Down the mighty Ohio...

Long ago I was in Cincinnati, and I set to map out a new career. I had been reading about the recent exploration of the river Amazon by an expedition sent out by our government. It was said that the expedition, owing to difficulties, had not thoroughly explored a part of the country lying about its headwaters, some four thousand miles from the mouth of the river. It was only about fifteen hundred miles from Cincinnati to New Orleans, where I could doubtless get a ship. So, I packed my valise, and took passage on an ancient tub called the ‘Paul Jones,’ for New Orleans. For the sum of sixteen dollars I had the scarred and tarnished splendors of ‘her’ main saloon principally to myself, for she was not a creature to attract the eye of wiser travelers.

When we got under way and went poking down the broad Ohio, I became a new being, and the subject of my own admiration. I was a traveler! A word never had tasted so good in my mouth before. I had an exultant sense of being bound for mysterious lands and distant climes, which I never have felt in so uplifting a degree since. I was in such a glorified condition that all ignoble feelings departed out of me, and I was able to look down and pity the untraveled with a compassion that had hardly a trace of contempt in it. Still, when we stopped at villages and wood-yards, I could not help lolling carelessly upon the railings of the boiler deck to enjoy the envy of the country boys on the bank. I kept my hat off all the time, and stayed where the wind and the sun could strike me, because I wanted to get the bronzed and weather-beaten look of an old traveler. Before the second day was half gone I experienced a joy, which filled me with the purest gratitude; for I saw that the skin had begun to blister and peel off my face and neck. I wished that the boys and girls at home could see me now. (Slightly modified from Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi)

An Early Christian Basilica

The bay of Porto Rafti (Λιμην Μεσογαιας) was a major port in Ancient Greece. The villages of Steiria, Prasiai, and Koroni were around the bay.  At Steiria (Porto Rafti) there was a settlement, a harbor with its pier still visible, a large cemetery and a basilica indicating a large population. 

Because Porto Rafti was the only bay on the east shores of Attica boats travelling to and from the Aegean islands and Asia Minor used it to conduct trade with Athens.

Few remaining antiquities are left around the bay.  At Drivlia (Steiria) the ruins of the Early Christian basilica (Αγια Κυριακή?) still exist.  The three-sided funerary basilica has been excavated and is located nearby the large Roman cemetery in use in the 4^th-6^thcentury BC.  In the same area remains of a bath complex and houses and multiple coin finds attest to a prosperous early Christian settlement. 

The invention of the early Christian church (Εκκλησια) was an important architectural development as it was achieved by the assimilation and rejection of previous prototypes, such as the Greco-Roman temples, and the Synagogue.  Basilica is the Latin tem for a large, important church taken from the Greek Βασιλικη Στοα that means King’s hall or Palace.  Basilicas are rectangular buildings with side aisles and pillars extending their length and an apse at one end. It was this type of building the early Christians adopted for their churches, possibly to differentiate them from the temples in which rectangular walled structure was inside and it was surrounded by pillars.  

Porto Rafti early Christian basilica as all Catholic and Orthodox churches faces east.  This orientation was so it faces towards Jerusalem. Another possibility is that because early Christian churches were constructed at sites where Ancient Greek temples existed most of which were aligned to the sun ie East.

The pale blue dot

The Earth is a very small dot in a vast cosmos.  Think of the rivers of blood spilled by generals and emperors so that, in triumph, they could become the temporary masters of a fraction of the dot.  There is no better demonstration of our folly than the distant image of our world.  It underscores our responsibility to deal kindly with one another and to preserve out the pale blue dot, the only home we will ever know.  The Earth is where we will make our last stand.  (Picture by NASA, narrative modified from Carl Sagan, 1986)

1492

Christophorus Columbus (1451-1502) was a Genovese explorer and expert navigator who proposed a new westward route from Europe to South East Asia.  The monarchs of Spain supported his expedition, as they were interested in establishing new routes and dominate the spice trade.

During his first voyage to the Americas in 1492, he landed on an island in the Bahamas that he named San Salvador.  Columbus was a learned man who knew Latin, Portuguese and the Castilian languages.   He had read the works of Ptolemy, Pliny’s Naturalis Historia, and Marco Polo’s travels among others.  Columbus became an accomplished mariner as between 1473 and 1485 had travelled extensible to the Greek island of Chios, Bristol in England, Galway in Ireland and also Iceland. Those who have crossed oceans on sailboats know the multitude of difficulties mariners face in long distance passages.  Columbus’ voyage was no exception and it was his knowledge of the “trade winds” that propelled him to the Americas and also helped his return trip to the Iberian Peninsula.  

When Columbus made his landing on Oct 12, 1492 he encountered the gentle Arawak Indians, but this lush green utopia was not a paradise. Other tribes such as the Carib Indians were warlike and carried raids across the Caribbean. They were known to eat human flesh.

Today, Americans are being encouraged to judge the past based on modern enlightenment and condemn people such as Columbus for failing to live up to our standards.  Six out of ten Americans agree though that his accomplishments were pivotal for bringing together the Old and the New World and honored him by giving his name in many towns like Columbus, Ohio.

The anniversary of Columbus's 1492 landing in the Americas is usually observed on October 12th in Spain and throughout the Americas, except Canada. In Spain it is called the Fiesta Nacional de España y Día de la Hispanidad, while a number of countries in Latin America celebrate it as Día de la Raza. In the United States it is called Columbus Day and is observed annually on the second Monday in October.