Athens

While studying abroad in Italy, I was determined to visit at least one other country nearby. Before departing the United States, I called my bank to put a travel alert on about half a dozen countries - Greece, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic - not knowing which ones I’d possibly have the opportunity to see. I ended up visiting Athens, Greece and Lugano, Switzerland. While Lugano was lovely (despite the rainy weather,) I have to say that my experience in Athens made more of an impact on me.

Before choosing Athens, I had been deep in study about the ancient civilizations of the Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Romans. I have long been intrigued by Greek culture, particularly of the Classical Age, because of my studies of philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates. While Rome is connected to my Italian ancestry, I learned how much Rome was influenced by the culture, art, and architecture of the Greeks, and even absorbed it into its own. I studied the timelines of Greece and the important events that occurred within each major age: the Bronze Age, the Heroic Age, the Archaic Period, and the Classical Period. I saw pictures of important ancient artifacts and sculptures, such as the Calf-Bearer and the Kritios Boy, the latter of which is significant as a transitional piece between the Archaic and Classical Periods. Both of these sculptures were contained at the Acropolis Museum in Athens. I wanted to see them for myself.

The night before flying out from Rome, I took a cab from my hostel to get my first look of the Colosseum. I felt sure that I would be coming back to Rome for a longer visit later but due to the unknown circumstances that life can bring, I wanted to seize the opportunity to get a quick look at it that night. I walked around its entirety, peeked through the gate to get a glimpse of the inside and as I laid my hand on its ancient stone, I promised myself I would be coming back.

My flight on Aegean Air was pleasant, and the view of the sparkling Aegean Sea outside of my window was stunning. As soon as I landed at the Athens airport, I took a shuttle to get to the neighborhood where my hotel, the Royal Olympic, was located. I walked past the entrance to the park which contained the Temple of Olympian Zeus and shortly after that, I saw the directional sign to the Acropolis. I quickened my stride so that I could get to my hotel sooner in order to drop off my bag and get to exploring.

My hotel, which I had gotten for an inexpensive online rate, was beautiful and elegant. I dropped my bag off in my room and immediately went back out to head towards the Acropolis. As I walked up the hill towards the ancient citadel, I passed some Jehovah's Witnesses. (I saw them in just about every major city I visited.) The two ladies were standing by a cart full of magazines and booklets. They made me think about the Apostle Paul from the Bible and his travels around Greece, including Athens. I imagined him in his ancient world, when the worship of different gods imbued every part of an active Greek's life, and how it must have taken him so much courage to persuade people to take notice of and worship Jehovah, the living God. I wondered if he might've stood near the same path that I was walking on, vigorously trying to talk to people as they were on their way to these great temples which are still visible today.

I also passed by vendors selling roasted chestnuts, corn, and other foods. It was the time of day when the sun was on the verge of setting so there was a rich golden glow on everything. One of the things that struck me the most was a unique scent which I could not place but was fascinated by. It was spicy and herbaceous and reminded me of incense. (I would find out later that it was a type of yellow flower which grew around the area at the base of the citadel hill.)

When I first caught sight of the Parthenon on top of the rocky outcrop which is the site of the Acropolis, my heart jumped and I felt a sudden tingle of excitement. (My experience at the Parthenon itself merited its own blog.) This place crackles with energy and overwhelms the senses. I walked up the meandering path surrounded by trees, shrubs, sandstone and marl, walking quickly with anticipation but slowly enough to absorb all of the sights, sounds, and smells. I arrived close to the top and stopped at the gate short of breath after the hike up.

Unfortunately, I had just missed the last admission, and they were not letting anyone else in due to time of closing. I was disappointed, but I knew I would be coming back the next morning and decided to continue to explore. I went back down the hill, bought a roasted corn on the cob off a grill from a vendor, and made my way to the Acropolis Museum to see some ancient works of art that had been found in and around the vicinity of the ancient wonder on top of that rocky hill. I saw pieces dating from the beginning of the Bronze Age to the Classical Age, including the Calf-Bearer and the Kritios Boy. I saw busts of the various Greek gods and goddesses of mythology: Athena, Poseidon, Dionysus and others. Those three are probably my favorites. I relate to Athena the most as she personifies victory, courage, the arts, literature and intellectual activity, and because she is represented by an olive tree and an owl. (I used to have a pet owl when I was younger, and I also love olives.) Poseidon is intriguing because he is the god of the sea and protector of water, and who wouldn't love the ultimate party god Dionysus, the good-natured purveyor of wine, theater and festivity? I probably spent three hours in the museum taking my time looking at and reading everything I could.

