Today overall was a pretty fun day. We took a trip to Vergina (pronounced Ver-GHEE-na, you with the dirty mind!), where the tombs of Philip II of Macedonia are. He was the one responsible for the unification/consolidation of the Greece city-states in the 4th century BC, and the father of Alexander the Great. He was also father of Cassander, who murdered Alexander the Great’s heir and founded Thessaloniki, and father to Thessalonike, whom Cassander married and named the city after (gotta love that ancient incest).
The tour was very interesting, but I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside the museum. In ancient times the temple-like resting places were buried once the dead were inside, as the Greeks felt the dead belonged to the separate underworld, Hades.The museum and ruins are actually underground now too, from the outside it just looks like a grassy knoll. There were five different burial buildings from different times in the 4th century. Only two of the tombs (Philip II being one of them) escaped being looted throughout the centuries. Our tour guide, Maria, was a middle-aged Greek woman who knew a lot about everything. I love being shown through museums or ruins with a guide—otherwise what do you learn? You see the structure or the artifact and have no idea what it is, what it really means, what it’s significance is. I think it’s fascinating to learn the stories and back history that you could never get on your own. Some of my classmates obviously thought differently; I heard a couple complaining they could have seen the whole museum in twenty minutes on their own. It’s funny that, after driving an hour outside of the city, they’re perfectly content to whip out their cameras and snap pictures of a grassy hill that was created in the 80s but have no patience to really learn about the treasures underneath.
Our guide was showing us a fresco that depicted the three Fates, and told us how today most Greeks still have strong belief in the concept of Fate, and how in smaller villages the grandmothers still leave out candies and sweets on a grandchild’s first night in the world so that, when The Fates visit to determine the child’s future, they will look kindly on him. While trying to highlight that not all people believe in that particular kind of fate, she said “We’re not unreasonable---but we’re Mediterranean”. I love this, it seems to apply in multiple areas.
I learned a lot, and I enjoyed it--history nerd that I am--but I won’t bore you with all of it, just some fun stories. Philip II’s tomb had two chambers, and a young woman was buried in one of them. For a while archaeologists thought it was his seventh and youngest wife, but that’s not the case. When he died, the jealous wife that mothered Alexander the Great sent her rope and poison as a message: pick one or the other, but you’re going to die. She chose to hang herself with her own belts instead. I don’t know why, but there’s something so passionate and noble about this story, in a twisted way. Maybe it’s the way our guide told it, you all are reading it and thinking “Wow, Rachel’s really messed up”. They now think the woman buried with him is his wife Meda, from Thrace. They married to form a political alliance, but in the Thracian culture the wife always followed her husband into the underworld.
I learned a lot about ancient burial customs, and a little about modern ones too. In the 4th century the body was cremated and only the bones collected, washed in wine and olive oil, and put in some kind of vessel. Nowadays, the Greek Orthodox Church doesn’t allow cremation, because of Judgment Day, the unity of body and soul, etc, but they still have the priests do something with wine and olive oil. It’s amazing that a ritual like that can remain through the centuries while others come and go.
When we got back to Thessaloniki, the bus drove us around for and hour and a half so we could look at the city. It was very helpful for me, having already explored the city, to put names to places. I found out that the area where mom and I had dinner every night was called Ladadika. Just a few hundred feet from the port, it used to be the warehouses where all the imported olive oil was stored, but it was used for other purposes once supermarket-type stores became popular and there was no need for the huge warehouses anymore. It was actually the infamous red-light district (being so close to the ports) until about twenty years ago when all the brothels were removed, and now it’s a very fashionable district for food, and music as well.
We stopped at St. Demetrius church, patron saint of Thessaloniki. (Fun fact: Demetrius' saint day is October 26, same as my birthday, which is a big deal here in Greece!) I was a little embarrassed the whole day, but I was never more embarrassed of our group as being representatives of America. The woman was trying to tell us about the church, and people were rude and bored and not paying attention. They didn’t even respect that we were in a church, at least be a little quiet. One girl who sat right in front of our guide was actually asleep: head lolling, mouth open. I know that not everyone is going to get the same enjoyment out of these tours and history as me—most of them seem to be here to get wasted and make fools of themselves—but the lack of respect was a little shocking and actually embarrassing.
At any rate, I plan on attending a Greek Orthodox service while I’m here, to find out what it’s like. When I asked, services start at 6:30 on Sundays and go for THREE HOURS! I couldn’t believe it, but apparently not everyone shows up at 6:30—you can come in whenever, and most people come in around 8:30 or 9.
Our last stop was the Old Wall of Thessaloniki, which was actually right back above where we live. I hadn’t really taken pictures all day since my battery was close to dead, but we arrived at sunset and it was too beautiful. I don’t think I captured it very well, but here are some pictures. You can see the whole city.
There was a group of boys with little mohawks at the wall who couldn’t have been older than 14, chain smoking and lounging around. I just thought this was so funny, and so different than me growing up--so very European in the midst of ruins hundreds of years old.
