Bath the Wales

Alright so we just spent four days in Bath, which we went to right as I was beginning to adjust to Cambridge, but fortunately it was well worth it.

For me the biggest highlight was getting to see the Roman baths (hence the name of the town, literalists remember?) which were also a temple to Sulis Minerva, Sulis being the Celtic goddess of the local spring and Minerva being the Roman name of Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, battle, and heroic glory. When the Romans occupied Britain they took Sulis and blended her with Minerva/Athena (further proof that the Romans never had an original thought).

These are the statues of various emporers (Julius Ceaser, Hadrian, etc) standing over the original Roman pool.


Inside was the frieze that hung over the temple doorway as people walked in...notice the resemblance....?

The face in the center is either Neptune/Poseidon, god of the sea (ironic considering his rivalry with Minerva/Athena) or the face of the Gorgon, the emblem emblazoned on Athena's shield to terrify her enemies. Take your pick.

Here's the goddess herself...


Next was the main altar. The images on the sides are of various gods related to Minerva/Athena. These two are Jupiter (Greek name Zeus) Athena's father, and her favorite half-brother
Hercules.


This is Bacchus (Dionysus), god of wine, another of Athena's half-brothers.

Next was an image of Luna (Selene) the moon goddess which would have sat across from a similar image of her brother Sol (Helios) the sun god to express balance and catch the attention of the siblings as they crossed the sky.
And what do you know, the Greeks had my portrait!
Here's me in front of the actual bath (and it was tempting to not jump in because it was really cold).

Our next sojourn was Wales, land of a thousand consonants per word. We first stopped by an old gladiatorial arena the Romans built, though I couldn't exactly imagine Russel Crowe duking it out here.

The best part about Wales was this castle called Dell, once a medieval laptop factory that was destroyed due to bad customer support. I kid. I think it's called Chepstow or Capstow or Somethingstow but one of the signs said Castle Dell so I don't know.

I felt like a school kid again exploring the castle (which was strange since their were some local kids there on field trip). I ran through the corridors imagining the castle during a battle. "To arms! To arms! The Americans are upon us!" ;p




Also since I love goofy pictures (and because I'm a huge fan of that old cartoon show Gargoyles)...



...stone by day, warriors by night...

Okay, okay childhood nostalgic moment over. Sheesh, it's getting so a twenty-one year old can't watch cartoons anymore...

Alright, that's all for now, my batteries almost dead and I only have a few minutes of Internet in our new hostel. See you next post when this blog will become Something About...Oxford???