After visiting the museum, I went to have dinner at an outdoor bistro at the base of the Acropolis with my table in between a flaming fire and some green ivy. I sipped on crisp local white wine and made a silent toast to the glowing Parthenon on the hill, and after I finished my dolmadakia and grilled octopus, I decided to go take a little walk around Plaka, the oldest neighborhood in Athens.

Plaka is a charming maze of narrow streets, glowing lamps, and outdoor cafes at every turn. Sometimes I passed under a canopy of vines overhead which connected buildings on either side of the street. I browsed a shop that was being managed by a charismatic middle-aged man named Ares (like the god of war), and he taught me a trick for how to remember the Greek word for “thank you,” which is “efcharistó" pronounced “eff-carry-sto.” He told me to just think “eff, I can’t remember…” and that it might help. (It did!) I also learned and remembered how to write the word “city” in Greek (πόλη).

After a lively conversation with Ares (who also goes by the name of Harry), I bought some jewelry for my mom and sisters and started to make my way towards a little tavern frequented by the Plaka locals which Ares recommended, but I changed my mind when I realized it would be more challenging than I’d thought it would be to find it, and it was starting to rain. I turned back and settled at a tavern outside underneath some trees with a little water garden next to it and had some chilled ouzo, then a baklava, and finally an espresso as I listened to ambient Greek music. A calico cat with a big fluffy tail climbed out of a tree nearby and scampered past me. (A tip to keep in mind: chilled ouzo is better recommended as an aperitif to have BEFORE dinner, preferably something that is seafood. I knew about that but preferred wine at the time.)

On the way out of Plaka, I stopped at the gate of the Temple of Zeus and reflected in tranquil solitude at those ancient ruins. When I got back to my hotel, I went up to the rooftop garden and spent the rest of my night sitting by a roaring fireplace drinking two snifter glasses of Metaxa (a Greek spirit of brandy blended with natural flavors and muscat wine from the Aegean Islands) and gazed out at the rain, alternating my view between the softly lit ruins of the Temple of Zeus just outside to my right and the mysterious Parthenon on the hill (which I still had to look forward to visiting the next morning) on my left. After going up to my room and taking a hot bath (my first in more than a month after sharing a community shower with lukewarm water at my apartment in Siena), I sat naked outside on my tiny private balcony, privately surveying the city lights and traffic below me while I thought about the experiences I'd had so far. I had walked the paths of ancient Greeks and connected on a deeply personal level with this city that had contributed so much to world culture. It was one of the most sensory and profound weekends I’d had in a long time; maybe one of the best in my life.

Efcharistó, Athens.

The Parthenon!

Dionysus Theater

Temple of Athena

These smelled like spicy herbaceous incense all around the Acropolis.

Roasted corn...nom nom nom

Outside Dionysus Theater

One of the most important sculptures:  The Kritios Boy

Met a local Greek named Ares (aka Harry)

Greek dinner at a tavern below the Acropolis

Baklava and espresso

Chilled ouzo after dinner

Walking around Plaka, oldest quarter in Athens

A snifter of Metaxa, a Greek liqueur similar to brandy

The Etruscans: Challenging the Perception of Gender Parity in an Ancient Civilization

Imagine you are at a party. A sumptuous feast is set out with a table piled high of almost every kind of meat you could want to taste: beef, lamb, pork, deer, wild boar, hare, and all sorts of game birds. There is a great variety of seafood as well, especially tuna, accompanied by enormous rounds of sheep’s milk cheese, vegetables, fruit, olives, porridge, bread pancakes, eggs, raisins and nuts. To further enhance the flavors, condiments of herbs, mint, honey, vinegar, pepper, and other spices are added. The people you are among happen to belong to a society which is a great exporter of wine, so there is no shortage in that department either, and domestic servants keep it flowing by continuously bringing the intoxicating burgundy-hued liquid to you in delicate silver pitchers. To keep the mood of the gathering uplifted, you hear the lively and delicate tune of the flute accompanied perhaps by the lyre, a small stringed instrument.

As you make your way around the room, you observe the other dinner party attendees, all of whom are in groups, with no one being alone. They are not sitting upright in chairs at a long elegant table but, rather, they are reclining on one-armed sofas. Some are even on floor mats surrounded by plush luxuriantly designed pillows. The men wear Greek-style tunics with complicated braided hairstyles. The hairstyles of the women are similar but with the addition of elaborate gold adornments and sparkling bold jewelry which compliments their brightly colored attire.

