Heavens

Suddenly I saw

The heavens

Unfastened

And open,

Planets,

Palpitating plantations

The darkness perforated

Riddled

With arrows, fire and flowers

The overpowering night, the universe

And I, tiny being

Drunk with great starry

Void

Likeness image of 

Mystery

Felt myself a pure part of

The abyss.

I wheeled with the starts.

My heart broke loose with the wind

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)

Medicanes

Mediterranean cyclones are called Medicanes from the words Mediterranean and Hurricanes.  They usually form in the sea between Spain, Sardinia and Corsica or in the Ionian Sea. Medicanes usually happen in the fall and winter and move from west to east.  

Medicanes are rare phenomena and are similar with the tropical cyclones but are weaker because the Mediterranean Sea is smaller comparing to the oceans and her waters are not as warm. 

Although not as ferocious as their tropical cousins Medicanes have a center, have very strong winds in their periphery, causing huge waves and torrential rainfalls. 

Medicanes frequency is 1-2 per year.  Greece’s last Medicane was in 1995. This time the cyclone skirted the south coast of Peloponnese and reached Athens on Saturday September 29, 2018.

The strong winds uproot trees and down power lines and cause all kind of property destruction. 

Swollen rivers take cars parked near their banks in their turbulent waters downstream.  

The strong winds and waves result in sinking of boats even in harbors.

Although the advice to people in regions involved by hurricanes to move inland and away from the coasts some elect to ignore such warnings and go to the shore to see the large waves and feel the strong winds.

Tourists in the vicinity of the Acropolis of Athens look happy even if the gusty winds will destroy their umbrellas.

Fires

On July 23, 2018 three fires erupted near Athens with the one at the coastal resort town of Mati being catastrophic.  In the picture the flames are advancing fanned by strong winds.

Dense smoke is advancing in the main road that connects the fields of Marathon with Athens.

Unfortunately instead of turning cars back on the main road, Marathon Avenue, police created diversions and sent drivers heading towards the area about to be devastated by the fire. This created a traffic jam and panic with hundred of cars being burned and creating further destruction.

A house totally engulfed by flames.

Hundreds of people were forced into the sea to escape the flames.   Those in the sea had to wait for hours until help arrived primarily from local fishermen.

Sadly 99 persons lost their lives and 24 are still in hospitals 4 of who are in critical condition.  They either burned to death, suffocated by smoke or drowned.  In one area, the bodies of 26 adults and children who appeared to have died hugging each other were found.  The government said the fires were started by arsonists and blamed illegal construction for blocking escape routes.   No arsonist was found as of the day of this writing. 

In my opinion the extent of the death and destruction was caused by the reasons below:

1.  Incompetent officials did not alert the people of the affected area and did not enforced evacuation. 

2. Dry undergrowth in vacant lots is present in every suburban neighborhood. Municipalities and owners alike ignore it although common sense dictates that it is the perfect kindle to start and propagate a fire.

3. The common practice of throwing cigarettes from cars instead of extinguishing them in the car’s ashtray.  It is noteworthy that 34 per cent of Greeks are smokers.

4. The present and previous governments tolerated the illegal home construction without due consideration of city planning.  

5.   Hot and dry summers in Greece.

6.   Strong seasonal winds in the summer.

7. The pan-European emergency number 112 that was supposed to be operational in 2016 is not functional as of this day in Greece.

8.  Finally, another danger lurks and will claim victims in the future.   As the many first responders (firefighters, police officers and volunteers) did not wear masks during the clean up operation.  It is not only lung injury from exposure to smoke, but exposure to asbestos a prevalent material in the homes that were ruined that will cause diseases such as mesothelioma and lung cancer many years down the road when the fire at Mati will be a distant memory.

The mishandling of the fires by the authorities has already been widely criticized by residents caught up in the disaster and the media alike.  It is time the glaring mistakes to be corrected and the incompetent authorities to be brought to justice and pay for their mistakes which if not corrected will result in similar tragedies. Unfortunately, the failings from Greek politicians and public sector authorities alike will have to be examined: The toxic mixture of corruption, carelessness, deferral of responsibility are the reasons that disasters like at Mati are all too common.  It is my hope and wish that the pain and anger from this disaster become a springboard for fundamental reforms that will address the deep-seated flaws of Greek bureaucracy, flaws that do not allow for a functioning state to be developed.

