IBM Round The World
FRIDAY, 6/5/64: [Datebook entry: Cairo: Memphis, Sakkara, Pyramids, Serapeum, Mena House, Sphinx] FRIDAY morning, west side of Nile. 15 miles to Memf (Memphis). Abadon Gardens and Cairo University. NO information BEFORE Mena (3000 BC). First capital of Memphis used by Mena. Sacred lake filled for mosquito prevention. TOWNS of old Egypt in the EAST (where sun RISES in east)---CEMETERIES of old Egypt on west shore, where sun SETS and life ends. Rameses II a great warrior in Syria and Lebanon. Huge colossus of Rameses II in house. NOTHING left of Memphis, only statues dug up [INSERTE]. One in front of railroad station in Cairo. Sakkara (WEST of Memphis) was the necropolis of Memphis. 82 pyramids in all. Zoser, step pyramid at Sakkara, first. In beginning, tombs merely a room under the ground. Imhotep (architect) prime minister of Zoser (3rd dynasty) came up with six steps. 4th Dynasty Snefru (father of Cheops) came up with PERFECT pyramid. Two temples to pyramid, one in valley, one BESIDE pyramid. TEMPLE must be NORTH of pyramid. Head of mummy at south. STEP pyramid (2900 BC) FIRST construction in stone---previously only in clay brick. Smaller pyramid of Unas---Daschour further down. 60 miles south of Sakkara are 80 pyramids. Tombs of princes AROUND tombs of kings. Prince Ti, 5th dynasty, AWAY from pyramid style. Tomb is a house for the soul, thus is FURNISHED AS IN LIFE. (2650 BC) Absolute Egyptian absence of penis in paintings NOT true in tomb of Ti---some even being circumcised. The tomb is for the soul, because they suspect the mummy might decay in time; for the soul, they carve a lifelike statue for the soul to enter FOREVER. Tomb inside very plain, a low hall (4 x 4 x 10) into a chamber about 7 x 7 x 30, then another low hall about 5 x 5 x 5, then the central burial chamber about 15 x 15 x 15. The tomb is of granite, about 5 x 7 x 5 high, with a slab over it. Small false chamber 3 x 3 x 3 off to side, the offering table. These PRINCE's tombs are like the KING'S tombs of pre-pyramid days. Toilet in "rest-house" is odd, no running water, so a little boy pours bottled water to soap up my hands (dirtied from lampblack from the roof of the tomb of Prince Ti) and then rinses them from the bottle, then offers the edge of his long white cloak for drying! I dash to Anna Marsh for ten piastre coins for the boy. Serapeum discovered in 1851. "Bull, to be SACRED, must be black, with white star on forehead and back. When they find one, they worship that as a symbol of their god." They celebrate its funeral as for a king---sarcophagus of granite from Aswan (650 miles via Nile). Serapeum hewn in rock---tomb of the bull Apis. In THIS tomb there are twenty-four sarcophaguses of the bull Apis. There are other serapeum through Egypt. One wing of mausoleum is lit, but other is dark, so naturally Mozelle and I go down that corridor. We come to end and feel around edges of what must be the last tomb, the walls go to a narrow spot beyond which there is no passage. But as there's an equal one on the other side, it must be a tomb. Huts by roadside only for NOON rest in fields. At night they return to distant villages. The flies are terrible pests in Egypt, persistently coming back after being brushed away, and they're so heavy you can literally feel them landing. And all through the east there are birds; in hotel lobbies, in mosques, in bus stations, in tombs, in busses, in airplanes. In many of the cities there are pigeons, and as you go west from Tokyo, you hit crows and jackdaws, and in Agra brilliant green birds were thrown in. In Delhi the effect, even besides the central Capitol area, of the birds in the trees was that of the birds in DC. Great Pyramid. 240-1/2 feet up to the King's chamber. 18 x 26 x 36 long, all of rosy granite. Tomb built before sarcophagus put in. Air conditioning duct to outside. 30 yards into queen's chamber, peaked roof, side entrance 3 x 3 off to left, opened 1872, room 15 x 20 x 20 high. 232 steps in all. Queen's tomb stood on edge in room, and treasures behind it. In king's chamber, treasures in trough along one side. After sphinx---Chephren's Valley temple. Mekaranos (grandson), and Chephren (son), and Cheops (father), all walls of granite and walls of alabaster, and the statue of Chephren's valley temple is the SPHINX. First, Cheops, is highest 481 feet. Second, Chephren, with bit of top left, is smaller. In Cairo, as in ANY large city, the houses of the rich are VERY beautiful. Was it only my imagination, or DID the beggar say "jab jab Grass are Green jab jab?" to his friends as he crinkles banknotes under their noses? Spirit of NYC, two boys on back of Cairo trolley. From hotel window; mosques, minarets and towers and deserted temples on dusty east hills. "Wadta Bagka" said girl to whom I wouldn't give time she asked in French. "No, no, two piastres for one minute," the boy on the tower said. "I have these, I just want to find direction," I pointed to my binoculars. "May I see?" He looked and looked. "Very good pair you have," he said, smiling, handing them back to me, and his neighbor said, "Please," and looked out over my head. Non-private park a bit of a shock, not being able to walk through after paying two piastres. In Cairo I suddenly got the idea (walking across the Nile (on a bridge) that shorts were passé. Maybe it was the way they looked at me as if my fly were open. Of course, maybe it wasn't the shorts. The number of pairs of men walking hand in hand is definitely on the increase. Observation: the railing of the bridge over the Nile vibrates like mad when cars pass over. On a bus crossing the river, MEN hanging outside the car indicated maybe not only children had to ride outside. Said "No" to a ride across the river to the hotel on a boat, and only later thought of the terrible episode in "Amerika, Amerika," when the fellow was completely robbed on a ferry. SPHINX FACING EAST "SUN HAS RISEN EVERY DAY IN MY FACE" DOWN WITH VELIKOVSKY. Herodatus gave Sphinx his name. Out of respect for father, Chephren's pyramid was smaller. Apex is polished limestone. With fifty exerting climbers, the flue up the Cheop's pyramid would be as hot as the devil's _____. Most ancient statue in wood---mayor of village of 3000 BC. Six geese from tomb of Medun near Saqqara (3000 BC) AS GOOD AS late Chinese. Copper-Bronze Statue of Pepi I---6th Dynasty---2600 BC. Book of Dead from Papyrus around mummy's bodies, not on sarcophagi. Tanis 80 miles north of Cairo---one of old capitals. Hapi is god of Nile. XII Dynasty---good representation of lower abdomen. Amenophis is the same name as Amenhotep. Ihknaton's mother was Asiatic. Plaque showing "Aknaton, Nefertiti et trois fillettes." Ikhnaton room is 3. Tut had four cases, three coffins, one mask and a mummy. Nefertiti is with Hathor crown [INSERTF] on chair, in Tut's tomb. They have lock of hair of Queen Tyi "all that is known to remain of that great personage." Queen Tyi, the grandmother of Tut's wife Ankhasenamum. Tyi's husband was Amenophis III. Tut was married at 15. Two years old, he was Tutank-aton, later changed to Tutank-amen, and gave back to people their worship of many gods. Queen Tyi---definite ski-nose from temple of Madinet Habu, with Amenophis III and three of their daughters.
(13280) plaque of Negroid profile FACING Ikhnaton---profiles similar, except for nose of Ikanaton, which is more aquiline.
(13430) "Limestone relief of woman kissing a (royal?) hand, a subject which is perhaps unique. Almost certainly of the el-Amarna period. Asyut." Everything that's unique is AUTOMATICALLY assigned to Ikhnaton?
(13428) "Eye and his wife Ti in the act of receiving necklaces from Akhenaton. This nobleman later became king of Egypt by his marriage with the widow of Tut."
(13440) "Rare god Shed, "the Saviour"---very rare to find gods other than Aton revered in el-Amarna." SHED has abnormally shaped head of princesses.
(13424) Limestone relief---usual decoration below a throne---lioness takes place of conventional lion, another example of Ikhnaton artistic perversion.
Merit-Aten is Princess. Ankhasenamen is another.
"Young (13239) co-regent and successor Smenkh-ka-re." Why did HE have WOODEN casket? Did Tut come AFTER Smenkh-ka-re??
"Note especially how the male figures often have the feet together, while the females have the left leg advanced, the exact opposite of what had hitherto been the regular attitudes." 13233 and 13226 DIFFERENT faces, yet BOTH said to be Nefertiti???
Statues of princesses found in el-Amarna generally unnamed.
"Smenkh-ke-re's canopic jar's inscriptions have been completely effaced. They were surmounted by the sign for heaven, a unique feature."
(13394) Akhenaton followed by queen---queen has SAME face as Akhnaton.
