The Heritage Greece Program so far has been a wonderful experience where peers and participants have come together to learn new things from each other and from the activities the program provides. I personally enjoyed the tours in the Acropolis museum, the Benaki Museum. Also, the trip to Crete was a fun learning experience, where we visited the Knossos ruins archaeological site, Elafonissi Beach and Manousakis Winery. I loved the Knossos archaeological site because I got to see up close the oldest city of Minoan civilization, which I had learned about before in school, but never saw. As I am a visual arts student I enjoyed the frescoes of the dolphins and the depiction of women. We learned the story of Minos, the king who lived at the palace of Knossos. We learned about the mythology of the Minotaur, a half human and half bull creature. We learned how this creature came to be in the labyrinth of Minos. Before the Minotaur was born, Poseidon had sent a bull as gift to King Minos, to sacrifice. Aphrodite, the god of sexual desire made the queen, Pasiphae, fall in love with the bull, which led them to have the Minotaur. Minos protected the Minotaur by keeping him in the labyrinth. Mino’s son, Androgeus participated in the Panathenaic games in Athens and won prizes from the contest. When the Athenians killed him, they had to send seven girls and seven boys every year as a sacrifice to the labyrinth. We then learned about the myth of Thisseus and how he killed the Minotaur with the help of princess Ariadne. As a visual artist I enjoyed the Queen’s room, which was decorated by dolphins. I too was reminded about my Greek Heritage by going through these stories that day (June 18, 2016).

Alexia-Celia Peza, Saturday, June 18