Your eye is drawn to one corner of the room where there is a couple sitting on a sofa. A woman sips heartily from a goblet of wine, tosses her head back with a boisterous laugh as she settles languorously against the gentleman next to her, her left breast slightly exposed and just caressing the right side of his chest. As you become more engaged and conversational with your fellow guests, you realize that this couple is not married! In fact, the woman’s husband is very close by, appearing to be equally relaxed and enjoying himself with other guests. In this gathering, there is nothing that is unseemly or taboo about the scene here.

Who is this woman? And who are these people? As you have probably guessed, you are being entertained at the home of someone belonging to an ancient civilization. The civilization is that of the Etruscans.

Etruscan Women

Preceding the rise of Rome as a super power, the entirety of Italy was ruled by the Etruscans. The surrounding seas were dominated by their ships. Their reputation was fearsome enough, as word of them spread abroad to other nations, without the added uneasiness of hearing how Etruscan society accorded women with influence and power.

There is little to be known about the Etruscans. Once they were conquered by the Romans, much of what was left of their civilization was lost, with none of their literature surviving. Archaeologists and historians have pieced together what Etruscan life was like by interpreting the vivid art that was left on their pottery, which illustrated depictions of elite Etruscans dining on top of the sarcophagi of dead loved ones, and there were also scenes of women drinking and sharing repast with the men - something that was rarely seen in ancient Greek and later Roman society. Only courtesans and prostitutes would be at a party among Greeks and Romans, and proper women in those societies would not be drinking wine, at least not until Rome was an empire. Yet, not only were Etruscan women expert drinkers, they freely imbibed right alongside the men.

The gender parity that existed between Etruscan men and women is probably what stands out most about what is known of their civilization. Etruscan women “scandalously” went out publicly, were able to read and write, and likely passed these dire habits on to their offspring (which they raised themselves). It was not uncommon for Etruscan women to be seen naked - at parties, at athletic events (which they participated in) - and even to share sexual experiences with partners who were not their husbands. They freely engaged in wining and dining publicly with their husbands and were actually elevated to higher social status for doing so. There are sculptured sarcophagi that show couples reclining together, affectionate and relaxed, the woman speaking and gesturing while the man placidly looks on. Murals also show women reclining or dancing amidst the men. They show female camaraderie and intimacy, notably in one painting that shows women who lay together, faces close as if kissing.

To share wives was an established Etruscan custom. Etruscan women took particular care of their bodies and exercised often, sometimes along with the men, and sometimes by themselves. Pitch tar was used to remove excess hair from their bodies. It was not a disgrace for them to be seen naked but rather, it was common. They did not share their couches only with their husbands but also with the other men who happened to be present, and they proposed toasts to anyone whom they chose to.

As mentioned previously, Etruscan women raised their own children and other children, regardless of who the father might have been, but more than that, archaeology suggests that there may have been matronymic lines in that the ancestry could be traced back to the maternal lineage rather than the paternal, based on certain inscriptions. Sometimes the father’s surname was added to the mother’s, which indicated a bilateral system which recognized matrilineal connections.

Women’s roles in the Etruscan-Roman relationship

One of the key female figures in ancient early Roman history is that of Tanaquil, the daughter of a powerful Etruscan family in Etruria and wife to Lucius Tarquin, the first Etruscan king of Rome. She was rumored to have prophetic abilities (something that nowadays might be considered to be female intuition) that persuaded her husband to move to Rome and become established with the local aristocracy, despite being an immigrant. While traveling to Rome, an eagle flew from Tarquin’s head and then returned back, which Tanaquil interpreted to be a divine sign that he was meant to be king. Her prophecy was eventually realized when Tarquin became friends with King Ancus Marcius, who made Tarquin the guardian of his children. When the king died before his children were old enough to become successors, Tarquin gained enough popularity to be elected as the fifth king of Rome. Tanaquil later used her influence again to play a role in the rise of the sixth king, Servius Tullius, whom she raised as her own child.

Due to her legendary status in early Etruscan-Roman politics, Tanaquil was respected and remembered favorably by Romans who elevated her to mythological status and changed her name in the history books to Caia Caecilia. It even became Roman public decree that when a new bride entered into a royal palace, she would go by the name “Gaia” if asked. This was meant to be an omen of frugality and simple living for women of that time period.

What was lost?

