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Home , Actium, Epirus, Epirus (ancient state), Epirus (Roman province), Zalongo

Travel

Epirus:

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his year , a land of mountainous in north-western , cel- Tebrates its liberation from Ottoman rule and incorporation into the Hellenic Republic. Besides the attractions of its rugged natural legends beauty, Epirus is a land steeped in ancient myths, where the modern traveller can follow in the footsteps James Beresford follows in the footsteps of of Classical heroes. Emptying into the just Classical heroes across a largely forgotten region a few miles south-east of the pretty of Greece where some of the great events of seaside town of , the , or ‘River of Woe’, was regarded ancient myth and history were played out by ancient and medieval writers as 2 one of the principal waterways of the Underworld. Virgil described upstream in the wake of Charon 1. View of the Epirot Although recent research has cast Charon the ferryman transporting and the innumerable coast from the some doubt on the sacredness of the the souls of the dead to the Halls pilgrims who also made this journey crumbling battlements site, votive clay figurines featuring of Parga castle, with of Hades across the Acheron, while in order to commune with the dead Persephone, the reluctant bride of the clear waters of Dante wrote of the river forming the at the Nekromanteion, or ‘ of the Ionian Sea below. Hades, dating from the 7th to 5th boundary of Hell. Today the trans- Death’ (6). Picture courtesy of centuries BC, discovered nearby, lucent water and reed-lined banks Set back a little over a mile from Jennifer Slot. strongly support the belief that this of the Acheron rarely appear woe- the river, an 18th-century monas- was indeed the ancient portal to ful or threatening to modern travel- tery now all but covers the site of 2. Local fishing boat the Underworld. lers who can catch one of the small the Nekromanteion, but the polyg- on the River Acheron. Today the focal-point of the sanc- fishing-boats from the coastal vil- onal stone blocks ringing the com- Today we can follow tuary is found in the crypt of the in the wake of the lage of Ammoudia, before chugging plex date to the 4th century BC. monastery’s church where the eerie wandering king Odysseus, sailing up lighting and frequently chilly atmo- the river to the temple sphere of the subterranean vaulted of the Necromanteion. room still fuel the imagination (2). It is down here on the far wall of 3. Roman , the chamber that the long vertical showing Odysseus fissure is found; an opening that still and the Sirens, 3rd threatens to open into a cruel maw century AD. Tunis- that could devour the souls of the Bardo National Museum. Photograph: living and send them plummeting James Beresford. down into Hades. The Nekromanteion’s most famous ancient visitor was the wan- dering hero Odysseus (3) who, on the advice of the sorceress Circe, came to the threshold of Hades to 3 seek the counsel of the dead seer,

