7/24 - Lamia, Meteora

Abi and I were out the door at 0600 this morning for our run. At one point, we had not one, not two, but three dogs following us in a big happy fluff pack. One of them dropped off pretty quickly and the remaining two escorted us to the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, so we named them Cleobis and Biton. Hopefully they stay happy and fluffy for a long time though. The sanctuary is gorgeous in the morning light. The sun takes a long time to come up due to the high mountains in the east.

We returned to the hotel and snagged a quick breakfast. Then we boarded the bus and headed out. About 40 minutes into the drive, we stopped on the roadside and picked up Luke, who had hiked out of Delphi down the mountain to the road at 4am. With him back on the bus, we kept moving towards Lamia.

Pot shard with what appears to be a sea battle on it. Discussed further below. 

The museum at Lamia is a converted barracks that was built under the reign of King Otto in the 1830s. Some of the fortifications are still evident, but much of it has crumbled away. We played our museum gift game again, where you take another person’s name and have to find something they like. I felt like a little bit of a spy when I managed to get Asia to divulge what she liked in a case without revealing that I had her as my recipient. I presented her with a load of bronze rings, which may have been used as a currency before coins existed but also seemed to double as decorative objects.

The picture above is one of the treasures of the collection. It appears to show a battle at sea on a pot shard, which is extremely rare. Specifically, the depiction of the ship is something that archaeologists would be interested in finding more of.

The museum stop was pretty quick and after a restroom break we hopped on the bus and kept driving. We stopped a while later at a roadside cafeteria. The food was alright, if overpriced as these places are. We ate quickly and got back on the bus in a jiffy. The drive ahead of us was long and we had places to be.

We rolled through Kalambaka and up the winding hills to Meteora. The site is most famous for its extensive monasteries, which numbered 24 at the height of the site’s flourishing. We went to Varlaam and The Church of Transfiguration. Most of these monasteries were barely accessible in their heyday, with the only access coming from rope and basket lifts. There are many restrictions on photo taking inside, so I have some beautiful vista shots but no pictures of the art in the churches. Still, I'll try to describe some of the cool stuff.

Gorgeous if slightly blurry view of one of the monasteries from below. 

In the Church of Transfiguration, in a room that houses relics from one of the monastery’s founders, the walls are decorated in the deaths of martyrs. There were decapitations and dismembering and burnings and crucifixions and crushings and molten lead being poured down throats and much much more. The martyrs all have golden disks of sainthood around their head even after the heads have been separated from the body. It's a gory but impressive depiction of people more dedicated to their faith than to their continued existence. Strength of conviction that strong is not unadmirable though.

Looking across onto another monastery. Got a lot of these shots. 

Eva presented at the foot of the hill in front of the Church of Transfiguration and gave a very thorough overview of the history of the churches. The gradual amalgamation of isolated monks into communities on the hill is really cool. There is evidence of earlier habitation going as far back as the Neolithic period. Also, For Your Eyes Only, the James Bond film, was shot partially on Meteora. In addition, Meteora is the name of a Linkin Park album I like way too much. Finally, I'd like to give a shout out to Glenn Bugh and tell him that everything went really well.

And now to discuss something that I was thinking about in connection with the monasteries that may be controversial. At what point would an ASCSA or other scholarly trip decline to visit a monastery or other site because their group’s female members are treated differently or have entirely different access rights as male colleagues who are at the same level as they are?

I talked about this with Luke a fair bit over and after our gyros and chicken souvlaki tonight and we really didn't get to a good conclusion. And it seemed pretty obvious that eventually the whole thing was going to devolve into a super wide question of the intersection of western ideals and more traditional customs, which I'm not trying to address now, as it’s way too broad. Maybe it's not the job of people who are barely a step above tourist to try to create a shift towards increased gender equality.

For a suggestion of a more localized solution, maybe the rules at monasteries should be more strict. Like elbows and knees covered for everyone, not just women. I wore jeans today in anticipation of this and it turned out to be completely unnecessary. Should the monasteries really crack down in order to actually be more equal? Or is the current system something to just deal with? I'll be honest, just accepting that doesn't begin to consider problems with female academics not being permitted the same access as male academics. I'm not sure about any of these things so feel free to drop a comment or write me at mcartier@uchicago.edu.

Anyways, we took some more pictures of the beautiful views then rolled into town. We hit dinner and the pool, which were incredible. Tomorrow, we have more driving all the way to Vergina.

Hit me with your monastery modesty thoughts. Thanks for reading.

Edited 7/25 for errors.