Princess's faces have been effaced. Two forward-looking faces (aspects of Anubis) on second box of Tut quite a surprise. (Find later in Brooklyn Museum that a full face is the character hr, which means "face"). Did Ikhnaton start THAT too?? Few nudes in museum. Greco-Roman, or Alexandrine period, after Alexander conquered Egypt, very poor artistically. Strange, even in 5th Dynasty, nudes seem certainly circumcised! Some of the Greco-Roman pottery awfully perverse, others have HUGE holes for the penis to fit into. Definite Indian influence in many. Some hermaphrodites (2nd floor). Centaurs on vases with HUMAN forelegs. Bizarre Roman bronzes with dog head, serpent tail. Pilloried dwarfs with penises touching the ground. Pregnant women with penises. Magnificent etched bronze plaque of two boys, facing, holding hands.
If Tut not the SON of Ikhnaton, why does his chair have him as the image of Ikhnaton? Was there a FLOOR to the boxes, or merely removed for transportation? Outer casing 21 x 15 x 10 feet.
ORIGINAL cartouche on many items in Tut's tomb was SMENKHKERE, Tut's predecessor. Contents of many clothes and jewel boxes bore little relation to the items enumerated on their inventory labels, and were in most cases in complete disorder. A certain object, a gold statuette in a gold shrine, was missing. "Very possible that Tut had constructed a suitable tomb elsewhere which, for some reason, was not used when he died." "In tomb of Yuya and Thuya, chair of woman named SITAMUN; and on one of the chairs, obviously made for a child, she is described as the Great Royal Daughter." On the other, which is full-sized, she is called the Great Royal Wife. It is almost certain that she, like Tyi, was married to Amenophis III, probably on account of her being the royal heiress. Her parentage is still uncertain but it is within the bounds of possibility that she was the mother of Queen Nefertiti and perhaps of Smenkhkere and Tut, sons-in-law and successors of Tyi's son Akhenaton. Abdin or Farouk's palace---Farouk's GRANDFATHER built it in 1874. Mohammed Ali built Alabaster Mosque, Pasha (Khedive Ishmail) and his son, started to dig Suez---his son was Farouk's grandfather. Friday is Moslem's holy day---if they don't face Mecca, their prayers don't work. NO temple or tomb of Cleopatra WAS EVER found. Last time Egypt ruled by an Egyptian was just before Darius the Persian. Cairo colors are all sun and sand and baked bread and broasted chicken.
SATURDAY, 6/6/64: [Datebook entry: Cairo-Luxor] (SOMEWHERE HERE) First jungle gym for adults, a huge cartwheel of metal 20 feet high, 40 feet wide between highway, fellows walking up two adjacent spokes. Ancient vs modern: the chug of a barge carrying Coca Cola upstream interrupts the "Yo he hari" of burnoosed Egyptians, a dozen, tugging on a rope at Nile-edge. Plane passes, all silent but sparrows (are they everywhere?) chirping in shiny leafed trees and putt of launch across the way.
SUNDAY, 6/7/64: [Datebook entry: Luxor-Deir el Bahri, Tombs, Valley of the Kings, Karnak, Luxor] (SOMEWHERE HERE) Nile is dark mudgreen, and flows swiftly here, carrying eddies with it. Surprised, on standing at the east side, that NONE of the monuments can be seen on the west side. Only a yellow strip of sand or rock, a strip of brown-green grass, a strip of palms, and the greater or lesser bulk of a sandstone hill which only knowledge records towers over Dier el-Bahri. CRAZY ants: their rear segment almost vertical when they bend (yes, bend) to pick something up, and their legs are so long they remind of an elaborately springed phaeton, a little carriage with wide-flung supporters. Thutmose I (18th Dynasty) to Ramses XII (20th Dynasty) in Valley of Kings---64 tombs in all. 1817 the first tomb (Seti) found. Last tomb was Tut in 1922. TOURED:
1) Ramses VI (20th Dynasty, 1100 BC) Three books (1) Book of the Dead, (2) Gateway Book, (3) Underworld Book. Pictures put into plaster only. Imagine the cathedral of Siena being covered with the Vulgate!!
2) Tut's tomb. Discovered while cleaning Ramses VI tomb. Two ebony statues. HIGH priest has Ikhnaton's stomach. Tut represented as mummy in burial chamber. 18 when he died, high priest Ayib gave HIS tomb to Tut. Granite sarcophagus inside boxes, and contained four tombs. Paintings POCKED from light. [INSERTG]
3. Amenhotep II (18th Dynasty, discovered 1898). NINE mummies found in all, and the king. TWO-HEADED men, two SNAKE-headed men, stick figures [INSERTH] with labels "Contains paintings in process." and "Side rooms off BOTTOM of well.")
4) Seti I (19th Dynasty). Snake: 3 heads, 2 wings, 4 legs, 1 body. Odd animals: rabbits, snails, full faces. Large men drawn with this 0 as head; with this O as torso. Tomb room with mummies drawn on the walls. Almost three-D carvings on lower levels. Lines of cartouches, alternately different, along passageway. BOOB guide at END of tour said "Zodiac at end of burial chamber."
5) Hatshepsut at Dier el-Bahri; 1495 BC; Convent to the North. Senmut (born of Hatshepsut was Hatshepsut's architect and copied from one-stage temple for Dier el-Bahri.
House of mud with steps to second floor on stilts in Jerusalem?? FORTY-TWO royal mummies found in tomb BEHIND predecessor temple of Dier el-Bahri. Hatshepsut COMPLETELY removed from temple. Temple FACADES almost COMPLETELY reconstructed. Pictures of Hatshepsut as a BABY not destroyed by Thutmosis---BABY didn't cause him trouble. At Dier el-Bahri they found many broken statues of Hatshepsut, but destroyed and now at Metropolitan Museum in New York. To fool these beggarly kids, should have a supply of short stubby wooden pencils, so that when they see your silver pen and say "for pencil" you pull out the stubby pencil and say "here" for some phony ushabtis.
5) Tomb of noble (Prince Nacht) (spell it, please? BLOW---sarcasm!!) (One gets rather angry at the guide---he told LATER of zodiac on tomb of Seti, and said "5" and got in "8."
6) Rammeseum---Huge seated colossus over, ceilings still contain paint. Has a Hypostyle hall. Immense carvings on walls of archers and horses in chariots.
7) Minister of Ikhnaton. Ramose. Horemheb overthrew 18th dynasty Ikhnaton with NO hat. METHOD of drawing is shown: squares, sketch, draw, etc.
At Tomb of Queens, with sun frying your eyeballs in hot gum, you stand DIRECTLY on your shadow.
8) Tomb of Teti, queen of 19th Dynasty, tombs of Queens, more than 54 tombs, ALSO for princes. Nefertari was only one not robbed, but salts from mountains are eating away pictures and Egypt asked for help, no one helped, so they closed it. To see it, you need special permit from Cairo. Mummy of Teti is in Cairo---Scorpion Queen.
9) Tomb of son of Ramses III, beautiful colors and clothing and clarity. At bottom, a great granite sarcophagus, five feet of small prince is in Cairo. Mummy of a 6-months fetus from 1100 BC!!
10) Colossi of Memnon---Amenhotep III---main entrance to temple, a stele of which was found recently. Floods come JUST to base of statues. Crazy Nervi arches at El Qurna. Market in New (?) village---five years old. KARNAK: Originally Temple of Amon, 1200 years to build: 2000-800 BC. Covers 1000 acres. Much, much restored, most statues in really bad shape. Some columns are restored, well enough (open lotus) in forecourt to be impressive. CENTRAL columns, unroofed, are OPEN papyrus. Side columns, smaller and roofed, are CLOSED. Two Obelisks are IN Karnak, one is in St. Peter's Square in Rome, another in Istanbul, Turkey. Two in Thames, England, and at the Metropolitan, in NYC, are from Heliopolis. The one in the Place de la Concorde, in Paris, is plaster (of Paris?). Obelisks were covered with GOLD to shine in the sun. 32 meters of solid granite---put up by Hatshepsut---tallest in world. King TUT had a statue in Karnak. Lower Egypt: closed lotus; Upper Egypt: open lotus. In the CENTER of holies, Alexander the Great erected temple for his father, Philip, to Amon. In 380 AD, inner court, CHRISTIANS took over, and a few haloed figures are painted on columns. 30 piastres for ticket to Karnak. At 6:40 PM the tour left me. ABDYOS has limestone stele of COMPLETE list of dynasties. Found at Karnak a list of carouches from 1st to 18th Dynasty. Now in Cairo museum. Manetho had still another scheme. (GOOD ANSWER: perhaps maybe.) Rocks, fragments of statues, rough-hewn chunks, immense granite fingers, feet on pedestals (feet on stele vs pedestele??). Walls crumbling held in shape by scaffolding, gates closed, huge legs, as tall as a man to the knee. [INSERTJ] = Amun; [INSERTJ] = Amun-Ra.
