Daily Updates
Week Five: 19 October
19 October. Ben O'Donnell Reporting:
Today was our first full day in Sicily, and we spent the whole of it in Siracusa, hitting at least four of the five major partitions of the city. We began in Ortigia, where our albergo is situated, pilfering cold cuts and bread from the breakfast line for our lunch later in the day.
After a brief bus ride, we were in ancient Tyche, which aptly showed off the pride and opulence of the AD 1970s with a magnificent opus concretum Christian basilica built in the inverted-gelato-cone/umbrella style. Complementing the unique architectural style of that church was the equally restrained Museo Paolo Orsi, housing Siracusa's archaeological collection.
Our group of enterprising scholar/aesthetes split up in the museum so we could each report back on an artifact of our choice. I found a kylix krater in Section C, the colony-of-a-colony artwork section. Here there were kylixes, breastplates, statuary, and other artifacts of Grammichele, Kamarina, and the other Sicilian branches of Siracusa's colonizing franchise.
After our hour of preparation, we all heard eighteen presentations on artifacts ranging from Gorgon temple plaques to miniature funerary boat sculptures to archaic fertility statues. The museum covered a wide swath of history, from the early bronze era through the times of Roman occupation of Sicily.
Two-and-a-half hours later, we hiked to yet another division of the old city-Neapolis, the social nexus of Siracusa, where an archaeological park preserves a Greek theater, a series of tombs near the border of the original city, a Roman amphitheater, and the Ear of Dionysius quarry area. It also preserves an old lady's house's worth of cats, which Minkun befriended through offers of salami and bread-until one crossed him and earned itself a powerful new enemy.
After we lunched here, we observed the Greek theater built by Gelon after Siracusa's defeat of Carthage in 480 BC. The arena held 15,000 once, and encompassed an orchestra, a stage, a cavea seating area, and, right beyond its top edge, a series of tombs lining the road into the city. Aeschylus and other luminaries once staged plays here.
Next, we walked into the Ear of Dionysius, a massive cave quarried out of the surrounding terrain, from which many of the surrounding monuments were constructed. Seven thousand Athenians were once imprisoned here during Sicily's intense war against Athens.
Finally, we found the amphitheater, a Roman production on a much smaller and simpler scale than the one that graces our favorite Roman metro stop.
Since we had the means of transportation, Professor Ulrich decided to take us all to the Greek fortress at Epipolai, on the outskirts of the city, perched to overlook lush hills, vast littoral panoramas, and breathtaking oil refineries. We all clambered around the ruins in search of vantage points, and Kyle bragged of having stormed the castle keep, though I was not on hand to confirm or deny that. Most of us were eventually yelled at by a trio of well-dressed gentlemen-perhaps too well-dressed.
Charlie presents the pigmy elephants in the Siracusa museum.
A painted terracotta bust from the Museum.
Kelsey presents a fertility goddess.
Craig presents a terracotta plaque of Medusa.
A statue fragment.
A bronze dog atop a vessel.
A model of the Temple of Apollo at Siracusa.
The group in the Greek theater at Siracusa.
Thea.
The group demonstrates its strength.
Dan.
Julie.
Charlie contemplates the mysteries of the universe atop the Greek fortress at Epipolai.
The Greek theater at Siracusa.