The June 18 Post

Here's some pictures from the Villa of Mysteries!

Also, here's some other things that I learned in Pompeii that I forgot to put in here.

So for each family's house, there was a lararium, right? That's where all the household gods were kept. Well, there were also paintings of the household deities, or their ancestors. There were frescos on the house walls showing the big main ancestor of the family surrounded by other important ancestors or household gods. Often, this featured a snake to protect the house and ward off the evil eye.

I'm posting later than usual because after everything that happened (and a bunch of syllabus changes), my teachers decided that it would be good to make work due after the bulk of the trip. I loved that idea, because work had been on my mind along with the stress of just...trying not to be noticed.

That sounds kind of weird. Most people know me as one of those bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, sparkly/bubbly people, and I like that when I'm around people I know. And I like to know most people. But in a situation like today, when I was going to be out in Italy by myself (because I hadn't done that yet), I like to see how invisible I can make myself. It makes me feel safe. Also, it makes it easier to pretend you're a secret agent.

I'm getting off-track, though.

I listed a bunch of sites in my phone (under my notes) and typed in directions I got from my room. I began at the Capitoline Museum and actually went there with Carlyn and Kathryn (among others) and got lost taking pictures. :P

So what did I see in the Capitoline Museum? I think the correct question is WHAT DIDN'T I SEE?

I saw so many things. I'll try to limit to the big ones. I was getting kind of loopy at this point, so I took a lot of statue pictures.







I learn a lot at these sites--not only from the site itself but also from the people around me. SO MANY EDUCATED PEOPLE IN THE WORLD! And they all know the most random things. And I only heard and understood the people in English. Imagine if I understood all the other ones too.

There's a movement (that I guess isn't too surprising) I saw among the ancient sculptures and paintings to portray people as gods and goddesses. Lots of the titles were like "Queen Suchandsuch as Juno" or other titles. The Greeks often had themselves portrayed as intellectuals like the philosophers. The Romans often had themselves portrayed as emperors or the families of emperors (this I learned courtesy of Guy Who Spoke English next to me who was explaining the room to his wife). I saw other imageo and read about how that translated into portraits.

And, this is a weird connection, but I was reading the books for class and there's this whole thing in there about portraits and how they (like imageo) were a really big deal because of their relation to what they represented or portrayed. That whole thing about Christians and idols was true. They did come from a pagan culture where idols were very common, so some of them went to extreme means to reject idols of all kinds. Art had a very, very close relationship to what it portrayed, and I think the strength of that was frightening to people. They had to figure that whole thing out.

There's an old gag that I pulled when I used to work at the Renaissance festival. I wore a very nice dress, and a lot of people wanted pictures with me. However, one of the ways I screened the crowd from the cute kids who wanted pictures with the princess and the creepy guys who just wanted to cop a feel (though, to be fair, that was hard because I wore a lot of petticoats) was that if I was uncomfortable, I would simply flee and yell (in character, of course) about how the camera was a soul-stealer and the work of demons. Because that would have been a common belief back then.

And it is a common belief! And it still holds true in parts of the Mediterranean area and other parts of the world. Which is why we needed to be careful if we took pictures of people and ask first. So that relationship is still there, between the art (the portrayal) and the subject.

After that, I had lost the rest of my group, so I just started walking. I ended up at the Spanish Steps and was very excited, because that was one of the few stops that I saw in Rome the last time I was there and didn't actually get to experience. I climbed, and at the topI found Chiesa de la Trinita die Monti, or Trinity of Mounts. It was a lovely church, and I got in courtesy of the shawl I always kept in my purse. :) It featured the Borghese Chapel.

I also found another street monument, an insula just out there on the street. I couldn't get inside but it had a nice freso of Mary on it (I can't find the picture for the life of me, though, so please forgive).

After that, I walked to the Etruskan Museum, which was north of the Flaminio stop on the underground. That was kind of scary because walking there took me on some streets that were (a) off the map that I'd created of Rome inside my head and (2) deserted. I almost turned around and went back, but I was determined to have my day of adventure.

