One weekend

[Yannis]

Just returned from a weekend on the mountains, 2 hours from Athens, where we visited an old theater. Nice view from the stands. A few pics.













Should have focused on the english text, but I never thought I'd share this detail.

[Carl]

Must have been tough getting the boat up there....





Absolutely amazing to think just how far that goes back.
Thanks for sharing.
Carl

[luis]

I have been in Patras, Volos , Piraeus and like to see the guard on the palace with the way they have to march with those wood shoes, amazing.
And I have been once in Salamina cause the ship went to a shipyard to do some repair. While on Patras I went a weekend to a very beautiful island Zakintos , very nice.
Greece is a wonderful place to have a boat with a unique color on the sea , that dark blue is amazing. Nice weather too.
It was a time when I was on a ship doing the ro-ro all over the Med. Nice country.
All the best

[Yannis]

Carl,

You're right. I didn't specify I went there by car !!

Luis,

Next time you're near let me know; If you're still in shipping or naval transport (?), sooner or later, you'll pass-by !

[Carl]

...by car. I'm not so impressed anymore.

But still like the pictures.



LOL...

I was never a huge history buff, but places like that...when you are actually "in history". That just kinda boggles the mind, then seeing what was built and lack of tooling by todays standards...wow. Something I appreciate more and more as I get older.

[Yannis]

Carl,

I agree; for me too, as history classes at school seemed so boring...
For example, and this is true for all hands-on monuments here or elsewhere, it is almost moving that one can actually sit today on the very throne that was once dedicated to the town ruler or the "games' organizer". Try to feel WHAT that person, sitting on that same marble throne, was seeing and feeling while a theatrical play or a political debate was taking place in front of him, and what a view in the background...

To me, sitting there is as moving as is seating, just for a brief moment, in the seat of Neil Armstrong in the lunar capsule. Newer history, one may say...perhaps, but all historical monuments or historical activity (wars, declarations etc) were never meant to be historic when they were conceived...they just became historic because of the moral weight they carry though time. And both examples above carry a lot of that weight...

[Tony Meola]

Great pictures. Can you imagine what went on in that Arena.

Places like this still amaze me.

[Yannis]

Tony thanks.

One little clarification.

This, here, is a theater, and the foreground is called the "orchestra", that was used essentially for two purposes. The staging of a drama or a comedy (theatrical play types) and/or community debate and voting.
An "arena", is a Roman invention that came later, and is an area (a field or a stadium) in where mostly atrocities were taking place (animals feeding with people, gladiators fighting to the death etc), I'm sure you've seen Ben Hur" with Charlton Heston at some point...

[White Bear]

I like the box seating in the front - wonder how much extra you had to pay for that or was it reserved for the Hollywood types that frequent the NBA games? Great pictures, thank you.

[Yannis]

White Bear,

On the back rest of the front box, is carved (but is not visible in the photo) the following text: EPIGENEOS AGONOTHETISAS DIONYSO.
This means in English: (this seat is reserved for) THE SON OF EPIGENES, SPONSOR, IN HONOR OF DIONYSOS.
The fact that it refers to the SON of Epigenes is derived by the clause that ends in -OS (Epigene-os) (meaning that he derives from Epigenes) however the person's name was carved in the box to the left (the preceding one) which unfortunately is not saved... So, we know that the son of Epigenes was the sponsor of the dramatic plays performed in honor of god Dionysos, the god of wines. Today, the area is a big producer of wines namely of the red "Agiorgitiko" and the white "Mantinia". We visited one winery and bought a few bottles direct from the source.

ps: In the second pic, where you have a close-up, you can read the letters Ο E T (actually the O is a Theta - an O with a dash in the middle- but you wouldn't have it in your computer) from the word "agonoOETisas" explained above.

[Tony Meola]

Tony thanks.

One little clarification.

This, here, is a theater, and the foreground is called the "orchestra", that was used essentially for two purposes. The staging of a drama or a comedy (theatrical play types) and/or community debate and voting.
An "arena", is a Roman invention that came later, and is an area (a field or a stadium) in where mostly atrocities were taking place (animals feeding with people, gladiators fighting to the death etc), I'm sure you've seen Ben Hur" with Charlton Heston at some point...

Actually I was going to comment and say bring on the lions, but I knew better since that was not really a Greek tradition. It was my long gone Roman relatives that managed that entertainment. Always reminds me of the old Mel Brooks movie "A Funny thing happened on the way to the Forum".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiJTQwK4iOI

[Yannis]

Tony,

What part of Italy were the Meolas from? Are there still any relatives back there?

[Tony Meola]

That was my fathers family. A small town just outside of Naples. The name escapes me, but up in the mountain area from what my Aunt has told me. Yes relatives still there but I am not in touch with them. My Grandmother when she was alive and my Aunt went back a few times to visit.

There is a former Soccor player here in the US he lived near me, his name was Tony Meola. I never met him, but ran into his father once. They were from the same area in Italy as my Fathers family. His father looked exactly like my fathers older brother. It was scary. I assume some realtion but not sure.

My mothers family were from Palermo.

[Navatech]

Absolutely amazing to think just how far that goes back.

In Israel one of the most prestigious venues for concerts (rock, pop, classical, whatever) is a 2,000 year old amphitheater in Caesarea... That's a city (mostly archeological ruins today) build by the Romans... The name is a tribute to Caesar...





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesarea_Maritima

https://www.google.com/search?q=Caesare ... 9&bih=1259

Personally I prefer a venue just a few miles away... Much smaller and more intimate... Just a few hundred places... From the 3rd century CE...



Last concerts I saw there were Air Supply...

[Navatech]

IMHO all antiquities belong to humanity as whole... For our current day enjoyment and admiration... As shown in the above examples... Some archeological treasures survived for 3,000-4,000 years and all it takes is a few barbarians and less then an afternoon of work to destroy them... For religious reasons... With obvious glee...

[Tony Meola]

Nav

Even the Germans during the war new better and tried to preserve the artifacts.

Just goes to show you the type of people you are dealing with.

[Navatech]

Even the Germans during the war new better and tried to preserve the artifacts.

The Nazis looted the art and artifacts that they considered "acceptable" (i.e. not by a Jewish or other "decadent" artist)... The remainder they sold off to collectors all over the world...

Just goes to show you the type of people you are dealing with.

Yes, they're human but "people" is too much of a complement for them... I'd say animals except for the fact that I'd be insulting animals...

Anyway, Capt. Pat reminded me that there's a special section for politics...