Day Eight: Paestum

Today was a free day for the Institute so a few people from the group decided to head out and visit some ancient Greek remains. Paestum (PASTE-oom) has one of the best collections of ancient Greek temples anywhere on Earth. There are three temple sites, a circular meeting space most likely used for Greek council meetings, and a memorial tomb on the site.


Here are two really cool elements that I want to remember from the visit:

First, the Temple of Hera (Number Two) was built about 450 BC in honor of Hera, the goddess of marriage and family. This site looks like a better version of the Parthenon in Athens. In fact, many archeologists think this site might have been the inspiration for the more famous one. Now, you might ask: Why is this the second Temple of Hera? Was it kind of like our modern-day religious split - people that are not happy with First Baptist Church start a new church named Second Baptisit? Not exactly. Actually, Hera has two temples dedicated to her. Her first temple looks like it might also be shared with her husband, Zeus. most Ancient Greek cities honored one god or goddess above all of the others. The Greeks who lived in Paestum really LOVED Hera.

Second, the museum at the site displays a Greek tomb fresco from the Tomb of the Diver. The way archeologists name tombs or specific ancient sites are based on the remains found inside the structure. This tomb didn’t really belong to a scuba diver or a deep sea diver or an Olympic diver, instead, the following picture was found drawn onto his tomb wall:

This isn’t really a picture of a man diving into a swimming pool (way too shallow!). Instead, the Greeks saw death as a passage: diving from morality into immortality. They saw the afterlife as great leap into the unknown.

Overall, another wonderful day of exploration. Tomorrow, Pompeii!