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Published: February 1st 2008
A Desperate Child
Garden of the Fugitives, PompeiiGrowing up as "that dorky kid that read a lot," I had a lot of books on subjects that nowadays I watch on the Discovery Channel or as a documentary on PBS on TV. My favorite one was a book about Pompeii. I used to dream about seeing Pompeii. In fact, it's probable that Pompeii was my first desired destination of travel (well, Pompeii or Egypt—I had a book on King Tut, too). I distinctly remember seeing the picture of the Garden of the Fugitives; I was terrorized by it. Even as a 6 or 7 year old, I had great fears of death. This picture of the group of people now cast in plaster, struggling for their last moments of life always intrigued me and scared me to the core. Their desperation, consciousness of the end of their lives, and their sheer helplessness jumped out at me and totally permeated me. My neurosis about death aside, when afforded the opportunity to actually visit this historical site while in Italy, I jumped at the chance and started planning. But first...
Much Ado About Naples... or not
The trip to Campania has been interesting so far. Naples is more or less
Cart path in Pompeii
I can only wonder how many times a cart had to tread the same path in order for a rut like that to exist. what I expected. It's chaotic; tainted with dirt, trash and graffiti; filled with stray dogs and car horns; and never really makes you feel comfortable. I find it hard to really get into the Neapolitan way of life and take a look around, or even take a few pictures. In fact, yesterday when Keith and I arrived in Naples, we walked around the town for a bit trying to get our bearings and some shopping done before retiring back to the hostel where I then took a nap from 3 PM to 6 AM today. I was tired and a bit disheartened .
So, with my nearly 15 hours of sleep under my belt, we were able to get up and get out early to Pompeii. On our way to the bus stop (which we couldn't find...) we encountered just some of the Neapolitan trash crisis. It was not as bad as some of the outlying areas of the city we could see from the train up to Pompeii, but by no means good. We ended
Desperation
In the Garden of the Fugitives, Pompeii. These two to me looked like they were looking at each other and struggling to stay alive in at least someone else's eyes for as long as possible. up just walking to the train station where we managed to figure out, in an exchange of broken Italian phrases and a lot of hand gestures with a train conductor, our way on board the train.
Preconceptions of Pompeii
In my studies at school, especially in anything of a historical context, I've heard the phrase "mystification of the past" a lot and consequently there have been a lot of discussions about it. What is, for example, the intrinsic value of the Mona Lisa itself, that is, without the context of who painted it, the question of the subject, where it is located, the number of visitors who come to see it each year, the Da Vinci Code, and all other factors that contribute to its value. Do we attribute more value to the Mona Lisa than say Madonna on the Rocks (also by da Vinci) because we are "mystified" by questions of who she actually was?
Fortunately, for ancient Roman cities, the discovery of a relatively well preserved Pompeii alleviates some of the mysteries surrounding what life was like for Romans nearly two millennia ago. Walking through the streets of Pompeii is unlike walking through the streets
of any other city I have been in or read about. There are actually grooves in the cobblestone streets where carts traveled daily before the city was buried in ash. It's incredible to be walking around these streets (which is actually quite burdensome) and to see frescoes and painted walls that are still vivid with color. It is quite unexpected. I mean, paint and cart ruts in a place this old?
But that's Pompeii. It is a window into the past. A city stopped mid-breath and not touched by man or the elements for over 1600 years. When Pompeii lost its future, we gained the past. Actually, walking around Pompeii almost made me feel like I was in an ancient Roman version of A Christmas Carol. It felt that I, clad in my modern clothing and with my camera ready, had gone back in time with the ghost of the Pompeii past. I was able to see into the kitchens and the gardens of Pompeiians. I entered a brothel with no one knowing I was there (how risqué!). I could easily walk into their amphitheater with no one watching me, and could stroll among some of the temples unseen
Preserved statue
Most of Pompeii was preserved because of the ash that fell down on the city protected it from other elements. by the locals. It was, simply put, an eye-opening, exhilarating experience.
And it was a lesson of mortality. If there was one thing that I thought about while strolling the streets of Pompeii and trespassing in the homes of the Roman elite, it was about how quickly life can come and go. I knew this before I came to Pompeii, but my face was slapped with having to come to terms with my own mortality while I was looking at the plaster casts in the Garden of Fugitives. There they were... the thirteen people I have been haunted by for the last fourteen years of my life. I had seen them in pictures, and now all that remains of them (and will most likely remain for some time) was in front of me. They were stopped forever in acts of agony or submission to their fate, curled up terrified positions next to others we can only hope are their families and friends, for their sakes. I was not only seeing death, but also the last hours of these peoples' lives. In a way, it's almost enviable to be immortalized like that. But they must envy us, free to walk
around their home with barely any regard to the volcano that looms to the north. All I could say was
I'm sorry your life was cut short, I hope it was good up until then. Pompeii is not a complete picture. It's by no means an easy answer for historians and anthropologists looking to fill in the missing pieces of ancient life. The earthquake in 62 AD damaged Pompeii badly, and by the time Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, the town was not yet completely rebuilt. There are still uncertainties about what daily life in a Roman city was like and who the people who lived in Pompeii really, truly were. A lot of artifacts are now located in the museum in Naples, and the elements are finally taking their tolls on the ruins. And there still is a bit of mystification. But I'm glad for it. It helps me appreciate the actual magnitude of the meaning that a preserved Pompeii gives us. And I'm glad it was cloudy when I went there; it definitely put me in the mood to be both fascinated and depressed at the same time and it was definitely easier to picture ash falling
on the city.
Walking around Pompeii was pretty tiring and so we didn't stay as we probably could have stayed. I think one guidebook estimates it would take 9 hours to see the ruins on foot, and we were out of the ruins after about 4 hours. But in that time, we were able to see so much of the town and if anything, I satisfied a childhood dream (albeit probably a fairly odd childhood dream). It also helped me appreciate Rome more too since we were able see not only more of the city's vast empire, but because it was so much more quotidian despite the fact that it was so old and so tragic. Pompeii was probably some of the best 11 euros I ever spent. I can't wait to come back here (as well as Herculaneum) to explore more someday, and I can't wait for our hike up Mount Vesuvius tomorrow! Perhaps I'll exact Pompeii's revenge on the volcano... or not. Ciao!
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Reymos
non-member comment
Very interesting journal
It is inspiring to read and look at those images in your journal. Well done!