Down From Lykovitos by Davis Morton

DOWN FROM LYKAVITOS / 1998 / oil on canvas / 26" x 38"  SOLD... Read a painting comment below...

     Long before the ancient Romans felt a spiritual connection to the Seven Hills of Rome, the prehistoric Greeks in Athens had their bond with the Acropolis and Lykavitos. Although it may be my imagination, every time I have walked up or down Lykavitos, the feeling I have is strange. In trying to describe this feeling, there are no quotes from the Buddha or Socrates that help. The best description I've heard is what Abraham Lincoln said of General Burnside after the battle of Fredericksburg. Whenever I am on Lykavitos I feel “like a duck hit on the head.”
     Rather than even being able to complete a simple postcard, my time up there is always spent just staring in the distance or wandering around with other wandering people. Although I have always expected more from my approach to the enlightened state, on Lykavitos I have experienced a kind of stupidity that seems as though it ought to be sublime.
     Judging from the other vacant blinking eyes I have seen while I am up there, I am not alone in my reaction to Lykavitos.  Coming down from this other world into the reality of Athens, the young woman in this Taverna reminded me of a fellow "duck” who was going through a similar transition.