On Tuesday we went to Pnyx Hill where we learned about Athenian democracy and the court system. Only male citizens could participate in Athenian democracy so it did not represent all the Athenian people like women, slaves, and foreign-born people. The democracy was a direct democracy meaning that the male citizens would vote themselves rather than electing representatives to make the decisions. The Pnyx was where meetings took place. The agenda for the meeting would have been prepared by the council, a group of 500 male citizens who were selected by lot every year. The assembly at the Pnyx met at least 40 times per year. Attending the assembly was important, we learned about a strategy used to get people to hasten to the Pnyx for the meetings. A rope covered in red dye would be brought through the agora and if red dye got onto someone’s clothes they would have to pay a fine, this got people to hurry ahead of the rope to get to the assembly on time. A few interesting things we learned about the courts were that they would have about 100-150 cases per year and people were not allowed to mention their ancestors, liturgies, or attack their opponents.
On Thursday we went to the Numismatic Museum to learn about the importance of coinage. The museum is inside Heinrich Schliemann’s house, built in the 19th century. I did not realize the museum was inside his house until we were inside. I was not expecting the museum to be so decorated and full of intricate paintings and tiling all over the walls and floor. I also learned here that Schliemann named his son Agamemnon (he must have been really obsessed with that guy). At the museum, we looked at a lot of coins from different regions. Just like today, currency between regions has different values, so coins from a specific region could not be used in another region. We learned about the three values of the coins, metallic value (gold, silver, and bronze), nominal value (the value the city gives to it), and commercial value (the external value and how much it is worth by the people using it).
On Friday I attended the pottery painting workshop. We started by watching a video about black and red slip painting techniques. The black slip technique is used to make the figures appear black after the firing process. Black slip is achieved by painting what is meant to appear in black with red clay paint. The red slip technique makes the figures appear red, this is achieved by using the clay paints in the areas around the figure or the areas that are not meant to be red.
For the workshop, we each got a clay tablet, clay paint, two brushes, a pencil, and a tool with a sharp end. There were also a variety of pre-drawn figures such as fish, ships, birds, bulls, and people to choose from to trace onto the tablet. They told us to start with black-figure painting because it was easier. The process starts by tracing the pre-drawn figures onto the clay tablet with a pencil. I chose a bird and started tracing it but I also traced over the detail lines on the inside so it was better if I started with the red-figure technique instead. I added some spirals in the background of the bird using a paintbrush and the sharp-pointed tool. The picture below is of the tablet before being fired. Once it is fired the colored areas will become black.
After making the bird with the red-figure paint I flipped the tablet over to try the black-figure technique. Since we have gone to many museums with all sorts of pottery in the past few weeks I have seen a lot of designs in black and red slip. One of my favorite motifs has been octopi and spirals so I wanted to incorporate them on my tablet. I started by outlining the shape of an octopus and then filling it in with three layers of clay paint. Then I added details to the tentacles with the clay paint. After using the clay paint I tried the sharp-pointed tool to carve out the eyes. The carving was satisfying so I also made little spirals on the tentacles.
