Our Greek Odyssey -- Crete

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We had ‘compulsory reading’ of John Keats’ poem ‘Isabella’ a.k.a ‘A Pot of Basil’ in college.

When young girls and boys go to the college in India, generally speaking, they are facing co-education for the first time because before that, they have been strictly segregated.

Perhaps, they start having romantic thoughts about the opposite sex.

Our college authorities had come up with an excellent plan to nip all such fancies in bud. The poem ‘A Pot of Basil’ is enough to turn your stomach and bury all romantic notions that the girls and boys may harbor.

Readers, be forewarned. The poem is not for those who are timid or squeamish. You need a hard heart and strong stomach to read it.

http://www.online-literature.com/keats/3812/

Read the above link at your own risk.

The very idea of Isabella finding and separating her lover’s head from the dead body and keeping it in a pot of Basil is very bizarre and the description is quite gruesome.

The only silver lining to this dark poem was the ‘exception’; the clever, practical Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos of the Crete. When Theseus leaves her on Naxos, she bows towards him by way of a ‘goodbye’ and then promptly marries Dionysius and happily settles on Naxos.

Sensible girl!

Between the two girls, I rather admire Ariadne. For Isabella, I could not muster any tears or sighs. In case, you think me to be heartless, I must tell you that I DID shed a tear for the Ceylon diver though.

Were they unhappy then?--It cannot be--
Too many tears for lovers have been shed,
Too many sighs give we to them in fee,
Too much of pity after they are dead,
Too many doleful stories do we see,
Whose matter in bright gold were best be read;
Except in such a page where Theseus' spouse
Over the pathless waves towards him bows.

{The college authorities were perhaps just negligent like the school authorities of my daughter’s convent school, who allowed a rendering of ‘Rah Rah Rasputin, Lover of the Russian Queen’ to be performed for the annual gathering. How that song got past the strict nuns, beats me. It was enjoyable all the same, because the 8-year-olds looked so cute as they sang and they had no idea about what they were singing.}

I was reminded of the poem when we visited the palace of Knossos on Crete, the center of Minoan civilization. The ruins of the palace were unearthed by Sir Arthur Evans. Heinrich Schliemann, who had discovered ‘Troy’, narrowly missed the opportunity to excavate at Knossos because he was denied the permission.

The ‘palace’ was so large, intricate and confusing that people got lost, thus giving rise to the idea that it was the ‘labyrinth’, the home of the monster Minotaur, whom Theseus killed with the help of Ariadne.

To me, it looks like the ‘Palace’ was not exactly a dwelling of a king alone but the whole community. Thus there were workshops, storehouses, a small theater.

The civic amenities provided in those ancient times are impressive. That sort of water-management does not exist in many Indian villages even in 21st century. The bath-tub and ‘flushing’ toilets were, of course, only for the royal family.

Sir Arthur Evans ‘reconstructed’ many parts of the Palace as authentically as possible. (NOT ‘restored’ mind you.)

I have nothing against ‘reconstruction’. It helps common people to somewhat understand the way of life of those ancient civilizations. However, it is always a moot point what percentage of original structures should be preserved ‘as it is’ and what percentage should be reconstructed.

Recently, we visited the Roman ruins at ‘Xanten’ in Germany, which is 90% restored. It was a highly enjoyable visit. On the other end of the spectrum, we have archeological site like ‘Mohenjo-Daro’ (or Lothal in India), which is perhaps not reconstructed at all and I would not visit it.

I have only one thing against Sir Arthur Evans. He planted a seedling right in the midst of the excavations, which has now become a big tree.

How could he do that? Did he not know how much damage vegetation does to a site?

There is many a crumbling fort in the Indian tropical jungles that had proudly withstood the enemy attacks but now has succumbed to the vegetation. The tiny seeds that lodge between the stones, take root, grow, force the stones apart and thus bring about the ruin of the fort.

You should see the photos of the ‘jungle temple’ of ‘Ta Prohm’ in Cambodia to understand fully the how the vegetation can choke a temple to death.

Let us hope that the growth of vegetation in the Mediterranean is much slower than in the Tropics.

The frescoes of Knossos provided the insight into the Minoan way of life. It was mostly an agrarian society that worshiped the Bull, because bulls are the most useful domesticated animals on a farm.

The ‘bull-leaping’ fresco interests me. Majority of the guides equate it with ‘bull-fight’ and call it a ‘dangerous’ sport. They are especially fond of praising the ‘equality’ of sexes in Minoan civilization because in the fresco, a girl is shown holding the bull’s horns and another is shown at the back of the bull. They also tell you that the bull-leaper approached the bull from the front, grabbed the horns and somersaulted backwards on the bull’s back.

I disagree.

Based on this fresco, the only logical conclusions are:

1) The bulls were placid, domesticated animals; otherwise a girl could not have held it by the horns.
2) The girl held the horns to keep the bull’s head steady to prevent injury to the male acrobat.
3) Another girl stood at the back of the bull to help the acrobat alight from the bull’s back after his performance. Look at her hands, turned to help the acrobat.
4) The only way the acrobat could have approached the bull was from the sides.

Most probably, the ‘bull-leaper’ came running sideways, jumped on the bull’s back, balanced there and performed acrobatics. One girl held the bull’s horns firmly and the other helped him to alight.

It is also possible that the bull was sitting and peacefully chewing the cud, instead of standing. The lack of ‘perspective’ in the picture makes it difficult to determine whether the bull was standing or sitting.

There was little chance of the acrobat being attacked and gored by the bull.

The sport was ‘bull-leaping’, NOT bullfight.

Anyway, that is my opinion, for what it may be worth.

Another fresco which is quite interesting is that of a gryphon in the Throne-room.

I do not like the ‘lion’ fountain in the city of Heraklion at all. The lions look as if they are sick and are throwing up.

That night we had a ‘sit-in’ dinner on board the ship. I was animatedly talking with the lady on my right when an African-American wine-waiter, who looked like Obama, asked me whether I would like something to drink. Absent-mindedly, I said, ‘Sure!’

Avi promptly warned me in Marathi, “Charu, drinks cost money.”

Avi had thought that nobody would understand Marathi but then Obama laughed because he understood it.

We quizzed him and discovered that he was a Goan and there were 33 Indian guys serving on board the ship.

No wonder, we used to get strong spicy smell of Indian cooking on board the ship but the Indian dishes were never served. Those guys had a private kitchen where they cooked Indian meals when they felt like it.

Ironically, they did not know that there were three Indian girls also on board and vice versa.

I have purposely included a photo of the decorations in the dining-hall because I had seen the painting of a gryphon in the Throne Room of the Knossos Palace that morning and the decorations also had gryphons. The statue is of Perseus, holding the Medusa’s head.

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