Dionysus
It was time for another attempt at a long hike. This time, I fat biked to Chalki (Χαλκί), also known as Halki, and found the footpath to Moni. The distance is roughly 5 kilometers. Moni is about 500 meters above sea level, and it’s an easy path when you’re fit.
Hiking from Chalkio to Moni.
In Moni, the cats have their own little houses. The village is known for its textiles, and several women approached me, trying to sell me pieces of cloth. However, my small two-room apartment in Amsterdam has no space left for souvenirs, so I had to politely brush the ladies off.
There are a few taverns in Moni. I ordered a Freddo Espresso. The interior featured a mermaid painting and a small photograph of Karl Marx. Traveling off-season, I was the only tourist in Moni around noon.
On my way down I was followed by a Cyclops.
Back in Chalki, I returned to the same restaurant for lunch and chose the eggplant in tomato sauce, which looked amazing and would have tasted great.
“It was one of those times when the plague became invisible. This silence, this death of colours and movement, could belong to summer as much as to the pestilence”
Yria Sanctuary of Dionysus
In the morning I cycled to the sanctuary of Dionysus. It was striking how agricultural the land is. These are the fertile plains of Naxos. The road leading to the sanctuary isn’t asphalted; it’s just a dirt path lined with green potato fields. Autumn is the best season for Naxian potatoes.
The existence of a Temple of Dionysus was mentioned by Herodotus, but its location was forgotten over the centuries. In the 1960s, archaeologists studied a Byzantine church on the plains near the Chóra and conducted test drills in a field nearby, ultimately discovering the missing temple. However, it would take decades—until the late 1980s—before Greek and German archaeologists excavated the temple area. They found the bases of pillars and wall foundations from several temples built at the same location over two thousand years.
The current site features the partial reconstruction of some pillars and the foundation of the temple. It is believed that the place of worship dates back to the 14th century BC (Mycenean era), which is a long time ago.. From around 850 to 750 BC, during the Geometric period, four buildings were constructed, and in 580 BC (Archaic period) the last monumental temple was build.
An overlay of a drawing of the 580 BC temple can be seen against the current remains in the background. The roof, including the roof tiles, was made of marble, which was an innovation at that time. Due to political developments, Naxos lost its power by 477 BC, and the temples of Dionysus, Demeter, and the unfinished temple of Apollo were the only temples built on Naxos.
In the afternoon, I realized I hadn’t even taken a swim in the sea. I needed to head back to my villa on my fat bike to grab my swimming trunks and a towel. The importance of traveling with a towel cannot be overstated. Every interstellar hitchhiker knowns this. “You can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours”.
The crystal-clear blue water evokes a sense of eternity on a calm day. The tiny ripples seem suspended in time. Nothing is moving, not even my mind. I had lunch in an almost empty restaurant, where tables and chairs awaited better days. For me, the empty chairs inspired thoughts of my future plans. I envision having a small outdoor space I can call my own, dedicated to a little table and at least two chairs to host a future female friend. That’s all I want from life at this point: to share a meal with someone.
In the clear water, I was surrounded by at least a dozen young saddled seabream. They seemed eager to nibble on my legs and were not afraid of me; these little fish appeared to feel invincible.
Despite the goats reminding me of the goat stew I had seen on the menu, I was too tired to visit the Paradise Tavern in the evening. Instead, I bought sheep’s yogurt and kefir and spent some time reading Camus’ The Plague. I couldn't help but chuckle when I read about civil servant Joseph Grand polishing the first sentence of his book and failing miserably.
“Triumphantly, he read out the sentence: ‘On a fine May morning, a slender woman was riding a resplendent sorrel mare through the avenues full of flowers of the Bois de Boulogne.’ But when it was read aloud, the repetition of ‘of’ at the end of the sentence sounded ugly and Grand stumbled a little over it. He sat down, seeming crushed.”
Third and final chapter: Zeus, and Apollo I guess