As you know I didn't really go to Dol Amroth but, except, perhaps, Balar, I could think of no Tolkienism for Kefalonia and Homer's Ithaca. And we know almost nothing about Balar than that it is no more. And as for "Homer's Ithaca," whether in fact Odysseus lived there is debatable. I choose to believe that he did but it's impossible to say where. I went to the Ionian Islands last week armed with my Novum Testamentum Graecae, my copy of the Odyssey (an OWC translation), and Brideshead Revisited, which I hadn't read for many years, for the hotel. I didn't care to bring any Byron but I did notice some tourists taking photos of his statue in Lassi, or was it in Kioni? I forget.
Kefalonia is surprisingly unspoiled but I understand that with the Nicholas Cage film "Captain Corelli's Mandolin," its fate might eventually go the way of Ibiza and the other popular tourist destinations for young (and old) layabouts that just confirm my sincere belief that the working class should not be allowed overseas (more on that some other day). Ithaca is a paradise. There is no airport, no schools, no hospital and a population of something like 500. Going up about five hundred feet into the mountains there I saw (and smelt!) rosemary, thyme and lavender in abundance, olive groves, cypress and fennel; the unclouded sky and the sapphire sea. From the belfry at Kathara monastery, the residence of one elderly monk, I reckon I could see forty miles on a clear day. It was more than my desire. I stayed two nights in Ithaca with Homer and went to Vespers in Stavros, at which I prayed before the beautiful reliquary of St Joachim the Ithakan. I broke my fast on the last day on the shores of the sea in Kioni and indulged myself on the most delicious pistachio ice cream in Stavros. Early on Sunday morning I went down to the quayside in Argostoli and saw loggerhead sea turtles feeding (and fighting!) by the fishing boats. I went thence to the (slightly abridged) liturgy in St Gerasimos. I can't think why but an elderly lady shook my hand afterward. I had a brief chat with one of the archpriests and I found out that he used to serve in Moscow Road, albeit before I was born. Small world, eh!
It surprised me that just down the road from St Gerasimos is a Latin rite Roman Catholic church dedicated to St Nicholas. What did not surprise me was that it is the ugliest church on the island. I spoke about this odd little chapel, in halting modern Greek, to a young waitress in the town square and she said that in her view Roman Catholic worship is a bit of a "cop out" (that's verbatim) because it's so brief and that the people who worship at St Nicholas' aren't really Greek anyway. Cynics might point out elements of phyletism there but it seems a fair assessment to me.
I spent most of Sunday dosing on the terrace at the hotel. I figured, perhaps rightly, that nothing would be open in the town, and I have misgivings about the propriety of certain undertakings on the LORD's Day so I ate peaches and read Brideshead when I returned to the hotel after breakfast. In the evening I went swimming in the sea. I found a quiet taverna at the top of a hill at which I would eat supper and drink ice tea.
There is so much else to say but I don't wish to bore you. There were significant problems in getting home. It took about 27 hours, notwithstanding the time difference, and I ended up in Rome, of all places, specifically at the Hotel Divino Amore, a place for impoverished pilgrims. I had a lovely view of the motorway from my room with the bed, soft as the slab, upon which I got cramp in the small hours. The place wasn't the best way to end a miserable day. The reception area had an huge portrait of pope Francis and there were other tawdry tokens of popery littered about the place. I felt hemmed in. The contrast with Orthodox Greece, just a few hundred miles away, was astounding. Needless to say, I saw nothing of Rome herself and would not have spoiled the pleasure with haste, even if I did have any clean clothes and money left to spend. The best thing about my time in Rome were the men and boys at the airport.
Why did I go (to the islands, not Rome!)? I expect you're thinking. Well, I've been so terribly listless and idle for so long. Since my sacking, yea more since I gave up work altogether, I have been wasting time and money. I have become a wastrel and good for nothing. I have put on weight, so much that even shirts I bought two years ago no longer fit. I feel gross, stupid and unattractive and I don't like feeling that way anymore. So I have decided to do something about it. My money is now gone. I have exhausted my overdraft and the bank won't let me extend it because I have no income but I am not worried about that right now, just about my physical health and appearance, and my religion. If I learned anything in Greece from observing and partaking in Orthodox worship there, it's that it is for me. As an Englishman I resent ethnic chapels in London; naturally. But there is something profoundly natural, innate, essential about Orthodox worship in situ. I don't mean that Orthodox worship should be just Russian or Greek but it does go against the grain in converted Anglican churches, half in English (with competing translations), half in Slavonic or Koine Greek, with all the other problems that go with multiculturalism. I think we should all become Orthodox, to be honest.
On a tangential subject, Greece has been in the news recently over its money troubles. I experienced little of that on the islands. Most of the banks I saw were open. Nevertheless, do keep the Greeks in your prayers.
Art: Wikipedia. I saw the Byzantine double-headed eagle in many places. It represents two of the things I most believe in, namely Church and State.
I'm glad you are home and refreshed, Patrick (the Roman diversion notwithstanding). More tales of the islands, please. Have never been and starting to think it's time I did.
ReplyDeleteI have sometimes wondered why you don't join a skete on Mt Athos. I am sure you would find happiness.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to see that you've embraced the Orthodox Church and have ceased being a "freelance Christian." Would that you lived in the U.S., where Orthodox parishes in many places are comprised mainly of converts with no ethic ties.
ReplyDeleteI could only speculate where you had gone, from a visit to your grandmother to something like what you did.
