Olympus is just a short walk down the beach from my hotel.
It dates from the 2nd Century BC when its populace worshipped a Vulcan called Hephaestus!
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| Sarcophagus |
I spent a whole day clambering around the site meeting nobody except four Kuwaitis who were walking this part of The Lycian Way.
We got on well after I initially ruffled some feathers by asking them if they were Israelis.
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| Kuwaitis attempt stream crossing &"Abbey Road" homage |
2. Phaselis
Phaselis is also just off a beach but I had to take a bus to reach it.
I misunderstood the bus driver's directions and climbed off the highway, surfed a small avalanche of stones down a steep rocky slope, then ended up crashing through dense, thorny undergrowth until I eventually reached the offramp road I should have been on all the time.
The upside to this unpleasant shortcut was that I avoided the ticket office and saw the site for free...
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| Main Street |
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| Roman Bath House |
The highlight of Phaselis is a well-preserved theatre...
Strewn around the surrounding forests are pieces of masonry, parts of columns and such like...
3. Our Man in Lycia
Finally, due to popular demand...just a few of many sides of your author and guide...
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| Smooze... |
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| Puzzling... |
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| Always ready for anything... |
Velchanos, a Cretan Cock-demon who became Vulcan when his worship was introduced into Italy.
ReplyDeleteIn Italy, Vulcan was said to be lame and to walk with the help of high heeled gold shoes, because he was identified with Hephaestus, a Pelasgian deity from Lemnos. [] the tradition of sacred lameness seems to have been Danaan, not early Creatan. Hephaestus's wife according to Homer was Charis whom he elsewhere calls Aphrodite.
Hephaestus belonged to the pre-hellenic civilization [his lameness an evidence of Dionysus worship]
Hephaestus was married to the Love-Goddess and deceived by her, and lamed by suddenly being thrown down from Olympus by the Goddess Hera, and mocked by the whole company of Heaven, compose another variant of the same ritual.
Originally the king died violently as soon as he had coupled with the queen [the coronation ceremony throughout the ancient world typified the marriage of the Sun-King to the Earth Queen] Later, emasculation and laming were substituted for dreath; later still circumcision was substituted for emasculation and the wearing of buskins for laming.
R. Graves again...