Hatshepsut to LEFT of treasure table (effaced), and Amun-Ra to RIGHT. Some GIFTS on upper right are effaced, as are sides of tables at top. 10 rows, in 6th, effaced are two figures (one each, shaking hands). Rows of hieroglyphics below. Would be BEST to enter Karnak from CHAOS of back and climax at immensity of Hypostyle Hall. Fallen gates of monkeys with enormous testicles. Huge gate at east, built into wall beyond chaos---looks like chaos beyond, too. North gate far beyond wall, gateways between, nothing but blocks until temple wall. South gate being restored, temple between it and secret lake scaffolded up. Area DOMINATED by east and west gate, Hatshepsut obelisk not in exact center (further west?) and Hypostyle Hall. Great vantage point at northeast corner inside inner temple wall. Rocks hanging out over nothing, fallen rocks in aisles, staircases replaced, huge uncovered brick wells, a menace at night. Grass (incredibly prickly) growing in aisles and palms wave in rising evening wind. Dogs barking all around, children screaming, sun sinking into a shady pall over the western hills. Eerie howls from river boats echo back and forth, and clanking and hooting sound, like surreal calls to evening prayer. Sun descends (for me, as I descend staircase from vantage). Halls BELOW ground in back court. Leave at 7:30---guard has to unlock gate. Walk back along Nile is pleasant. Egyptians (and Eurasians in general) regard a group of foreigners as prey for phony antiques, plastic combs, expensive Tajs and general junk. However, a single one is to be stared and smiled and waved at, and talked to. (Any parallel between this and MOB violence only when there is a MOB?) Some tried out their English (and some their French) and a little girl with one phrase only tied herself into knots until I was past and then blurted out "Good-bye." Ball playing is much the rage, and one elder brother playing with four or five kids (younger brothers) stopped and gazed. "Hello" "How are you?" "I speak English (proudly). What country are you from?" and a beaming GOOD when I said "America." He began to chant "America, America" behind me, and I walked off. An old man in black, very erect, trotted past on a donkey whose head was actually pulled up beyond the horizontal, so that his neck was bent awkwardly up. This awkward dressage fitted neatly with his look of disdain, and I'm sure he appreciated my admiring look at the prancing trot he got from his ass. Many people were walking in the street rather than on the sidewalk on the rise of the bank of the Nile, and I may have found out why: a little girl stood at the top while her father waded to his knees and took off his white coat. He had nothing on underneath, and his straightness of body was marred only by a protruding genital mass. Further down a man looked up as I passed and he said a word and three women in black stopped undressing (?) and looked up at me. Others were down there too, taking advantage of the set sun. Huge sand streams, cut ages ago when Egypt bloomed under a different sun and by a different sea, flowed like trees pressed against the ground. Mysterious dots were present in some of these sand-truck lines. Huts? Cars? Tents? No can say. Egypt, far from being featureless and sandy, is rock and water-carved. Peskiest items by far in Egypt are the little boys selling junk at the tombs, and the FLIES. Everywhere there are flies, except, mercifully, in the hotel rooms. But in dining rooms and waiting rooms and stations, and EVERYWHERE (not in tombs) there they are.
MONDAY, 6/8/64: [Datebook entry: Luxor-Beirut] So we get home at 2:30AM and had to get up at 6:30AM. Beirut has chance of becoming "classic" city: Mediterranean at edges, Italianate hills close by for spectacular views, from 25 km, in Sofar, can STILL see Beirut (and a cedar) most are 30 meters high and 25 meters in circumference. Emir Beshir planted pines, hosted Lamartine. Cannanites settled Phoenicia. Byblos, Ugurit, Tyre and Sidon from before 5000 BC. "Patronized" by Egyptians until Hyksos, then Hittites, then Assyrians until 700 BC, then Babylonians (500 years) and Persians, Alexander the Great, then Romans (Nero conquered Baalbeck, then Pompey (Baalbeck purely ROMAN) then Byzantines (temple to churches) under Theodosius. Julius pagan again. 551, large earthquake shook temples. BEAUTIFUL Bekaa Valley. Arabs conquered in 654. Chtousa has fine arak (lion's milk). Crusaders tried and failed to take Baalbeck. Arak is much like ouzo and pernod. Peanuts are tasty. Men are very broad-shouldered and thick-chested, adding much to the beauty of the countryside. After Arabians, Egyptian Mamelukes stayed until Turkish Berbers, 15th Century to World War I. France's share was Lebanon and Syria, Independence in 1943 (Syria in 1945). Now a Republic. Emir is a son of Ibn Saud: Beirut good for Persian rugs. Lebanon large producer of opium: we DON'T like hashish---we have co-ca-ine. President is Christian and MUST BE a Maronite (not orthodox). Vice president must be Moslem. ONLY land which has a majority of Christians in area. Lebanon is second in banking to Switzerland. Cedars are NOT planted by seed, MUST be by HAND, so original cedars are called "Cedars of God." Roman temples of Baalbeck built over 250 years, with ten generations of 100,000 slaves---started by Nero in 57 AD. Tradition says that columns of Baalbeck copied from Temple of Solomon. Baalbeck had 250,000 inhabitants. Temples ARTIFICIALLY raised above the city 50 meters. Temple larger than Acropolis. Egg is life; [INSERTQ] arrow is death. 6 tallest columns: 20 meters high. Acropolis: 18 meters high. All stones have holes and wedge marks, left uncovered in finished building. Temple of Jupiter for worship; then to Bacchus for wine and opium, then to Temple of Venus for love. Temple of Bacchus best preserved of ALL Roman temples. Corinthian leaves worn away to PRECISE simulacrum of the closed lotus columns of Karnak. ONLY ceiling intact from ROMAN times---used as design for later rugs. Festival, about one month of July, Fonteyn, Nureyev Ballet, Symphony (Pittsburgh) and other events.
TUESDAY, 6/9/64: [Datebook entry: Beirut-Baalbeck, Byblos] Supposed to leave hotel at 6:30AM, but everyone's only ready to check out by 6:30, and there's "l'histoire eternelle" of overcharges. Of course I'll long remember the string of beautiful stone palaces on the hills, all cleanly and squarely cut, distinguishable only by the widely varying number of balconies, and the brilliant colors (all same on one house) of the shutters. The Lebanese are a good-looking race, with good faces and pleasantly inquisitive regards, and the previously noted broad torsos look solid and fleshy. Over Jordan, the dry, brown, and dusty hills look forbidding. BYBLOS---Crusader Castle built 1200 from remains of Roman Columns of 40 AD. Byblos started excavating in 1922, still going. Prehistoric to 7000 BC. Temple of Monuments to Reshef found ON TOP of temple of Reshef and was MOVED to allow further excavations. Phoenicians first sailors, the navy of Asia, Africa and Europe, first ship built in harbor. To BURY sarcophagus, dig hole, fill with sand, put sarcophagus on top, take out sand, and there you are. Tore down part of modern Byblos to get to OLD Byblos. Sacred lake is lowest part---wash sacrifices before offering on altar. Neolithic remains were bones and jars---all removed. Altar for water and knife, hole for water and blood to form holy fluid, altar for burning, smoky temple, hymns to Baal, the very vision of Griffith's "Intolerance." Hollyhocks and thistles along paths, moss in rock crevices, liquids on walls, writing all the way. Three reasons (1) Harbor, (2) Hill to protect from sea breeze, (3) Spring in city (now dry). Digging TODAY, finding jars TODAY (8th) (cut jar in half, put body in fetus position, join together, bury) from 4000 BC. Oldest type of house was COMMUNAL, roofed, with rooms inside. "Complex Epi" steps only from temple built for Ramses II on his way to Hittite battle at Kadish. Horns, horns, horns, horns, ALWAYS horns on autos. Lebanese men wear shirts open two buttons to show a thicket of black fur on chest. Yum.
SECOND BOOK
Paid Pouteau 6/9 $20: $10 for Karachi, $10 of $30 for Damascus. Owe René 1.50 Lebanese pounds; owe Peg two Lebanese pounds. Today at Baalbeck and Damascus was busy, but I didn't feel particularly tired. The chance to go see Belly Dancing was passed up by all of us, including Pouteau, and we go to bed around 10PM and have to get up at 5:30AM for the flight to Jerusalem.
