Circe’s fourth task took The Idiot on a lengthy MedTrek around Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.
“Besides visiting the Cyclops’ cave and trying to avoid the Sun God’s cattle, find contemporary art in ancient Sicily, and enter the smoky earth on the volcanic mountains of Etna, Stromboli, and Vulcano,” Circe requested.
The encounter with contemporary art is described in the 19th chapter of “The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean.”
Is an out-of-place sculpture appropriate among the ruins at ancient Agrigento on Sicily?
Getting to Agrigento involved a MedTrek around Sicily, the Mediterranean’s largest island.
7. Seeking a Blind-Drunk Cyclops
“Some god protected him and saved him.” – The Iliad
…..Not far from Il Caos, I find myself in the middle of a heated debate and chaotic culture clash at the Valley of the Temples (as every visitor learns within sixty seconds, the valley is actually a ridge) in the gigantic Agrigento archeological site.
An exhibit called Contemporary Art for the Temple of Zeus prominently displays paintings and sculptures by more than forty international artists amid temples, gardens, a villa, a necropolis and other ruins dating from 580 BC. The goal of the exhibit is to use the proceeds to further restore the Temple of Zeus. And perhaps cause a heated hullabaloo as visitors sample modern sculptures on display at the Temple of Concordia, the Temple of Hêraklês, the Villa Aurea garden and other sites. Museum employees at the site, that was at its prime during the era of Theron from 488-472 BC, tell me that half the visitors like the temporary new look and half don’t. I’ll let the pictures tell the story and you can decide how you feel.
Visitors were either intrigued or baffled by modern art in an ancient setting.
Some sculptures were more subtle and refined than others.
Want more? Simply download the interactive and/or paperback versions of “The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean” @ http://followtheidiot.com/purchase.
Next week:Circe’s seventh task requires The Idiot to “visit the Oracle of Delphi, who “knew what was, what had been, what would be,” and let her lead you to the cave of Zeus’ birth, the world’s greatest travel writer and the end of an historic footrace in Sparta.”
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