We had a UNF group field trip to the Acropolis Museum again this
morning and it also made a nice review session for those of us in the
art class because we have a mid-term tomorrow! Erika, Erin, Micah and I
walked back through the important pieces of sculpture and repeated what
we remembered about the pieces from class and from our professor. This
was actually quite an easy way to study! We realized we knew a lot more
than we thought, and we were able to share some of what we learned with
our classmates.
Our professors kirios (Mr.) Kaplan and
kiria (Mrs.) Kaplan pointed out to us that this museum is more than just
an impressive, modern building that houses ancient sculptures,
pediment, metopes and pottery. This museum is making a very political
argument. It's a message to the British, saying give us our stuff back.
In the early 19th century, Lord Byron from England took one of the
Caryatids (famous maidens) from the porch of the Erectheion and it was
never returned. To this day, the Greeks argue that the maiden should be
reunited with her other 5 sisters safely protected in the Acropolis
Museum.
Entering the museum, you will go through security
and a metal detector. Nowhere else in Athens is there a museum with such
security measures. Although I have to say I think a lot of it is for
show, because one of my classmates accidentally walked in with a pocket
knife and he wasn't searched or anything. The metal detector beeped a
few more times as we were walking in, but the guard just told people to
keep moving without even checking to see what set off the beeper. But
the fact that the museum has security portrays how serious the Greeks
are at keeping theft out of this museum. Also, the museum says, "look we
can take care of our stuff."
The layout and location
of the Acropolis Museum is no coincidence, every floor is laid out with
specific intentions. The location is just a few minutes walk from the
Acropolis and provides a perfect view of the Parthenon. Visitors enter
the museum by walking up a ramp that resembles the slope up the
Acropolis. There are items (mostly pottery) on both walls leading up to
the first floor which houses the gorgeous white-washed statues primarily
from the 6th century. Then you head up to the top floor which has the
precise dimensions of the Parthenon, and is also situated in the exact
same orientation. The west and east pediments in the museum line up with
the pediments on the Parthenon, as well as the marble frieze which
fully wraps around the exterior wall. There are also parts of the frieze
located in the British Museum, and these parts are distinguished as
missing because they are a different color than the rest of the frieze.
This is the one floor where you can freely take pictures, unlike the
first floor where no photography is aloud. It's clear that the Greeks
want people to know that they are missing parts of history that they
want back. As you descend back down to the ground level, you will see
the focal point of the whole museum: the Maidens. It is a very subtle
placement but the maidens are placed in the center of the Museum and you
can see it from every floor, thanks to the see-through floors. You can
also take pictures of the maidens, and the Greeks have made it very
obvious that one is missing from the collection.
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| The famous Maidens. There is a spot left for the missing one, front and second from the left. |
So
my question is why don't the Brits just return the statue if it's
causing so much tension? Kiria Kaplan explained that there are three
arguments the British have for not returning the statue.
1. Pollution used to be awful in Athens in the 80's and they didn't want the statue to be affected by the air in Greece.
2.
There have been multiple thefts from Greek museums in the past (like
the one we heard about in Corinth) and the Brits argue that the statue
is safer in their museum.
3. If the maiden statue is returned, should everything from the ancient Greeks and all of Greek history be returned to Greece?
This
last reason is the most relevant and presents the best argument. Yes,
Lord Byron stole a maiden and took some of the frieze as well. But does
that mean that every museum should return items to the home country?
Then people will only ever be able to see the remains of the rich Greek
history by traveling to Greece, something that not everyone can afford
in their lifetime. For now though, the maiden remains in the British
Museum and the Greeks remain determined to retrieve her and reunite her
with her sisters.
After the museum visit, I witnessed
the rawest, most pure form of Greek emotion that I've yet to see on this
trip. I can officially say I survived my first strike and lived to tell
the story. Kiria Kaplan informed us that there would be an organized
(and non-dangerous) strike on the main street if we wanted to check it
out on our own time. Naturally, I wanted to go. I've never seen a strike
in real life and since it was deemed peaceful by our professor it
seemed safe enough.
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| The fliers that were being handed out in Greek and English around the site of the strike. |
The strike was about working on Sundays. Sunday has
previously been a day when no one has had to work, a chance to rest
before the coming week. Now, however, bigger corporations are taking
over and today is the first Sunday they were allowed to be open. This
new law puts smaller businesses and locally owned stores in a tough
place. They can either continue to stay closed on Sundays and face the
risk of being put out of business by the bigger corporations, or they
can be open 7 days a week, with no day to rest.
There
are two sides to every coin, so before automatically siding with the
small business owners, I tried to understand why the bigger corporations
and stores would feel the need to be open on a day of rest. If
corporations are hiring teenagers or college kids who have school and
class during the week, then it makes sense that they would want to be
open the whole weekend. With the harsh unemployment rates for my
generation, these employees would be able to get more hours, which is
always needed. Regardless though, I still side with the emotions and
reasoning of the small business owners.
My family has
personally been a victim of a bigger corporation taking over and forcing
us out of business. Our family drug store was forced to sell out to CVS
because they would be open 7 days a week and with really long hours. I
completely understand why the strike happened, people are scared of what
might happen if they don't give in to working 7 days a week.
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| Although we couldn't understand what they were saying, the overall message was easy to understand. |
Watching
the emotions and force of the crowd was addicting. The amount of
passion and organization that went into this strike blew me away. The
people fed off each others energy and channeled it into one cause,
forcing the store owners to close down for the day. It was not violent
or aggressive, the people were united in peacefully fighting for what
they believe in. The process was simple: they started at one end of the
street and would go from door to door of all the stores that were open,
crowd around the door and chant in unison until the store would finally
have no other choice but to close their doors for the day. We did see
one store that didn't close their doors, but I don't think they were
going to get any business for the rest of the day anyway. Some of the
protesters stayed behind and barricaded the door with their bodies and a
sign.
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| The crowds gathered outside of a store called Pink, with flags and a mission. |
Most
of the people seemed to be part of the strike, but there were the
occasional Greeks who were actually there to shop. And that did not go
over well with the crowd. At one point I was standing on a bench to get a
better view and witnessed a middle-aged Greek couple walking down the
street with two shopping bags in hand. A woman who was with the strike
began to yell and speak very passionately to them and started following
them down the street. The couple did not respond, they kept their heads
down and kept walking.
As the crowd moved down the street, each store already had a sign taped up from the protesters that looked like this.
Their
approach was powerful, effective and made a statement. It was not
violent (although there were plenty of cops around just in case) nor
threatening. I could have stayed with the crowd all day, watching them
fight for something they truly believe in. It was captivating to see the
real, true, unfiltered emotions of the Greek people. It didn't matter
that tourists were around, this was a vulnerable moment that we were
lucky enough to witness. And this definitely makes my top 5 favorite
moments of this trip so far.
