No, not a comment on my state of mind after all these recent deaths....
Helen and I decide to have a day out en route to Igoumenitsa, where she'll catch a ferry to Corfu (general strikes permitting) to catch her plane home.
First stop: The Necromanteion of Acheron: a pre-christian Greek temple of necromancy devoted to Hades (the god of the Underworld) and Persephone, and which was believed by devotees to be the door to the realm of the dead. The Necromanteion sits next to the river Acheron.. where Charon is, in Greek myth, supposed to ferry the dead across the river Styx in return for a coin. Here at the Necromanteion people came to talk with the dead - aided and abetted by ritual priests, bodily and psychological purification, and the ingestion of hallucinogenic substances, so it appears. What fun that would be...!
According to wikipedia:
"Ritual use of the Nekromanteion involved elaborate ceremonies wherein celebrants seeking to speak to the dead would start by gathering in the ziggurat-like temple and consuming a meal of broad beans, pork, barley bread, oysters, and a narcotic compound.Following a cleansing ceremony and the sacrifice of sheep, the faithful would descend through labyrinthine corridors leaving offerings as they passed through a number of iron gates. The necromanteia would pose a series of questions and chant prayers and the celebrants would then witness the priest arise from the floor and begin to fly about the temple through the use of theatrical cranes"
Wow! Its easy to envisage how the priests could stage manage this when you visit the site.. lots of ritual, lots of s drugs and some starvation, chanting, darkness and incense. Its especially powerful in the "underworld" part of the site - a vaulted windowless chamber. In one account, celebrants are lowered down (to them unexpectedly) into the lower chamber on a false floor (presumably where Helen is standing in the picture above).
On a more prosaic level, I really liked the construction..huge stone blocks pieced together like a jigsaw.
Having communed with the dead, we then decide to go to the "River of Grief": the River Acheron.. or more specifically to a section of the river which runs through a spectacular limestone gorge, and where icy cold springs flow out from the rocks.
The fun thing about this is that its possible to walk up the river, through the Gorge.. a wonderful thing to do on a hot day, as the water is cool.. indeed at times chillingly cold from its journey through the limestone.Its also a wonderful jade greeny-blue colour in the deeper areas.
The walk starts on a path, but soon the walls close in and its only possible to make progress by wading up stream.
At times its ankle deep, then thigh deep, and for some short stretches, to make progress requires a bit of swimming. Not exactly easy against the current, and holding a bag with clothes and camera above my head. I feel like someone from "Out of Africa", and Helen looks the part, swimming with her colonial hat on.
We spend about 2 hours going up the river, till we reach an old bridge. From here, we're told its possible to walk back over the hills. But, having fought our way up stream against the flow, the appeal of reversing the route and going downstream, including floating through blue pools with the flow of the river proves too attractive.
Here's another picture of helen floating downstream
And as for the general strike affecting all ferries.... we get to Igoumenitsa and all the ferries are running normally. helen pops across to Corfu, and finds a B&B, and I drive back home after a satisfying day.
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