For some reason the Manfred Mann song "5-4-3-2-1" has been a bit of an earworm for me recently. In covering the Trojan Horse, the band sings "Who let them in? Was it the Greeks?" to which the answer is "Uh-huh: it was the Manfreds". This got a little reinforcement yesterday when we took grand-daughter #1 to the Hellenic Museum in the old Mint Building on William St.
It started with a few standard Greek statues.
Then an exhibition of folkloric events where men go around villages in costumes including huge bells worn around their waists. I suspect a bit of symbolism there!
We then moved on to an exhibition about heroes and hoplites. This caused me to reflect on many topics I had come about in other places, The idea that many Greeks claim descent from the ancient heroes was very like the situation in Central Asia where everyone is a descendant of Genghis Khan. The Hoplites - who seemed to be a volunteer militia - reminded me of tales I heard in Sweden about the Vikings being farmers filling in the time between seasonal tasks with a little rape and pillage.
Outside the Museum they had an AI version of the Oracle.
I think my question was "Will Donald Trump survive his second term?" Here is the answer, which is somewhat of a curates egg.
On the way back SP1 took us to see this artwork. Close up it looks like a decorated pissoir, but further away it is clearly a well used monster spray can.
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