WEDNESDAY, 6/10/64: [Datebook entry: Beirut-Jerusalem, tours] Woke at 4:45 with sun streaming in, but caught another hour's nap between then and 6:10, but the 8 hours didn't seem to bring me to "normal sleeping," because this AM I'm tired and lightheaded. May be sickness coming up, but my bowels are fine. The sight-seeing in Jerusalem found me irritable and vaguely tired, particularly after the chewing out for the guide---New Orient Express Japan through Thailand; Mercury through India; Nawas from Egypt to the end. His admonition to Mozelle for me that there should be no hard feelings didn't help much. FINAL NOTES: Japan can go hang, except for Miyanoshita (terribly romantic hillsides) and Nara (must see Daibutsu). Next time around the world I'll stop for only a few days in Japan and pick those up, and that'll be that. Formosa, from looks and reports, seems good. Hong Kong is strictly a marketplace, be sure to get there before or after the typhoon season. Bangkok I would definitely go back to, for the Grand Palace again and for Angkor Wat, for which the model whetted my taste. India can completely go hang for many reasons (1) the absurd entry red tape and the ridiculous fuss with money, (2) the heat, the stench, the poverty, (3) I've completely seen Calcutta, Agra, and Delhi. Would only consider of passing through some temple place like Kharajao. Pakistan of course is OUT of the question. Egypt has the same money fuss, and Karnak is certainly not quite as restored, nor quite as natural, as I'd expected. WITH restoration I want beauty, WITHOUT restoration I want authenticity. Karnak has neither authenticity nor great beauty. I must be getting old, previously there were very few places I wouldn't want to see again. Maybe I'm just getting more discriminating, realizing there are so many places I haven't seen that I WANT to see, my life can't be cluttered with RETURNING to places I wasn't completely taken by---San Marino, Florence, Venice, and Siena, for example. The Cairo museum is interesting, and because of my interest in Ikhnaton I would like to see Tell El-Amarna, his capitol, and probably some of the other ancient places of Egypt. Like to see Alexandria, too---MUST have liked the "Alexandria Quartet." The middle east is of varying interest: Palestine has wondrous clarity of scenery, but the emphasis on tourism and selling rather kills the desire to see it again, having seen it once. Might be nice to see the Temple of the Sepulchre after it's been restored. MUST see PETRA. Baalbeck probably deserves a revisit, preferable during the summer festival in July and August. Damascus and Beirut I'd probably like to see the museums in, but the cities I've seen. The Mediterranean coast of Lebanon again reminds me of the great beauties of the Riviera del Fiore around Positano and Santa Marguerita Ligouria. The Riviera DOES seem to be a place to see, and I guess I should look forward to the Spanish Costa Brava and the islands of the Mediterranean. Unless the tour in the final city, Athens, includes lots of time in museums, I'll be sure to return to see it again, even though the fatigue I now feel might prevent my being enthusiastic NOW about the city, as it did in Paris, but I feel I should RETURN to Paris (particularly that Jean Jacques would show me around, and I could catch the Lido for the first time and the Follies again---to see how it differs: Memo---I guess I DO want to see the Follies in NYC, and from a GOOD seat, too. And I should probably also feel I shall return to Athens. In Italy I'd like to see Pompeii for the pornography. As far as pornography goes, the middle east is particularly fetching when I see fellows, both obviously the same "type" holding hands, or arm in arm, as they stroll down the street. This gives the impression of great sexual freedom, if not actual ambivalence in choice of partner. In Egypt I probably am glad I didn't get to the Pyramid bar atop the Nile Hilton (rationalization again), because there may be perfectly straight dolls there who would give "that" look without meaning it for me, but only for my wallet. Could my rather shaky intimations of "good or bad" people, so faulty in NYC, hold up in the exotic faces and eyes and stares and crotches of Egyptians and Lebanese? The same may prove to be true in Athens---so far there's been absolutely nothing for me on the trip except me, in various places about 4-5 days apart to relieve the pressures and prevent the frustrations caused by the pressures. The purpose of a short FAST trip is not the gratification of sexual curiosity (I must keep telling myself), but I wish the purpose wouldn't ALWAYS be attained with such COMPLETENESS. Around Jerusalem the contour lines drawn on the hills imply that 100% of the hills are terraced. Beautiful huge American cars waiting at Jerusalem airport---none so nice as Imperial limousine for tour at Phoenicia. JORDAN air is so clear. Arab = Jordan; Jews = Israel; started 1948. 4000 BC, Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac on a ROCK; Mohammed ascended from ROCK; Temple of Solomon in 1000 BC on ROCK. We in East (hotel just beyond east wall). West wall is dividing line between Arab and Jewish part. [INSERTS]
1) Constantinian basilica of the Ascension and the Return of Christ (4th Century). Church of the Pater Noster---Christ taught it to apostles. Helena (Constantine's mother) built church in 325. 614 destroyed by Persians. 1805 Carmelite sisters built. Eleona. All Moslems, no Christians on Mount of Olives. Jordan has two million people, 10% Christian, 90% Moslem. Jewish Jerusalem 200,000; Arabian Jerusalem 83,000.
2) Top of Mount of Olives---highest peak in Judea. Site of Ascension. 325 Helena built octagonal cathedral---foundations left, destroyed in 613 by Persians. Moslem Prophet Esau = Jesus. Inside "Last footprint of Christ." Christians allowed one day in compound---today. Tempers running short---people hollering at me to move, and I holler back to WAIT for me to move.
3) Church of Garden of Gethsemane---Garden of the Olive Oil Press---VERY old olive trees. Also called Church of Agony or Church of all Nations. Built 1922 on site of two old churches (1200 and 385). Covering "rock on which Christ prayed." "I cannot tell you exactly where, it may be here, it may be there, I cannot tell." WONderful mosaic floors and pictures. Rock outlined in marble RIGHT at foot of altar steps. Windows of alabaster. In garden, new trees and branches grow from grotesque old stumps. Leaves are many colors, gray-green, light green, yellow-green, pea-green, dark green, velvet green. Old road (now through Israel) five minutes 8 km; new road 17 km, 15 minutes (through Jordan) to Bethlehem.
4) Entrance to Bethlehem---Rachel's tomb. Rachel, granddaughter-in-law of Abraham---mother of Benjamin. Crusaders erected monument for Rachel's tomb. Sign in Rachel's tomb: "For beneficial of Poorer's."
5) Through door of humility to Nativity Church. Roman Catholic, Armenian, Greek Catholic, all three own it. Built over the stable; 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Came to pay taxes. Stable of Inn was natural limestone cave, thus stable was underground. First church by Helena in 325. In 614, Persians spared the church because of mosaic of three Persian magi on front. 527 Emperor Justinian rebuilt church. Crusaders built mosaics. Byzantine mosaic (1600 years old) under wooden sections (two feet lower than Crusader floor and column). HUGE (one foot) colored balls hanging from cretonne covers of oil lamps. Old inn was large hall, and families stayed in corners. Silver star placed in 1717. "Hic de virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est." Pope Paul said Mass on small altar commemorating Magi. [INSERTT]
Old bearded priest chanting, "For the church." CATHOLIC side of church dedicated to St. Catherine. Cleaning it, they found steps to office of St. Jerome (when he translated Bible into Vulgate). Tomb there, too. Sunny Cloister between modern church and Justinian's church, good contrast. Bethlehem, city of peace, is full of armed soldiers just as Syria-Lebanon was. At LEAST the roads aren't blocked by barbed wire stanchions every so many miles. How childish these political games are. "Potage Garbure" = Garbage + Ordure? PM: 1949, newest church to commemorate Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany. Lazarus' tomb now a Moslem Mosque. Down 25 steps to chamber, down 4 more to 7 x 7 x 8 room, with niches. Before the second tour in the PM, a jeep screeched over the curb and clobbered a tree and its surrounding metal stanchion. He didn't stop.
2) Tomb of Virgin Mary (Assumption took place there) 1200 Crusader church on top, 500 Byzantine church below. Orthodox churches avoid modern devices in churches---450 oil lamps lit to light processions. HUGE flight of stairs, mass of lights, no light, only candles as in Lazarus' tomb. Makes a devout semblance to the crowd. Tomb area is under an icon-covered altar. Jerusalem is infested by Russians---used to be THE thing for Christians from Russia. They devoted much money and donated things to many of the shrines.
3) Through St. Stephen's gate. Church of St. Anne (Mary's mother). 1200 Crusader church built. BARE walls and Gothic vaulting; modernistic central altar sanctuary light on left chapel. And INSIDE is
4) Pool of Bethesda (John V), found by archeologically oriented White Fathers. Miracle on Saturday by curing paralytic who couldn't get into pool after angel passed.
5) Church of the Flagellation---Built on the site of the Tower of Antonia. Huge crown of thorns painted on dome over altar. Beautiful Florentine mosaics. Two stations are in Tower of Antonia. In the chapel, the paved terrace where Christ was condemned to death and made to bear his cross. On every Friday, they follow the way of the cross. "One of the most authentic things (pavement) we have to show you." Pavement of the Tower of Antonia. Boy showing Christ the Cross, held by two men "Hey, Mister, wanna buy a cross?" Stations marked "III Stadio" on walls. Arch of "Ecce Homo" from 135, and is gate of fortress of Antonia through which Christ was led on the way of the cross.
