Professor Jones' old college friend, Eric Scythe, is a curator
at the British Museum in
London.
The British Museum was
established in 1753 and is one of the most prestigious museums
in the world.
As stated in the Historical Note
at the end of the book, the Pietroasa Bowl that is stolen
from the British Museum in this book was a real world
artifact that had a replica made of it by the British Museum
in 1867. The real bowl was not stolen from its home in
Rumania in 1914, but it was sent to Russia for protection
from the German forces during WWI but was melted down for
the gold by the Russian communists in 1917!
The bowl's figures tells the story of the Greek myth of
Orpheus, which is much as Professor Jones relates it in
Chapter 2. Indy metaphorically relives Orpheus' journey to
the underworld in the course of this novel. |
|
Professor Jones tells Indy that his friend
Nigel Wolcott, now living in
Athens,
was one of his lecturers at
Oxford University.
Indy's family previously visited Athens in
"Travels With Father".
The Greek policeman
Ari Naxakis is said to live at Leanidu 73 in Athens. This
appears to be a fictitious address in that city.
It is noted in the book that Indy speaks Ancient Greek but not
modern Greek, making it difficult for him to communicate with
the residents of Athens. This was first noted of both Indy and
his father in
"Travels With Father".
Elyse becomes frightened when a raven lands on Indy's shoulder,
saying that it is considered an omen of death in Greece. The
raven is associated with death or bad omens in the mythology of
many cultures, largely due to its black coloring.
On page 38, Indy and Elyse enter the Plaka. The Plaka is an
historical neighborhood of Athens built along the slopes of the
Acropolis and many other archeological sites.
On page 41, Indy recognizes Pagliacci by Leoncavallo
playing on a gramophone at an Athens shop because his father
likes it.
Pagliacci
is an 1892 opera, a tragedy about a comedy troop of clowns.
Fleeing their pursuers, Indy and Elyse run up the slope of the
Acropolis and to the
Parthenon. Indy previously visited these sites
in
"Travels With Father". On
page 56, Indy reflects from the top of the Acropolis that he
suddenly understood for the first time what it would have been
like to live here when the city was first built in ancient
times. But, as stated above, he'd been there before when he 9 years
old.
The history of the Acropolis given in Chapter 6 is essentially
accurate.
On page 58, an old woman greets Indy and Elyse with
"Kaliméra." This is Greek for "Good afternoon," as Indy has
figured out.
On page 59, the old woman calls Indy a "little loukániko."
Loukániko is Greek for "sausage", just as Elyse translates.
The old Greek woman has two different colored eyes, one brown
and one green. She tells Indy she can see the past with her left
eye and the future with her right. I am not aware of a
particular real world myth of that description.
The old woman's cane is similar to the cane used by
Markos Kourou except it has a gold Perseus on the top
instead of Medusa.
Perseus is the Greek mythological hero who is said to have slain
Medusa.
The old woman tells Indy and Elyse that the cane maker, Charon,
lives at Akti Kountourioti in Piraeus. "Akti Kountourioti"
translates to Kountourioti Coast.
Piraeus
is a port city near Athens, but the only Akti Kountourioti in
Greece is in Chania on the Greek island of Crete.
On page 65, Elyse tells Indy she'll make her father some
fasolada.
Fasolada
is Mediterranean bean soup.
On page 71, Nigel Wolcott is said to be wearing an Edwardian
dinner jacket. Edwardian fashion is that said to have been
designed from around 1900 to the beginning of WWI. It is named
for King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.
As stated by Professor Jones on page 79, Charon was the
mythological ferryman who took people across the river Styx to
the underworld.
On page 80, Indy sarcastically tells Nigel and his father he's
going to find Eurydice, actually meaning Elyse.
Eurydice was the wife of Orpheus, for whom Orpheus journeyed to
the underworld to bring her back to the land of the living.
On page 81, Indy sees the Aegean Sea beyond the port of
Piraeus. This is the sea that runs along the eastern coastline
of Greece.
On pages 81 and 98, Indy asks different people, "Omilití Angliká?"
This is Greek for "English speaker?"
The cane maker Charon takes Indy to the Greek island of
Aegina in his boat. Ayia Marina is one of the port towns of
the island, as stated by Charon.
On page 90, Indy encounters a large dog guarding one of the
houses on Aegina that may be Kourou's house. Indy thinks of the
dog as Cerberus, guarding the gates of the underworld. Cerberus
is the three-headed dog of Greek mythology said to guard the
gates of the underworld and is part of the Orpheus myth.
In Chapter 14, Indy faces a giant octopus
about 8 feet long in the sea. Although giant octopi do exist,
there are no known species of such in the Mediterranean.
In several later adventures, Indy will face
giant octopi and krakens,
legendary creatures similar to octopi or squids but of enormous
proportions, in The Shrine of the Sea Devil, The
Emperor's Tomb, and The Sargasso Pirates.
On page 139, holding the recovered
Pietroasa Bowl,
Indy reflects on Orpheus and the other mythological figures
etched into the relic. These are all actual figures from Greek
mythology.
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