Dionysus God of Fertility and wine and divine intoxication
Of all the gods which have existed and do exist, I think the Greek gods were the coolest. That’s because they interacted a lot with humans. I really wish they hadn’t got bored and left Earth. It isn’t the same without them.
There are so many great stories and one of my favourites involves Ariadne, Theseus and Dionysus. I especially like the possible twist to the the story in terms of who got dumped. Theseus, of course, is well known for the time he slew the Minotaur on Crete. Greeks had been bringing humans for sacrifice to the Minotaur for many years and quite frankly Theseus was getting a little tired of it. Unfortunately, Theseus didn’t really have a plan and would have ended up as hamburger except for one thing…………
Theseus and the Minotaur
This isn’t the best picture of the battle between Theseus and the Minotaur but Theseus was naked when he entered the maze and I didn’t want my blog to offend anyone. Theseus was …..well let’s just say….manly. Anyway, it was actually Ariadne who helped Theseus. She was the daughter of King Minos and half sister to her ugly brother the monstrous Minotaur. Ariadne gave Theseus some golden thread to unfurl as he went through the maze. After he killed the Minotaur he used the thread to get back out. Okay, not all that amazing as a plan but it worked.
Ariadne had a good life but……..
There are probably a lot of reasons why Ariadne betrayed her father (the King) and her (monstrous) half brother but as you can see in the picture above, she looks kinda bored. When she saw Theseus’ big ship she wanted to get off the Island of Crete so part of the deal was that Theseus, if successful in killing the (monstrous) Minotaur, would take Ariadne as his lover. So far so good………
The monstrous Minotaur
Now here’s where it gets interesting. While sailing home, Theseus docks at Naxos Island. This could easily be to get some food since Naxos is an agricultural island. It’s unlikely it was for any tourist attractions because as far I know they hadn’t been developed yet. However, there is another theory. It is possible that Theseus stopped at Naxos to get Ariadne off his boat after realizing it was a bit crowed for the two of them. Well, that’s Theseus story anyway. But take a close look at the picture below and you might guess where this story is going……
Who’s that up in the clouds?
That’s Dionysus sneaking around up in those clouds and it is quite possible Ariadne, seeing a chance to hang out with a god may have actually dumped the mere mortal Theseus. Maybe it was Theseus who ended up crying. Regardless, Ariadne ended up with Dionysus and Theseus (possibly distracted) forgot to raise the white sails so hid father committed suicide ….but that’s another story.
Bizantine Church
I spent most of the past week marking mid-term papers but Marilyn and I got out for a drive on Thursday. We discovered this Bizantine church after a short hike from Apiranthos which is a village in the middle of the marble mountains. There are so many of these ‘treasure’ dotted around every part of Naxos.
Inside one part of the church
Many of these old churches are in ruins. Some have frescoes which were plastered over by invading cultures and competing religions but the plaster is now falling off and once again revealing the paintings.
Another part of the church
What was really exciting on Thursday though was finding a castle I’ve been searching for during the past few weeks. I know it isn’t easy to lose a castle but there was one I visited a lot when we lived on Naxos in 2000 and I just couldn’t remember where it was. We took a narrow dirt road off the route to Mount Zas and lo and behold there it was. I particularly like the medieval look and spooky tree in the front.
Castle of Fotodoti
Unfortunately, they have done a lot of renovations to this castle which is also a monastery. In 2000, it was always open but now it is locked. Still, its a cool structure and a fun drive and hike. 
Rob, Kelly, Amy, and Val will be arriving on Monday. We’ve been trying to decide where to take them since there is far too much to see in just a few days. I’m sure they’ll be pleased with some of the excursions we have planned. I’ve reserved a min-van so we can all travel around the island together.
