Comfort and discomfort

Questions for the day:


* were any of the ancient sculptors slaves, or were slaves restricted to carrying things?


* does contemporary Greek discourse about antiquity include analysis/identification with/reclamation of/anxiety about the colonial and slave-owning aspects of the glorious past?


* where have the good Cretans of Iraklion hidden the ice cream?


Yesterday OT and I rode our faithful steeds up to the site of Profitis Ilias monastery. The monastery, founded in 1711, is just below the peak of one of the string of hills that form the spine of Thira. The monastery site is impressive: the honey-comb bell-tower sieves the sky, and the tall stone walls with small recessed wooden doors create an appealing, secret-garden sense of hidden space.


The hill also hosts a military installation -- masts, dishes, several low buildings and a brick wall with the bold inscription "uncontrolled cancer-creating radiation from military radar". 


**


Later in the morning we stopped at a taverna in Pyrgos village. We sat at our ease in the shade on a cane sofa with faded cushions, drinking black sweet coffee. Below us terraced fields, curved roofs, the sea. Across the square white furled sun-umbrellas, little madonnas of the courtyard.