Friday, we took a class field trip about 30 minutes outside of the city to Eleusis. I probably still haven't quite grasped the importance of this site, but from what I have learned, it was a sacred site in dedication to Demitra and her daughter Persephone; specifically used as a site of cult worship for fertility in celebration of the seasons. However, this site played a key role in the Christianization of Athens and was actually quite hard to eradicate by early Christians. Of course, the site was completely destroyed by the Christians, but the belief lived on into the late 18th century when pilgrims from Britain and France actually found people worshipping a statue of Demetra at the site. It was really neat to be standing in the middle of what was the sacred and secret temple where only the elected were allowed to visit and learn the secret ritual once a year. You have to be imaginative though, as its basically a platform with some of the bases of pillars. See video:

     I'm getting better at imagining the ruins and what the city may have looked like. I still have a long way to go, but its getting easier. I couldn't quite grasp it at first from the Parthenon, but from the agora looking to the Parthenon painted a bit clearer picture. I'm becoming quite a fan of the classic studies; today I went to to a professor and requested to join her class which is basically an in depth study of the archaeology of Athens. It made me happy though as she knew the classics professors from Wabash (the Days and Dr. Fischer) - it made me proud, we may be small in number, but not in influence.

     The weekend was very laid back - not like the party island last weekend. We did make it out to a club one night, which was fun. I'm still learning the ropes of the city, but fitting in well. My goal was to sort of dive into the classics this semester and take something away from it and so far I'm succeeding. In my philosophy class, we just read the Atomists who amazed me at how close they were to atomic theory and all but still so far away from the chemical truth. However, it only further ingrained my love of the liberal arts deep within me; for even philosophy can be used to explain chemistry - I know I'm a dork, but not ashamed, and found it fascinating.