A “Traveler’s” Report

We travelers think alike. As I read Christa Wolf’s 1^st essay, in the form of a travel report, from “Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays”, I can’t help but identify with Wolf’s insights as she explores Greece as well as her journey.

This month, I too have been a traveler. I have traveled through western Turkey and am, at this very moment, wandering north through Greece from Athens to Thessaloniki. After reading Aeschyles’s Oresteia, Wolf becomes fascinated with the character of Cassandra, Apollo’s priestess during the time of the Trojan War. Not only does Wolf become curious about Cassandra’s character, but she also seeks to learn about Trojan and Greek society, the nature of the Trojan War, and the practices of ancient spirituality and religion through Cassandra’s eyes. With this narrow focus, Wolf travels to Greece and develops her own unique method of examining culture and ancient sites. Like Dr. Rhodes in his approach to examining ancient architecture at Corinth, Wolf takes a very empirical, inductive method. Through observations, she generates in her own mind questions about the culture and the people, formulates themes and hypothesis’s and then through the rest of her trip, attempts to test the validity of those hypothesis’s.

In the same way, I came to Turkey and Greece with a purpose of learning about the rich religious and cultural histories of these countries and also applying it to my understanding and appreciation of my own religion and culture, and its history. Through previous literature and classes (especially the BIC), I have developed my own focuses, just as Wolf did with Cassandra. Then, actually coming to these countries and observing the people and the sites, I have been able to develop my own style of analyzing history, similar to that of Dr. Rhodes and Wolf. Because of this, there arises in Wolf’s Travel Report many observations that I identify with and that you, if you have ever traveled (better if you’ve been to Greece), might also appreciate. So, I will leave you with some quotations of her observations, questions and themes that she generated from them:

“Did Homer and the others who handed down the cycle of legends about Troy suspect that in following the myth they were helping to conceal the actual facts?” (155). What separates story truth from happening truth? How do we determine what actually happened in history? What is truth? How do we find it? How do we separate truth from lie and half-truth?

“Not only victors but victims, too, climbed up to the Acropolis. Man and beast, they took turns on the altars of the temples which stand superimposed or side by side…It was the same with the gods: the earlier god, the earlier goddess were always sacrificed to the later.” (158).

“Something more powerful than grief has engraved itself in these beautiful cheeks [of the korai maiden statues]: acid rain, polluted air…I understand the overcrowded, hurrying, homicidal, money-chasing city that pumps out smoke and exhaust fumes, trying to catch up in a few years with what some of its Western sisters took more than a century to achieve. I understand: You, the need of the present-day city, were not compatible with the need of the stone maidens with their serene, proud bearing, who supported, for more than two thousand years, the canopy over the grave of the snake-king Cecrops, founder of Athens…Was there, is there, and alternative to this barbarism [of the modern age]?” (159). What does it mean to respect history? How do we live in the present and prepare for the future, without destroying the past? Is there a “right” way to preserve historic objects? In what way do the needs of tourists and the needs of a city contribute to the destruction of history?

“The dignity of eating, in countries where you cannot take it for granted that everyone will be able to eat his fill every day; where avarice has not yet been able completely to suppress the gesture of hospitality, which, even if it has a price, meets with a ready welcome.” (161).

“We foreigners are all the more dependent on it because here we have no command of words, are incapable of deciphering even the signs outside the shops, must rely on pictures, smells…The fact that I lack words here: doesn’t this mean that I am losing myself? How quickly does lack of speech turn into lack of identity.” (161) To what extent to language define us?

“The mere fact that I do not know the language gives me an inkling of the possible terrors of exile. When did it begin, this unfortunate habit of trying out foreign cities to see how it would feel to live there? The question is, When did the feeling of having a homeland disappear?” (162). Where is home? What does it take to accepted or alienated from a foreign society? Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish novelist (Istanbul: Memories and the City and My Names is Red) lived in Istanbul his whole life and even now lives in the same house that he grew up in. Despite all its flaws, he stayed there because it was home to him.

