Blog Two- Days 4 and 5

The last two days have been all the more interesting and informative, I think, because of their extreme differences in time. Yesterday, we visited Tarquinia and the necropolis there, sites that are part of the Etruscan roots that eventually grew into Rome. Today, by contrast, we looked at the late Republic- Largo Argentina, the Forum of Julius Caesar, and Centrale Montemartini. 

I admit that I'm rather biased towards the Forum as one of my favorite sites, given that I had to research it prior to leaving on this trip. But bias or no, the work and goals Julius Caesar worked towards in his vision for Rome were truly admirable. There's a reason history remembers the man so vividly- his motives for making a decision seem to be always nuanced, filled with double or even triple purposes. His forum, for example, certainly worked into his goals for an extension for the ever-growing people of Rome. But it also allowed him to create a temple that honored his rival's favorite goddess, currying her favor before his opponent could, while simultaneously honoring the goddess that his family allegedly stemmed from. It was showing off in a remarkably practical way, with the added benefit of thumbing his nose at his rival- who wouldn't respect a man like that, at least a little? 

The Senate doesn't count.

The necropolis was nothing short of fascinating for me, especially with a trip to the catacombs of Paris under my belt. There weren't any skulls piled into the shape of a heart in Italy, but what people chose to have painted in their tombs was nothing short of gorgeous. Occasionally grotesque or somewhat alarming, in the case of the Blue Demons or the lewd tomb that would make a satyr blush, but beautiful all the same. To see these paintings of people dancing, or picking olives, or fighting brought their desires home- these paintings, usually commissioned by a Greek artist (originally, anyway), remain to help the deceased be remembered. Perhaps they can no longer be remembered by their descents coming to visit and eat with them, but they're far from forgotten with students crowding down staircases to peer into their tombs.

Entering the Centrale Montemartini was certainly an experience- the museum is an unexpected combination of the industrial world mixed with the ancient. You climb up stairs to see pipes and clunky machinery to better see a mosaic or the set of statues of Heracles preforming one of his 12 Labors; trying to claim the girdle of the Amazonian Queen herself. 

The blend should have been jarring, you'd think, and yet somehow it works. One of the signs coming in explained that the building is a harmony of mythology- the mythology of technology and the mythology of Rome, essentially. And in this context, they compliment each other. The building doesn't detract from the headless Medusa, or the multiple Athenas, or the snake handled cup, etc. Instead, the ancient brings out the machinery and vice versa.