Hekate in Rhodes!

[catja6]

Hi all,

I'll wait to post about Santorini-Crete-Rhodes until the main board is up and running again, but I wanted to log in and say that I found not one, but TWO spectacular representations of Hekate in the archaological museums in Rhodes Old Town.  One, the larger,  was in the official archaeological museum (next to the famous "Marine Venus"), and the smaller was in the "Ancient Rhodes" exhibition in the Palace of the Grand masters (of the Knights Hospitallers).  Both were late Hellenistic representations of a triform Hekate; the smaller piece, a household idol, explicitly linked Hekate with the phases of the moon, and her three faces were of a young woman, an adult woman, and an older woman.  It was *beautiful* -- I couldn't stop staring at it.  The larger piece had the more usual three maidens, I'm guessing -- the figures were somewhat degraded, but they all looked to be identical, as far as I could discern.  That piece had a bit where a tripod to hold a cauldron could be attached (if I read the tag right -- the English translations, even on official museum plates, are sometimes rather eccentric, and my Greek isn't trustworthy).  Tim took a picture of this piece, which we'll post when we get back; unfortunately, the "Ancient Rhodes" exhibition wasn't allowing pictures. 

For those of you wondering about the Minoan remains in the Heraklion museum in Crete, I'm sorry to report that the main museum is closed.  However, they've moved the most famous/important bits to a temporary exhibition hall, and those are pretty spectacular -- the Snake Goddess, the Bull Leaper fresco, double-headed axes, the Bee pendant: all there, and glorious.  As Tim said, though, it felt like cheating -- the temporary exhibition only took like an hour to get through.  We were disappointed; one of our favorite things to do in museums is to find and love random dusty pieces that no one else seems to care about.  But we got to see the highlights, which was infinitely better than nothing at all.

More later!

[RandallS]

I'll wait to post about Santorini-Crete-Rhodes until the main board is up and running again...

Probably a good idea, but we're glad to know y'all are still enjoying yourselves and seeing lots of really interesting stuff.

For those of you wondering about the Minoan remains in the Heraklion museum in Crete, I'm sorry to report that the main museum is closed.

That's a shame, because as you say, sometimes the most interesting stuff isn't the most popular exhibits.

[Garnet]

I'll wait to post about Santorini-Crete-Rhodes until the main board is up and running again, but I wanted to log in and say that I found not one, but TWO spectacular representations of Hekate in the archaological museums in Rhodes Old Town.

Awesome!  I'm looking forward to the whole story.