Katie Mucha - Blog #1

Katie Mucha
Professor Seaman
Greece Trip – May 2018
Blog Post

BLOG #1

One of the most interesting places that we visited so far was the theatre at Epidaurus, for several reasons. I presented on the Theatre of Dionysus, so when i was studying it while getting ready to go on this trip, i learned about the architecture that had developed over time so that the theatres were enhanced in the best possible ways. Sadly, the Theatre of Dionysus has been poorly preserved, therefore there wasn’t much grandeur for everyone to see, so it was fascinating to visit the theatre at Epidaurus since it has been kept nearly intact (except for the stage area). The staircase was a bit difficult to descend and ascend, so i wonder if this used to be the case as well or if time simply deteriorated the stones.
I thought it was bogus information when Aristotle mentioned that people on the stage could whisper and then the audience members at the top of the theatre could still hear them, but he wasn't kidding! I experienced this phenomenon myself, people were casually talking in the center of the orchestra area and it sounded as if they were right nearby me. Aristotle also mentioned that the curve at which the seats were placed made a huge difference in how the sound traveled to members of the audience in each seating area, so the Greeks truly created these theatres with a lot of thought as to how the audience will take in the production.
Another favorite part of the trip so far was when we visited the trireme replica. The boat was surprisingly sturdy even though the original copies were created about 2,500 years ago, which is crazy to think since triremes were designed in specific ways so as to defeat their enemies faster and with more damage. It is interesting to see how the Greeks placed a sort of battering ram at the front so that they could ram into their enemies and sink them quickly, and it is shocking that they figured all of this out before modern technology was invented.
I have noticed that a lot of our building techniques are not too much more advanced than the Greeks building techniques, which is shocking since, you would think that with all of our computers and advanced tools that we would have longer standing buildings and that projects would take shorter periods of time to complete, however, as Aristotle said, the Greeks had just about the same efficiency with their tools as we do now. Aristotle also mentioned that Greek buildings continue to stand (in sometimes nearly perfect form) even after thousands of years, while in modern times, we are lucky if our buildings last longer than 100 years or so. The Greeks are extremely fascinating to study and i look forward to the rest of the trip.

Word Count: 470


                                 

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