March 12

I think today I will describe my morning before we left the hostel. So, I woke up around 6:30 and took a shower. I like to get up first so that I can have the bathroom to myself, but since we have a kitchen at the hostel – and the only breakfast they provide is bread, butter, and jam – I like to make myself some oatmeal and add banana. Again, I like to get there first so I can use all the right pots and have access to both eyes of the stove: one for the oatmeal, the other for my tea. It’s nice. I just listen to some music as I cook (via ipod) and I get just a little time for myself. This morning, however, two other girls decided to do the same, and joined me in the kitchen. This was really cramping my style. Not that I don’t enjoy their company, but I get weird about wanting to follow through with the plans I have set out for myself and how I have envisioned them. I will get up a bit earlier tomorrow.
So, after breakfast, coffee, and some reading, we left the hostel at 8:45 and met the director of the archaeological site at the Agora. His name is John Camp and he is from the American School of Archaeology, the school in charge of the excavations, and he showed us around. He even let us into the places restricted to the average tourist, like the newest places where they are digging, and the storerooms underneath one of the restored buildings (which is now a museum as well). One of the coolest things he showed us was a skull they found on the site. It has to predate 700 BCE (or come after 400 CE), because burials within the city walls were not allowed beginning at this time. It actually dates back to 1300 BCE. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen an actual skull up close like that.
This site is also pretty cool, just from the excavation troubles. The entire agora was underneath modern houses in the 1950s, when the excavation began. They had to raise the money to move all the people to another location and then bulldoze the entire area. They only uncovered the area that was known to have been the agora (they knew it was here because of the many ancient sources and could pretty much be certain about where to dig). The surrounding city of modern Athens covers up the residential part of ancient Athens. This area will probably never be uncovered as it would be extremely expensive to pay for the moving of the current people and businesses, and the same information garnered from these ancient homes can probably be learned from other ancient cities where it is much cheaper to dig.
Krentz had to go to the hospital with one of the girls on this trip, Mary, because she needed to get the lab results from her previous trip. She is finally starting to feel like her normal self, but they still wanted to know if it was salmonella, or something like it, that had made her sick. So Krentz sent us off to the Kerameikos museum, which was closed yesterday, with assignment to figure out how the grave gifts changed over time. Though this was not a bad assignment, I don’t like being left to ourselves, because I usually end up writing down way more information than is necessary. Oh, well. From what I could gather, vases were pretty much standard, but the decoration on them became much more elaborate. The gifts got poorer as the exterior decorations got richer.
After this museum trip, we broke off to have lunch. I ate at the hostel again and got some of my reading for tomorrow finished. About 20 mins before we were supposed to leave for the Agora trip (part II – John Camp only showed us stuff that we wouldn’t be able to see without him), Krentz showed up with Mary. His backup plan was for us to show ourselves around the agora with a guidebook. Mary’s test results were fine. She just has been suffering from some combination of bacterial and viral infection. So, we headed back to the agora. It was lightly raining, so we made it a short trip. Because this whole area had been covered by houses, there really weren’t any remains over waist high. It’s not a visually interesting site for the most part, but there is a lot of history here and many of the places we stopped at are historically important, such as the building where Socrates was indicted.
After the agora trip we were done for the site-seeing part of the day. On the way back to the hostel, Sarabeth and I stopped at this famous sandal shop that sells cheap, but good quality leather sandals. Apparently, previous customers include Sophia Lauren, Jeremy Irons, and Jackie O. I bought a pair (30 bucks!) of sandals and I absolutely love them. The owner’s son now runs the shop and he adjusted the straps to my feet and then nailed in the straps to make the adjustments hold.
At 6 we all met to discuss Perikles’ Funeral Oration during the Peloponnesian War. For some reason, Krentz opened up a tab at the hostel’s bar and bought everyone a drink. I got a glass of red wine since it was the same price as the half liter beers that the guys all purchased. (I’d rather have the antioxidants than the carbs.) It was a good discussion. This speech has been used as inspiration or even material for modern speeches on freedom and democracy, but I wrote my journal on why this speech might not be a great one to quote, as Perikles’ true reason for inspiring the Athenians to fight is Athens’ great power. Here it is you want to read it:
“While this speech has been used as inspiration or material for many more speeches on Democracy and freedom, of all the reasons Perikles gives to urge his fellow citizens to fight, he lists Athenian power as the predominant one. Therefore, everything he says about the wonderful like in Athens and the freedom and equality enjoyed by its citizens is marred by how the Athenians were able to enjoy them. A comparison between the life enjoyed by the Athenians and that of another Greek in a less powerful city-state would reveal much more about the true values of Athens.
If the Athenians truly valued democracy and freedom, then they would want all peoples, not just Athenian citizens, to enjoy these values as well. But, as we know, Athens was at the head of a veritable empire at the time, as the most powerful of all the cities in the Delian League, controlling the treasury and the fleet. Sparta goes to war with Athens to free the other Greeks from Athenian rule.
Perikles speaks to other Athenians in his oration, so yes, there is much to be lost if Sparta defeats Athens. They would lose their way of life, which comes not because of democracy, but because of the choke-hold they maintain on the Greek city-states. Perikles, for the most part, emulates good values, but I believe that the Athenians would only be able to prove their true devotion to democracy and freedom by not preventing other peoples from achieving them as well.”
After the discussion, it was dinner time. Tonight I had a nice big salad and fried up the rest of my eggplant on the stove. Again, the eggplant was delicious. Now, I am in the room trying to finish my reading before I fall asleep. I am getting up early in the morning, so I need to go to sleep early!