Santorini - 1968

 I visited Santorini for the first time in 1968 while I was serving in the Greek Navy.  It was a stormy day something which is not unusual for the Cycladitic islands known for their strong winds.  We anchored by the southernmost cape called Akrotiri.  

At that time tourists had just discovered this unique island and some visited it on mules or donkeys.  

I visited the island on foot.  The most important site then was, as it is now, the Bronze age city Akrotiri.

Akrotiri became known due to the excavations conducted under the supervision of the archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos in 1967.  I was lucky that Professor Marinatos was on the site at the time of my visit and gave me a tour of the ancient city that was covered completely during the volcanic explosion more that three millennia ago.  It is few times in our lives that we meet in person eminent individuals like him. 

Macronisos

Makronisos (Greek: Μακρόνησος, lit. Long Island), is an elongated arid island located in between the east coast of Attica, facing the port of Lavrio and the island of Kea. The round the buoy sailboat races sponsored by Lavreotiki Yacht Club (NOCL) take place in the strait between Lavrio and Macronesos and the offshore races to the Cycladic islands the sailboats round the island’s southernmost promontory.  

In ancient times the island was called Helena for it was the place the beautiful Helen of Troy, the daughter of Zeus and Leda, made a stopover on her way to Troy or on her return trip to Sparta.

Two millennia after the Trojan War Germany occupied Greece during WWII. Resistance fighters harassed the occupation forces from their camps in the mountains.

When WW II ended in 1945 the leaders of the USA, Great Britain and The Soviet Union divided the world at Yalta. Greece fell in the western sphere of influence. 

When the German army retreated from Greece in 1944, parties from the entire political spectrum formed a government. The first elections were held in March of 1946 but were boycotted by the communist party, a serious mistake because from that point on the communist party of Greece (KKE) was excluded from the political system. 

While the rest of Europe was celebrating the end of the catastrophic WWII and trying to get back on its feet, Greece entered another period of misery as Civil War erupted in 1946 and lasted till 1949 when the insurgents were defeated by the government forces which were assisted by the UK and the U.S.    

During the civil war members of the communist party were sent to the barren island of Makronisos.  The plan was to rehabilitate them into model citizens. In this picture exiles attend a theatrical production they themselves produced.  Two decades later the military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974 repopulated the island with leftist sympathizers.  

Today Macronesos is uninhabited but because of its past, is considered a civil war era historical site; on certain days visits and events are scheduled at it to commemorate the period of cruelty that brothers imposed upon brothers that is now almost forgotten.  

Η νικη ωστοσο ανηκει στο γενναιο Μενελαο

ειναι λοιπον δικο μας χρεος να σκεφθουμε το πως

το πραγμα αυτο θα φθασει σ ενα τελος

η θα σηκωσουμε ξανα αγριο πολεμο και την ολεθρεια μαχη

η την φιλιοτητα να βαλουμε αναμεσα στους δυο

If the victory belongs to Menelaus

It behooves us to work out

how to finish this conflict

and instead of starting the warfare anew

kinship to bring among the warring factions 

Like the Olympian Gods, in Homer’s Iliad (Rhapsody IV 14-18), want to bring the Trojan War to an end, it is my wish that civil wars and the atrocities that follow cease from happening, as the misery that occur to combatants and non-combatants alike is unimaginable.