Contents
Spotlight
Sea Shanties
In our February edition we reported on the first Rethymnon CIC excursion of the year. The excursion included a visit to Cretaquarium, where the Bugle editor became fixated by the fish. This fixation set her on the trail of finding stories about the ’mysteries of the deep’ for this month’s spotlight feature. Greece has always been known as being a maritime nation and many of its myths, legends, religious and cultural traditions are inextricably bound up with the relationship between its people and the sea. Here we focus on a few Cretan fishy tales. Actually, the tales we tell aren’t - strictly speaking - tales about fish at all, but without the fish we probably wouldn’t have had the tales in the first place….
Poseidon and the Minoans
Poseidon ‘The Lord of the Sea’ is one the most important Gods in ancient Greek mythology. He was a figure to be both venerated and feared. On a good day he would ensure calm seas and even create new islands. But on a bad day….put it this way you really, really didn’t want to upset him (earthquakes, shipwrecks, you name it he would do it). On Crete Poseidon is perhaps best known for his link with the creation of the monstrous Minotaur. It is said that King Minos (who was having trouble with his brothers) asked Poseidon for a snow-white bull as a symbol of his right to rule the island. Poseidon duly sent him the bull, but on the grounds that Minos would sacrifice the bull as a grateful offering. Minos stupidly welshed on the deal and decided to keep the bull for himself. So Poseidon got very cross and engineered things so that Minos’ wife Pasiphae would fall in love with the bull. We’ll gloss over the sordid details, but the ensuing union resulted in the birth of the Minotaur, who grew up to be a whole heap of trouble. And so Daedalus was called in to build the labyrinth somewhere near Knossos - which takes us back to our story from last month about flying kites. Moving rapidly on….
Sometimes when one wanders round the magnificent ancient palaces on Crete it is easy to forget just how much the Minoans were tied to the sea. Due to geographical / geological changes (the editor is on seriously shaky ground when it comes to talking about tectonic plates) some of the palaces are more ‘inland’ than they were way back when (if you get my continental drift). Knossos and Faestos are set in beautiful countryside in areas dominated by local agriculture - vine, olive and citrus, and this is the way it has been for centuries. And the relics that we see at those sites - for example huge jars that were used for storing wine or oil - seem to emphasize this particular aspect of Minoan culture. Now, we love olive oil, wine, raki and fresh lemons, so we’re not knocking those pots (and who would want to be a Cretan bull in a china shop in any case?). However, many of the decorations on the pots are really wacky depictions of octopus and other assorted marine life. The Minoans were wonderful sailors and fishermen. They built loads of boats and were an important naval force - though the famous triremes possibly came later (when the editor tried to do some historical research she got a bit confused about ancient ships and oarsmen. When she was a young lass in Oxford she got confused by a couple of oarsmen too, but that’s another story). Some of the better known findings relating to the Minoans at sea come from Akrotiri on Thera. These include the well known fresco portraying a fisherman and some large sardines. And for those of you who haven’t been there this in itself is a good reason to take that summer day cruise to Santorini!
Mermaids and Pirates of the Aegean
It goes without saying (but we’ll say it anyway!) that whilst the sea may be a valuable source of food and revenue this comes with a heavy price tag. Sudden storms and squalls make fishing a dangerous enterprise, and coastal settlements are always vulnerable to attack by maritime marauders. Hardly surprising then, that Crete has any number of legends about mermaids, and that its history is peppered with pirates. Our favourite local mermaids are the ones that are supposed to inhabit the waters of Souda Bay. According to myth, these are the Sirens of Aptera. The sirens lost out to the muses in a musical competition, and were so upset that their feathers fell into the sea, (which is how the ancient city got its name - Aptera means ‘wingless’) forming the islets in the bay. The Sirens became transformed into mermaids, and many sightings were reported by sailors. A more prosaic explanation of the existence of the mermaids comes from a 19th century description of a seal fighting with the octopus it planned to have for lunch, the tentacles of the octopus hanging round the seal’s head and giving the appearance of a woman’s hair. As for the pirates? Plenty of them to talk about but space is limited (I see another article on the horizon). The most notorious ones in our region’s history are Pescatore, Ulutz Ali and Barbarossa, all of whom caused considerable damage and loss of life during Venetian times. Happily though, in modern day Rethymnon we have managed to turn things around and use the pirates to our advantage. A trip on one of our pirate ships is fun, and a marvellous way to see the coastline from a different perspective!