“The old curses seem to have lost their effect; almost suffocating in the tainted air of the overcrowded buses, fatigued, dripping with sweat, we are incapable of wishing for anything but that it be over.” (163). There have been many instances on this trip where external factors, tiredness, stress with homework, hunger and body temperature, have kept us from fully enjoying and experiencing the sites that we visited.

“So there is a man named Antonis to go with the voice on the telephone, who thinks of everything for us, arranges everything, takes care of everything. Who knows everyone here and spends his days telephoning a dozen people on our behalf.” (165). I include this quotation, because it reminds me of our tour guide Cenk who did indeed to everything for us. Have you ever had a team leader or tour guide that took care of all the details so that you could enjoy the trip?

“Before and after the tourist season he [the old man who is sitting in a shack at the entrance of the ancient Amphiareion] sits here for weeks without seeing a single person, we are told. What is he guarding? A tract of antique ruins, overgrown with greenery, surrounded by a wire fence and almost all far too heavy to be stolen…Maybe the spirit of place has molded him.” We saw these people at every site, the ones who sell and take tickets.

Temple Rituals

At Delphi, there were many religious rituals that were performed in accordance with the cult of Apollo. Before entering the holy area, every person had to be purified. Some people, such as criminals, the dying and pregnant women, were not even allowed into the holy area and instead had to wait outside the wall that separated the sacred from profane space. Because they shared the same religion and gods, even rival city-states wouldn’t violate the sacred spaces and objects of their adversaries. Visitors after purchasing or bringing an offering for Apollo, they could pose a question to be answered by the oracle. Finally, they interpreted the mumble of ambiguous words and phrases of the prophetess in the temple.

In the same way as the ancient Greeks, many other religions, including Islam, Buddhism and Catholicism, require a ritual cleansing or purification before entering holy space. However, Protestant Christians don’t have this. I believe that no matter how much I wash, I cannot be clean and no matter how hard I work, I cannot purify myself. I understand that God welcomes me into his presence and even though I am a filthy sinner, God sees me as clean because of the work of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection. However, one commonality between the ancient Greeks and the Jewish tradition is that people that are unclean may not enter the temple area. For example, lepers and other diseased individuals were not allowed in the Jewish temple in the Bible. Another thing that I wondered as we wandered Delphi was whether Christians have exhibited the same amiability toward sacred Christian spaces and objects, as Greek city-states did with other Greek city-states. The only example I can think of is possibly a war between two Christian nations and both countries avoiding the bombing or attack of areas around churches. However, any religious wars between Christians have been fought over opposing Christian doctrine, such as Catholics against Protestants, Lutherans versus Calvinists or Catholics and Orthodox. So, I really can’t think of an example to support or refute this. However, I would like to think that Christians would respect the sacred spaces of one another enough to avoid destroying them during a war.

However, this begs another question. Because Protestants believe in the priesthood of the believers and that the Church is not necessarily a building and is instead inside the believer, what is sacred space to the Protestant Christian? What’s more important? Is it within the walls of a church building or within the Christ-following person? That is a blog for another day…

Mycenae, Delphi & Prophecy

The Trojan War pitted the Trojans against the Mycenaeans. Today we visit Delphi, which has significance for both camps. Originally, Delphi housed the temple of Mother Earth, which was the god of the Mycenaeans. Mythologically, Apollo established his own temple and oracle in Delphi and thus started the cult of Apollo in Delphi around the 8^th century before Christ.

A couple days ago, we had visited the ancient site of Mycenae where we saw the chamber tomb of Agamemnon,—king of Mycenae– a large cone-topped stone building built into the hillside with a massive door that had a triangular space above it. During traditional burial, the Mycenaeans would put valuable objects and offerings inside. In Christa Wolf’s book, “Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays”, Agamemnon becomes “the last in the series of men who have done her [Cassandra] violence” (150). Eventually he is killed by his wife Clytemnestra when he returns from war. Furthermore, we saw the Lion Gate in the wall of the city which Cassandra observes as she approaches the city as a slave of war. The book both begins and ends with these stone lions which seem to be watching her.

