Cape Tenaron

 

Cape Tenaron or cape Matapan is mainland Greece's southernmost point. It was the site of the Ancient city Taenarum.  Nearby is a cave legend claims was the home of Hades the God of underworld.  On the hill above the cave there is a temple dedicated to the God of the sea Poseidon.

Tenaron's lighthouse was built in 1892 and its luminosity was 12 nautical miles.  In 1984 it was upgraded with solar panels and its luminosity is now 22 nautical miles.  The trek to the lighthouse from the end of the paved road is 2.2 kilometers.  For those who decide to take the hike to this very interesting place is better to start early in the morning or late in the evening in order to avoid the blazing summer Greek sun as there is no shade in its entirety.  I visited the site in 1968 when I was serving in the Greek Navy and my brother visited it recently on foot.

Greek Yogurt

 

Yogurt first appeared during the Neolithic period.  It is probable that the earliest yogurt was made by accident from fermentation of milk in Mesopotamia around 5,000 BC.  Yogurt was well-known food in Ancient Greece and Rome.  The cuisine of Ancient Greeks included a dairy product called Oxygala (Οξυγαλα) which is sour milk.  The Greek physician Galen mentioned that Oxygala was consumed with honey in a similar way Greek yogurt is eaten today.  Yogurt played and still plays a major role in the Mediterranean cuisine today.

Milking a cow painting.  Ancient Egypt c2371-2350 BC. Getty image.

There is folklore linking the consumption of milk to longevity.  In fact people in the Bulgarian village of Momchilovtsi, which is perched on the slopes of Rhodope mountains near the border with Greece claims many centenarians and many locals believe that this is due to large quantities of cultured milk products the they consume.  It was in 1905 the Bulgarian microbiologist Stamen Grigorov at the age of 27 discovered in Geneva the bacterium Lactobacillus Bulgaricus, which ferments milk to yogurt.  A major impetus to yogurt's recent popularity was because in 1904, the Russian scientist Ilya Metchnikov who was working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris published his theory about the health benefits of yogurt for which he received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1908.

Ingredients

1.5 liters of pasteurized whole milk, 2 tablespoons of yogurt with active cultures

Preparation

Place the milk in a pot and heat it to 120° F or 50° C.

In a separate cup or bowl, mix two tablespoons of yogurt, that has active cultures with milk until the yogurt is totally dissolved.  Add it to the pot with the heated milk and stir it well.

Pour the milk into a Pyrex glass container or glass jars, cover it and wrap it in a warm towel and place it in the oven.  Turn the oven light on and leave it for 8-10 hours.

Place the glass container in the refrigerator for 6-8 hours and your homemade yogurt will be ready.  To make the Greek variety, strain the yogurt with a cheesecloth to consistency you enjoy.  When you strain the yogurt, you get, liquid whey, a protein rich liquid. If you strain nearly all the liquid from the yogurt, you get a soft Greek cheese called Anthotyro which is very tasty.  In summary from milk you can make home-made yogurt, liquid whey, Kefir and cheese.  Enjoy! 

Mycenae

In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the major centers of Greek civilisation.  It dominated much of southern Greece, the Cycladitic islands, Crete and the western Anatolia.  At its peak in 1350 BC, the Citadel and the lower town had a population of 30,000.

With 3 of my children in front of the famous Lion Gate. 

Francesco Grimani in 1700 identified the ruins of Mycenae based on Pausanias' description.

Mycenae's Acropolis and surrounding countryside.  The German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) excavated Mycenae and nearby Tiryns.  Schliemann is considered as the modern discoverer of prehistoric or Bronze Age Greece. 

Grave circle, in the cemetery, inside Mycenae's citadel.

Wild cyclamens growing in the sun-parched fields of Mycenae's palace.

Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae, conducted the 10 year war against Troy, to get beautiful Helen back to his brother Menelaus.  Legend tells us that the long and arduous war divided mortals and gods alike, and contributed to curses and vengeance that followed many of the Greek heroes.  After the war Agamemnon returned to Mycenae and although he was greeted warmly by his subjects, he was slayed by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegistheus.

 The heroes of the Trojan war inspired many writers in antiquity, Homer being the pre-eminent of all, as well as many poets in recent times among whom the American poet Louise Gluck who won the 2020 Nobel price for Literature.  Her emblematic poem on Achilles and her work according to Anders Olsson, Chairman of Nobel Committee,  is "deceptively natural, candid and uncompromising, with no trace of a poetic ornament".

The Triumph of Achilles

In the story of Patroclus

no one survives, not even Achilles

who was near god.

Patroclus resembled him; the wore

the same armor.

Always in these friendships

one serves the other, one less than the other;

the hierarchy

is always apparent, though the legends 

cannot be trusted

their source is the survivor,

the one who has been abandoned.

