Presenting the Practically Perfect Plutarch Party 3

Who was who:

Fr Mark was a very surprised Plutarch (It was a surprise party). He wore a modified himation.

The Emporer was Scipio Africanus, the general who beat Hannibal. He wore a toga.

I was Cornelia Graccha, and wore a pallium (simple tube pinned at the shoulders) and stola (shawl like long cloth). She was entertaining another noble Roman woman who was showing off all her jewels. The woman asked Cornelia where her jewels were, and Cornelia called her 2 sons saying, "These are my jewels." The boys grew up to become the Gracchi, noble men who were martyred for their staunch defense of the rights of the poor.

Mxyl was Solon, the wise lawgiver. He wore a himation (like a toga but simpler).

Klenda was Pieria, a Greek maiden known for her beauty and virtue . When Phrygius, an opposing general fell in love with her and asked what he could do to please her, she asked for peace for her country - and got it! The Greek women at weddings would tell the bride, "May your husband love you as much as Phyrigius loved Pieria!" She wore a white pelops trimmed with blue and gold which you see above.

Zorg was Julius Caesar complete with the purple toga of a triumphant general. His favorite joke was, "All Gaul is divided into 3 parts. I used Caesars!"

Leena was Lysistrata, the poetess who rallied the women to defend the city of Argos while the men were away at battle. Her pelops was trimmed with purple and yellow and tied with purple ribbon (the trim on all the pelops was painted).

Choclo was Horatius (of Horatio at the bridge fame. The Romans were chopping down the bridge that crossed the Tiber to prevent an invasion by the Etruscans. Horatio held them off until the bridge was down then jumped in the water and swam across in full armor. Demolishing the bridge was the closest thing in Plutarch to construction trucks...) He wore a belted tunic, the same as in his Halloween costume.

Oob was baby Romulus. Although I wasn't a wolf, he was still nursing!

Info on making your own Greek costumes can be found here.

Presenting the Practically Perfect Plutarch Party 1

The Plutarch party was a great success! This was in honor of Fr Mark on the day he finished his last doctoral exam and a week after the 15th anniversary of his 25th birthday.

Fr Mark is a historian, and his favorite non canonized person (besides Jesus) is Plutarch. Plutarch (b. 42 AD) was a philosopher, moralist, and diplomat who is best remembered for his Lives of Noble Greeks and Romans. There he sets out for us the lives of famous people and examines the morality by which they lived. Sounds dull in theory, but in practice Plutarch is witty and insightful, not to mention always ready with a memorable anecdote.

To celebrate, we decorated the house to look like a Greek house of the time period. The garland is just construction paper flowers and leaves. The columns are from my big roll of paper. 8 feet folded in half lengthwise then accordian pleated. The Corinthian capitals are the same paper cut like a crown with the spikes curled to bend down. We taped them in 2 layers then stapled them like a crown and taped them to the column and the ceiling.

We also built a mosaic which says the equivalent of "Happy Birthday." In real life the mosaic would have been on the floor, but construction paper and glue stick being what they are....

We discovered at the end that you can buy printable sticker paper, cut it into strips then peel and cut as needed. You put up the paper, sketch your design and have at it! This mosaic took 3 days of working on it when we felt like it, older kids with longer attention spans would take less time. You could also do a smaller mosaic! At last, a practical use for when the kids just want to cut paper into little bits!!! Another thing we figured out when half done: use smaller tesserae (pieces) in the back ground and larger ones in the foreground. It also looks good if you install them in a pattern like the flowing lines in the stream.

Presenting the Practically Perfect Plutarch Party 2

The mural is a somewhat imaginary view from Plutarch's home overlooking the valley of Chaeronia and the temple at which he served (he was a priest of Apollo).

This only took half an hour to do, I have no idea why it came out this well! We used oil pastels the way my sister (an actual artist) showed us.

The lovely lady wearing the pelops is my dear friend whom I will call Angel (she is also the Jello Queen). She is wearing an Ionic pelops trimmed in gold because she attended the party as "The Wife of Pythes." Pythes is the king whom the legend of King Midas is based on. He found a rich gold mine and had all his subjects working in it. All, as in no one could farm or do anything useful. The people appealed to the Queen. She had the people make a fantastic array of food out of gold. Then, when the king came in from hunting and called for a meal, she served him the golden food. First he was fascinated, then amused as each food he called for was brought to him made of gold. Eventually he was really hungry and then the Queen pointed out that this was the only food being produced in the land. He got the point and set up a rotation so only a fifth of the country worked the mine at a time.

Incidently, pelops are super easy to make: they are a long tube with the top folded over, pinned at the shoulders and tied with a belt. Getting the lovely pleating and drapery to hang right takes more practice (an accomplished ancient Greek servant would have been a big help!).

Presenting: Abydos

Mxyl's movie is finally out!