Magical names for islands11/1/2022 ![]() Herodotus recounts in great detail the story of Thera, in Book 4.147–162. Pindar Pythian 5, translation by Diane Arnson Svarlien īut it is my part to sing of the lovely glory that comes from Sparta, where the Aegeidae were born, and from there they went to Thera, my ancestors, not without the gods they were led by a certain fate. In Pythian 5 Pindar celebrates the same victor as in Pythian 4, and he mentions that he shares the same ancestors from Thera. Pindar Pythian 4, translation by Diane Arnson Svarlien That token shall make Thera the mother-city of great cities, the token which once, beside the out-flowing waters of lake Tritonis, Euphemus received as he descended from the prow, a clod of earth as a gift of friendship from a god in the likeness of a man… She spoke in this way to the heroes who sailed with the warrior Jason…. …on a day when Apollo happened to be present, gave an oracle naming Battus as the colonizer of fruitful Libya, and telling how he would at once leave the holy island and found a city of fine chariots on a shining white breast of the earth, and carry out in the seventeenth generation the word spoken at Thera by Medea, which once the inspired daughter of Aeetes, the queen of the Colchians, breathed forth from her immortal mouth. Thus Pindar in Pythian 4 mentions the prophecy made by Medea at Thera as in his ode he is celebrating the victory of a descendant of Battos, Arkesilas IV, son of Battos IV, king of Kyrene. ![]() The Aegidae, he writes, coming from Sparta settled in Thera and remained there for 17 generations, not by choice but because of a decision by fate. And the island of sea-beaten Thera is described by him as a “metropolis of mighty cities”. ![]() Pindar, who takes so many ancient myths at heart, in Pythian 4 and 5 reminds us of the history of the inhabitants of this island who lived there for a rather long period of time, ancestors of Pindar himself. The name by which this magical place is often mentioned in ancient Greek literature is Thera. 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 year 2020 may not be the best time to travel with the pandemic. ![]()
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