Something to Declare

May 15, 2024: Playing Hooky

Today, the Odysseys tour went to Delphi, to see the site of the famous oracle. The oracle had been the one to predict, to the satisfaction of Freudians everywhere, that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother, yadda yadda. But Stef and I decided to skip the official tour and stay in Athens for the day. There were some museums we’d wanted to see yesterday, but that were closed on Tuesdays.

The place we really wanted to see was the Benaki Museum of Greek Art, Culture and History. It is named for Antonis Benakis (1873-1954), a Greek ex-pat born in Egypt. A passionate art collector, he bequeathed to Greece his collections and his gorgeous parental home. The museum has exhibits from the Neolithic Age (10,000 to 2,500 BCE) through the 19th century. We started with lots of Stone Age pottery and statuary, including male and female figures from Thessaly, about 6,500 BCE:

The upper figure was described as showing that, in middle age, men tend to put on weight. The lower one clearly indicates that the thong bikini has been around since the Stone Age.

On the top floor, the most recent material is from the 19th century, mostly related to the Greek Wars of Independence from the Ottoman Turkish Empire, from 1821 to 1829. These included paintings, like the one depicting the naval battle of Samos (that the Greeks won):

There was also a huge telescope:

This telescope had been used by one of the Greek naval commanders of the Wars of Independence, notable because she was a woman. Laskarina Bouboulina (née Pinotsi) was an Admiral who commanded a fleet of ships including the vessel Agamemnon:

(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia). She fought and prevailed in several battles in the waters around Nafplion (on our itinerary for tomorrow).

But after her victories, she experienced some tragedies. Some of these were political: She was on the wrong side of the Greek Civil War of 1824, and was imprisoned for a while on the island of Spetses. Some were personal: Her son, Georgios Yannouzas, eloped with Eugenia Koutsi. The Koutsi family had promised Eugenia in marriage to someone else, and they were highly displeased with the elopement. Laskarina supported the young couple, however, up to the time that the Koutsi family sent armed men to Laskarina’s home. When Laskarina berated the attackers from her balcony, they shot and killed her.

A movie about her life (“Bouboulina”) was released in 1959, starring the Greek actress Irene Papas. There is a statue of Laskarina on Spetses, and her image appeared on some Greek coins and banknotes.

But I digress.

There were exhibits of some of the weaponry of those times, displaying very artistic workmanship, i.e., this gunpowder container (bearing the image of the goddess Athena) and a set of pistols:

We’d heard that the Benaki Museum had a wonderful rooftop restaurant, and we enjoyed an al fresco lunch there, Stuffed Pepper and Tomato, and Stuffed Zucchini Avgolemono (egg/lemon sauce):

The other lovely part of the Benaki exhibits was an impressive collection of genuine period clothing that had belonged to some famous people of the times:

It was especially obvious that many of these older Greek costumes, up to the 19th Century, had a strong middle eastern style to them. There were also period farm implements, including a wooden plow with a detachable iron plowshare:

In the early evening, we strolled back out to the Plaka neighborhood, to a rooftop restaurant called Okra that featured a view of the Acropolis:

Dinner was fantastic. We shared Taramas (a dip made of fish roe), and a grilled cod on a bed of cabbage with caviar sauce:

Afterward there was dessert from a place we dubbed “Mount Gelato:”

One of the better hooky-playing days I’ve spent.