An animated group of more than 40 Carthusians set off on the first Friday of half term for the annual Classics trip, accompanied by Mrs Markham-Jones, Mr Branchflower, Mr Freeman, Miss Michail and Miss Hopkinson. The destination this year was Greece, starting in the historical capital Athens.
The group enjoyed an incredible 7-day adventure exploring ancient archaeological sites, inspiring museums and iconic monuments in Athens, Delphi, Pylos, Sparta and Tolo.
Gregorio (Year 11) shared his experience at the Parthenon.
Finally, after a long, early morning walk, we stepped through the Propilaya and set our eyes on the Parthenon. As, expected we heard Mr Freeman’s voice pierce through the air calling for us, the “Sensation Seekers” to come and listen to what he had to say about the Parthenon. Listening to him we learnt about how the Parthenon was angled in a way that you can see it all when you first set eyes on it. We learnt about the different scenes depicted on the outer metopes of the Parthenon and on the inside, on one side there was the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs, the other side showed an amazonomachy (a battle with the Amazons), on the far end was Zeus giving Earth to Athena, and the nearest scene to us was the procession of the Panathenaic festival. Mr Freeman also talked about the boustrophedon (linking of time) of how the Parthenon was built, then destroyed by the Persians, then rebuilt again and then destroyed. Boustrophedon was a recurring theme throughout the whole trip, for example on the very first day, us “Sensation Seekers” learnt about the silver mine at Laurion which funded the Athenian fleet which defeated the Persians at Salamis. This silver mine was the crucial for Athens golden age and part of the reason why it was so grand.
