7/3 Acropolis

We can see the Acropolis from our 9th floor pool at our Fresh Hotel which is decorated straight out of the IKEA catalog. The hotel, not the Acropolis. We took the metro today and hiked up to it. The Acropolis, not the hotel. What a gorgeous neighborhood. What would it be like to live by something that has been continuously inhabited for 5oooyrs?

I overheard tour guides repeating the phrase, "the most perfect building," because the architects morphed the ratios a bit so that the building curves a bit toward the top. These tweakings and imperfections make the building "look" perfectly square and symmetrical from further away.

Most of the damage done to the Parthenon (parthenos-purity--Athena was a virgin) has been man-made: 4thC Christian iconoclasm (changed to crusader church), Turkish occupation (changed to mosque), Venetian mortars, The Scottish barsted, Elgin, who took the pediment statues back to Britain (how Napoleonic of him), smog (chemicals combine with iron in the marble to turn it to chalk and the structure basically blows away bit by bit).

The real egg and dart. Greeks at some early points believed in resurrection. This design sybolizes birth, death, birth, death etc.

Our family favorite were the caryatids on the Erectheon. Gorgeous, individually draped, the detailed hair, the casual/sensual stance with one knee coming toward the front. I loved them. Ellery calls them the "you-know-whats."

I have been reading greek mythology to them--they like it. Ellery has adopted Athena as a mentor (fine with me) and wants to know about Calliope more. They know about Pandora, Narcissus/Echo so far.

It's 6:30pm and the kids are sleeping. I am trying to force myself to stay awake so that I can go to sleep tonight. I am hoping to get a webcam visit with Cyler in a few minutes as a catalyst to wake the kids and keep them up!