Delphi is traditionally known as the site of the ancient Pithian oracle of Apollo, which is referred to in so much of Greek mythology. The oracle was not only a prophecy, but it was a place. In the Apollo Temple, the priestesses would go and give prophecies to the people about once a month. People entering Delphi would pass through the entrance into the marketplace where thy might buy an offering to Apollo. Both individual citizens and city-states would make these offerings.  In general, even opposing city-states would be respectful of one another’s sacred space and objects because they all worshipped the same gods. In the Trojan War from Cassandra’s perspective though, Achilles of the Mycenaeans does desecrate the Apollo Temple in Troy by killing and raping people inside it. Before prophesying, the Pithia or priestess of Apollo would fast for days and then would enter the temple where she got drugged. Her prophecies would come out as broken words, shouts and ambiguous phrases which visitors had to interpret for themselves. This however does reflect the influence of women priestesses on all types of men throughout Greece.

In the context of the Trojan War, Cassandra would agree that people interpreted the oracles as they wanted. At one point she clearly states that the oracle was “made to order” by the royal family. Cassandra’s role in Troy seems to mirror the Pithia’s role in Delphi. Although it is not clear whether Cassandra gave oracles or official prophecies, it is certain, from the novel, that Cassandra has the gift of prophecy. However, she does not yield as much influence over men because Apollo has made it so that nobody believes her prophecies. Nevertheless, it is because of this role as prophetess of Apollo that makes Cassandra’s perspective of the Trojan War so interesting.

Peace

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” ~ Philippians 4:6-7

As I was reading through my book for the Capstone course, “Cassandra: a Novel and four Essays”, I came across a passage in which Cassandra describes how Troy is slowly unraveling to its demise. Her own people don’t heed her advice and she believes that the Trojans have planned their own defeat. Furthermore, she repeats themes about the oppression of women by men and the related slave trade that inevitably results from war. In the midst of all this she asserts: “Solace was what I needed. Peace that was not the peace of the grave. Living peace. Love’s peace” (123). This is not a peace that can come with dying. This is not a peace that can come from knowing the future, because she is Apollo’s prophetess. This is not a peace that comes from the oracles of the gods, because even she admits that the oracles are “made to order” by the royal family (89). So, where might Cassandra have gotten this peace. Well, in the passage she mentions “Love’s peace.” The Christian God which is referred to in Philippians 4:6-7, is often called Love in the Bible. And it is His peace which is unfathomable for the human mind and fills the heart and the mind. If Cassandra needed peace, what she needed was Christ’s peace!

We need Christ’s peace each and every day. It’s just sometimes, we don’t acknowledge our own need. Today, our study abroad group was forced to see that need. As the evening activities wound down, many of us were cold, tired and extremely stressed out from the loads of work we have to catch up. Because of that, we became quickly irritated and angry with each other, even over minor issues. Many times we pray for world peace or peace to end wars or end disease (which is good). But sometimes (oftentimes), we need Christ’s peace in our own lives. And God offers it to us. No other peace will satisfy us. Only Christ’s peace can.

The Real Olympics

Well, my wish came true! I got the opportunity to attend the opening ceremonies of the Special Olympics 2011 summer games in Athens at the Kallimarmaron Stadium, the oldest stadium of the world built in 566 BC, made out of marble and holding up to 46,000 spectators today!

Athlete Procession into ancient stadium for Opening Ceremonies of Special Olympics 2011 in Athens.

After deep contemplation and uncertainty, I obtained my ticket and found myself seated in the ancient theatre taking in the opening moments of the Special Olympic games. Spectators were gathered from all over the world, donning their countries colors, waving flags and anticipating the moment when their nation would be called and the athletes representing them would process proudly into the stadium.

