We went to the same Fish Taverna for lunch and had another feast, this time with cuttlefish in its own ink and strawberries drowned in cream.
Martin and Holly went off on rented bicycles, and Alice and Camilla and I walked. We found a temple to Dionysus, built around 300 BC, and made an offering of a mallow flower and a fig. The conversation, of course, turned to orgies and drunkeness. I said I was too old for such things (if I ever wanted them at all), but would like good sex and a sip of wine now and again. We wondered if, the more repressed a culture was, the more extreme its outlets become. Ancient Greece, in which the women were shut up at home all the time, had the Maenads. Modern Japan, in which all social interactions are ritualized, has the lolicon that we found so shocking when we visited. Finally, we realized that we would have to leave Dionysus in order to have a more seemly conversation, so we did.
Martin and Holly went off on rented bicycles, and Alice and Camilla and I walked. We found a temple to Dionysus, built around 300 BC, and made an offering of a mallow flower and a fig. The conversation, of course, turned to orgies and drunkeness. I said I was too old for such things (if I ever wanted them at all), but would like good sex and a sip of wine now and again. We wondered if, the more repressed a culture was, the more extreme its outlets become. Ancient Greece, in which the women were shut up at home all the time, had the Maenads. Modern Japan, in which all social interactions are ritualized, has the lolicon that we found so shocking when we visited. Finally, we realized that we would have to leave Dionysus in order to have a more seemly conversation, so we did.
One of the Greek Orthodox churches was open, so we went in and admired the many icons and wall paintings. Outside, olive trees, feral cats, and oranges, with the sweet sound of doves.
That morning, a gypsy woman and her daughter had come through begging, and in the afternoon, we found their temporary home, under one of the rubber trees that the Italians had planted after the devastating earthquake in 1933. The tree is at the base of a fortress built by the Hospitallers in the 1400's overlooking the harbor. We sat at an outdoor café sipping cloyingly horrible iced teas, chatting and looking at fishing boats.
Up the stairs from the harbor is a mosque dating from Ottoman Empire days, and the very tree that Hippocrates taught under. It was part of the Egyptian tradition mentioned by Imhotep, where, after a ritual, you sleep under the tree and report your dream to the physicians, who then know how you are to be healed.
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