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5. Tiresias appears assumed when the horse of her hus- to Ulysses during band, Philip II of , tri- the sacrificing’ umphed at the Olympic Games of (1780-1785), Johann 356 BC; the same year in which Heinrich Füssli (1741- their son, , was 1825). Watercolour also born. and tempera on Given his mythical family con- cardboard, 91.4 × 62.8cm. Albertina nection to , it was of little Museum, Vienna, surprise that Alexander should so Austria. readily identify with the greatest of Homeric warriors. Sleeping with 6. The subterranean a copy of ’s Iliad under his chamber of the pillow, Alexander visited at Nekromanteion the very beginning of his Persian in Epirus showing Teiresias (5). While there Odysseus survives in Proclus’ Chrestomathy), campaign, bearing away with him the crack in the also encountered the wraiths of Odysseus sailed to Epirus and wall leading to the sacred arms and armour of many of the greatest warriors of married Kallidike, queen of the the Underworld. Achilles. While at Troy, he also the Heroic Age – such as mighty Thesprotians, with whom he Photogrpah courtesy ‘offered sacrifice to Priam upon Heracles and the recently murdered had a son, Polypoites. It seems of TijsB. the altar of to appease the King Agamemnon. It was, however, that Odysseus spent many years wrath of the Trojan king against the soul of Achilles who provided in Epirus and it was only when the progeny of , from the bleakest impression of the after- Kallidike was killed during a war whom Alexander himself was life: ‘Subtle and overbold Odysseus, with a neighbouring tribe that descended’ (Arrian, Anabasis of what venture will ever tempt your the old hero returned to , Alexander, 1.11). mind more reckless than this? What allowing Polypoites to assume the The rumours that Alexander daring has led you down to the Thesprotian throne. house of Hades, the dwelling-place But Odysseus was not the only 6 of the dead who have no under- Homeric hero to put down roots standing, of the wraiths of mortals in Epirus. After the end of the who have perished?… Odysseus, do , Neoptolemus, son of not gloss over death. I would rather Achilles, came to the region, bring- be above ground still and labouring ing with him the captive princess, for some poor landless man, than Andromache. It was their son, be lord over all the lifeless dead’ , who gave his name to (Odyssey, 11.405-532). But long one of the most powerful of Epirot after his visit to the Nekromanteion, tribes, the ruling dynasty of which the fate of Odysseus continued to would ever after claim descent from be intimately bound up with that of these mythological ancestors. By Epirus. Following the blood-soaked the mid-fourth century BC, one of conclusion of the Odyssey, the king the most prominent members of of Ithaca soon returned to his wan- this Molossian royal household was dering, womanising ways; in the lost Polyxena, more famously remem- tale Telegony (a summary of which bered as , the name she 7 was the son of Zeus, rather than 7. The theatre of new capital in 295 BC. Visitors to which once burned the holy flame of Philip, may also derive from Kassope. Over the the site can still see the remains of of Hestia, goddess of the hearth, Epirus and the nearby? sacred site centuries boulders buildings, such as the temple of whose fires ensured the contin- have broken away of where it was claimed , the theatre, and parts of the ued survival and well-being of the from the rocky Zeus communicated with mortals. outcrop towering circuit walls all of which date to this city. Nearby are the well-preserved It was possibly here that Olympias above, tumbling early . remains of a large building usually first began her strange relationship through the lichen The most evocative ancient city in interpreted as the katagogeion, the – be it as acolyte or lover – with the covered limestone Epirus is, however, that of Kassope, hostel that provided accommoda- Father of the Gods. While the sacred benches before dramatically situated on in the tion for dignitaries and their reti- tree in which Zeus was said coming to rest in the Zalongo Mountains and reached by nues visiting Kassope (10). On the to reside has long since vanished, area of the orchestra. a narrow road that twists and turns western edge of the city, a large the- Photograph: courtesy the impressive Hellenistic ruins of up the pine-covered slopes. First atre with seating for 2,000 specta- of Razvan Orendovici. Dodona provide clear testament to excavated in the 1950s, with later tors (7) has been carved into the the wealth and esteem of the sanctu- 8. The Late Roman/ archaeological research carried out mountainside. Over the centuries, ary’s oracle and priesthood. Byzantine walls of between 1977 and 1983, the fine the southern and western edges of The greatest of the Epirot kings Nikopolis. Photograph: state of preservation and regularity the city have eroded and tumbled was also born from the royal line of courtesy of Thomas of the street pattern makes Kassope over the steep cliffs that gave the Achilles. Second cousin to Alexander Quine. one of the finest surviving examples city a naturally fortified position. the Great, Pyrrhus (319/18–272 of an ancient city laid out using the But even these precipitous crags 9. , BC) would prove himself one of the theoretical principles formulated by could not save Kassope in 167 BC Lorenzo Castro, 1672. most astute generals and statesmen Oil on canvas. National Hippodamus of , the 5th- when the Roman army of Lucius of the early Hellenistic period. From Maritime Museum, century philosopher who is con- Aemilius Paullus arrived, sacked 280 BC until his death eight years Greenwich. sidered to be the founder of urban the city and enslaved at least later, Pyrrhus inflicted a string of planning (10). 100,000 Epirots. defeats on the armies of the Roman 10. Katagogeion of Located in the south-east section Kassope offers wonderful Republic, victories that were, how- Kassope with 17 of the city, not far from the entrance views across to where the Gulf of ever, hard won and costly in the ground-floor rooms to the archaeological site, is the Ambrakia meets the Ionian Sea facing on to a central lives of his own soldiers, leading , or market-place, the beat- and it was on this stretch of water peristyle court. to the famous phrase, ‘Pyrrhic vic- Photograph: courtesy ing heart of commercial and civic that perhaps the most important tory’. Yet Pyrrhus was not just a of Razvan Orendovici. life in Kassope. Next to it are the battle in history took place on 2 warlord, his building activities can remains of the bouleuterion, where September, 31 BC. One of the larg- still be seen at Ambrakia (mod- the city council met, and pryta- est naval engagements ever fought, ern ) that he established as his neion (administrative centre) within the battle of Actium pitted three

