An American Engineer

Back From Greece..and a Perspective From Art

Well, we are back, Two glorious weeks on the Greek islands, with stops in Athens and London. It was the best Honeymoon every, made even better by the fact that I was with my honey. No doubt, I did very well in the wife department, she is a dream.

Impressions, in no particular order.

1. The wine dark sea is magic. The first time I dove in on Falastrani beach in western Crete was a baptism of joy. I will never forget that moment.

2. Santorini is like the Grand Canyon in that seeing it in person, your mind cannot completely process the image and you become covinced that it is some kind of movie special effect. Stayed at the Altana in Imgrovili, just up from Fira. We were in the VIP suite on the top of the caldera, the sunsets alone were worth the price.

3. Greek food is ok. We made lunches of Cretan cheese, olives and bread that were perfect. Dinner was often appetizers and Greek Salad and grilled Chicken or fish. The fish was way too expensive, but the rest was cheap and good. The coffee sucked.

4. I like Santorini wine and Ouzo.

Did I say that I like Ouzo.

5. I love seeing ruins, saw Knossos, the Acropolis, the temple of Demeter and of Apollo in Naxos, as well as a couple of Venetian forts and towers.

6. The Samaria gorge in Crete ranks with any I have hiked.

7. Nude and topless bathing is very civilized. We Americans are a prudish bunch, for no good reason.

There are a lot more, just a sample. It was lovely, it was memorable.

One last though.

While wandering Santorini, we came across an art studio where the artist specialized in reproductions of ancient Minoan and Doric Greek art, using the materials and techniques of the originals. His work was authentic and beautiful. We spent some time looking at it, and for the first time in a life time of historical study, I was struck by something that I should have seen before.

The Minoan art was beautiful, scenes of nature and life, free flowing, peaceful, women and men going about there lives and religion in touch with the beauty around them. You wanted to move there and live with them.

Doric art, that of the high Greeks was also beautiful and technically brilliant.

I knew that, I had seen it before.

But it was all about conflict. Scenes of war, scenes of the hunt. Scenes of the race.

More scenes of war.

There is other art, like it, to be seen in Greece. In every shop you can find books and playing cards with vase representations of Greeks having sex. Greek Porn, Doric style.

And that is what it was, rough porn, scenes of men having sex with prostitutes.

The classical Greek culture was lofty, it was a bright star that gave us philosophy and science, rational though and democratic ideals. We are who we are today because of the Greeks, and in that the world has gained much.

But the Doric Greeks also invented the tradition of close combat and battle to the death that marks the western way of war. Yes, the Assyrians were brutal, as were many Ancients, but war changed with the Greeks, and since them it has never been the same.

And as I was looking at those two artistic traditions, remembering all that I knew of what we had gained from the Greeks.

For the first time I found myself wondering what we had lost.

posted by Maurice_Basilius @ 2:17 PM