What were the Greek ships on fire

compared to this loss?

In his tent, Achilles

grieved with his whole being

and the gods saw

he was a man already dead, a victim

of the part that loved,

the part that was mortal.

Achilles tending Patroclus, identified in inscriptions on a vase.  Attic red-figure kylix, ca 500 BC

Dawn

In Greek mythology Dawn or Eos (Ηως in Greek) is a Goddess that rises each morning from her home the Ocean (Οκεανος).  In the Homeric Hymn to Helios, we are told that Hyperion married  Eryphaesa, and begot tireless Helios (the Sun), rosy Eos (the Dawn) and fair tressed Selene (the Moon).  Dawn appears as many as twenty times in The Odyssey, and the poem repeats similar descriptions of her such as “But when early-born rosy-fingered Dawn appeared…”  Book Eight first lines read When young Dawn with her red-rose fingers shone once more, the royal Alcinous, hallowed island king, rose from bed and great Odysseus, raider of cities, rose too. A There are many similar expressions in Homeric verse, which suggest that different things will happen every day, but Dawn always appears early and always with her rosy fingers.

The Greek Goddess Eos in her Chariot ready for another day of travel.  Edifice found in Herculaneum

Sunrise in our little paradise on earth Porto Rafti: the Homeric expression “when newborn Dawn appeared with rosy fingers…” describes our feelings when we see Eos. At dawn the hue of the sea becomes pink.  The waves become placid and their phosphoresce reflects shades of a red carnation. Όλος ο γιαλός ροδίζει γύρω. Τα κύματα φρικιούν ήρεμα, και το φωσφόρισμά των ανταυγάζει αποχρώσεις ερυθρού γαροφάλλου..." Παπαδιαμαντης

Sunrise in Ukraine; the Homeric expression “when the early Dawn was born; her fingers bloomed” is most appropriate.

The golden throne of Dawn was riding up the sky… and brought a beautiful day… in frozen Lake Baikal.

Aurora, ceiling fresco by Guido Reni (1613) Picture from Encyclopedia Brittanica

Ancient Messene

The charming village Mavromati is on the slope of Mount Ithome.  Ancient Messene or Messini (Αρχαία Μεσσηνία) is a major archaeological site in Greece. It is the city the Theban general Epaminondas founded in 369 BC.  The mountain village has a nice hotel Messana which among other amenities offers a perfect view of the ancient city, which is so well-preserved that you can easily envision how life in a city was 2,500 years ago.

The geographer Pausanias has left us a description of the ancient city which still lies in a fertile valley.  Ancient Messene has the fortune that was not destroyed or altered by later settlements thus its ruins remain untouched.  When the visitor enters the archaeological site the first structure, he sees is a very well-preserved theatre (Odeon). 

The Agora of Ancient Messene was the site where the inhabitants conducted their transactions including sacrifices of animals for religious or commercial purposes. 

The Asclepeion was the most famous sanctuary of Ancient Messene. The Asclepeion was not used for healing purposes as those in Epidaurus and Kos but along with the Agora was the center of public life. There are more than 140 pedestals of statues of prominent citizens and five platforms that surrounded the Doric temple. 

The Stadium is among the most impressive structures of Ancient Messini. Visitors can still run in the field where athletes competed in antiquity.

The restored Mausoleum is located at the far end of the stadium. The temple like structure according to Pausanias who visited the site (155-160 A.D.) was the funerary tomb, the city honored its chief priest as a hero, and it was in this building members of the Saithidas family were buried.    

The Ancient Museum of Messene is worth visiting as it houses an extensive collection ofartwork and sculptures, thus you will be able to complete the image of Ancient Messene you have visited. Excavations at the site are on going under the direction of archaeologist Petros Themelis who has published a book describing the history, structures, sanctuaries and findings of Ancient Messene in detail. 

Ancient Messene, was surrounded by a protective wall, the total length of which was 9 km. The wall which dates to the 3^rd century B.C. is one of the most important achievements of ancient military architecture and protected the city from all directions, except for the Northeast, where Mount Ithome stood as a natural fortress. The wall had two gates, the Arcadian that led towards Megalopolis and the Laconian which has not survived.  The wall was built by Epaminondas, who defeated the Spartans and liberated the Messenian people who for four centuries were Sparta’s helots.  Strabo compares Ancient Messene that was also known as Ithome to Corinth regarding its strategic importance.

