Category: Stavros

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The National Archeological Museum

The National Archeological Museum in Athens is a spectacularly impressive repository of ancient Greek art and sculpture. Yesterday I waded through Mycenaean and Cycladic artifacts, kore, stele, classical bronzes and sculpture, my buddies Hercules and Silenus, Dionysus… Standing in front of Poseidon, a bronze work from the 5th century BC, I was moved to tears, the body is so serenely balanced, the gesture so confident, such power and intensity—and just exquisite craftsmanship. Most of the surviving bronzes from antiquity were found in shipwrecks, or buried, the rest melted down for military use. We can speculate on some of what has been lost, as many copies were made in marble, but because of the relative lightness of bronze, and the cast being hollow, something like the life-sized galloping horse below couldn’t be easily replicated.

Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness!
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flow’ry tale more sweetly than our rhyme…
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Cupbearer Coco

I really do feel like a metrosexual Ganymede, swept away by Zeus to urban Athens, although instead of taking the form of an eagle, he whisked me here via airplane, then transformed himself into my Stavros and made me his cup-bearing catamite. (Stavros, despite looking older than me—or I like to think so—is actually 6 years my junior, so we’ll stick with this vision of Olympian pederasty. And hopefully eternal youth and immortality.)

Last weekend we took a day trip to Delphi, stopping first in Livadeia, a quaint little town perched at the base of a medieval castle. The spring-fed Herkyna River spills down from the hillside and cuts through town under a canopy of trees, providing a cool respite from the summer heat. The cathedral here houses a head of St. George. The use of “a” makes me wonder how many heads of St. George there are out there. Walking along the cool river bank, we heard the sound of plain chant coming from the cathedral, calming in the dappled shade.

The monastery of Hosios Loukas is picturesquely situated on the side of Mount Helicon, founded in the 10th century by the hermit Venerable (Hosios) St. Luke (Loukas). His remains are still there, in a glass sarcophagus sort of wedged between the original 10th century structure and the later 11th century church, his bony hand beckoning. Supposedly his remains exuded some sort of healing perfumed gas, and ailing pilgrims were encouraged to sleep by the side of the tomb in order to get a whiff of the miraculous vapors. The buildings are amazing works of Byzantine architecture, once lavishly decorated with mosaics and murals. Little remains of the original decorative elements, but the structures themselves are so beautiful, as are the few remaining monks.

Delphi is pretty spectacular, built in terraces along the side of Mount Parnassus, thought by ancient Greeks to be the earth’s naval. Apollo, as an infant, and supposedly with his first arrow, slew the serpent Pytho. The serpent’s body was tossed into a fissure in the earth and the vapors emanating from his decomposing body put the Oracle, seated on a tripod over the opening, into an intoxicated trance. It was in this state that she raved, her ravings then translated by the priests of the temple into elegant hexameter. I was unable to consult with the Oracle, as emperor Theodosius I closed down the operation sometime in 395 AD.

After Delphi we drove along the coast and took a little dip in the waters near the town of Galaxidhi.  Prior to 1890, Galaxidhi was one of Greece’s major harbors, but as with so many of these little coastal areas I’ve been to, shipowners failed to accept and convert to steam power, so the town became another quaint tourist destination.
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The Stavros Chronicles: Hydra

This weekend we (I’m already using the proprietary “we”) went to this perfectly picturesque little island in the Saronic Gulf, Hydra. It’s a film set of an island, formerly an important ship-building center, a tiny port village with 18-19th Century buildings. Jules Dassin’s Phaedra and Jean Negulesco’s Boy on a Dolphin (with Sophia Loren, her character also named “Phaedra”) were filmed here. There are no cars, or even bikes, although they do have mules for hire. Actually, if they allowed bicycles they’d probably have to put up guardrails, of which now there are nearly none, just sheer drop offs to that beautiful blue sea.

We swam in that amazing crystal clear water, ate delicious local seafood, took long walks around the island punctuated by our occasional dips into the sea. Stavros is the ideal flotation device, bobbing around without even having to tread water. The village was celebrating their involvement in the war of independence from Ottoman rule, which culminated in the burning of a boat in the harbor, fireworks spewing out from the boat and into the sky, histrionic music blaring, everyone in period costumes. There was dancing and much merriment.