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18 Minerva July/August 2013 for the unwieldy behemoths ranged against them. After only a couple of hours of fighting, ordered her 60 ships to raise sail and make for Egypt and Antony, seeing her quit the battle, fled after her, leav- ing the majority of his armada to be destroyed (9). At Actium the curtain closed on the Hellenistic period: within a year of the battle both Antony and Cleopatra had committed sui- cide, bringing an end to three cen- turies of Ptolemaic rule in Egypt and gifting control over the wealthy grain-producing lands of the Nile of the most famous figures of the to . The way was also clear ancient world against each other: for Octavian to dominate the entire Octavian, nephew and adopted son Mediterranean; less than four years of , versus the ill-fated after his victory he would proclaim lovers, Cleopatra and . himself ‘’ and ‘Imperator’, While Octavian’s fleet contained bringing an end to five centuries at least 400 warships and about of the and initi- 40,000 soldiers, Antony and his ating an era of empire that would 11 Egyptian queen were able to mus- last another 500 years in Western 11. One of the many site can still see sections of its mon- ter only about 230 ships and 22,000 and span 1500 in the narrow paved streets umental architecture: the theatre, soldiers, but many of the ships of Byzantine East. and alleyways that , sections of an aque- criss-cross the site of their combined force were huge, Actium also had vast repercus- duct that originally stretched 30 Kassope. Photograph: described as ‘rising high out of sions for Epirus. Following the courtesy of Razvan miles, and the circuit walls of the the water with towers and plat- battle, Octavian ordered the estab- Orendovici. city (10). With the establishment of forms that resembled floating for- lishment of a new settlement, Nikopolis, Kassope and Arta were tresses and cities, the sea groaned Nikopolis, ‘Victory City’ (modern abandoned and their inhabitants under their weight and the wind ), overlooking where the forcibly resettled in Octavian’s new laboured to move them along’ fighting had taken place. The four- city. Just to the north of Nikopolis (Florus, Epitome of Roman History, yearly festival of the , which a monument was built to commem- 21.11.5). included athletic competitions, orate the victory at Actium, con- It was, however, partly a result of musical contests and horse races structed on the spot where Octavian the size and cumbersome nature of was revived there by Octavian. had pitched his tent before the bat- their massive war-galleys that led to Nikopolis also grew into an intel- tle and dedicated to Neptune and the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra. lectual centre – the great Stoic phi- Mars. Originally decorated with The smaller, more manoeuvrable losopher established a the rams removed from Antony and ships of Octavian, led by his capable school there near the end of the 1st Cleopatra’s captured warships, the general Agrippa, proved too agile century AD. Modern visitors to the bronze beaks that once adorned the monument have long vanished, but the sockets on to which they origi- 10 nally fitted are still visible. To most ancient , Epirus was a frontier region; the home of wild peoples that the civilising influ- ence of the Classical states to the south never really influenced. But now, as Epirus celebrates 100 years as a part of modern Greece, is the perfect time to explore a land that retains its mysterious archaic char- acter and an archaeological heritage that speaks of the rich mythology and history of this region. I

The pretty coastal town of Parga is the most convenient base for exploring Epirus. The Rosanea Hotel (www.rosanea.com) offers attractive, reasonably priced rooms and its knowledgeable staff can advise visitors wishing to explore the sites.

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