May–December 1954

Athens, Agora, May Day, 1954

Dear Roger,

Thank you so much for my good visit to Cyprus, which without your urging would certainly have been much delayed, and I should have regretted. The place, and routine seemed wonderfully the same, and I'm grateful to you for keeping it so,where you wisely could, rather than, as the expression is, throwing your weight around for its own sake. It was wonderful to be met, how wonderful,I appreciated even more when I got back here and was not - as indeed there was no reason why I should have been - and had to wait over an hour at the airport because some of my fellow-passengers hadn't the proper credentials. There was so much to enjoy with you, coffee with the Turks, tea with Apollo and with Mr. Williams, though not, alas, at the same time. (Homer and Dorothy, to whom I relayed that tale last night, laughed and laughed, and D. said, Now Homer will feel more than ever confirmed in his principles always to be nice to everybody.) I am twice what I was, just like Arsinoë, from all that exercise and all that wonderful food: now that my visit has finally come to an end, it is safe for me to say that I really think you could get away with serving less, especially perhaps at breakfast. I'm really sorry we didn't get to meet each of others friends in Limassol. Maybe you will see something of Heather and Douglas Williamson, and maybe your artist friends will come to Athens. Will you tell me if they do?

I will send you, as they are ready, pictures, and bulleting, of Curium SH, and notes on other matters. In the meanwhile, I forget if I mentioned that on the morning of departure I discovered duplicated mixtures photos of 16 more Basilica marbles, wrongly to wit A 240 b and f

A 240 c A 250 A 251 A 318 A 327 A 328 A 329 A 330 A 331 A 332 A 333 A 334 A 335 A 336 A 339

I left these duplicates with Electra for Peter. They come from about VG Roll 11 or 12, and you will see that copies of them exist in the photograph file, that is, in the envelopes containing prints of VG films.

Elektra was good to me. She had that friend of hers, that woman doctor, to dinner, and I liked her a lot on closer acquaintance, though the conversation tended to be abmxtics a bit lurid,anaesthetics going out of order with the patient wide open on the table, - the same kind of anaesthetic I had. E. took me shopping Thursday morning, so now I have a few summer clothes, matter not attended to in the U.S. I went to the Museum Wednesday afternoon, and was impressed by the new finds from Kouklia and Salamis, and, surprisingly, by the wonderful rough storage for sherds, like handle storage, but supplied with glass enclosures, such as Stuart Thompson told Lucy the Stoa Museum can't afford. I was delighted to hear that Curium is to have something similar for Bamboula stuff.