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The Stavros Chronicles: On the Plane to Athens, then Landing & Finally, Waking

So Stavros and I have continued our virtual romance, spending hours a day chatting via Skype, exchanging teasing imagery and extreme longing across the world-wide web. And now I’m on a plane to Athens, about a month and a half after our initial online encounter. The love of my life, or of the next 3 weeks? We’ll see. In either case, I’m hoping to find expression of this desire that has consumed the better part of the last nine years, my quest for Mr. Right. I say things like, “Oh we’ll see how it goes,” while thinking that the only way I want this to go is for us to be together forever. But how in the heck is that going to work? And how do they expect us to sleep on these planes when they pack us in here like sardines? I’m sitting next to a Greek American woman, a 63 year old ballerina, who is so charming and beautiful and hasn’t stopped talking since take-off 4 hours ago, so at least the not-able-to-sleep portion of the trip is filled with her delightful commentary.

So I’m here, finally, since yesterday morning. Stavros had, until yesterday morning, existed as a 320 x 480 pixel representation of the man of my dreams. Now he’s the living, breathing embodiment of the man of my dreams. I will never forget seeing him at the airport for the first time, in his flip-flops and extended arms, a big grinning bear lumbering towards me. I still can’t believe he’s real, that someone could so perfectly conform to everything that I find desirable and attractive in a mate. He’s beautiful, sexy, attentive, silly, protective—he’s every favorable adjective I can think of.

Last night we went to the Acropolis Museum, which was celebrating its third anniversary by offering discounted admission and a public concert. The museum houses the decorative elements from the current Parthenon (frieze, metopes, sculptures, etc…), as well as the remnants of previous versions and archeological finds from the Acropolis. It’s an amazing museum, with glass floors providing visual access to the layers of archeological digs on the museum site. The experience of walking through the museum is to experience how this stuff was discovered and assembled, a walk through history, time and physical space.

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Horoscope

I’m not one to take astrology too seriously, if at all, but a few days after writing my previous post about Stavros, my friend AstroJane sent me this, which so eerily sums up my current romantic circumstances I’m wondering if the entire cosmos hash’t organized itself just for me:

Pluto transits conjunct Venus

Your romantic life, social life, and value system are undergoing complete transformations with Pluto transiting conjunct natal Venus. You are seeking depth of experience in your social and love relationships, or this kind of experience comes into your life now. Someone may enter your life, or circumstances arise that completely change your outlook, alter your value system, or consume much of your time, thoughts, and energy. Intimacy, passion, and intensity are what you seek (or these find you!). Anything less will not satisfy. Your relationships can have a compulsive quality to them, and you are unlikely to listen to reason or rationality. Irrational fears about your lovability and love in general come up for inspection now.

Your relationships in general will become more intense, but especially those involving love and sex. You will experience emotional extremes and, if a relationship is in a rut, you are likely to decide to break it off. “All or nothing” may become your motto, and the “all” includes a depth and intensity of emotional response. You want to feel your love to the very core of your being, and you want to play an important part in someone else’s life. Obviously, any relationship which only stirs lukewarm responses won’t be able to stand up under the demands that you make of it now. Keep your eyes open; someone you meet now may teach you some important lessons about love. You may have a love relationship with this person, or he/she could be someone who plays the role of teacher or guru. Your sex drive is strong and may find an outlet in either a new or existing relationship or through a creative medium such as writing or painting.

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The Dating Game: I’m Hard to Get, Stavros, All You Have to Do is Ask Me

It’s only been a week since I met this guy, and already, yes already, I can think of and see absolutely nothing but him. All day I think of him. I dream of him at night. I think in clichés. He’s the first person I talk to in the morning, the last before going to bed. If we don’t talk, I look at his pictures and smile myself to sleep. I say his name all day, out loud, trying to get that slight trill in my “r.” In the past, I’ve used pseudonyms in my blog for the guys that I’ve been interested in, perhaps a subconscious acknowledgment of participating in a kind of fiction. But this man’s name is Stavros, and he’s the realest thing I’ve ever known.

Except that he lives in Greece, and I actually haven’t met him in person yet.

I can see you all rolling your eyes. “Again??” Someone even asked me if perhaps I’m the one afraid of intimacy, and this is why I’m attracting these guys who live in other time zones and on different continents. Ma che dice! I am like an intimacy sponge! I’m so open to and craving intimacy that I’ll look for it everywhere, as the feeling that I want to experience isn’t tied so much to specific things like mutual interests or a common language or convenient transportation, but to a kind of emotional exchange that I’ve experienced a few times and just can’t get into a relationship without. It’s what you see between Bogie and Bacall in To Have and Have Not.

It’s there with Stavros. Just his voice pierces something deep in me, some emotional G-spot. I have nothing to lose in being my effusive self with him, he actually welcomes it, and returns it as fervently. There seems to be only one gear to shift into, and, damn the potential torpedoes to come, that’s full-steam-ahead.