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Increase a glass to town of Dion on the Jap slopes of Mount Olympus, thought of by the traditional Greeks a divine location, the place Zeus held sway.
And whereas we’re at it, increase a glass to Zeus’ son, Dionysus the god of fertility and theater, and most famously, wine:
…hail to you, Dionysus, god of ample clusters! Grant that we could come once more rejoicing to this season, and from that season onwards for a lot of a yr. – The Homeric hymn to Dionysus
In the summertime of 1987, archaeologists working at an excavation web site close to the fashionable village of Dion unearthed a mosaic of 1000’s of stone tessarae depictng “ivy-crowned Dionysus, the loud-crying god, splendid son of Zeus and wonderful Semele,” elevating a consuming horn as he rides nude in a chariot pulled by sea panthers.
1800 some years earlier, it had adorned the ground of a luxurious villa’s banquet hall.
The villa was destroyed by hearth, probably as the results of an earthquake, however a layer of wealthy Dion mud preserved the mosaic in astonishing situation for practically two millennia.
A roof was erected over the rediscovered mural, with a footbridge on the perimeter affording the general public glorious views for over twenty years.
Publicity to the weather inevitably began taking a toll, with particular person tiles melting into the earth and vegetation bobbing up within the cracks.
Utilizing funds from the Onassis Foundation, the mosaic was rehabilitated and relocated to a specifically designed, environmentally-secure constructing.
The Onassis Basis’s narration-free video above offers a peek on the course of, decreasing what should, at instances, have been a supremely nerve-wracking 2-year endeavor to a pleasing seven-minute meditation, punctuated by birdsong and calm, coordinated group effort.
For individuals who desire a extra particular blow by blow, Rion Nakaya’s The Child Ought to See This breaks down the conservation group’s efforts to divide the mural alongside a grid utilizing drills, flat metal blades, and adhesive material, earlier than sandwiching the sections between metal and picket plates for transport to their new house.
(We discovered the second when the protecting material is steamed away to be a very harrowing thrill. )
Those that’d prefer to discover Dion’s treasures in depth would possibly get pleasure from Onassis Basis’s exhibition catalogue Gods and Mortals at Olympus: Ancient Dion, City of Zeus, edited by the late archeologist Dimitrios Pandermalis, under.
By way of The Kid Should See This
Associated Content material
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Introduction to Ancient Greek History: A Free Online Course from Yale
Mythos: An Animation Retells Timeless Greek Myths with Abstract Modern Designs
– Ayun Halliday is the Chief Primatologist of the East Village Inky zine and creator, most just lately, of Creative, Not Famous: The Small Potato Manifesto and Creative, Not Famous Activity Book. Comply with her @AyunHalliday.
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