Once the Romans grew dissatisfied with Etruscan rule, the Tarquins were expelled from the city, and Romans began to establish a Republic just as their Etruscan counterparts were doing throughout the rest of Italy. This overthrow marked the beginning of the end of Etruscan rule in southern Italy. First they lost the routes to the cities leading to fertile land in the region of Campania, which was tolerable, but once they lost their naval strongholds, it was all but over. Following the destruction of their navy along with hostilities from all sides and internal struggles, the Etruscan city-states were conquered one by one and eventually fell to Rome. The Romans assimilated parts of Etruscan culture and discarded the rest.

One of the cultural aspects that was lost in relation to Etruscan women when the transition of power was passed to Rome was the freedom and social status of women. While Etruscan women did not have especially significant roles in initiating political changes in their society (Tanaquil being one of the historical exceptions), the Etruscan women had a lot more freedom to interact with their husbands and other men in public, attending parties and such, whereas Greek and Roman women did not. One thing to keep in mind, based on what is read and one’s own personal perception, is that much of the art depicted on the ancient archaeological findings of Etruscan pottery is that of wealthy elite-class Etruscan women. It is unknown what life was like for more lower-class Etruscan women and how much freedom they might have had.

Contrasting current perceptions of female-assigned gender roles

One thing that is striking when reading about ancient Etruscan women is how they were perceived by ancient chroniclers who were accustomed to how much more subordinated Greek and Latin women were in contrast to their Etruscan counterparts. Having the freedom to participate actively at parties while dressed in colorful eye-catching clothes and elaborate adornments, they were looked upon as “licentious” for doing so, whereas in their own society they were respected. Earlier Greeks left personal testimony for later Greeks to base their own perceptions and when reading these subjective eyewitness accounts, one could almost detect a hint of envy mixed in with an air of judgment. When considering these ancient comparisons of how women could be labeled based on personal perception and cultural relevancy, it brings to mind that similar contrasts could be done today.

A good visual example to consider would be that of a photo capturing Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton being greeted by topless women when they visited the Solomon Islands in 2012. In their own local culture, nothing about these women addressing the British royal couple in this way would be perceived as inappropriate and yet, as a guest, it is interesting to note that Kate Middleton did not assimilate to the local culture and appear topless herself; she is fully covered in a blue dress. On the other hand, if one of these local women of the Solomon Islands appeared topless on a street in London, there would likely be more scrutiny and disapproval, if not outrage.

Another and more recent example to contrast, specifically regarding gender parity in politics and business, would be that of Hilary Clinton, the primary Democratic candidate for the 2016 Presidential election. In comparison to Donald Trump, who was captured on audio making inappropriate statements about women, which was ultimately dismissed by many of his supporters as something that was “in the past,” Clinton herself was not given such a pass for the discovery that she had used a private server for emails even though it was never proven that she committed anything treasonous. The burden of proof was shifted to her to prove her innocence to the public during this political witch hunt, rather than the other way around - burden of proof shifting to those accusing her of guilt - which is supposed to be the maxim upheld in American justice. It would seem that the public perception of her being “dishonest” and “manipulative” were assigned more to her as a woman than the same accusations that were applied to Donald Trump and yet, he was rewarded in this political narrative whereas she was punished.

A final example to look at is that of Wendi Deng, a Chinese-American actress, producer, and businesswoman. She was formerly married to media titan, Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation, and has more recently been rumored to be the girlfriend of Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation. She has a history of seducing older married men with the opinion that it was in order to increase her social strata, which has caused some to look at her as a “gold-digger” and social climber; even gaining her labels such as “glorified escort” and more. Yet, she has a professional résumé that would credit her as an executive who increased the presence and investments of NewsCorp in China, among other impressive professional ventures. Even still, for anyone who is vaguely familiar with who Wendi Deng is, it is suspected that they are more likely to associate her for her latent connections to high-profile men rather than on the merit of her own accomplishments without doing further digging.

Conclusion

In the current parlance of our times with feminism, sexuality, and women’s rights being dominant issues in the foreground of sociopolitical discourses, I believe that the Etruscan society, especially regarding the role of women, merits consideration. Aside from being a fascinating civilization, it provides a comparative lens for which to do analysis with our contemporary cultural relevancy. If not much else is known about the Etruscans, it is apparent that women were not only respected and encouraged to pursue social freedoms, they were considered equals. It is not only a feature, but a central narrative which dominates the illustrations of ancient Etruscan artifact.