The ceremony oddly started off with the “Music of the Ancient Pots”, a musical performance from Minoan island of Crete which ended in a fireworks backed smashing of the pots which symbolized breaking down the walls of discrimination. Afterwards, the Parade of Athletes started in random order as to not put one country over another. Some other observations I made were that Irish fans (conveniently seated right behind us) did in fact cheer on the team from Great Britain. Many country’s athletes dressed in ethnic dress including the Haitians and the Indonesians. Recent war-torn and politically unstable countries participated, like Iraq, Iran, Cuba, Kuwait, and Palestine, which symbolized unity and peace to me. In addition, I felt pride and cheered a little louder when countries like USA, Kenya, China, Japan and Peru entered. And finally, when the Irish team entered, the boisterous Irish fans erupted in cheers, a chant of “I-re-land, I-re-land” and song: “ole-ole-ole-ole”. Over 180 teams participating in the Olympics marched in with over 7000 total athletes. By far the largest applause came when the Greek team was announced; the whole stadium stood to their feet and cheered continuously for several minutes! There was a sense of a oneness and wholeness in that stadium.

Later, 12 special Olympic athletes from different countries shared testimonies of their own “victories” including one who recently got married and another who earned a top level business job. Afterwards, there were several speeches including one from Timothy Shriver, son of Eunice Maria Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics. He said that the acts of athletes uniting for “victory” are an example for the world. He challenged the stadium (now full of athletes, coaches, family and spectators) to start a “dignity revolution” right then and there; a world with many abilities and no disabilities. Another moment of shared unity and oneness came during the live Stevie Wonder performance. That’s right STEVIE WONDER! The whole stadium was dancing and clapping and having a good time. It was like one big party. Beyond that, I admired him for his short speech which talked about humans as God’s unique creation, made with dignity and beauty.

A major portion of the ceremony was “Our Odysseus”, a 45 minute performance focused on Homer’s story of courage, strength and hope. It is a journey for the world and for the athletes of the Special Olympics. There were six scenes each with elaborate choreographed dancing and neat special effects. The first was a scene of setting sail for Ithaca, a journey of adventure and learning. The next scene featured Polyfimos, the Cyclops and spoke of overcoming impenetrable challenges with education and training. The third scene depicts a storm created by Poseidon, god of the seas, and teaches that the strength of the soul can empower us to overcome adversity. The next scene featured bird-like sirens and we gleaned that there will be distractions and temptations on the journey, but perseverance and commitment to goals is necessary to succeed. Scylla and Charybdis followed, the classic rock and hard place, which showed that while fear and self-doubt lurks within us all, it can be defeated through patience, strength and solidarity. Finally, the Island of Feakes closed the story with challenge and a rise to divinity. This tied in to the philosophy and Greek history that we’ve been reading and learning about in our classes and study abroad adventure. Furthermore, this rendering of Homer’s Odyssey not only tied in perfectly to the spirit of the Olympic games, but to life in general!

“If anything is to bring world peace, the Special Olympics will, not the Nike and Adidas Olympics.” ~ Paraphrase of a verbal quotation by Dr. Moore

Assignment #13- Comparing Jesus and Socrates as Teachers

Speaking of religion and philosophy, I am going to briefly examine the portrait of Jesus as a teacher in Matthew with that of Socrates as a teacher in Plato’s Apology and Euthyphro.

Jesus and Socrates had many things in common as teachers. First, both expressed ideas which were ill-received by the societies in which they taught. For Jesus, it was the Roman Empire. This is evidenced immediately when King Herod seeks to kill Jesus because he is prophesied to be the king of the Jews, which would compromise his sovereignty. In addition, Jesus is sometimes forced to leave areas because of his ideas. For Socrates, the Athenians prosecute him for corrupting the youth and for denying the gods recognized by the state. Eventually, both are tried and killed by society for their ideas. One reason for this was that both the societies which they entered misunderstood their missions and purpose. The Jews hoped and the authorities feared that Jesus was coming to be an earthly king and establish a kingdom among the Jews. However, Jesus came to save souls in fulfilling the purposes of God in establishing His heavenly kingdom. Socrates was wrongly accused of having a political agenda. Instead, he examined people and helped them discover truth, not gain followers or start a revolution. Finally, both Jesus and Socrates didn’t have many followers during their lifetime, but later had writings done about them and had philosophies that have survived until present day and have influenced many people worldwide for centuries.

