#peloponnese

[travelbinge]

By Giannistsou.1

Messinia,  Peloponnese, Greece

[gemsofgreece]

Monemvasiá at Peloponnese, Greece. Valantis M. Photography

[thegoatsongs]

On 13 July passed Cape Matapan. Crew dissatisfied about something. Seemed scared, but would not speak out.

On July 13th, the crew of the Demeter gets their very first dark premonition while passing Cape Matapan. The next day the first incident among them happens, followed by the first disappearance.

Cape Matapan, aka Cape Tainaron, is the southernmost place in continental Greece, and gateway to Hades.

There was a sanctuary of Poseidon there (ancient captains sailing past the Cape would stop to ask for a smooth sail), and a Nekromanteion (death oracle) or a Psychopompeion, because the Cape was a threshold to the Underworld.

Greek sailors have been traditionally using the phrase "Stay forty miles away [meaning as far as possible] from Cape Matapan" ("Από τον Κάβο Ματαπά σαράντα μίλια μακρυά"), likely due to it once being a pirate hideout, as it's associated with bad luck.

[wgm-beautiful-world]

M Y S T R A S

[whencyclopedia]

Nemea

Nemea was a religious sanctuary in the northern Peloponnese of Greece where pan-Hellenic athletic games were held every two years from 573 BCE until 271 BCE, after which, the Games were definitively moved to Argos.

Learn more about Nemea

[sgiandubh]

But first, time to say good-bye

It was to be a late departure (bureaucracy will someday kill us all...) from Athens, an endlessly diverted way North through a very early summer and some fitful sleep near the border, where poppies were already in bloom and elusive to the camera:

I promised to share with you my story with Mycenae the day I would leave Greece for good. Yesterday was the day, so here goes.

I first went to Mycenae on a horrendously rainy day, in November 2018. The place struck me as a haphazard settlement of sorts in the wake of some ancient apocalypse, which was absolutely correct. We stayed in my colleague from Culture and Press' car, munched on some horribly stale koulouria as all hell broke loose outside, when she finally told me: ' you know what, I am happy we made it here: in Mycenae, you can only hear and tell the truth, you know'.

I have to say I ogled in suspicion. I was wet, hungry and completely unused to the Greek way of dressing everything up in mythology. She spoke Greek as I speak French and knew perfectly well what she was doing. She was casting a spell - an unbreakable one, for which I will forever be grateful. Oh, and as all myths would have it, the Lion Gate was closed, by the time we arrived.

It took me almost two years to go back there, during the pandemic, scared summer of 2020, when everything was empty and glorious to fully take in, like a big gulp of colors and sounds and life. My digs were to be always the same: unassuming Petite Planète, the last B&B in town, a stone throw away from Agamemnon's treasury, owned by the Dassis clan of archaeologists.

Their story begins in Constantinople, around 1875, when Konstantinos, a young orphan, begged Heinrich Schliemann to take him along to wherever he was traveling. He quickly became indispensable and helped with the first digs in Mycenae. He was the one who found Agamemnon's mask:

When the digging was over, Schliemann bought him a tiny house for two pence and a half and told him to stay there. 'Many people will come to visit and they will need food and a roof. Make sure you do your best and it will make you a rich man.'

And they came. In droves. If you ask nicely, V. will show you their reception rosters, safely tucked away in a bank vault, in Argos. I had the privilege to see Virginia Woolf's signature and I was stunned. Schliemann's two pence house is now doubled by a garish modern addition you can see from the main road as La Belle Hélène B&B ('my cousin Agamemnon is a greedy idiot', says V), but Schliemann's room is piously kept as it was when the strange German gentleman left them to their fate. As is, they did not become rich, but that does not matter. You will always find a place at their wonderful table, where Mamma Dassis cooks the same food they ate back in Constantinople and they would not have it otherwise. The new, bigger and better B&B is called Petite Planète because of V's father undying passion for Saint Exupéry's Little Prince. It permeates everything without being obtrusive, because sometimes 'the essential is invisible to the eye'.

Back in 2020, they were worried. Very worried. The Lion Gate was open again, but the 'cretins at Google' wouldn't have it and kept on listing it as closed, on their maps. People were canceling their bookings. The village stood unusually quiet and forlorn.

I made no promises. But I did phone some people at the Greek Ministry of Culture. The least person I expected to be of any help, H, a transparent, mousey freeloader, who was always the last to leave all of our events in the hope we'd take her to dinner in town, happened to be some sort of underling at the Archaeological Sites Department. She immediately understood what I wanted her to do.

