>> What's that?   <<   Another update? The day after the last one?!? Indeed it is, yay me! So today was a pretty short day, short in that it was not as long as some of the days we have had! Today we went first to Marathon, site of the great battle between the Athenians and some of their allies and the Persians. The Athenian's inferior forces managed to stave off the Persians, which was a great victory not so much because it was militarily important, but because it was psychologically important. It was the first time that Athenians had been able to beat the Persians in such a situation, and it boosted their confidence in further dealing with the Persians. The story goes that thousands of Persians were killed, but only 192 Athenians were. After the battle the Athenians were all buried together in a burial mound that is still there today:

After Marathon, we went to Ramnous, which is not too far away. The site has a temple, a tomb monument-lined road, and a fortress and little town. The town was probably the coolest part, because so much has been uncovered and it is so clearly defined. Of course, we had to hike down the tomb lined road towards the city below:

And then step through the giant fortress walls:

And then we could wander among the houses inside:

This was near one of the doors of the house, and it was really nifty to see it there! These things are Herms, which are pretty much pillars with the head of Hermes on top and a set of genitalia on the pillar below. They were found everywhere, because Hermes, and thus these Herms in particular, were guardians of boundaries. Most houses would have had one outside the door, like this one, though it's unlikely they were all so large and thus expensive. It was nifty to see one set up in place, though, to get a feel for what it would have been like walking around a city with these in them everywhere. And after that we had a swim stop before heading home.

;.; Unhappily I left my kindle on the bus today. Hopefully it will still be there when we go on our next trip on Thursday, otherwise I shall be most unhappy and very much bored!

Hope all is well at home, though, love you all! <3