March 18

I had a similar morning as yesterday – cereal in the room and then coffee downstairs before we got on the bus at 8:30. Tyrns was open, so we were able to check out the Mycenaen fortifications on the acropolis, as well as those at Mycenae. This site wasn’t particularly amazing. The interesting thing about this site is that these are the people who were probably responsible for the destruction of the Minoan civilization and palaces on Crete two hundred years before this fort was constructed. Krentz wanted us to compare the palace here to the ones on Crete. It seems that the Mycenaens were more concerned with building extremely strong fortification walls, rather than the interior rooms. There is evidence for some sort of throne room with a large hearth in the middle (at both Tyrns and Mycenae), with a courtyard and doors to create an entranceway. I was better at figuring out the layout of the room, by looking at the ruins, than I was when we were in Crete. That was cool. I could tell that the stone wall that ran down the middle of the room was a later addition and were erased it from our minds as we analyzed how the rooms originally were set up and functioned.
At Mycenae, Krentz wanted us to go down this set of stairs to an underground well that was a source of water for the ancient palace. No one except Krentz brought a flashlight, so people were using cell phones and camera flashes for light. It was so dark that I could not see the hand in front of my face. I walked next to Matt who had a camera and he made sure to flash where both of us could see. We all were joking that we were going to come out suffering from epileptic seizures. Of course the well was closed off when we got to the bottom of the stairs and there was no way to see the water. It was a thrilling experience, but it was kind of pointless in the end.
The museum at Mycenae was surprisingly nice, one of the most informative and best laid out museum we have visited so far. I’m sure the details of the different exhibits would bore you, but I will say that they took obvious pains to present their material well, even producing replicas of the more valuable items that were transferred to the National Museum in Athens. This museum also had a particularly nice display on Linear B, and ancient language that is considered to be the predecessor to Greek.
After the museum, we visited a particularly nice tholos tomb – which is just a massive circular grave that was covered with dirt after the person was buried there.
We got back to the hotel in time to have lunch in town, though I opted for my pb and banana. Then I took the entire afternoon off since I had finished my school reading on the bus. The sun was stuck behind some clouds all day today, so the air never warmed up enough to get some sun. So, I read my personal book, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, and napped. It was wonderful. Sometimes I feel guilty about taking naps because I could be out enjoying the town, but I think I needed this break. I ended up sleeping for almost 2 hours.
We had another discussion tonight, this time on the Greek tragedy Medea. It was a good discussion by the end of it, but I think some people are confused with the difference between a rational decision and a moral decision. To me, the former is a result of being fully aware of the consequences, and making an informed decision. The later deals with whether that decision was right or wrong. Medea is a woman who decides to kill her children to punish her husband’s decision to leave her for another (richer) woman. She knows the killing of her own children will be extremely painful and goes over the different choices she could make, buy decides that the only way to inflict the same pain to her husband that he caused her is to kill their two sons. Therefore, I believe she made a rational decision, but it was a morally wrong one. I don’t think her maternal instincts are all that strong, but she was completely sane when she decided to kill her kids.
Some people were trying to argue that no rational person would kill their own kids, but I think Medea decided that the consequences that come as a result of killing her children, were lesspainful to endure than the shame that would result by being cast aside by her husband. Again, I don’t agree with her decision, but I believe she was sane when she made it. (Ok. So this was just a chance for me to vent and get my thoughts out clearly.)
After the meeting I ate the other half of that salad I made last night and made some more plans for my Easter Break trip with Mom. Krentz told us to buy any train tickets ahead of time because there will be a billion people in Rome (and Italy in general) during the weeks that surround Easter. I did find some tickets for me and mom, so we are officially able to leave Rome for Naples, and then return a week later. Yeah!
Hopefully, I will be able to go to bed at my normal time, even though I had a long nap. I still like to get up early and read about the sites are to visit that day.