That’s all for now. I’m going out with some of the girls in my building later, it should be really fun! Sorry for the ridiculously long post!
The tour was very interesting, but I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside the museum. In ancient times the temple-like resting places were buried once the dead were inside, as the Greeks felt the dead belonged to the separate underworld, Hades.The museum and ruins are actually underground now too, from the outside it just looks like a grassy knoll. There were five different burial buildings from different times in the 4th century. Only two of the tombs (Philip II being one of them) escaped being looted throughout the centuries. Our tour guide, Maria, was a middle-aged Greek woman who knew a lot about everything. I love being shown through museums or ruins with a guide—otherwise what do you learn? You see the structure or the artifact and have no idea what it is, what it really means, what it’s significance is. I think it’s fascinating to learn the stories and back history that you could never get on your own. Some of my classmates obviously thought differently; I heard a couple complaining they could have seen the whole museum in twenty minutes on their own. It’s funny that, after driving an hour outside of the city, they’re perfectly content to whip out their cameras and snap pictures of a grassy hill that was created in the 80s but have no patience to really learn about the treasures underneath.
Our guide was showing us a fresco that depicted the three Fates, and told us how today most Greeks still have strong belief in the concept of Fate, and how in smaller villages the grandmothers still leave out candies and sweets on a grandchild’s first night in the world so that, when The Fates visit to determine the child’s future, they will look kindly on him. While trying to highlight that not all people believe in that particular kind of fate, she said “We’re not unreasonable---but we’re Mediterranean”. I love this, it seems to apply in multiple areas.
I learned a lot, and I enjoyed it--history nerd that I am--but I won’t bore you with all of it, just some fun stories. Philip II’s tomb had two chambers, and a young woman was buried in one of them. For a while archaeologists thought it was his seventh and youngest wife, but that’s not the case. When he died, the jealous wife that mothered Alexander the Great sent her rope and poison as a message: pick one or the other, but you’re going to die. She chose to hang herself with her own belts instead. I don’t know why, but there’s something so passionate and noble about this story, in a twisted way. Maybe it’s the way our guide told it, you all are reading it and thinking “Wow, Rachel’s really messed up”. They now think the woman buried with him is his wife Meda, from Thrace. They married to form a political alliance, but in the Thracian culture the wife always followed her husband into the underworld.
I learned a lot about ancient burial customs, and a little about modern ones too. In the 4th century the body was cremated and only the bones collected, washed in wine and olive oil, and put in some kind of vessel. Nowadays, the Greek Orthodox Church doesn’t allow cremation, because of Judgment Day, the unity of body and soul, etc, but they still have the priests do something with wine and olive oil. It’s amazing that a ritual like that can remain through the centuries while others come and go.
When we got back to Thessaloniki, the bus drove us around for and hour and a half so we could look at the city. It was very helpful for me, having already explored the city, to put names to places. I found out that the area where mom and I had dinner every night was called Ladadika. Just a few hundred feet from the port, it used to be the warehouses where all the imported olive oil was stored, but it was used for other purposes once supermarket-type stores became popular and there was no need for the huge warehouses anymore. It was actually the infamous red-light district (being so close to the ports) until about twenty years ago when all the brothels were removed, and now it’s a very fashionable district for food, and music as well.
We stopped at St. Demetrius church, patron saint of Thessaloniki. (Fun fact: Demetrius' saint day is October 26, same as my birthday, which is a big deal here in Greece!) I was a little embarrassed the whole day, but I was never more embarrassed of our group as being representatives of America. The woman was trying to tell us about the church, and people were rude and bored and not paying attention. They didn’t even respect that we were in a church, at least be a little quiet. One girl who sat right in front of our guide was actually asleep: head lolling, mouth open. I know that not everyone is going to get the same enjoyment out of these tours and history as me—most of them seem to be here to get wasted and make fools of themselves—but the lack of respect was a little shocking and actually embarrassing.
At any rate, I plan on attending a Greek Orthodox service while I’m here, to find out what it’s like. When I asked, services start at 6:30 on Sundays and go for THREE HOURS! I couldn’t believe it, but apparently not everyone shows up at 6:30—you can come in whenever, and most people come in around 8:30 or 9.
Our last stop was the Old Wall of Thessaloniki, which was actually right back above where we live. I hadn’t really taken pictures all day since my battery was close to dead, but we arrived at sunset and it was too beautiful. I don’t think I captured it very well, but here are some pictures. You can see the whole city.
There was a group of boys with little mohawks at the wall who couldn’t have been older than 14, chain smoking and lounging around. I just thought this was so funny, and so different than me growing up--so very European in the midst of ruins hundreds of years old.
That’s all for now. I’m going out with some of the girls in my building later, it should be really fun! Sorry for the ridiculously long post!
Ray ray you only proved that YOU have the dirty mind because you thought of adding the pronunciation guide.
ReplyDelete:P