I am starting to look back at some photos that I took during the six weeks I spent in Europe, just before the confinement. During several days, the Louvre was closed, because of the pandemic, but not the Louvre Collection in the Inventory of the Department of Prints and Drawings. This amazing place is open to the general public. You just have to send an email in advance to show… Read more
In recent posts, Rhodes: the isle of Helios and Thera: the island of many names, we visited two Greek islands on the Aegean Sea. In this post, we will be sailing towards the sunset, to a mountainous island that was home to a famous trickster. Following Robert Bittlestone’s footsteps, we are going to Homeric Ithaka, the island of Kefalonia. Read more
Paestum was founded by Achaean colonists from Sybaris (on the South Italian coast near Taranto) whose taste for high living gave us the word “sybarite”, in about 600 BCE. Sybaris and Paestum are part of the Magna Grecia (Greek colonial settlements in Italy). Paestum lies on the coast south of Salerno. The Greek colonists called it Poseidonia, after the sea-god Poseidon (Neptune for the Romans). The Romans renamed it Paestum… Read more
"The ancient stories of men tell that when Zeus and the immortals were dividing the earth among them, Rhodes was not yet visible in the expanse of the sea, but the island was hidden in the salty depths. Helios was absent, and no one marked out a share for him; in fact they left him without any allotment of land, although he was a holy god." In this post, I… Read more
The year 2020 may not be the best time to travel with the pandemic. And yet, who does not want to discover the islands of the Aegean Sea? I offer you a safe and virtual journey through time to an island with many names and a tumultuous past. The name by which this magical place is often mentioned in ancient Greek literature is Thera. Read more
