Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
West to the Peloponnese
The route from the centre of Athens
towards Kórinthos
(Corinth) follows the
ancient Ierá Odhós - the Sacred Way - as far as Elefsína, ancient Eleusis. There's
nothing sacred about it these days, though: this is as ugly a road as any in Greece,
traversing an industrial wasteland. For the first 30km or so you have little sense of
leaving Athens, whose western suburbs merge into Elefsína and then Mégara.
Offshore lies
Salamína
(ancient Salamis, see p.328), these days just another suburb.
The Attikí Odhós motorway from the airport meets the road from Athens just
outside Elefsína.
Beyond Elefsína, the
old road to Thebes and Delphi
heads northwest into the hills.
This route is described in Chapter Three (p.200), and is highly worthwhile, with its
detours to
ancient Aegosthena
and the tiny resort of
Pórto Yermenó
. Directly west,
towards the
Corinth Canal
(see p.130) and the Peloponnese, there are shingle beaches
along the old coastal road at Kinéta and Áyii Theódhori. This highway, with the
Yeránia mountains to the north and those of the Peloponnese across the water, follows
the route where Theseus slew the bandit Skiron and threw him off the cliffs to be eaten
by a giant sea turtle.
1
Dhafní
Daily 8.30am-3pm • Free • You may have to buzz for entry
he
Monastery of Dhafní
, a beautiful example of Byzantine architecture, was badly
damaged by an earthquake in 1999, and only reopened in 2011. Still not fully
restored, it is held up by scaffolding - set to be there until 2014 at least - which
offers an exceptional chance to climb right up into the dome and get up close and
personal with the magnificent eleventh-century mosaics, considered among the
artistic masterpieces of the Middle Ages. Ascending by rickety ladders, you pass first
the Life of Christ, then the Prophets, before reching the
Pandokrátor
(Christ in
Majesty) in the dome itself. The restored mosaics, glistening with gold, are
magnificent, and the stern Christ depicted here is a classic Orthodox image. A
chamber next to the church has an excellent display on the monastery's history and
restoration, along with close-up detail of the mosaics and identification of the saints
and events depicted.
THE MYSTERIES OF ELEUSIS
The ancient
Mysteries
had an effect on their initiates that was easily the equal of any modern
cult. Established in Mycenaean times, perhaps as early as 1500 BC, the cult centred on
Demeter
, the goddess of corn, and her daughter Persephone's annual descent into and
resurrection from the underworld, which came to symbolize the rebirth of the crops and the
miracle of fertility. By the fifth century BC the cult had developed into a sophisticated annual
festival, attracting up to 30,000 people every autumn from all over the Greek world. The
ceremonies lasted nine days: the
Sacred
Objects
(identity unknown) were taken to Athens,
where they were stored in the Ancient Agora for four days. Various rituals took place in the city,
many on the Acropolis but also mass bathing and purification in the sea at Fáliro. Finally a vast
procession brought the objects back, following the Sacred Way to the sanctuary at Eleusis.
Here initiates took part in the final rituals of
legomena
(things said),
dhromena
(things done)
and
dheiknumena
(things shown). One theory suggests that these rituals involved drinking a
fungus-infused potion, producing similar effects to those of modern
psychedelic drugs
. The
Mysteries survived well into the Christian era, but eventually fell victim to the new orthodoxy.
Demeter is said to have threatened to render the land permanently barren if her worship at
Eleusis ever ceased. Looking at the ecological havoc wreaked by the area's industry, it would
seem that the curse has been fulfilled.
