This morning we started our day heading up to Aphrodite’s rock. I was excited this since my group did research on it, and I wanted to see it in person. After about 10 minutes I realized I was in fact not looking at the right rock. It then wasn’t that hard to find the right rock and take pictures of it and the beach. We learned about the history of the rock, and what it signifies, and how it came to be. It is said that if a an individual was able to do 3 certain things, then if they were a man, they would gain eternal youth, and if they were a women, receive some of Aphrodite’s beauty. The three things included it being midnight, a full moon, and the individual must be naked. I wonder if anyone has actually tried this before. It was very interesting to learn and be able to see in person this mythical place, and it makes me wonder what were the similarities are difference when the place first came to be.

After leaving, we went to the town of Pathos, where we first toured and heard the legends of many ancient mosaics. The mosaics were stated to be made by black and white sea pebbles. The oldest mosaic on the island happened to be here. One of the stories that stuck to me was how one of the mosaics had what seemed to be a cross on it, but the mosaic was made before christ. It actually happened to be the mass of a ship. If made me wonder in the moment if the idea of the cross came from a mosaic or an ancient piece of art such as this. There was also Greek mythology references talked about, my favorite being a man named Narcissus, who actually happened to fall in love with himself. He would stare at himself in the water constantly, until eventually he fell in and drowned. There was a mosaic of what claimed to be him looking at his reflection. I find it interesting how his name resembles the common word narcissist, meaning full of oneself. There were said to be 5 houses with the mosaics, all named after a theme found inside the house. The House of Dionysus, the House of Theseus, the House of Aion, the House of Orpheus, and the House of The Four Seasons. The house of Dionysus includes a sea monster named Scylla mosaic. The artwork was used to tell stories of greek figures such as Hercules, in the house of Orpheus, and Theseus fighting the minotaur and be seen in the house of Theseus.

After leaving the mosaics, we were able to have free time. Since we were hungry, we all decided to go grab some food. A lot of workers tried to get us to eat at their restaurant and someone even offered to let us see their pelican if we ate there, but we settled at this nice brunch place. I really wanted eggs benedict, but they sadly were not able to make me them although it was on the menu. weird. after lunch there was many tourist shops we walked about and toured and I got two new bracelets. The views were amazing and it was overall a great day.