Greece from the Air [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION Seeing Greece from the air is like seeing Hellas through the eyes of the Greek gods, long ago when the gods ruled the world and meddled with men's destinies from the heights of Mount Olympus. It is like gazing at the Acropolis through the blue-green eyes of the wise, victorious Athena, or like flying over Olympia in the wake of Zeus, to whom bloody sacrifices and hearty libations are still made, or discovering Delphi and Delos in the sun-blessed glory of Apollo, or soaking up the colours of Naxos, an island still haunted by the spirit of the drunken Dionysos. From the sky, the Peloponnese and Atrica, Epiros and Boeotia, Crete, Ithaca and Thessaly seem still to be peopled by these Hellenic heroes. There they all are - proud Theseus, wise Nestor, cunning Ulysses, Diomedes with his powerful cry, fleet-footed Achilles and Ajax the sprinter, Ariadne with her tresses, sister of the monstrous Minotaur and daughter of the wicked Minos, Hercules the demi-god, incestuous Oedipus and Idomeneus with his weapons — the whole cast from the legendary tale of the Atrides, as recounted by Homer, the poet and prodigy from Chios. Their exploits are still engrained in the landscape; the humblest fragment of rock speaks of the ancient world with all its excitement and drama. Only an aerial view can restore this wodd to us completely, as the white villages merge with the living rock at nightfall. How difficult it is to close the book and return to earth. minoan crete Legend rejoins history in the second millennium BC, when a brilliant civilization appeared in Crete, a large island far out in the Mediterranean, between Europe and Africa. That culture, later named Minoan after the mythical king Minos, was responsible for establishing the earliest urban developments in Europe and for building palaces of unparalleled elegance and comfort between 2000 and 1900 BC. Archaeologists have uncovered lavatories, asaminthoi (baths in terracotta) and an elaborate drainage system in the royal apartments — a state of luxury unheard of anywhere else at the time and scarcely imaginable in many more recent civilizations. The art of fresco painting reached its apogee in Minoan Crete; jewellers produced exquisite masterpieces in gold and precious stones; and an astonishing degree of refinement was achieved in works of earthenware, bronze, pottery and inlaid marble. The Cretans were fearless sailors who maintained a sizeable fleet, merchants