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Published: September 5th 2011
The Temple of Apollo was Phil’s favorite site, partly because of the sheer magnitude of it and how much of it still remained, allowing you to walk through it and imagine it in its prime when the oracle was there, being consulted by the mighty as to their futures.
It was also not lost on us that it was allegedly the site of the first documented strike by laborers. The ancient workmen weren’t getting their pay, so they just stopped working. Evidence of this is the fact that some of the huge columns still don’t have their vertical scalloped-out lines.
The ancient site of Priene is an example of early town planning (did you study this, Jeff?), where the remains of the residents’ stone houses are neatly ordered on the hilly slope and some of the pipes of the water distribution system are still viewable. Giant remnants of the The Temple of Athena are scattered at the highest point of the town, with some pillars standing in place. And the theater is high on the hillside as well, this one with stone thrones with lions’ feet for the VIPs of the day.
Our guide told us that you
Temple of Apollo--workers' strike!
If you look carefully, you can see the left-most column hasn't been given it's vertical scallops. The ancient laborers went on strike!could tell a Roman town from a Greek one because the Romans put the theater at the center of their settlement and the Greeks put theirs high on a hilltop. I’m no ancient history scholar, and I apologize if I pass on to you incorrect information. I try to take care to mention that “the guide said” to indicate when I have no other knowledge of things myself.
When not filling us in on the history of the area and the escapades of the gods and goddesses, our guides sometimes talked about their own lives and current views on life in Turkey.
One guide told us that there are still many arranged marriages in Turkey and although he hadn’t had one, his brother had. He told us of the ritual in which the intending bridegroom goes to the home of the potential bride, and he gets to see her because she must come into the living area where her relatives have received him and serve him tea. Now if she likes him, she puts plenty of sugar in the tea and he is encouraged. But if she doesn’t like him, she puts salt in his tea.
On
a later tour, another guide told us he was getting married in September, and, although it seemed he and his intended had both agreed on this, she was also a bride of whom his widowed mother had given her formal approval.
So I said, “Ah, so you drank sweet tea.” He looked at me in surprise that I would know about this, and then he said, “No, she put in salt! And you have to drink it all!”
Clearly he had a spunky bride-to-be, who had given him quite a shock. When he said, “I’ll talk to her about that salt after we get married,” I hoped his own sense of humor would prevail.
On this day we stopped for a particularly sumptuous lunch. I think because these sites were near Kusadasi, and thus within striking distance of the cruise lines, the lunches (which were always part of the day’s tour) were buffets held in quite grand settings which could accommodate busloads arriving at once. I’m sure we wouldn’t have eaten so much or so well if we’d been directing our own affairs!
I’m also sure we wouldn’t have managed to squeeze as much into a
day. But on this same day we also went to Milet and saw ruins of ancient Roman Baths, which were a key component in the lives of the people of the day. It appeared that being at the baths was a lengthy, sequential process which allowed for plenty of socializing and also, most likely, for intrigue.
Generally, a Roman bath had three separate sections, a calderium, a tepidarium and a frigidarium. The aim of the first two was to open the pores and the last to finish off with brisk cold water. To be honest, I can't tell you which was which in my photos--sorry.
One of my aims was to go to a real Turkish bath while I was in Turkey, but alas that never happened. Still, it’s good to have things on one’s list for next time, right?
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Michelle Cavanagh
non-member comment
Temples
You lucky buggers! I'm madly jealous - visiting these wonderful temples. And just to remind you how wise those ancient peoples were: "The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." - Cicero - 55 BC It might not have been written in Turkey but...so what...the sentiments travel! M xx