Poptropica, Lightning Thieves, and Ruins, All at Once!

Taking a detour from the Portuguese, or rather, going back before the Portuguese conquest of the peninsula, I would like to talk a bit about ancient Greeks and Romans. My life is currently sort of themed Mythology, mainly Greek.

Wandering the Ruins: As a follow-up to our exploration of the ruins at Milreu (see my blog on the Algarve), my dad and I visited a ruined village, Conímbriga, north of Lisbon, close to the medieval city of Coimbra. It was really cool. There was an old villa that had a restored fountain and you could drop a coin in the slot to see it play. Unfortunately, someone had vandalized the coin machine. Perhaps a monster sent by Hades? We hiked all over the old village and saw the remnants of shops, courtyard pillars, and many mosaics. My favorite were the baths. They had lots of little brick arches underneath, through which the water flowed. There was also a wall which the villagers had hurriedly thrown up against invaders, just before the town was abandoned. Who were the invaders? I was hoping to find out, but I guess the people who run the ruins & archeological museum don’t know either.

Reading the Book: The Lightning Thief. It’s about a boy named Percy who finds out he’s the son of Poseidon, so he goes to this camp for kids who are half human, half god. Halfbloods. Then he has to go on a quest to bring the master lightning bolt back to Zeus and clear his dad’s name. Zeus accuses Poseidon. Everybody except Zeus says it’s in the Underworld and Hades took it; but did he really? If Poseidon didn’t take it, like Zeus says, and Hades didn’t take it like the staff at Camp Halfblood says, who did? It’s great; a real page turner. My favorite mythological creature: Cerby (Cerberus), who likes to play with red rubber balls (though they don’t last long).

Playing the Game: Ever heard of Poptropica? It’s a website where you can create a character and then try to beat islands by mastering different games with themes, for instance, Reality TV Island or Shark Tooth Island. I recently went on the site, to find a Mythology Island! You have to collect some sacred items for Zeus, or all of Poptropica will face his wrath. If you beat the island, you become immortal. Not you. Your character, I mean. Though, do I want to be immortal? It seems like the gods have a lot of problems. Take Zeus, he can’t even keep track of his thunderbolt... Losing track of your thunderbolt might be even worse than losing track of your transportation pass (though I don’t know, having faced the wrath of my dad when I leave that behind...).