While Socrates and Jesus have a lot in common, they are also very different in their philosophies and their styles of teaching. First, Jesus makes a bold claim that he is God. While Socrates seems to recognize some form of higher being, he concerns himself much more with the earth, than the heavens. In their style of teaching, Jesus assists his listeners in understanding truth and keeps a loving relationship going with his students. He teaches through parables, miracles and through his own example. Sometimes more than reason, he requires faith from his followers. On the other hand, Socrates demands sound reasoning from his students. He uses a form of teaching which involves many questions. While this is a technique that Jesus does use, Socrates is known for this style. Socrates helps his students to retrieve information and arrive at truth themselves, but largely leaves them independent. There is not as much intimacy in the relationships of Socrates as there are with Jesus’. To some extent, both try to arrive at truth through examining seemingly mundane topics like piety, marriage, love and prayer. In his dialogue, Jesus often states these truths outright and lets his followers experience them deductively. Meanwhile Socrates often spurs his followers to examine truths inductively. For example, he encourages Euthyphro to look at different facets of piety in order to make a conclusion about what piety is. Thus, Jesus and Socrates, while they were treated similarly by the cultures and societies which they taught in, they differed in the content of their teachings and their style of teaching.

June 26- Greek Orthodox versus Roman Catholicism: Part 2

Today we took a one-day cruise of three Greek islands, Poros, Hydra and Aegina. As soon as we boarded the boat, we staked out awesome seats on the front deck of the boat facing the open ocean. Although the ride was very windy and often sea-sickening (especially for me), the views were nevertheless spectacular. Once on the islands, there was no set plan, just about an hour to two hours of free time. This was plenty of time to explore!!!

In Poros, I hiked up to a beautiful clock tower on a ridge overlooking the harbor. When I made a wrong turn, I got stopped by a mommy cat who hissed at me as I approached her 7 or 8 kittens hiding in the garden. In Hydra, I found a cute little church that I will explain in more detail later. Finally in Aegina, Ben and I swam out to some rocks about 100 meters from shore (I’m not very good at swimming, so it was a work out, but I was glad that Ben, a certified lifeguard, was with me). To our dismay there were sea urchins on the side of the rock and on the shallower rocks underneath the water. And Ben stepped on one, describing it to be like stepping on a cactus, and getting a half-dozen or so sea urchin spine splinters in his foot…ouch!!! I made it out without any and we headed back to the boat for the ride home.

Now, it was quite coincidental that the church I stepped inside on the island of Hydra was a Greek Orthodox Church, just two days after visiting the Roman Catholic Church in Athens. I noticed some of the differences that Dr. Moore had pointed out such as the Greek Orthodox church having many icons and no pews. I found out from a lady that this small church used to be a monastery, but is now the local church. She informed me that she is Greek orthodox, along with most of Greece, and that she attends this church every Sunday. When she asks what religion I am, I respond that I am Christian, but not Orthodox, to which she says, “Oh we’re the same”. I didn’t respond to her statement, but there are many things that separate Orthodox Christianity from protestant Christianity, much less the Baptist denomination.

The church itself seemed very crowded, even when I was the only one present. Although there were no pews, there were paintings and icons everywhere that one could be situated, extra chairs and podiums jutting into the main aisle, and sacred objects hanging from the ceiling. It was very dark and natural light shown sparingly through the windows. One particular painting stood out to me. I believe it depicted St. Paul in the center, and scenes of the imprisonment and persecution of Paul in the border. What struck me was that in all the border pictures, there were minarets of mosques in the background and the dress of the persecutors included turbans, middle eastern looking robes and darker skin. I believe that this made the painting more authentic to the area that Paul would have been ministering. It is rare that in Western art, one would see these scenes rendered in such a way. Thus, I marveled at this artwork. As people started entering the church (now it was getting really crowded), I noticed that some people would approach each piece of artwork and sacred object in the church and then kiss it. At first, it seemed like these people were simply peering closer at the art to examine a detail and then bumping their heads on the transparent protective screen, not noticing that it was there. However, as time passed, many more people did the same thing and not surprisingly, there were numerous smudge marks on the protective screen around the center.