ReplyDeleteYour Greek seems better than mine. I started learning it at Fribourg, and I can still pronounce a text written in the Greek characters. Words come up again and again, and are recognised. Brideshead - a great favourite of mine, both the book and the TV series from 1981 with Jeremy Irons. Dr Ray Winch once told me that church life on the Greek islands is like English Catholicism in the 15th century. It just seems a pity that Greece will have to sell many of these islands to the Developers to make enclaves for multi-millionaires of them and make everything too expensive for anyone else. The EU wants its 50 billion!
A university friend of mine (a German) went to live in Greece to become Orthodox and live it the way it is meant to be lived in its native context. I am glad to see you travelling and getting another view on life. I will certainly keep the Greeks in my prayers. I think they are in big trouble and there will be political instability and a popular uprising, just like the 1920's in Germany. Our Orwellian EU will probably give way to a resurgence of the old nationalisms - if the banks haven't sucked them dry. The worst threat to Greece is being sold off to billionaires as a playground for the rich.
Welcome back to blogging!
I remember being enchanted way back in 1979 when I saw a Greek pontifical liturgy one Sunday morning in Crete. I had no knowledge of matters liturgical back then (and not much more now) and really had no intellectual understanding of what I was observing. However, what did strike me was how it was obviously something special and 'other'.
ReplyDeleteThanks all for your comments and encouragement. It's good to be back!
ReplyDeletealienus dilectus, at this stage I think I can only become Orthodox in Greece, specifically in Vathy upon Ithaca. There is a small island in the bay there upon which a chapel was built and thither a bishop goes to bless the waters using the Old Greek rite on Theophany even. I'd like to see that, and explore more of the island. Unfortunately there were no festivals on during my stay there. On the Dormition of the Theotokos, at a church in Markopoulo (which I did not visit) dedicated thereto, apparently a species of European cat snakes congregate and are used in the liturgy. I'd like to see that. It's said in old lore on the island that they work miracles.
Fr Anthony, I'd spent the last six weeks brushing up on my modern Greek. With New Testament Greek I get by, remembering my studies at Heythrop, but with my edition of the Greek New Testament I have the text of the Vulgate in parallel columns. I read the voyage of St Paul in Kathara, looking out towards the sea.
The tragedy of the Greek crisis is as you've said. It can only mean the debauching of those beautiful islands. As I said, I experienced no violence at all, banks appeared to be open as usual. The only hint at "austerity" that I saw was in a taverna in Lixouri which didn't appear to have much in stock, but again that could have been for another reason.
Rubricarius, the liturgies that I experienced were all on a small scale. For example, in Argostoli there were two priests, two cantors, an old boy in civies behind the Iconostasis preparing incense, &c and two taperers. But it was sincere, the chant was exquisite; its sincerity and beauty transcended the limited means. And, of course, the Byzantine eagle greeted me as I entered, Church and State in unison. Let us pray that the Emperor returns!
I did not realise that it was a pontifical service until years later but like the services you witnessed what was striking was the sincerity and beauty and the sense of specialness about it. Having only ever seen 'middle of the road' adapted BCP and non-conformist worship at the time you will appreciate how very different I found it.
ReplyDeleteAs for an Emperor I have long been of the view that our beloved Sovereign Lady HM The Queen should be invited to become Empress of Europe.
"As for an Emperor I have long been of the view that our beloved Sovereign Lady HM The Queen should be invited to become Empress of Europe."
DeleteNow, there's an idea! Empress of India too.
Empress of India, please no. The Empire is now colonising the mother country, and had the Georgians and Victorians seen how it has ended up, they might have said b*gger all to the idea of subjugating vast swathes of Asia and Africa.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdx6U0r917M
ReplyDeleteElgar's Crown of India Suite, an inspiration!
My dear fellow, have you ever considered travel writing as a career? This piece is most wonderfully evocative. I think you have a real talent for it.
ReplyDeleteI hope your journey to Orthodoxy is smooth. Palamas is so much more satisfying than Aquinas. But the ethnic particularity you dislike is one of the things I like about Orthodoxy. It is incarnational.
Charley Larkyns,
DeleteThank you for your comment, so full of goodwill. No, I'm afraid I had not considered travel writing. To be honest I don't travel that much by the standards of to-day. My old friend Nina, for example, would go abroad most weekends (to the Netherlands, Berlin, &c). I haven't been to Ireland for four years! But I am inclined to go back to Kefalonia and Ithaca. Next time in the Winter, when there are no flights thither and the airport is closed. Then I can see the islands as they are for the Greeks and not for so many English tourists. If I would raise any complaint about my time in the Islands this year it would be 1) there are too many English (albeit not nearly as many as would visit some places in Spain or Italy) and 2) I was affronted somewhat at being spoken to in English by everyone.
I think there is room for travel writing if the travelling is done by means that involve effort and originality. I am considering a long sail of several days - nothing compared with the circumnavigations in rubber dinghies some have done, but if it has a personal theme, there could be something. Think of Joshua Slocum's famous book with the gritty humour and the details of his stopovers. There is also an Australian who sailed from England, over the Channel and all the way to the Black Sea in a tiny 11-foot Mirror dinghy! Perhaps you could go for a long hike or cycle ride. Keep a log, and that will give you all you need for the book.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written, Patrick. Did you take any photos?
ReplyDeleteThank you. I did take a few photographs but on an old camera I borrowed from my parents. I used to have a fine digital camera but I haven't seen it for years. As such I am not sure how to upload photos to a computer as there doesn't seem to be a "wire thing" that connects to a computer.
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