ABSTRACT
M y interest in all things ancient can be traced back to when I was in elementary school and came across a thick volume of Greek and Roman myths. The stories were fascinating, although a little strange, and—in retrospect—not age-appropriate reading. Determined to learn more about the ancient world, however, I began studying Latin in high school, and the summer before college I began studying Ancient Greek as well. I spent my college career blissfully ignoring anything more recent than the Middle Ages while becoming very well acquainted with the languages, literature, history, art, and civilization of Ancient Greece and Rome. Thus, by the time I first visited Athens as a graduate student in a summer session at the American School at Athens, I had already been studying all things related to Greek civilization for six years. As a result, I brought more questions and assumptions with me than the typical visitor and was especially eager to see how the modern city related to the remains of the Athens with which I was more familiar from my studies—the self-sufficient city-state of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE.
