Santorini - 2022

 

Santorini has changed a lot since I first visited it fifty-four years ago.  It is now one of the most glamorous and visited islands on planet earth.

The views of the Caldera from the patios of elegant hotels is stunning.

The 3-hour trek between Fira and Oia presents a most beautiful scenery.

Santorini has become the place where young persons from far away places such as the United States or China elect to give vows of everlasting love and devotion. 

On this visit I stayed in the lovely hotel Phaos, which patio overlooks the the islands of Anafi and Astypalea in the Aegean Sea.

As in my first visit in 1968, I visited once more Akrotiri the Bronze Age settlement, one of the most important Minoan urban centres in the Aegean Sea, when it was covered by ash following the volcanic eruption in the 17 century BC.  The ancient Minoan town at Santorini's south coast, is called the "Pompeii of Greece" and some archeologists theorise that it is the fictional island of Atlantis that was created by demi-gods who established a utopian society as described by Greek philosopher Plato. 

I am finishing the trilogy on Santorini with the lighthouse in its southern tip, likely the oldest in Greece, as it was built in 1892.  It was the purpose of my first visit to service it and my role as a young Navy physician to check the health status of its crew.  The view was beautiful then, like it is now, thus a large number of visitors keep coming in the evenings to look at the sun setting.  Each of my trips to Santorini left me with beautiful and indelible memories which I will cherish the rest of my life. 

Poseidon’s Temple and the Aegean Sea

Cape Sounion (Ancient Greek:Ἄκρον Σούνιον) is at the southernmost tip of the Attica peninsula.

The temple of Poseidon (Latin: Neptune, the god of the sea) is at Sounion.  Archaeological finds at the site date from as early as 700 BC. Herodotus tells us that in the sixth century BC, the Athenians celebrated a quadrennial festival, which involved Athens' leaders sailing to the cape in a sacred boat.  The original temple of Poseidon was likely destroyed in 480 BC when King Xerxes invaded Greece. The later temple at Sounion, whose columns still stand today, was built in 440 BC. 

Poseidon (Greek: Ποσειδων) the "God of the Sea" is one of the twelve Gods of the Greek Pantheon.  Poseidon was the protector of many Hellenic cities and according to Plato the island of Atlantis was his favorite place.  He was the brother of Zeus and he was saved by his mother Rhea, who hid him among a flock of lambs to protect him from his father Cronus. 

The philosopher Martin Heidegger visited Sounion during his journey to Greece.  He refers to the "gleaming-white ruins of the temple". In the strong sea breeze "these few standing columns were the strings of an invisible lyre, the song of which the far-seeing Delian god let resonate over the Cycladic world of islands". He marvels at "the way that this single gesture of the land suggests the invisible nearness of the divine and dedicates to it every growth and every human work". He goes on to reflect, "the people of this country knew how to inhabit and demarcate the world against the barbarous in honor of the seat of the gods”.

According to legend, it was at Cape Sounion the king of Athens Aegeas (Greek: Αιγέας), leapt to his death off the cliff, thus giving his name to the Aegean Sea.  The story goes that he anxiously waited for the return of his son Theseus and despaired when he saw the black sail on his son's ship.  This led him to believe that his son had been killed in his fight with the dreaded Minotaur.  Theseus had volunteered to go and attempt to slay the beast that devoured 7 young men and 7 young women, Athenians sent every year to King Minos of Crete as a tribute.  He had agreed with his father that if he survived the fight, he would hoist a white sail. In fact, Theseus had succeeded to slain the Minotaur, but tragically had forgotten to hoist a white sail.

Poseidon’s Temple was a popular destination with the ancients and modern Athenians alike.  The view of the full moon in August is a memorable and sought-after spectacle.