It has rained on and off all day. So far we've had four massive thunderstorms, and as I came back from supper just now there were clouds covering the moon and perhaps more rain on the way...
It hasn't been the kind of rain that's not really too bad when you get outside; it's the kind of rain you don't go out in if you can possibly avoid it. Absolutely torrential. Roads turning into small rivers, stepped streets turning into cascades, visibility down to about 200 metres, that sort of thing. I mentioned Thor earlier, but of course in Greece it is Zeus, the king of the Gods and lord of Olympus, who wields the thunderbolt. And boy has he been wielding it today.
I missed the bus to Troizen and decided against taking a taxi there; I didn't want to get caught in the open during one of these great cloudbursts. So I have missed one of my objectives.
I am going to be philosophical and not get worked up about that. I've had a walk into town, a mooch, coffee out, lunch out, coffee out again, another walk, and a peaceful forty minutes sitting on a shopping trolley while Massive Rainstorm No 3 rolled and thundered overhead. I've checked out the foot ferries and the buses to Nafplion, for tomorrow. And I'm packed and ready to move on.
Although I've not managed to get to Troizen, where Theseus was born and grew up, I did have a go at sorting out one little Theseus-related question.
According to Pausanias, there is a small island offshore just by Poros which was once joined to the mainland, and there was a shrine there at which Theseus' mother Princess Aithra is supposed to have slept with Poseidon and conceived her son by the god. According to Peter Levi's footnotes, this is probably a small islet, close inshore in the eastern end of the Poros Channel. Since I was over on the other side anyway, to check up on my bus time for tomorrow, I walked along the coast road for a while and have tried to find this little island. Aithra is supposed to have built a shrine there and started a custom of young women dedicating their girdle to the Goddess there before they marry. It features quite prominently in the Mary Renault novel I mentioned a few days ago, "The King Must Die".
I think I've found three candidates.
Much though I'd like to think this was really the little island in Russian Bay, called Daskalio, which is inordinately pretty, heart-shaped, with pine trees and a little church on it, that isn't anywhere near the eastern end of the strait or near the mainland. So I've put that picturesque option out of my mind and settled for some rather less glamorous ones.
It hasn't been the kind of rain that's not really too bad when you get outside; it's the kind of rain you don't go out in if you can possibly avoid it. Absolutely torrential. Roads turning into small rivers, stepped streets turning into cascades, visibility down to about 200 metres, that sort of thing. I mentioned Thor earlier, but of course in Greece it is Zeus, the king of the Gods and lord of Olympus, who wields the thunderbolt. And boy has he been wielding it today.
I missed the bus to Troizen and decided against taking a taxi there; I didn't want to get caught in the open during one of these great cloudbursts. So I have missed one of my objectives.
I am going to be philosophical and not get worked up about that. I've had a walk into town, a mooch, coffee out, lunch out, coffee out again, another walk, and a peaceful forty minutes sitting on a shopping trolley while Massive Rainstorm No 3 rolled and thundered overhead. I've checked out the foot ferries and the buses to Nafplion, for tomorrow. And I'm packed and ready to move on.
Thunderstorm No 1 brewing, 9.30 this morning
Thunderstorm No 2 in full swing, midday (NB coffee in the foreground, the perfect excuse to get under cover and watch the rest of the world get wet)
Thunderstorm No 3 in full swing, 5.30, viewed from the shelter of the Fresco Supermarket, where I sat in a shopping trolley for the first time since I was a kid (the street was flooding, so I couldn't even stand somewhere dry when I was under cover)
Thunderstorm No 4, which was mostly just torrential rain, with only a few loud bangs instead of a constant barrage; 6.30pm. I just got back to the studios in the short interval after Storm No 3
Although I've not managed to get to Troizen, where Theseus was born and grew up, I did have a go at sorting out one little Theseus-related question.
According to Pausanias, there is a small island offshore just by Poros which was once joined to the mainland, and there was a shrine there at which Theseus' mother Princess Aithra is supposed to have slept with Poseidon and conceived her son by the god. According to Peter Levi's footnotes, this is probably a small islet, close inshore in the eastern end of the Poros Channel. Since I was over on the other side anyway, to check up on my bus time for tomorrow, I walked along the coast road for a while and have tried to find this little island. Aithra is supposed to have built a shrine there and started a custom of young women dedicating their girdle to the Goddess there before they marry. It features quite prominently in the Mary Renault novel I mentioned a few days ago, "The King Must Die".
I think I've found three candidates.
Much though I'd like to think this was really the little island in Russian Bay, called Daskalio, which is inordinately pretty, heart-shaped, with pine trees and a little church on it, that isn't anywhere near the eastern end of the strait or near the mainland. So I've put that picturesque option out of my mind and settled for some rather less glamorous ones.
Possibility one is this, a little ridge just big enough for a house, which is joined to the mainland by a very man-made and modern looking causeway
Possibilities two and three would be the two islands on the right of this picture. The one on the left is a lot further out and bigger, but the other two match Professor Levi's description better. Since the near one isn't much more than a reef, the middle one is perhaps my best candidate.
Not much else has gone on today, though. I've mooched, I've chatted to some very handsome cats and a sweet small dog, and I found the place I stayed when I first visited Poros, back in 1990.
Mrs Georgia Mellou's Rooms to Rent; still in operation after all these years
Vegetable envy
Mr Kaikas' cat on my balcony
A cat wondering whether or not to take the foot ferry
Damp cats drying themselves
Two cats on the scrounge at the Taverna Sti Rota
The cats of a café in Galatas
Not a cat, but very friendly
A casualty of the rain...
No comments:
Post a Comment