Sunday June 17 2001
by Judy Beck

What a wonderful morning! We slept as late as we wanted to - nothing special to do. The free morning gave the following options:
-Swimming at the "garden pool" of the hotel (lovely setting - very relaxing)
-Kilim shopping and looking
-Reading
-Walking
-Or whatever we took it into our heads to do.

12:00 Noon: Off on the bus to a nearby restaurant for a delicious lunch. The watermelon was among the best quality on the trip. After lunch we headed for Metropolis - a ten year old excavation of the city of the mother goddess, found in a cave. We saw a theater, baths, senate council chamber - all in a wonderfully preserved state. Hardly anything was damaged - no major earthquakes!

After a long, winding drive over the mountains, seeing black tents, nomad families, and a long, long line of goats heading for water and food, we arrived at Claros, site of a temple to Apollo and probably Artemis. Wonderfully grand statues of Plato & Artemis dominate the site.

Our mother/daughter ritual took place there - thanks to Bonnie, Diane O., Daphne and Lily. The experience of sharing our "mother" stories was powerful. There is great depth to the Anatolian mother Ana. Meli did the closing blessing at the ritual today, a powerful prayer for all women to be Anas.'' How ironic that Meli's mother was taken to the hospital today. Meli rushed to be with her overnight.

After supper, eight women shared their story in Women and Community. Some were really deep, powerful stories. In fact I've never experienced such a Women in Community session, though I've attended two previous institutes.
In a discussion after the session, some women complained of a "coercive" element in the group dynamics of this particular institute which left them feeling they had to "hide" something of themselves in order to get along. They felt uncomfortable with various elements, especially ritual. We all ended the evening with the hope that this dynamic can and will change in the three days left to us.

Amen! Blessed Be!

Love to all,
Judy

Monday June 18 2001
Editor standing in on June 18

I did not receive a journal page for June 18, so here's a short piece from my personal diary:
I was awed by the ruins of a temple complex that included a huge temple of Apollo that for 1400 years housed an oracle as important as the one at Delphi in Greece. The whole site had an aura of ancient wisdom, beauty and harmony. The carving of the Medusa was amazing.
We actually held our oracle ritual at another magnificent site, Priene, on the ruins of an ancient temple of Athena. These ruins had five near-perfect Ionic columns in front of a beautiful sheer, forested mountainside. (The columns were appropriate: we were in Ionia, a cultural mélange created by migrants from western Greece and the local Carian population.) The ritual consisted of pulling from a hat held by Sun a "wise" oracular response to one's question. We were then asked to walk around the site, meditating on what our response meant. We then came back and told the "oracle" our interpretation, in 5 words or less. She gave us a talisman to help us remember. Do you remember yours?

Tuesday June 19, 2001
byVeronica
This day is a free one, which we all feel we badly need. Early in the morning there is a ritual on the beach for Beebe's mother. Beebe sings her mother's favorite hymn, a Rumi poem is read, and a group walks out into the water, lifts up Beebe and, holding her horizontally, rocks and sings to her. Without being asked, the Turkish workmen on the beach respectfully stop their work when they realize what we are doing.
Kusadasi, a huge summer resort on the Aegean coast, is a hilly town, with narrow winding streets leading down to the harbor. A group of us decide to go to the authentic food market, where the Turks themselves shop, which is quite a contrast to the ubiquitous tourist markets. The smells are wonderful. Visually the colors and displays of fruits and vegetables are staggering. It's fun to be there. We stop after walking up and down the crowded streets and buy peasant bread filled with various delights: cheese, spinach, mushrooms, eggplant, etc. We sit in a shaded area on little plastic chairs provided by two lovely women, who appear to be mother and daughter. The young girl has the most beautiful sparkling eyes and engaging smile. We all feel comfortable and glad to be there. After this delicious lunch, we head back to the Hotel Barbados, to rest and get ready for dinner. Before leaving, however, we cast our ballots for the Goddesses. It's fun and reminds me of all the little things I have learned about each member of the group.
Finally, we go on a short ride to Meli's summer home for dinner. We can now actually see what is behind the stories she has told us during our long bus rides. Yes, there are red, yellow and pink tiles and they are indeed splendiferous. Her house has everyone oohing and aahing. Everywhere we look there is an antique treasure, some wonderful object I wished I had seen first. The rugs are wonderful. The feeling is Anatolian and beautiful, much like our little Meli, compact, lovely, bursting with history and an endless source of stories - whether real or imagined, it doesn't matter.
Meli calls us all up to the top patio to drink our wine or lemonade and listen to the stories of her friends, who are educated, privileged, English-speaking women. Each one tells us the story of her life, so we get a real picture of what it is like to be an educated Turkish woman. All three women were married and divorced.
We stop for a truly delightful dinner. Meli gives us the extra deluxe ten-ounce Beluga treatment. We succumb. This is by far the best food we have experienced so far: crisp chicken, salads of every sort, delightful veggies, sauces, every taste a new experience. All this was then topped with a sinful chocolate fudgy dessert. Nothing beats home-cooked food, except maybe a five-star restaurant.
After dinner, the talk goes back to politics, covering a range of topics. Is there any hope for an end to the animosity between the Greece and Turkey? The women speak of their personal friendships with Greeks; they think a political agenda is the seat of the problem. What about political prisoners? They respond that after the Kurds' leader was captured, things changed for the better and the terrorism stopped. How have Turkish women fared in the political arena as representatives in government? Well, it's not so good now, but in the 1930's there were 16 women out of 200 members in Parliament. Why did it change? What is to be done? On and on go the questions.
Ataturk's program to modernize Turkey was begun in 1925 and continued until his death in 1938. But the reforms were forced on the agrarian population, which could not assimilate them so quickly, with resulting problems that persist to this day. Even so, Ataturk is still revered.
The Turkish women speak of the unabated drift from the small villages to the big cities, which has created considerable problems. We ask about the military campaign against the PKK in Southeastern Turkey and the drain on government finances (46% of their tax money goes to the military). The financial problems opened the door for the Islamic Welfare Party to gain a huge vote. Our conversation ranges over changing corporate culture, multi-national organizations, women's political roles, marriage, divorce, Turkish identity, being torn between East and West. It was stimulating and everyone participated passionately. However, no one was able to solve the world's problems that night.

