Friday, December 27, 2013

Mist & Ruins


The days and nights around (before and after) the winter solstice are perhaps my fave from the whole year. For various reasons. One of them is the weather.
Its a very inspiring and influential season. 

This year , on the 25th of December i had the idea to start very early in the morning and visit some places. 
With the morning mist that i knew that will dominate the area, i had in mind to walk to something similar to the scenary from Arthur Conan Doyle`s The Hound of the Baskervilles (Check HERE and you`ll see what i mean...) combined with
a walk in-between ruins of the Ancient Hellenic past. Indeed i was right, the weather was really rewarding for my early morning wake up.

And with that in mind, we took the road to the north parts of Attica and from there we turned east towards the island of Euboea, from there and while still driving on the mainland, we followed the coastline. Here are some of the places we found
during our descending in the coastline:

Anthedon is a very old city-port. Here are what Traveler & Geographer Pausanias wrote :

"Such is the appearance of the blackbirds. Within Boeotia to the left of the Euripus is Mount Messapius, at the foot of which on the coast is the Boeotian city of Anthedon. Some say that the city received its name from a nymph called Anthedon, while others say that one Anthas was despot here, a son of Poseidon by Alcyone, the daughter of Atlas. Just about the center of Anthedon is a sanctuary of the Cabeiri, with a grove around it, near which is a temple of Demeter and her daughter, with images of white marble.

There are a sanctuary and an image of Dionysus in front of the city on the side towards the mainland. Here are the graves of the children of Iphimedeia and Aloeus. They met their end at the hands of Apollo according to both Homer and Pindar, the latter adding that their doom overtook them in Naxos, which lies off Paros. Their tombs then are in Anthedon, and by the sea is what is called the Leap of Glaucus.

That Glaucus was a fisherman, who, on eating of the grass, turned into a deity of the sea and ever since has foretold to men the future, is a belief generally accepted; in particular, seafaring men tell every year many a tale about the soothsaying of Glaucus. Pindar and Aeschylus got a story about Glaucus from the people of Anthedon. Pindar has not thought fit to say much about him in his odes, but the story actually supplied Aeschylus with material for a play."

II. Aulis

Avlis is one of the most historical places in the Ancient Hellenic world. Its roots are back in the Homeric times. Its here first in the Trojan War that the Hellenic fleet gathered to sail against Troy.
There we found the ruins of the temple of Artemis and very close from it the famous port.

Aulis related links:

...and here follows the photos:

I. At the North part of Attica



II. Anthedon




III.Aulis (Port , Temple of Artemis & Return road)









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