6) Mount Moriah (Mount of Sacrifice) Abraham sacrificed Isaac, Solomon built Temple, Herod built temple. Christ wept and said "No stone on stone." MOSLEMS built Mosque in 681. Dome of the Rock. Called Mosque of Omar because Omar first man to visit it. Last restoration almost finished. BEAUTIFUL stained glass windows, lovely mosaics, HUGE rock with hole in center for blood of sacrifice (II Chronicles) to flow over the valley. Green and Red carpet SPECIALLY made for $300,000. Not down during remodeling.
6) Fountain of Purification---five times during the day, must wash five times.
7) Mosque of Al-Aksar (the farthest) (from Mecca) below the dome of the rock (ALSO a mosque). Rugs from Jordan and Persia, ceilings from Syria (inlaid wood) marble columns from Italy (Mussolini), all round except for central dome, FABULOUS mosaics and inlaid wood. Always beautiful carpets.
8) Wailing Wall. Down, down a winding labyrinthine way, past children leading goats and kids opening old wooden doors to see us pass. Three reasons for wailing: Lost glory, lost temple, coming of Messiah---the western wall of original Herod temple. Five rows of blocks with frame are from time of Christ. Woman in black with black veil a common sight, but one in a WHITE shawl with a flowery kerchief over her face is something of a shock.
9) Third station barely escapes being covered by movie posters. Turn a corner and after fifth station a vista under arches and past narrow walls---how did Pope Paul do it??---and nothing but foot traffic and much of it, busy shops all along, and a hookah going authentically. Sixth station is halfway up hill. Road gets covered at this point, and kids pluck at arms for money---probably most touristed street on earth. Seventh is at top of road, at intersection of market. Eighth is up cross street, pointed from 7th. Up market row, past shops as kids push past you, shouts and smells and men with loads on their backs and sheiks haggling with the meat man. Rows of vegetables and insides of lambs, shiny porcelain cups and geometric rows of crustaceans and fish, pushing and running, raw meat hustled past in bloody arms, cross streets go off in dimness, people coughing on the goods, people standing in doorways, and church signs all along the way. Ninth is on chapel on hill (Chart fell last time). Absurdly, the tour then stops in a bazaar. So I stand outside watching the world go by.
9) Crusader's 12th Century church of Calvary contains last five stations. Covers all of Calvary. 10th Station: dome is 10th, that of the stripping. 11th Station is at an altar---nailing to cross. 12th Station is the Rock of Calvary---gold plate under central altar. 13th Station: Mary receives body---under this side altar is the only piece of rock of Calvary visible under all of church. Anointing stone under church---rust rock under church, central. 14th Station is tomb of Joseph of Aramithea (new tomb given to Christ). All being reconstructed, scaffolding everywhere. Inside mosque, inside cupola, a fragment of the stone covering sepulcher. Inside is tomb. Marble slab covering limestone bed on which body of Christ was laid. Though marble mouth from the main cupola with a region of golden lamps hanging thick from the ceiling, two icons, two awful paintings, and a more awful wood carving of the risen Christ. A priest stands next to the money tray, and a single rose petal is on two marble slabs. Underneath there is stone, the stone where the dead body of Christ was dead during his three days in Limbo. I have run-in with guide about not announcing the blessing of the rosaries in the evening. Rosaries touched on stone of Calvary, and rock of tomb, then blessed. Queen Helena again cannibalized the rock of the tomb (incredible to believe) and left ONLY the bed, which is now under the marble slabs. Back room is chapel of apparition of Christ to Mary Magdelene, used to be a garden. Next chapel, inside, and all Christian, is chapel of apparition of Christ to Mary. In that chapel in a gold tabernacle is a fragment of the pillar of flagellation. Huge tunnels started under chapel, ceiling blasted. Construction work everywhere. Down to the incredible bazaar again and out of Damascus gate; under the stares of Jordani soldiers looking down over the battlements. In the valley between the hotel and the Dome of the Rock are three cemeteries, orthodox, jewish, and catholic. Tonight Mozelle and Pouteau and the two Nawas guides went to Ravela for drinks and conversation, but again I said no.
THURSDAY, 6/11/64: [Datebook entry: Jerusalem-Damascus] Ed forgot to close the shades for the morning in Jerusalem and I wake at 4:45AM to see golden bright sunlight blasting through the light curtains over the windows, and our room faced south, not east. Fell back asleep again and woke to phone at 6:10AM. Felt funny in the morning, a combination of stomach and nerves, I suppose. The morning had dawned just as bright and fantastically clear as it had been when we got in the previous morning. Shadows were away from the hotel, and the old walled city looked like a remote cobblestone road, and only the black dots of doors and windows ruined the effect. Many of the Jordan cities and villages ranged themselves down the hill as if setting themselves for viewing from a road on hill opposite. Slender cypresses broke the maze of white-yellow-gray houses with elegant verticals. I wonder if the incessant sunlight would begin to "get to you" in a while. In New York the pleasant days come so seldom that you really appreciate the clear air, or the smell of rain, or the sunset, or the ozone scent of storm. Too much of the same thing palls---even love and beauty---or else the object of the adoration grows tired of the adoration and changes, or attempts to change, in such a way that the adoration stops. Can a married couple survive? Royal Jordanian Airlines between Jerusalem and Beirut has a great idea---wings ABOVE plane so every window has an unobstructed ground view. GREAT. Now 9:15, the 11th, and the plane for Athens doesn't leave until 11. At this point the trip is almost over and I've got (almost) the typical going-home feeling---the eagerness for NYC has not come through yet, but I'm TIRED and I have the feeling that I really don't care to see any more. Night before night before last we stayed up late at the Casino du Liban---the gambling rooms looked very drab and bare and yellow, but the show room was nicely lit with parallel strips of lighting perpendicular to the stage. Unlike the Mikado and the Eden Roc and the Latin Quarter, the boys (like in the Follies) were deja nu, which added greatly to the attractions of the show. The three fellows tossing the girl in the air and skipping rope with her and spinning her about were pleasant to look at in their sequined jock straps in "L'Apres Midi dans la neige." The stage was small in comparison with the others, but the costumes were as good and the choreography was QUITE a bit better than in most. The Rockette imitations with eight gals just makes you appreciate Radio City the more. Tis a pity NYC doesn't appreciate male nudity more.
Absurd the troubles three countries pay for the trouble of crossing their petty borders. Counting money at entry of Syria, checking passports (but not putting anything into it) and the police and the soldiers and the concrete guardhouses like a stupid Gilbert and Sullivan play. Speaking about the UAR and how Nasser tried to unite the Arabs under HIS rule, so Syria backed out, to remain a petty niggardly community, poor and dry, off on its own. When will people learn?? US of Europe?? Then ANOTHER stop---one leaving Lebanon, one at Syria, one now---at the military police stop. This gives the vendors a chance to come in with candy and gum and the kid with ice cream. And the police, who probably don't know WHAT they're looking for, and undoubtedly don't know WHY they're looking for it, wander around looking alternately lazy and falsely swaggeringly important. Mozelle gets out her fingernail clippers and starts clacking. With her stupid smoking and lateness for breakfast, I'm getting short with her. And then the fourth stop, STOP on a red flag sign of metal on which the rust has obliterated it. The guide Indian wrestles briefly with the guard and the salesmanship goes on. Thankfully it's a gorgeous 25EC, (77EF) and a cool breeze makes it pleasant. What's "Acts of Apostles," 9th Chapter??? Damascus: Omayed Mosque---1st Century AD Roman Temple built, then church, then Moslem in 705: one minaret DATES from 705. OLD rugs not removed, new ones just laid on top. Second in importance, third in size (one in Mecca bigger and more important). Tomb of St. John the Baptist inside. Wham. 30 x 30 rug---largest in Moslem world. Incredible "fish marble" pillars on baptismal font---mollusks, crustaceans, etc., crowded into it. Through the garden, past a house, enter a hall: Saladin's tomb---son built dome; original coffin. "Street called straight (9th Chapter, St. Paul)" oldest street in the oldest city. "Mentioned in Bible. Original gates unimportant---now one gate is St. Paul's Window," chapel inside. Cart of HUGE lemons, 6" long. House of St. Ananias---many times destroyed. Chapel built in 54 AD. Ananias was High Priest of Damascus and Christian. Saul of Tarsus came to kill Ananias, and was converted. Lord said, "Go to Judas' house, on street called straight." Tried to kill St. Paul, he escaped through gate. Ananias built the chapel. The tour guide tried very hard to impress us. 1867 last restoration---services still held every Sunday. Brocade woven from original IBM cards, holes punched in 1" x 12" plates, telling which threads to use automatically. This shuttle used rapidly and pattern emerges. Mosaic used in BUNDLES [INSERTR] as basis, then cut into slabs. Good Damascene houses had outer court (entrance) and inner court with fountain. Inner room had painted panels ALL over, and cabinet with mattresses and rugs, and they'd sit on the floor---like mosque. Three yards for $21 for silk, beautiful to be sure, and 38" wide, but ISN'T it expensive?? Superb gaming tables, five layers of beautiful mosaics, $275 shipped. Horns, horns, horns on streets. Men with lighter hair wondrously attractive and very unusual in the Middle Eastern crowd. "Damascus oldest inhabited city in world. Population over one million now. 80% Moslem, 259 mosques and 30 churches. Two universities, one in Damascus, 40,000 students. NEW university will have 100,000 students. Site chosen for water---written history goes back to 4000 BC." "This is X, he was murdered in 1955; this is the tomb of Y, shot in 1935; this statue of Z, assassinated in 1962." Women with black veils and black western suits look strange, and René tells of girl in bikini and veil on beach in Tangier. They have some separate parks for women and children only, or readers and students only. Ate in Semiramis Hotel. Syrians drive their cars like they govern themselves: impetuously, poorly, loudly, and like a petulant CHILD. Two wrecks: one a bus and a Volkswagen in Kyoto, another a Jaguar and a Renault in Damascus. Painting: a huge mountain as backdrop, fields to all directions, sun setting in west and looking to east: very far away, a man following a donkey loaded with straw. Fabulous ride back through Syrian sunset. Get to first checkpoint at 5:50PM. Out at 6:20PM. STUPID. 300 km back at 7:40PM. TIRED.
