Rhodes

This morning's excursion to Rhodes has been one of the better experiences of the cruise (and a considerable improvement over the Knossos fiasco). Our guide Maria (tour guides vary with the locale) took us on a bus trip around the Graeco-Roman acropolis (photo-ops but no chance to get out and walk the site), then led us on a brisk walk from the reconstructed Grand Master's Headquarters in the Fortress of the Knights of St. John down the Street of the Knights to the Hospital, now the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes. The headquarters, destroyed by an explosion under the Ottoman Turks and rebuilt by the occupying Italians as a residence for the then king Victor Emmanuel III under Mussolini, features colorful late antique mosaics in an excellent state of preservation from houses and basilicas on Cos. The museum, though, was the real gem. It contains some splendid ancient sculpture, and I was excited to see the very different iconography of late antique local funerary steles, which represent individuals and families in full-body frontal position.

Of course, the great treasure there is the stele of Krito and Timarista, certainly without any Athenian parallel, as far as I know. If I ever teach Women and Gender in Antiquity again, it would be nice to use the image below as the basis of a paper question. The afternoon and evening were also a treat. We found that coffee and tea were available all day on the observation deck, a comfortable place to sit and read. In the evening we heard Bill give a superb lecture on the siege of Rhodes by Demetrios son of Antigonos the One-Eyed in 305 BCE. Our ship was moored in the harbor where the battle actually took place, lending the lecture an immediacy that AIA lectures don't normally have. Afterward, the whole AIA tour group had dinner together in the Terrace Cafe. The food was excellent, wine flowed freely, and even the least communicative found shared interests. This was without doubt the best day of the entire cruise so far. If they were all like that, I would be going on one every year.