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)

My boyhood home

At seven in the morning we reached Hannibal, Missouri, where my boyhood was spent. I had had a glimpse of it fifteen years ago, and another glimpse six years earlier, but both were so brief that they hardly counted. The only notion of the town that remained in my mind was the memory, as I had known it when I first quitted it twenty-nine years ago. That picture of it was still as clear and vivid to me as a photograph. 

From this vantage ground the extensive view up and down the river, and wide over the wooded expanses of Illinois, is very beautiful—one of the most beautiful on the Mississippi, I think; which is a hazardous remark to make, for the eight hundred miles of river between St. Louis and St. Paul afford an unbroken succession of lovely pictures. (Slightly modified from Mark Twain’s The Life on the Mississippi) 

I spent 25 years of my youth in Illinois and like Mark Twain my affection for Illinois biases my judgment in its favor; I cannot say but every time I visit it especially the largest and most beautiful of its cities Chicago I feel coming home. The picture was taken on Chicago’s lakefront here I used to live.  Nearby the Chicago River begins from Lake Michigan. Its waters eventually empty in the Illinois River a major tributary of the Mississippi.  The Illinois River joins the Mississippi approximately 20 miles to the north of the Missouri River and the city of St Louis. 

On the terrace of my boyhood home, in Athens’ St Nicholas neighborhood, playing backgammon with my childhood friend Theodosis (on the left) while my little brother Nikos is watching the game.  Mount Egaleo is noted in the background of the picture. (circa 1959)

Down the mighty Ohio...

Long ago I was in Cincinnati, and I set to map out a new career. I had been reading about the recent exploration of the river Amazon by an expedition sent out by our government. It was said that the expedition, owing to difficulties, had not thoroughly explored a part of the country lying about its headwaters, some four thousand miles from the mouth of the river. It was only about fifteen hundred miles from Cincinnati to New Orleans, where I could doubtless get a ship. So, I packed my valise, and took passage on an ancient tub called the ‘Paul Jones,’ for New Orleans. For the sum of sixteen dollars I had the scarred and tarnished splendors of ‘her’ main saloon principally to myself, for she was not a creature to attract the eye of wiser travelers.

When we got under way and went poking down the broad Ohio, I became a new being, and the subject of my own admiration. I was a traveler! A word never had tasted so good in my mouth before. I had an exultant sense of being bound for mysterious lands and distant climes, which I never have felt in so uplifting a degree since. I was in such a glorified condition that all ignoble feelings departed out of me, and I was able to look down and pity the untraveled with a compassion that had hardly a trace of contempt in it. Still, when we stopped at villages and wood-yards, I could not help lolling carelessly upon the railings of the boiler deck to enjoy the envy of the country boys on the bank. I kept my hat off all the time, and stayed where the wind and the sun could strike me, because I wanted to get the bronzed and weather-beaten look of an old traveler. Before the second day was half gone I experienced a joy, which filled me with the purest gratitude; for I saw that the skin had begun to blister and peel off my face and neck. I wished that the boys and girls at home could see me now. (Slightly modified from Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi)

An Early Christian Basilica

The bay of Porto Rafti (Λιμην Μεσογαιας) was a major port in Ancient Greece. The villages of Steiria, Prasiai, and Koroni were around the bay.  At Steiria (Porto Rafti) there was a settlement, a harbor with its pier still visible, a large cemetery and a basilica indicating a large population. 

Because Porto Rafti was the only bay on the east shores of Attica boats travelling to and from the Aegean islands and Asia Minor used it to conduct trade with Athens.

Few remaining antiquities are left around the bay.  At Drivlia (Steiria) the ruins of the Early Christian basilica (Αγια Κυριακή?) still exist.  The three-sided funerary basilica has been excavated and is located nearby the large Roman cemetery in use in the 4^th-6^thcentury BC.  In the same area remains of a bath complex and houses and multiple coin finds attest to a prosperous early Christian settlement. 

The invention of the early Christian church (Εκκλησια) was an important architectural development as it was achieved by the assimilation and rejection of previous prototypes, such as the Greco-Roman temples, and the Synagogue.  Basilica is the Latin tem for a large, important church taken from the Greek Βασιλικη Στοα that means King’s hall or Palace.  Basilicas are rectangular buildings with side aisles and pillars extending their length and an apse at one end. It was this type of building the early Christians adopted for their churches, possibly to differentiate them from the temples in which rectangular walled structure was inside and it was surrounded by pillars.  

Porto Rafti early Christian basilica as all Catholic and Orthodox churches faces east.  This orientation was so it faces towards Jerusalem. Another possibility is that because early Christian churches were constructed at sites where Ancient Greek temples existed most of which were aligned to the sun ie East.