FRIDAY, 6/12/64: [Datebook entry: Jerusalem-Beirut-Athens Museum, Acropolis, Parthanon, Agora] 10:40AM and no sign of departure---tired of writing, tired of waiting, eager to get to Athens early and take the tour down to Sounion, along the Greek coast, which should be beautiful. 11AM comes and goes, seating tickets are given out, and at 11:05AM the crowd gathers again at the door. Flies flood by twos and threes on everyone. Small boy acts like a small boy, feigning tears to get what he wants, and screams and turns red, but still looks unconvincing. How can parents let their kids do that without giving them a solid whack? Elaborate checks are made getting out the door, and the mobile lounge to the plane is jammed---such great planning---the same sort of "personalized handling" that broke the handle off Ed's bag coming into the airport. Hope mine holds up---lost first the sticker with my name, then the leather typed name, then, in Luxor, the YELLOW tag went and my bag was unidentified. Get another yellow tag and tie it on. As the bag fills with souvenirs, it becomes positively irreplaceable. One can accept insurance for shirts and shorts to be thrown away, but for post cards and coins and programs and souvenirs from four weeks of my life? Not to mention the full notebook---the luggage must get back to NYC intact or the trip will be "lost" except in memory, that sadly lacking tablet of passing events, so quickly dimmed by time or erased by succeeding experiences. Though the brain has so many billion neurons, the capacity at any one time seems woefully too small for the amount I would LIKE to have in storage. And at 11:10AM I get up to board the plane. DC-8 has one of the NOISIEST takeoffs on record: as it leaves the ground it sounds like the wheels have fallen off with a knock. A moment later: THEN you know the wheels have fallen off, there's a grinding on the underside of the ship. The air vents shriek and the plane dips and sinks. Then there's another jump and it settles into a semblance of flight. One really begins to wonder what people think of me: Pat Jones steps on my sandal, breaking the second strap (I throw them away last night) and says no word, even when I glare back at her. Mary Vera moves back from next to me to the vacant seat behind next to Leona Dent. Then Anna Marsh pulls out a third "Eight Mistakes" and I say "Oh, that's another one," and she tucks it in her bag, and three seconds later tears it up and puts it into the seat in front. Oh, well. She caused laughter at her fat when the seat belt wouldn't fit her. She was FIRMLY in. Pouteau talked about an Amalfi-type drive---probably that VERY spectacular one. Must see it. Sounion was complete with ROOF until 1882 when Mycenae was discovered full of gold and "modern" people tore it apart looking for gold. Number of scallops is typical: Doric column is 20, Poseidon's at Sounion has 16. Gross plaster statue for German TV propped up inside. Dried gray twigs looking like Lippold-welded lead construction. Place is absolutely FULL of huge grasshoppers. Temple is certainly well placed, but itself is not so thrilling, though the sight from the cliffs makes one thirst to see the midnight blue ink and the dark green velvet, and the black depths up close. There's nothing to speak of around the temple, though the 5th Century BC marble surrounding the 7th Century BC porous rock is interesting. "They built the new roof after they tore down the old roof, they covered it with cypress wood and marble tiles, like the Parthenon." The hills all around are laced with paths that the tourists have traced out. The thought that the temple was complete and roofed until the end of the 19th Century is too terrible to think about. While others eat I clamber along rocks to watch the sea come in on the rocks. In the midst of spray and sound and movement a tiny school of small fish reconvinces me that the sea, essentially, is UNMOVING. And then, as if I hadn't looked before, the entire COVE was full of swimming fish. Two classic sign goofs in Athens: the S out of SHELL, and the JE out of FLY TWA JETS. Goodness.
SATURDAY, 6/13/64: [Datebook entry: Greece: Corinth, Nauplia, Epidaurus, Mycenae, tour] From the little drizzle as we pulled into Kyoto to the typhoon at Hong Kong, our trip saw little rain, but we wake the morning of the 13th to the sound of rain on the inner roof outside our window in the St. George. It rained when we got on the bus for the 9AM tour at 9:15. Where Schlieman used to live they have the Supreme Court of Athens. Catholic church of St. Dionysius Areopagetus, who was the first Greek Christian. Frescoes on University. Schlieman found 16th Century BC tombs; Agamennon, IF he lived, lived 1200 BC. Old gold tomb mask is FIRST example of smile in 1550 BC. All Mycenean dates of ACTUAL objects are about 400 years too OLD for the people they represent. Dated at 1600 BC from POTTERY (dated from Egyptian chronology?) found with the gold items. "Pottery is the most reliable way of dating objects." Thus if Velikovsky is RIGHT, the two dates would coincide. "Ventris found Mycenaea used early Greek." Mycenaen women always portrayed with white skin, men with brown skin. Myth of Minatour arose through bull games in Crete which KILLED so many young men and women---then came the legend that the bull ATE them. Gold cup made by carving relief on WOOD form, and hammering gold INSIDE to bring out form. "Most of them are in the British Museum." Schlieman found 190 bodies in 67 royal tombs at Mycenae. In one royal tomb were found twins, and Schlieman though they were twins of Cassandra and Agamemnon, but since the dates of the grave pottery differed by 400 years, they "couldn't be." Velikovsky's thoughts say OK! Archaic statues ALL have three rows of abdominals. Sounion statue in museum. 500 BC is the end of the archaic period, arms removed from sides of body, indication of pubic hair and the fatty ridge at base of penis. Massive chest and small waist (Aristokikos, found 1943). 470 BC base of statue with wrestlers, VERY natural movement and musculature. 450 BC was the beautiful statue of Poseidon at UN. Clarity, balance, and completeness were the three aims of art of Greece, coupled with mathematics and geometry. I think the attraction of a BLOND in the black Arabian countries is simple one of contrast. Dark-haired fellows in Germany or Greece are attractive. The copy of that picture in Life in 1959, hollow bronze of Apollo, made 530 BC (first pubic hair). Dresses of Greek models are "known to be wet." Must spend much time in this museum. Then a room of Roman copies of Greek originals. Panepistemiou to Patission to Museum. OLDER statues had second toe longest, later ones have big toe longer. She said "See Hermes of Praxitiles at Olympia." From museum, take "Great Circle route" around city and see US Embassy and Hilton and walk past Royal Palace (National Gardens look SPECTACULAR) to stadium by 11:30. 4TH Century BC was FIRST stadium of Athens, later dressed in marble, but later, marble used for houses and mosques. New one built in 1886. Byzantine art exhibit at the Zappion. Official church of Athens is for official visits by King and Queen (Annunciation). 97% of Greeks are orthodox. Greek churches have FORBIDDEN statues, because they represent the earlier pagan art. Churches have icons, covered with gold and silver. Greek sphinxes of Sparta, 570 BC, definitely Assyrian. Walk to museum and wander through other rooms, including millions of vases on the second floor. Out at 2 to Zonar's by cab for a club sandwich and banana split for 50 ($1.66), a gyp on the sidewalk café with everyone scurrying by in the rain, which continues. Mozelle and Peg go back to hotel and I stroll into the National Gardens. The colors are impossibly green and shiny in the rain, and the paths are muddy for 1/2 inch, then solid, so shoes get dirty but not terribly muddy. Paths and gardens and ponds and then a lake with geese and a waterfall. Sit down and a fellow with jingly keys comes past---guess what his business is? He comes up and says something in Greek. "No speak Greek." He points to his wrist. It's 3:30. We sit and finally walk around. We walk and walk and he finds I'm a tourist (with an Omega watch, it occurs to me as I type these very words!!) and staying at King George's. We meet another fellow and they talk and the other fellow is interpreter. "Must have coffee; I like your eyes, no one around." "Tour at 4." "Later at 10, in front of King's Palace, must have coffee." OK. I don't see him again.