All in all, I have been most fascinated by the use of art in Christian worship. Catholics have magnificent paintings and stained glass in their cathedrals. The Byzantine churches commissioned great mosaics. And the Greek Orthodox churches had many icons. And finally, most protestant churches don’t seem to have much artwork in their church buildings. This brings up the important questions of (1) how is artwork a medium to connecting with the divine and (2) do these depictions of Jesus and saints and other people add to or detract from worship?

June 25- Corinth

Today, we visited the rich historical, architectural and religious site of Corinth. Besides the wonderful opportunity of visiting this site, we also had the unique pleasure of having Dr. Robin Indiana Jones Rhodes, architecture professor at the University of Notre Dame (and one of Ben’s former professors) and one of the head archaeologists (specializing in ancient Greek architecture) of the site of ancient Corinth.

To repeat all that he said would result in an endless blog, so I will just share with you the highlights of his two hour tour of ancient Corinth and my impressions of him and of the site. He started by describing the difference between Ionic and Doric columns using as an example the Temple of Zeus and Hera (more commonly, but falsely—according to Dr. Rhodes—known as the Temple of Apollo), which is the canonical Doric temple in the world dating back to the 1^st century before Christ. This means that is has all of the basic structures of a typical Doric style temple. Dr. Rhodes said that ancient architecture always reflects the requirements and needs of the religious cult. For example, this particular temple had two rows of center columns, so that one could have a clear view of the cultic image, in this case, the statue of Zeus or Hera from the entrance and walking down the center of the temple. Additionally, Dr. Rhodes posed two questions that he typically asks himself when first examining an archaeological site: (1) What design/aesthetic problem were the builders of the ancient site trying to solve? (2) Based on what you see (what remains), can you determine the character of the building and reconstruct the building? Much of his work employs simple inductive reasoning using observations from the site. It was incredible however, to work through some of these questions with him, see the intricate details that only the eye of an experienced archaeologist would pick up, and hypothesize as to the history of the site and of the people that built it.

These archaeological questions helped me to see the ancient ruins in a whole new light and to see the connection between architecture and piecing together ancient history and culture. I am curious to try to apply these questions to other ancient sites that we visit and to even consider how our own religious buildings are constructed today with the traditions and needs of that religion in mind. In addition to the architectural aspects of ancient Corinth, Dr. Rhodes also presented a brief history of Corinth, asserting that Corinth was perhaps more instrumental in the revival of Greece than even Athens. This was because Corinth was a land and sea crossroads. Anyone passing either direction from central Greece to the Pelaponeses had to pass through Corinth. Additionally, Corinth had two harbors which allowed sailors to avoid the dangerous journey around the peninsula by portaging their ships and supplies across land through Corinth. Because of these, Corinth was a culturally and religiously diverse city which wielded much political, economic and military influence. Corinth is also known as a location where the apostle Paul visited around 52 AD during his missionary journey. He stayed 1 ½ years and preached to the various cultural and religious peoples of Corinth. We saw the wall where Paul might have spoken and walked the main city road that he surely walked upon.

In conclusion, I learned a lot from Dr. Rhodes today. Although I could never be an architect or archaeologist, I nevertheless found the architecture information very interesting. Not only did I learn a lot, but I believe the other students did (even former student Ben), the professors and even our tour guide, who asked lots of questions!!!

June 24- Greek Orthodox versus Roman Catholicism: Part 1

It was actually quite comforting to walk into a Roman Catholic church, after two weeks of mosques and Greek Orthodox churches. With our free morning, Dr. Moore, Ben, Niha and I enjoyed visiting the Temple of Olympian Zeus and one of the largest bookstores in Athens, and eating lunch at a café in Monastiraki Square with a view of the Acropolis Hill and the Parthenon. In the afternoon, we took an hour long drive along the Poseidon Highway, paralleling the coast, to see the Temple of Poseidon, which was a massive temple on the tip of the peninsula at Cape Sounion, surrounded by the Aegean Sea on three sides. I will confidently say that some of the most beautiful pictures of the trip were taken from this hill overlooking islands and sparkling blue water under a clear blue sky filled with late afternoon sunshine.