Three days after I left Mycenae, on my road trip to the Mani peninsula, I received this message in my Booking inbox:

This started it all. And from that moment, all my Greek roads will lead there. It's also been a long time since I have trouble forcefully paying them for my monthly stays (booking and paying in advance helps, though), something they adamantly refused last time I went there:

'G., the girl wants to pay.'

'This is ridiculous, of course. This girl is family.'

Someday, I just know I will be back. For good.

After five years and a half, many more fabulous stories (Mycenean potter and poet, anyone? mad postman? Kyria Stamatoula and her goats? Kyrios Pandelis and his jams?) the only thing I know about Greece is that, for all its (many) misgivings, this land is about two things:

Friends and Heroes.

[beatricecenci]

Joseph-Désiré Court (French, 1797-1865)

La Mort d’Hippolyte

[travelella]

Mycenae (Archaeological Site), Mykines, Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece

Victor Malyushev

[thelostdreamsthings]

Peloponnese, Greece

[wankelmuth]

Greece, 2023

Photo: Roland Helbig

[conformi]

Ancient Theatre, Epidaurus, Greece, 4th century BC VS Giorgio Morandi, Shell and other objects, 1948

[gemsofgreece]

Nafplio, Greece by boucherphotosudio on Instagram.

[christinakroft]

The arch

[aretis]

📍 Πόρτο Χέλι , Αργολίδα

Porto Xeli,Argolida. Peloponnes

📸@katerinakatopis

[lokkie83]

During a very cold windy Sunday, we went to explore Nemea, whose name might be familiar because of the lion and Hercules and so.

But Dim told me the story of this archaeological site and it was very interesting. There was this american guy, Stephen Miller, that back in the 70s asked to the greek government permission to excavate in Nemea, because he knew what he was going to find: The stadium, the Zeus temple, and some more. And he did! All with his money and donors money, Greece didn't have to pay for any of these. The guy spent decades in there, unearthing, restoring and finally opening both the site and the museum. He even managed to bring back the Nemean games (similar to the ancient olympic games) and now they're celebrated every 4 years, anyone can attend!

So, bless Mr. Miller, because this site was amazing and actually this was one of the few places where they actually let you step into the ruins and the temple itself :)

[sgiandubh]

By Zeus, they are stupid!

Back to our favorite mythomaniac, now suddenly proclaimed an expert on all things Greek/Olympic.

I had to howl. I mean, it's mandatory, at this point:

Calling all stations: there is NO Mount Olympia in Greece, you lost soul who thinks she's clever.

You should never have touched a sacred topic on this page: the Peloponnese. And you have finally managed to anger me. Seriously so: pursue at your own risk.

Archaia (that is 'Ancient' for you, Sinister Stupid Savant) Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, is one of my favorite places on Earth. It is situated in the North-West of the Peloponnese Peninsula, in the region of Ilia, beyond Corinth. That is Southern Greece for you, self-appointed Derailed Encyclopedia.

Mount Olympus, the cradle of the entire Greek Pantheon (that's all the Greek Gods, for you, Pretentious Idiot) is situated near the town of Litochoro, in Eastern Macedonia (as that guy, Alexander, you might have heard of him), in the region of Pieria. That is Northern Greece, for you, Arrogant Liar.

Distance between the two is very clear on a map:

557 kilometers, which means 347 miles. It would take me more than six hours to drive Zorba the Car from point A to point B and it took people like the ancient Olympic (not Olympian, you Faceless Pretentious Nobody) athletes probably more than one week.

Doubling the religious dimension of the athletic events, Archaia Olympia always functioned as Ancient Greece's UNGA (United Nations General Assembly, you Parochial Twat), with envoys from all the Greek city-states and overseas congregating there for the Games, but also (more often than not) to negotiate trade and/or peace agreements (Olympic truce, anyone?). This is perhaps why, unlike Nemea's stadium light cheerfulness, there's still a palpable sense of solemnity, today, in Olympia.

This cat, photographed by me in July 2022, in front of the Archaeological Museum of Olympia (I have already written about it in here: https://www.tumblr.com/sgiandubh/724219876757176320/a-stupid-shippers-guide-to-the-peloponnese-part) doesn't seem to give a damn about all of this, though:

Your credibility was already subzero, madam. I will soon be done with you, finally debunking your uninformed lies about S's copyright EUIPO trial. Even when you do not spew your gratuitous hatred, your overinflated ego and your foolishness betray the Aggressive Fraud that you are.

God, you're brainless. And your denseness is absolutely insulting, at this point. And to think there are people actually believing all the crap that you send into this world!

PS: torch is lit ahead of EACH and EVERY Olympic Games (Summer AND Winter), you Unspeakable Imbecile:

[Source: USA Today https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2013/09/29/olympic-flame-relay-sochi-games/2890815/]