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Travel Blog of the Gaps
Welcome back, Blogonauts! It is quite a treat to be travel blogging again!
As you almost assuredly already know, I often travel with four fellow vagabonds: Bob, Richard, Shawn, & Toby.
At present this peripatetic pentad is yielding to the Siren call of Greece and embarking on an autumn Aegean odyssey.
(Give yourself ten points if you waded your way through that miry sentence and caught all of the mythologic references. As always, clicking on the links along the way will supply you with a modicum of more information, plus the occasional secret giggle.)
Now, regarding the title of this blog entry: THESIS THE DAY!
The ancient Greeks often used the word "thesis" (θέσις) to refer to the musical or poetic downbeat, which is in contrast to the upbeat, or "arsis" (άρσις). The thesis stood out as the first beat of the measure, the moment when the tempo is laid down, the maestro's wand-wave that gets everything going.
Today, we Anglophones have adopted the word "thesis" to describe the starting premise of an argument. (For example, "My thesis is that using the Greek alphabet in your blog makes you a horse's arsis.") Or in contrast, it can refer to the last act in an individual academic drama. ("Will I never complete my infernal thesis?!?")
But for our purposes, today marks our expeditionary ignition switch, and this essay is thus our thesis, the downbeat for a 10-day encounter with both ancient and up-to-date Hellenic life.
One aspect of travel is encountering the unfamiliar, and we are wandering into territory that to us is exotic in alphabet, in culture, and when you consider the tales told by the ancient architecture, even in time. So to get us started, here are a few interesting facts about Greece that I have discovered while preparing for the trip:
- The Greeks have been feeling plundered by the rest of Europe for
centuries. Many of the treasures of ancient Greek culture are
centerpieces in the museums of other European capital cities far outside
of Greece.
For example, the skeleton of the Parthenon remains atop the Acropolis in Athens, but the British took the skin (which they call the Elgin Marbles) back to England. Every picture in today's entry was once the glory of Athens ... but I took these pics in London, at the British Museum.
- Greece is technically about as close to bankruptcy as a country can get, but nonetheless, they have the 13th largest economy in the 28-member EU. They have some catching up to do on their debts, but don't count them out.
- Besides the mainland, Greece also contains more than 1400 islands. People reside on 230 of them.
- The Greek national motto: "Freedom or Death!" (Ελευθε 961;ία ή Θάνατο 62;). Maybe this isn't so foreign after all. My license plate carries the New Hampshire state motto: "Live Free or Die!" I wonder how you would say in Greek, "Live Responsibly or Suffer."
Blog to you later.
- comments
adele Wow, off you go, Larry! Kalo Taxidi as the Greeks say: Have a good trip! I will be watching eagerly for tales of your travels in the land I come from, but have never been to. Thanks! Euxaristo! Adele