Parthenon (1) roof [INSERTI], to do away with
(2) columns to do away with
(3) columns to look like they livingly support the roof.
(4) columns to avoid
Chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statue of Athena, 40' high. Model in museum. Parthenon walls destroyed in 1678. FRONT is Propylea, small temple in front of Nike (Victory). Euripides usually ended a play with "Deus ex machina:" from second floor of stage, by crane, was lowered an actor dressed as a god, who gave verdict in the play, and was then lifted back up. Greek theater ALWAYS open, auditorium closed for lectures and concerts. Parthenon, Erectheon, and Propylea, then to Philopappus Hill. Notes taken at Sound and Light: Is History merely one stupid human rampage after another? Christians knocking heads off great statues to "purify" the pagan? Helena chewing up Christ's grave to build her temple? Thutmose III destroying all Hatshepsut's cartouches? Gold hunters wrecking Sounion in 1898? Shah Jahan's temples destroyed? How many more? How many next? How many, oh God, before the human beast realizes his damned bestiality? Kapaz Hilton = GARAGE Hilton. Sacred road between Daphne and Eleusis used to be lined with temples and statues and monuments. Now nothing left but niche-carved rock said to be part of temple of Aphrodite. What a SLAM it is, to say "the country is mainly agricultural." IMPLIES a bare level of existence. Canal between Saronic Gulf and Gulf of Corinth---280 feet cut, 45 feet deep, 80 feet wide, while there, boat under and passenger train and OLD freight train across. 1100-800 BC (Geometric). Ancient Corinth's acropolis built on top of HUGE hill---Venetian walls outside from 12th Century. Corinthian style of vases has rays from bottom of vase, and it has flowers all over them. Only colors are black and red. 6th Century BC, black figures, incised lines. 5th Century BC, red (clay) figures. Corinth Acropolis, 600 feet above city, only narrow road for small cars. "Oh, mommy, look at the bugs mating." Ground ALIVE with red-lined bugs. [INSERTU] Mycenae (Greeks are Indo-European race, from Hungary from Russia from India and Persia) ancient times were Pelagians. Ionians arrived in 2000 BC and destroyed Pelagian cities (one of them Corinth). 2000-1000 BC, Corinth deserted. Acheans founded, in 1700-1100, Mycenae. Dorians came then, in 1100 BC, beginning GREEK habitation of Corinth, becoming a large commercial city---the Paris of antiquity. 400 BC, Alexander the Great ruled from Corinth. 196 BC, Flaminius declares "liberation" of Greece from Macedonians. 146---Corinth head of Achean league and city razed. 200 AD, Corinth surpassed even Athens. Temple of Apollo from 6th Century BC (100 years before Parthenon) OLDEST temple still standing (seven columns standing). Athenian Parthenon is accepted as perfection through all ages. Girl with Beatle skirt in ancient Agora of Corinth. ALL life---political, artistic, philosophical---centered in Agora. "Marble" pronounced with the memory of the French "Marbre." St. Paul unsuccessful in Athens (God in sky "somewhere" not accepted by Athenians who KNEW Zeus lived on Olympus), but successful in Corinth for 18 months---epistles to Romans written FROM Corinth---to Corinthians, too. "Tribune of St. Paul" named only as tradition. Fountain of Pyrenius is in Corinth---tunnels back. "Man should live without needs" Diogenes, like Buddhists. Diogenes fell in love with Laius, the famous hetaira, who put her ugly slave in her place. "In the dark, every woman is Laius." Beautiful German tourists, blond and tan all OVER. Cypress has a tremendously ASCENTIAL quality. STARVING at 10:30AM after a stupid continental breakfast at 7 AM. Stop in small place for lemonade and the eight-year-old boy steps into a lime pit. Wow. Rhododendron-like flowers, pink and white, line road with flowering bushes. Whole fields are yellow with wild flowers---looks like broom, says Mary Vincent---and violet and white and red, too. Mycenae: 17th Century BC, FIRST Acropolis. 1400 BC, THE contrast on Mycenae. Trojan war: 1183-1153 BC. 9-11 Century BC "we know nothing about." Dark Ages of Greece. Velikovsky? Greek cemetery usually west of the walls. Mycenaen cemetery IS west, 1700-1500 BC. Royal tombs, people not in tombs, but covered with GOLD; shroud, pebbles, cloth, body, gold, cloth, wood beams, waterproof clay, sail, tumulus, and that's a tomb. Destruction of cities (layers of ashes) in 2000 BC. Hippocrates 5th Century BC---Aescalapius was 1000 BC; one was father, the other the god, of medicine. 10 years ago, fixing road, found ANOTHER graveyard outside walls. Older and richer (?) than royal tombs. Dark ages weren't dark, but arts and building REGRESSED during that time. "Tomb of Agamemnon" 150 years BEFORE Agememnon. Probably (14th Century BC) king from Acropolis. No attempt to hide the dead, everyone knew where he was buried. Called "Treasury of Atreus." Tomb always known, always empty, described by Pausanius in 200 AD. "Come next year and we'll tell you it IS the tomb of Agamemnon." Beehive tomb: 44 feet high, 44 feet in diameter. Nine beehive tombs in Mycenae, 40 in Greece. This is the largest. Mysterious hole on side. Lintel 25 feet long, 16 feet wide, 4 feet high. 122 tons---largest ever used for architecture---cut and transported and lifted. Moved five miles. Larger rocks at Baalbeck, but not part of the building. Pass Acropolis of Argos and Tyrins and Nauplia---became first capital of modern Greece (1820). Bourdzi Hotel in Nauplia (fabulously expensive) castle built in 1200 in middle of lake. Must write for rates. Lunch at Amphitryon Hotel. 999 steps to top of Acropolis of Nauplia. Magnificent eucalyptus avenue outside Nauplia toward Epidaurus. Convent there has the spring of Kanathos, where Hera bathed once a week and regained her virginity. Don't forget the DETERMINATION and the WILL TO BE GREAT of Rudy Cardenas and "Bill" at Casino du Liban. What would Bill DO for money?? The emphasis on guide's names: Miriam, for Masako; Mr. Louis (?), Eddie (?), Pakistani, etc. Bridge, Mycenean, 3300 years old, oldest bridge in the world. Epidaurus theater could seat 15,000; acoustics and beauty excellent. Thespis was first actor, came up with masks so HE could play all the parts; 531 BC HE performed in Athens. 50 years after, plays were great. Thespis ALSO said spectators should stand on a slope, then on benches, then in marble seats. Theatrum (where one watches from), sceni (tent where actors change), and orchestrum (place between two where dancers are). Circle in center is altar of Dionysius. Oldest Corinthian column on earth done by hand by Polyclites, in museum. Marvelous tales of Aesclapius---labyrinth for snakes (lick milk on wound )---or for snakes and mental patient and shock treatment. Asclapius "appears" at night to tell patient what's wrong. Asclapius used as model for Christ---oldest Christ in Italy (Gesappa) was carved by Greek sculptor famous for his perfect Asclapius. "Not permitted to die in the Temple." PERFECT moral boosters. VERY strange views of bus driver, smaller in convex rear view mirror, normal back of head, and HUGE image reflected in slightly concave front window. Remarkably light green of olive trees, black green of cypress, near background a valley like Yosemite's, and clouds piled upon clouds piled upon clouds of white and gray and milk and pearl and marble. Saturday, 7PM: "Just think, tomorrow at 7 o'clock, it'll be midnight."
SUNDAY, 6/14/64: [Datebook entry: Athens-New York] Leave Athens at 1:50PM; arrive Rome at 3:30PM (2:30PM Athens time); leave Rome at 3:14PM; arrive New York at 7:30PM (12:30PM Athens time), out of plane at 7:45PM. Bill watches while customs inspector searches everything, then Ed and Bill and I into taxi and home. AND AGAIN ANOTHER FABULOUS TRIP IS HISTORY.
EXCERPTED MATERIAL: When I typed my hand-written notes from my notebooks, I thought I might distribute copies of my notes to friends and relatives who didn't know I was gay, so I thought to extract "delicate" text. These are now all re-incorporated into the text, but they remain here as "historical deed."
P.2: Quotation from myself, somewhere: I am tired of old stars as gods. Their sharp fires, cold with time, are past. I need youth, warm with flesh, in now.
