Classics goes to Chicago
Scott Walker
I recently had the great pleasure of taking a field trip with Professor Zatta, my Latin 101 class, and the Latin 301 class to the Art Institute of Chicago. We left early in the morning in one of Wabash’s 11-passenger vans and about three hours later, we were in the heart of Chicago. After a pit stop at Starbucks, we headed through downtown Chicago to the Art Institute. Once inside, we headed straight for the Classical Art exhibit. The main focus of our trip was to examine some ancient Greek pottery. There were many different pieces: kraters, amphorai, hydriai, and many other pots, cups and bowls. Many depicted myths, tales of heroes, and other such stories, while others represented scenes of everyday life and the rituals common to the use of the jar. Professor Zatta gave us a crash course in pottery and mythology, telling us the meaning of the different stories that were drawn on the vases. She described the difference between black-figure and red-figure painting. The painting was done by coating the pottery with a slip--a thin paste of clay mixed to water-- before baking the vases. Once in the kiln, the slip-painted areas would turn dark black, while the unpainted sections would turn the classic red of the Mediterranean clay. She also pointed out how many of the artifacts were from Athens, and in some of the vases we could identify an owl, the symbol of Athena, in the designs or paintings. After our short lecture on Classical Greek pottery, we were allowed to roam the museum to visit the exhibits and enjoy the art. One fascinating exhibit was the showcase of ancient Roman, Greek, and Egyptian coins. All were very similar, but all had their differences. Some featured the faces of goddesses and nymphs, while others represented the faces of kings, heroes of lore and creatures such as satyrs, griffons, and chimaeras.
After a light lunch, we headed toward our next destination, the Newberry Library. The 
Newberry is one of the world’s largest humanities research libraries with over 1.5 million books, 5 million manuscript pages, and 500,000 historic maps…and a really small parking garage. Thanks to the patented Royce Gregerson 32-point turn, we were able to escape the parking garage and view the library’s main exhibit, Artifacts of Childhood. The showcase was a collection of children’s literature ranging from 700 –year- old Latin Psalters to modern books written by children for children. The exhibit was interesting to see because throughout an eclectic selection of books it showed how, across the world, children’s literature has developed over the centuries.
From the library we walked over to John Hancock Tower to get a stunning view of the
†Windy City. Finally we headed back to the van so we could make our 6:00 dinner reservations. That was when, all cozy aboard the van, we noticed that the battery had died. The van wouldn’t start. A couple of us walked a few blocks with the intention of flagging down Chicago’s finest and see if they could help. Well, half an hour and an enjoyable ride with Professor Zatta in the back of a squad car later, we were still stuck on the side of the road. The policeman who gave the Professor Zatta and us a ride back to the van said he couldn’t do anything to help us, unfortunately. Luckily, many of us on the trip knew a Wabash 
alumnus who was a former member of my fraternity, now living in Chicago. Adrian Mendoza, Class of ’08, came by with his brother and gave the van a jump so we could finally make it to dinner.
Dinner was a very enjoyable part of the trip. We dined at an authentic Greek restaurant, Greek Islands. Our i
llustrious professor ordered our meal in Greek, and minutes later, our waiter came out bearing flaming saganaki cheese. Then a procession of waiters brought the rest of the courses. Scrumptious Greek salad, mouth-watering gyro meat, fluffy pita breads, delicious dolmades, cold spreads, succulent chicken, and heaven-sent keftedakia, meatballs. After the nine of us gorged ourselves on the multiple courses, we settled down with a cup of Greek coffee and headed home. The long day of Classics immersion had come to an end.