Backtracking a little…In the midst of our leisurely morning, we found time to stop by the St. Denis Cathedral. Immediately, I was reminded of all the Cathedrals that I had sung in (for choir tours) or just visited in my previous travels in Europe. Again, I felt familiar here. However, a Roman Catholic Church is a scarcity in Greece where the state religion is the Orthodox Church of Greece and the majority of the population is Greek Orthodox. The major differences between the Catholic and Orthodox Church are their liturgies, the role of icons, and cultural differences. While their theologies do differ somewhat, most recently, after the visit of the Orthodox official Delegation to Rome and the official visit of Cardinal Walter Kasper to Greece, the relations of the two churches has been increasing and they have agreed that they have more theological commonalities than differences. A couple minor differences that I noticed: (1) the Orthodox priests have a unique style of dress that includes a hat a robe. (2) Generally, Catholics have pews while Orthodox don’t because Catholics alternate sitting and standing often, while Orthodox tend to stand during most of their services.

Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Denis in Athens

This particular Catholic Church had a beautiful mural in the front of the church and stain glass windows on the side with the Greek names of saints underneath them. We tried to figure out what the Greek saints were that we were looking at. Nevertheless, it was a religious experience that was worth exploring!

June 23- Continuation of Athens: Intersection of Religious and Philosophical History

Today we had a full day of Athens site-seeing. We started with a bus tour. We passed Syntagma Square where rioters were camped out and had strung up signs on every tree and where the Parliament building stood. We also saw the National Garden, Hadrian’s Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which is the only Corinthian style temple in Athens. We saw the modern Olympic stadium and drove up Likavitos (Hill of Wolves), the highest hill of the city center where there was a magnificent view of the Olympic stadium, Parliament buildings and the Acropolis.

Our final stop was the Acropolis and Acropolis museum. Because Greece’s top industry is tourism, the sites in Greece differ much from the sites in Turkey. Sites are much more formalized, souvenir prices are inflated, the sites are more crowded with visitors, and you can’t touch (much less get within two feet) of any of the ruins or artifacts. Although I had visited the Acropolis once before, the temple of Athena Nike wasn’t completely reconstructed before as it is now and the new Acropolis museum did not exist. There are four main buildings on the Acropolis including the Parthenon (Temple of Athena), Orestion (Temple of Athena and Poseidon), the monumental gateway and the Temple of Athena Nike. From the Acropolis one can not only see surrounding Athens, but also the Herodian theatre and the theatre of Dionysus. The ongoing excavations of the site which the New Acropolis Museum now rests is incorporated into the museum through a transparent glass floor on all levels of the museum that reveals the work being done below. This is not the only cool thing about this new museum. In addition, the New Acropolis museum is laid out in the same form as the actual acropolis. For example, artifacts found either at the museum site or on the side of Acropolis hill are on the first floor, ancient pieces from the acropolis are found on the second floor of the museum and artifacts of the Parthenon pediment is on the 3rd and top level gallery which is parallel to the Parthenon walls and has the same # of columns and same column spacing of the Parthenon!

In the site and the museum, we discovered the religious nature and history of Athens from its role as a Temple of Athena in the 5th century B.C. to its Christianizing by Paul to the Orthodox church dedicated to the virgin Mary to the Catholic church by the crusaders to a mosque and armory by the Ottoman Empire to its destruction and present restoration. In addition, we see in the pediment and the artifacts found, the way in which they worshiped and presented sacrifices and also, especially with the pediment, how the pre-Socratic philosophers used the depictions to explain the world and its natural phenomena. The museum was one of the best that I’ve been to and it was great to visit Athens again on this study abroad trip. I learned much more than I did during my first visit, I spent more time at each site and I had the benefit of a more liberal education and a religious and philosophical perspective.