P.2(bottom) I awake with vague arousing thoughts and fear the bell so early, but time passes and a quiet of thought overcomes the pulse of flesh and I lay thinking of the wonder of the city. There is a vague fear for all the foreign tomorrows, a sick fantasy of awkward quiet passion in our shared room. I listen to breathing and eventually he, too, is awake. The metallic fumble for a timepiece on the tables, vague rhythmic rustles of bedclothes as my tale-telling ears sift the silence for scraps of specifics. Then again the regularity of breath proclaims sleep. I lay lazy.
P10(top) Leaves for breakfast and I come and get out at 9:15.
P.10(middle) Many of the fellows were nice, their glances of curiosity at me as a foreigner easily mistaken for interest. They hardly wear jockey shorts, for all have a very pleasantly long and bulky lump down the left leg, emphasized by the tightness from the knee to the waist and the bell bottom to the trousers. Most complexions are pure as old papyrus, and the eyes are bright and black. The hair is usually groomed and the overall impression is quite good, gentle, and affectionate.
P.16(middle) Hoses watered the flowers like rain, gently, and the fellow at my left, young and potential, sat and sang and looked at the neatly packaged asses swinging past---a marvelous differentiation between male and female, as the male shows all he has and the ideal female has none, or overshadows it with a fluffy backrest. Down at the GRAY poolside . . .
P.17(bottom) Pitcher plants have climax tenseness as a representation of phallus and scrotum, drawn smooth against the shaft. Plants I love to squeeze. And the phallus plants DO fit the hand nicely.
P.22(bottom) pin it back right. The cute Joseph Wong gently pins my fly when it appears I'm concerned about the small gap in front. After the fitting. . .
Page 23 catch the next, this one filled with sunny English high and grade school students, the girls in blue and white checked jumpers, the boys in white shirts and white short shorts, some showing lovely legs indeed---curly-haired limbs coming from full crotches under baby faces under knowing eyes under tousled blond hair is indeed hard to take. Mozelle has mentioned that "she knows what's wrong with me" as indeed she might. Good she didn't watch my eyes getting on and off the ferry or she would have KNOWN. Interesting how the general focus of interest changed from Japan to Hong Kong. In Japan the bell-bottom trousers with the extra tightness between knee and waist certainly drew attention to the crotch. That special area was accentuated even beneath the short suit jackets beneath which non-jockey supported cocks could be seen dangling in a pleasant wiener shape. The jacket or the ever-present shirt destroyed any interest in the upper body. However, in Hong Kong the interest moved up: many short sleeved shirts, many undershirts, and many many bare backs showing small but extremely strong and tight muscles underneath drew eyes strongly toward the shoulders. Couple a tanned bare chest with incredibly defined midsection with a bell-bottom trouser and you couldn't get my eyes away. Every Chinese works hard, and they have not an extra pound of flesh on them, and since they don't particularly seem to be undernourished, the muscles are pleasant though every body is slim. However, the few English on tour in general look bigger and more appealing, and the even fewer Americans seem to be sailors or ex-marines, all butch and appealing and willing at once. The two English faces at Kung Brothers while the poor fellow filed down three bands for my watch were quite remarkable for the purity of their complexions and the repose of their faces and the brightness of their eyes. After a steady diet of Chinese brown eyes, a blue clear eye seems attractive indeed.
P.35(middle) in strict purdah, and many young men are seen arm in arm, hand in hand, or arm around shoulders---looks nice.
P.39(top) dug out of their sockets.) (Indian-British half-caste in restaurant was a real beauty---English features with an Indian fawn-look to his eyes. Brown American duck hair over the Indian fawning politeness. How beautiful some combinations are---Chinese Hawaiian girls with exotic looks, Negro-white mixtures with chocolate or mocha skins. What romance! The Thai-Italian-looking combination that stared at me at the airport, and the Indian-something combination who questioned my looking into the cafeteria in Lucknow) (For lunch. . . .
P.42(top) Paul was a tall well-built Indian and I could hardly take my eyes off him.
P.42(middle) 4.65 rupees) (To the lower torso of the Japanese, to which has been added the upper torso of the Chinese, you may now add the smiling, bronzed, evenly toothed face of the Thai. Unusually clear-skinned, relatively hairless looking, and cheerful and kindly, then add the eyes of only a very few Indians, when the kohl-coloring around the lashes look not so much like Italianate makeup for a heavy in a gangster movie, but seduction eyeliner for a progressively male-oriented audience. The eyes look monstrously large, and the black depths contain white sparks of contrasting fire. But only a very few Indians have the right darkness to be called attractive---probably a higher percentage of Americans have the desired degree of exoticness.) (Feared through all flights. . . .SHUNG [have no idea what this means]
P.45(middle) (265 BC). Absolute Egyptian absence of penis in paintings NOT true in tomb of Ti---some even being circumcised. For soul, they suspect the mummy might. . . .
P.47(bottom) pass over. Of course, maybe it wasn't the shorts. The number of pairs of men walking hand in hand is definitely on the increase.
P.48(middle) Hapi is god of Nile. XII Dynasty---good representation of lower abdomen.
P.50(top) THAT too?? Few nudes in museum. Greco-Roman, or Alexandrine period, after Alexander conquered Egypt, very poor artistically. Strange, even in 5th Dynasty, nudes seem certainly circumcised! Some of the Greco-Roman pottery awfully perverse, others have HUGE holes for the penis to fit into. Definite Indian influence in many. Some hermaphrodites (2nd floor). Centaurs on vases with HUMAN forelegs. Bizarre Roman bronzes with dog head, serpent tail. Pilloried dwarfs with penises touching the ground. Pregnant women with penises. Magnificent etched bronze plaque of two boys, facing, holding hands.
P.55(bottom) Hypostyle Hall. Fallen monkey gates with enormous testicles.
P.57(top) He had nothing on underneath, and his straightens of body was marred only by the protruding genital mass.
P.58(middle) horns on autos. Lebanese men wear shirts open two buttons to show a thicket of black fur on chest. Yum.
P.59(top) Peanuts are tasty. Men are very broad-shouldered and thick-chested, adding much to the beauty of the countryside.
P.62(top) horns on streets. Men with lighter hair wondrously attractive. "Damascus. . . .
P.62(bottom) of the shutters. The Lebanese look a good-looking race, with good faces and pleasantly inquisitive regards, and the previously noted broad torsos look solid and fleshy. Over Jordan, the dry. . . .
P.70(bottom) lit with parallel strips of lighting perpendicular to the stage. Unlike the Mikado and the Eden Roc and the Latin Quarter, the boys (like the Follies) were deja nu, which added greatly to the attractions of the show. The three fellows tossing the girl in the air and skipping rope with her and spinning her about were pleasant to look at in their sequined jock straps in "L'Apres Midi dans la neige." (Later) Radio City the more. Tis a pity NYC doesn't appreciate male nudity more. So
P.73(middle) In Italy I'd like to see Pompeii for the pornography. As far as pornography goes, the middle east is particularly fetching when I see fellows, both obviously the same "type" holding hands, or arm in arm, as they stroll down the street. This gives the impression of great sexual freedom, if not actual ambivalence in choice of partner. In Egypt I probably am glad I didn't get to the Pyramid bar atop the Nile Hilton (rationalization again), because there may be perfectly straight dolls there who would give "that" look without meaning it for me, but only for my wallet. Could my rather shaky intimations of "good or bad" people, so faulty in NYC, hold up in the exotic faces and eyes and stares and crotches of Egyptians and Lebanese? The same may prove to be true in Athens---so far there's been absolutely nothing for me on the trip except me, in various places about 4-5 days apart to relieve the pressures and prevent the frustrations caused by the pressures. The purpose of a short FAST trip is not the gratification of sexual curiosity (I must keep telling myself), but I wish the purpose wouldn't ALWAYS be attained with such COMPLETENESS.
P.76(bottom) sides of body, indication of pubic hair and the fatty ridge at base of penis. Massive chest and small waist (Aristokikos, found 1943).
P.77(top) geometry. I think the attraction of a BLOND in the black Arabian countries is simple one of contrast. Dark-haired fellows in Germany or Greece are attractive. ....Greek originals. The copy of that picture in Life in 1959, hollow bronze of Apollo, made 530 BC (first pubic hair).
P.78(top) waterfall. Sit down and a fellow with jingly keys comes past---guess what his business is? He comes up and says something in Greek. "No speak Greek." He points to his wrist. It's 3:30. We sit and finally walk around. We walk and walk and he finds I'm a tourist (with an Omega watch, it occurs to me as I type these very words!!) and staying at King George's. We meet another fellow and they talk and the other fellow is interpreter. "Must have coffee; I like your eyes, no one around." "Tour at 4." "Later at 10, in front of King's Palace, must have coffee." OK. I don't see him again.
P.80(middle) Laius." Beautiful German tourists, blond and tan all OVER. Cypress....
P.81(bottom) Rudy Cardenas and "Bill" at Casino du Liban. What would Bill DO for money?? The emphasis....