Author: Ian Mason

Posted on February 23, 2018

Can recommend travelling with a limp and a walking stick! I was ushered through Athens airport Fast Track security (but not at Heathrow!) and young women offered me their seats on the Athens Metro. On the other hand, a shopkeeper said I looked like an old Greek man 🙁

Posted on February 21, 2018

Photo I:

A relief of the deceased girl Korallion, shown seated, holding out her hand to her husband. Grave enclosure of the Herakleotai, Street of the Tombs.

Ca. 350 B.C.

Photo II:

A relief of the deceased girl Eukoline, shown with her parents, her grandmother and her dog. Found near the Sacred Way.

Ca. 350 B.C.

Photo III:

Grave relief of Demetria and Pamphile.

The inscription beneath the pediment gives the names of the two dead sisters.

The women, remote and isolated, gaze apathetically at the spectator. They are already in another, transcendental world, far from the things of this life. The pilasters of the naiskos have been restored. It is one of the last tomb stones made before the law passed by Demetrios of Phaleron prohibiting the erection of luxurious tomb monuments.

Ca. 325-310 B.C.

Posted on February 21, 2018

I was very impressed with the ancient cemetery site of Kerameikos in Athens today.

The small museum is excellent and I found the “handshake” reliefs from the cemetery particularly moving. They show the deceased, usually seated, bidding farewell to the living.