Honestly, I was also trying to prove to myself that I wasn't afraid and that I could totally walk around Rome by myself and be fine. I needed to get back on the horse, so to speak, after Napoli.

I took a bunch of notes at the museum and even saw a terra cotta sarcophagus! (Said sarcophagus had a blurb about it that contained the phrase "large sarcophagus which housed a diceased," causing the lady next to me to snicker and say well, wasn't that obvious?) Sadly, the museum wouldn't let me take too many pictures, but I had some fun in the garden outside and saw lots of things before I went inside. It was hard for me to find the entrance, and I think everyone who worked there thought I was stupid. But really, it was a big white building with a lot of doors. I kept wandering into maintenance hallways.

According to the museum, the genre of the deceased could be detected by grade goods. The period from 630-580 BCE was known as the Orientalizing Period and featured the black figure technique (kind of those black figures and symbols and decorations you find on those orange terra-cotta jars?)

Ariadne, like the Endymion/Jonah, can be detected in the telltale sleeping position. According to this museum, so could Dionysus. Which makes sense because he liked to lounge and party. :P

I saw pieces found in a Villanovan cemetery. Hercules was one of the most popular figures for art. Hermes, the messenger god, was linked to Iris, a female messenger god. That was a connection I hadn't thought of before, even though I knew they were both messenger gods.

Towards the end of the first hall exhibit was a special sarcophagi with two people on top of it--a man and a woman. This was Sarcophago degli Sposi, ionic. The ends included men and women. I suppose that the spouses wanted to be together, even in death.

Learning about Etruskan gods was interesting. Their underworld gods were Apollo and Suri, Cavatha and Persephone. I don't know how Apollo ended up being the Greek god of light. They also had a nice blurb on the Etruscan alphabet, which was determined to be pre/proto-Indo-European (though Indo-European, as I learned in my Latin class in high school, is kind of considered one of those huge and encompassing Mother of All Languages). They made an important distinction--it was not ike the Greek alphabet.

The Etruskans were a war-loving people, and many of the main gods for the Romans were gods that had a connection to war, such as Jupiter, Mars, and Minerva. Cel was their mother goddess and goddess of fertility and the Underworld.

Further in, they LITERALLY had an exhibit on the history of vases, which I thought was pretty awesome. They carried water and practical things way before they were simple decorations or flower-holders in modern homes. They also had a hall of great jewelry. And down in the crypt of the museum (of course :P) there was a grave--rather spooky because no one else was there. Also, I found out more about the tufo and nenfro dirt--easy to dig through until it hits the air and hardens. They used this for the catacombs and other things.

Also (this is kind of funny), while I was in there, kind of spooked by all the silence, someone's cell phone went off and it was that I'M NEVER GONNA DANCE AGAIN song. It made me giggle.

Coming back for class was a lot easier than going out. I was walking toward a lot of people this time, and I felt so much safer. It's ridiculous, the kinds of personal security cues you pick up along the way. I decided not to take the underground and to just walk from Piazza del Populo back to campus. I'm so glad I did. Because this happened:



So you know that this had to happen.





I got back to campus and stopped to soak my feet in the campus fountain (shh) because I'd been walking around in stylish flats all day, trying to blend in. I had time to snap a few pictures because I saw...well...here's the pictures.




I hung my clothes out my window in the morning, hoping they'd dry from their handwash the night before. Looking around the courtyard, I noticed that someone's clothes were strewn all over the place. Suddenly, I realized they were mine. First, I felt panic. Then, I felt relieved. I had realized this before anyone could take them! Then I realized that they were on the sides of the building and basically in places that I'd have to risk my neck to climb to get them. So I felt panic. And then, I felt an adrenaline rush. After all, I had just taken on ROME. BY MYSELF. Of course I could be adventurous one more time to get my clothes!

I put my shoes back on and began to climb, for one minute, balancing myself on a thin rain about two inches wide. I retrieved all the items, ran back upstairs, and ran back downstairs for class.

That was my adventurous day. And it was awesome.