From Monks to Spartans

We went up into the mountains of Meteora, outside of the town of Kalambaka. The mountains looked unreal, almost as if they were painted in the sky. It almost looked as though pillars of rock were shooting up into the air. The whole valley that the mountains are in used to underwater until an earthquake shifted the ground just enough to drain the lake and expose these beautiful mountains. Starting a few centuries after Christ, the monastic movement came up into the mountains to be removed from society. Today there are still six working monasteries perched on the top of these cliffs and as we drove up through the mountains, we could see the remains of others and the caves in which some monks would live. We went to on the oldest and largest monasteries, the Holy Monastery of the Great Metero, which commemorated the transfiguration of Christ. I can even imagine how dedicated the original monks must have been to build in such a remote location. After I walked up the stairs carved into the cliff, and entered the monastery, I was stuck by how calm and beautiful it was inside. We first entered the narthex, which had all of its walls covered with icons of martyrs. This was to show that the Christian life is not an easy life and it is not without its consequences. To follow Christ one must be willing to give up certain privileges and aspects of society, as in the case with the martyrs, it may even require your life. It would have been quite a powerful message to the ancient monks as they entered the chapel, after distancing themselves so far from society. It still is a powerful message; as Christians we need to understand that we can't live as society does, we have to give certain things up. With these thoughts in mind, we entered the sanctuary. The walls were again filled with icons, but this time of Bible scenes and of Jesus. I was really glad that I have had a lot explanation about icons and there significance in the Eastern Church, so that I could really appreciate this church for what it was. I think a few weeks ago I would have been a little put off by being in this church, but now I could see the beauty and tradition in it. As we walked around the monastery, enjoying the views and gardens, we stumbled upon an art gallery of religious art and paintings of important Greek wars, military personnel, and politicians. Dr. Kalantzis was explaining to us that the separation between church and state which we think is so fundamental in the United States, is not the case in Greece. In fact, I the church and the state is very connected.

As we drove out of the mountains, we stopped and climbed out onto a rock were we could see five of the six monasteries all perched on the their separate rock pillars.

On our drive back to Athens we stopped at Thermopylae, the locations of the battle between the Persian army and Leonidas and his 300 Spartans. It was cool to be there and all the guys, jacked up on testosterone, ran around reenacting the scenes from 300.

We came back to Athens and had a relaxing night watching the world cup and then My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It was really funny to watch this movie in Greece and watch the reactions of the Greeks in the room, especially Dr. Kalantzis.