring experience, complete with an experience of part of a Greek Orthodox service at the huge church down the street.

After diner we wandered farther, starting with our attempt to find the best vantage point to photograph the Acropolis (they’re big on lighting it up at night).

We also ran into the ruins of the Roman Forum
And some other ruin that we’ll probably learn more about in the next couple of days.
We also saw several very small churches that the city has built up around. This one is in the middle of a pedestrian plaza. It looks like all are still in use. One even had a service going on as we passed.
In our wandering we passed a fish pedicure place (10 euros for 20 minutes) – ”a place where the fish eat you.”

Tomorrow we explore the Acropolis. I understand that it starts with us hiking up there. Interesting.

Nite all,

R

5 Comments

  2. Blessings, geezers! may you sleep well and deep and have strong legs tomorrow. What a great experience for all of you! (Please tell Josh, “Hi!” from Billie of the Museum)

  3. Todd and I tried out the “fish foot ticklers” in Elat, Israel. We were in a dual tank. The fish all left Todd’s side because the dining was better on mine. Lol
    We are enjoying your pictures.
    Candis

    1. You’ve obviously got the sweeter feet. I look at those tanks and think ‘tickle torture.’

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