Selene - Blood Moon

Selene in Greek mythology (in Greek Σελήνη) is the goddess of the moon.  The etymology of Selene is likely connected to the word Selas (Σέλας), meaning "light". Selene, who drives her chariot across the heavens, in classical times, was often identified with Artemis much as her brother, Helios, was identified with Apollo. Selene’s love for handsome mortal shepherd Endymion inspired poets and artists alike.  Even today romantics express their feelings on nights when the moon is in full and its light reflects on the water. (Painting by N Poussin 1630, Detroit Institute of Arts)

On July 27, 2018 in Europe, Africa and some countries in Asia we observed the longest total lunar eclipse of the century. As the Earth was into perfect alignment between the moon and sun, its shadow completely covered the moon. Rather than appearing as a black spot in the heavens our planet’s only natural satellite first exuded a blood-red hue at moonrise.   Normally, sunlight hits the moon directly and that's why it's typically bright and white.  During an eclipse, the Earth moves between the sun and the moon and filters out some its light.  When the white light hits the Earth's atmosphere, it scatters the blue light and pushes the red light straight to the moon and so the blood moonrises.  The picture was taken when the moon rose behind and above the islet Rafti in the bay of Porto Rafti.  The blood moon and the total eclipse that followed with an awesome spectacle and it was understandable why our ancestors reacted with fear when celestial events like lunar or solar eclipses took place.

People long ago took a change in lunar hue as a sign of doom and panicked.  An interesting but unsubstantiated story is about how Christopher Columbus took a lunar eclipse to his advantage.  Columbus and his men were trapped on the island of Jamaica for over six months. As time wore on, the initial generosity that the native people, the Arawak, had shown faded. As famine loomed, Columbus turned to his almanac and found that a total lunar eclipse was forthcoming on Feb 29, 1504.  So, Columbus told the Arawak chief that his God was angry because they were withholding food from them and He would make the moon disappear or become "inflamed with wrath" in three days.  When the blood moon indeed rose on that eerie Sunday night, it terrified the Arawak who agreed to provide Columbus and his men with anything they needed, just so long as he asked his god to bring back the regular moon.

In ancient times, a blood moon was thought to be a bad omen, but now it is understood that it is simply due to the scattering of light by the air in our atmosphere.  While blue light scatters more red light scatters least, which is why the setting sun or the rising moon is red.  In the picture above the blood moon is between the statues of Apollo and Hera in Athens, Greece. (Photo by A Messinis, AFP/Getty)

Summer races III, Porto Rafti Regatta

Porto Rafti is a bay on the east shore of the Attica peninsula.  Four islets (Rafti, Raftopoula, Praso, Circe) are inside while one (Koroni) is outside and slightly to the south of the bay.  Porto Rafti and the surrounding region belonged in the demoi (Δημοι)  Prasiae and Steiria, two of the 139 municipalities of Ancient Athens.  Pausanias tells us that Athenians built a temple of Apollo and erected a statue of Erichthonius at Prasiae.   Erichthonius, the son of Cecrops and an Attic hero, was also buried at Prasiae according to Pausanias(1,31,1).

It is not known whom the enigmatic statue on top of the Rafti islet honored and what was its purpose.  The colossal marble statue likely was sculpted during the Emperor Hadrian reign (78-138 AD).  Pausanias submits that it was Erichthonius while local folklore suggests it was a tailor as the word rafti means tailor in demotic Greek vernacular. Even a casual inspection of the statue convinces even the most uninitiated that the statue is a woman.  Therefore,  deities such as Athena, Artemis or Demeter or prominent women such as Hadrian’s wife Sabina or Herod Atticus’ wife Regilla are likely candidates.  Its purpose is also unknown but I strongly believe that it served as a lighthouse to assist ships returning at night from the Cyclades islands the nearest of which Kea is 20 miles away to Attica.  Two more reasons in support of my theory that its main function was that of a lighthouse are first that it is facing east towards the Aegean islands and Asia Minor and second one of its arms is raised where I would like to propose a metal cauldron was placed and used for the purpose of lighting a fire. Etching by Irish traveler E. Dodwell who visited Greece from 1801 to 1806. 

Porto Rafti Regatta is a three-day event with the first race run was from the starting line around the islets of Praso, Rafti and back to the finish line a length of approximately 5 nautical miles. The crew of Okyrhoe in day I was my brother Nikos, his wife Alexandra, our friend Kostas and myself.  

The course in the second race was similar to that of the first day and the crew of legendary Okyrhoe was Nikos, Kostas, Myrto a most able woman sailor, her daughter and our cinematographer Alecos.

In the third and last day of Porto Rafti Regatta my brother had an all women crew. It is interesting that Okyrhoe was first at the finish line in all three races. It was a most pleasant weekend and a great way for me to celebrate my 73rd birthday with relatives and dear friends. In closing, I would like to thank my friend Alexander Syris who was the cinematographer and producer of the three beautiful videos of Porto Rafti Regatta.