August 26th, 2015

Okay, I won't be posting this until I get out of class, but this was hysterical, and I just have to share.

Today, as part of my Architecture History class, we went out on a hike around the campus and my professor was explaining the stories behind the styles of some of the buildings. This one draws on some Greek architecture:

The photo is hard to see because it's at a distance, but in the center over the door is a broken pediment, a shield, a shell, and a cornucopic vine of the sort that were hung on sacrificial animals. Such a carving was a repeating motif throughout Hellenic Greek architecture. 

My professor explained this, and then held up a model of the Parthenon of Athens. He had one student hold it, and others play the role of a priest, a sacrificial oxen, and a virgin maiden. He then had them recreate a ritual sacrifice to the goddess Athena Polias, with the "maiden" (portrayed by a good-natured boy) walking up to the temple model throwing rose petals from a basket, while the "priest" mimed slaughtering the "oxen" on a black stone altar. 

I will say again that we were doing this little example of Greek ritual in the middle of campus at 12:30 in the afternoon.

I did collect some of the rose petals after the fact, and I will be putting them on my altar.