Upon returning from Crete, I realized that I had left my cell phone in my cabin on the ferry, which was a bit of a financial blow, but took more of a psychological toll than I could have guessed. For someone who loves to be able to call her loved ones whenever the fancy strikes her, I felt really alone, utterly exhausted from the trip, and in disbelief that I still had over a month left to go. Luckily, a good nap always fixes me up, and after I realized that Skype was much cheaper than that cell phone ever was, I perked right up and was ready to enjoy a few days in Athens back at Loring Hall. We had a 4th of July cook-out in the garden behind the Blegen Library, with a bucket of tzatziki, burgers, lamb, salad, fresh fruit, and lots of beer. It was a great chance to unwind, and also to meet some of the people who are digging at the Agora this summer, and with whom we have since spent a couple fun evenings. The community at the American School creates a wonderful atmosphere, and there are always scholars in and out of Loring for meals, tea, and ouzo.
This stint in Athens was devoted in large part to museum trips -- a few trips to the National Archaeological Museum, and one to the Epigraphical Museum -- which are generally interesting, but always cause a terrible case of "museum legs". The other major downside to the National Museum is the street that borders it, which is filled with heroin addicts and crackheads, and the smells and sights cannot fail to make you feel ill. It's so shocking that a country that prides itself on its antiquities and their preservation wouldn't also take care of the neighborhood around those antiquities.
On Sunday, Bob Bridges took us for a tour of "post-antique Athens" and guided us through the architectural phases of the city that are usually beyond our scope. Before the tour, I mainly viewed the modern buildings of Athens as getting in the way of the ancient sites I was interested in, but once I had learned the architectural history and could place buildings in time, I came to appreciate the current form of the city much more. At the end of the tour, Brendan, Colleen, and I went to mass at the Cathedral of St. Dionysus the Areopagite, the seat of the Athenian Roman Catholic Diocese, and a beautiful French-style church. The mass was standing room only, and we were by far the minority ethnicity -- the cathedral was packed with Filipinos and other Pacific Islanders, and Africans, and was a really vibrant community that sang cheerfully, loudly, and mostly out of tune. In short, it was wonderful, and we can't wait for our next Sunday in Athens so that we can go back to St. Dionysus.
Our main site-visits were back to the Agora, where John Camp gave us a study tour of the site as a whole, another journey to the Acropolis (where the dog from our last trip there found us again and joined our group!), and a day trip to Eleusis, the site of one of the most popular religious cults in the ancient world, the mystery cult of Demeter and Persephone. Although the modern town of Eleusis is something like a Greek Scranton, PA, the ancient site is fantastic, and you are able to chart with your eyes the expansion of the cult from archaic through Roman Imperial times. Even though you try to sit and imagine what initiates must have experienced, most of it is just speculation, as all of our sources have kept the cult's secrets.
This post's pictures:
1. Phrasiklea, an Archaic Kore statue
2. Demosthenes, puzzling out his arguments and holding marbles in his mouth
3. The theatral area at Eleusis, where initiates would have undergone the secret rites
4. David and Timmy at the beach near Aigosthena, Bay of Corinth