Our last day together as a group was spent in the Selcuk area and
Ephesus. Our first stop was at the Temple of Artemis. The earliest settlement here was in the 4th millennium B.C. The Temple of Artemis, which was three times the size of the Temple of Apollo, became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was reconstructed many times, including after being burned in 356 B.C. Alexander the Great offered to pay the costs of rebuilding it then, but the Ephesians declined, tactfully saying that it was not fitting for one god to make a dedication to another.
Our next stop was at the Efes (Turkish for Ephesus) Museum in Selcuk. Here we saw a display of a Socrates room from a terrace house. The terrace houses were built around a courtyard and included many decorative fountains. The second room was the room of the fountain houses. It contains sculptures from three Ephesian well houses. In the third room were artifacts from Ayasuluk--the time of the Amazons. In room 6 were figures of Artemis Ephesia and finds from the Artemision. The Great Artemis from the beginning of the 2nd century A.D. is displayed on one side of the room, with the Beautiful Artemis from the time of Hadrian on the opposite wall. Both are heavily ornamented with animal figures, necklaces and a breastplate of bull testicles.
Following lunch, we toured the House of the Virgin Mary, a chapel built on the site believed to be the home of Mary after the death of Jesus. It was set among beautiful gardens of agave, olive trees and stone walls.
The best was yet to come. Our bus left us at the upper gate of Ephesus. Join me as we relive our walk through this beautiful, ancient city. Imagine with me what it must have been like in the time of Alexander, when it was rebuilt.
The city was built between two hills, with city walls running along the tops of the hills, making it very secure. Everywhere along our way are fountains and the sound of running water. All this water was brought by aqueduct to 5 cisterns on the hills ringing the city. We walk past a pile of clay water pipes, possibly hand thrown by local potters, waiting to be used in the city water system, which brought running water to every house.
We enter first the state section of the town, where the public buildings are. We walk past the Odeon. The lower part was faced with marble. It was covered and probably had windows of stained glass at the top to let in light. Next we come to the town hall, which was built in two sections with a temple adjacent to the administrative center. The laws are carved into the columns of the town hall. The bull-headed Ionic capitals on top of the columns are unique to Efes. Both the Great Artemis and the Beautiful Artemis were found in this complex, but they may have been buried here in order to save them from vandalism.
As we walk down the marble street, the hill slopes downward quite steeply. The next terrace we come to houses Domitian Square. Here we see the Fountain of Domitian, the Fountain of Ulysses, a monument to a general and a monument to Domitian himself. We can see carved symbols for medicine and pharmacy on the building fronts. Perhaps this is the area where the healing arts were practiced. Water pours out of the fountains and cascades down the street, keeping everything washed and shining.
As we proceed down the steep street, paved with marble, we enter the residential area. Here the 250,000 people lived, shopped, worked out in the gym, bathed, and even enjoyed public latrines. Gossip, intrigue, culture and games were all discussed as people went about their daily living. The Monumental Fountain, standing three columns high, gushes water to supply the needs of the residents.
Once again the street levels out onto a terrace where the library
stands. This building was the third largest library in the ancient world, behind Alexandria and Pergamum. It has a two-story colonnade with statues of the four virtues. To the right of the library is the gate dedicated to Augustus and his wife, Livia. Walking along the marble street, running parallel to the sea, we can see the lower city--the harbor, agora, and places associated with commerce. On the right is the great theater. We can imagine it filled with 25,000 screaming Ephesians, gathered to hear Paul speak, but becoming aroused by the silversmith Demetrius, who opposed Paul and provoked the people to shout, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians." What a scene for Paul to walk into. As we leave the great theater, we pass through the lower gate, coming to the end of the city and of our journey back in time.