A life-changing experience. I'm not sure how, but I found myself at the bottom of the stairs. It was almost hard to look up, as my high expectations were setting me up for disappointment. As I climbed the stairs, I couldn't tell if they were getting higher or if I was sinking into the ground. Each time, lifting my foot, I stumbled towards the next step. Suddenly, I realized that I was running up the seemingly endless stairs. Finally, I reached the top. For some reason, as the crowd pushed me towards the door, anxiety crept in. After a moment, I looked up. Surrounded by that greatness that I had only read about, I felt small, insignificant. Even though there were hundreds of people moving in the room, I felt the compelling happiness of being alone in a magnificent place. As soon as I regained consciousness, I let myself get lost in the European Court of Sculpture. The first artifact that caught my attention was the head of Marsyas, which I was intensely curious about, but not yet familiar with. I couldn't stop staring at him, but at the same time his gaze made me tremble, so I had to look away. At that time I didn't understand his facial expression. Was it anger? Pain? Frustration? A few days later, when we learned his story in class, I was able to answer this question. According to the myth, Marsyas had picked up a flute from the ground thrown away by the virgin goddess of wisdom and war, Athena. As Ovid wrote, she didn't want it because her features were distorted while she played it. “I [Athens] first allowed the long flute to produce notes through spaced holes in the perforated boxwood. He liked the sound; but the clear waters reflected my face, and I glimpsed swollen virgin cheeks. Art......middle of paper......presented with his painting: The Awakening of Aphrodite, the myth of the birth of Aphrodite. The most common version of this myth, told by Hesiod in his Theogony, describes the birth of Venus (her Roman name) after the castration of Uranus, god of the sky. When her genitals are thrown into the sea by Kronos, her youngest Titan son, Aphrodite emerges from the foaming waters. "And as soon as [Cronos] had severed the limbs with the flint, and cast them from the earth into the troubled sea, they were swept away for a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it grew a maiden [ …] Her gods and men call Aphrodite, and Afrogenia (the one born of the foam because she grew up among the foam." (Hesiod, Theogony 176). Works Cited www.theoi.com www.metmuseum.org M. Morford, R. Lenardon, M. Sham, Classical Mythology. Oxford University Press, ninth edition