Dion - The Sacred Sanctuary of Zeus.

H and I have just celebrated our birthdays – but who’s counting, right? Last night we went to a concert to celebrate the memory and musical legacy of lyricist, singer and writer, Manolis Rasoulis. He died in March 2011 but rather than be maudlin about his passing, it was clear that the large group of singers, composers and musicians involved- including his daughter and Agathonas Iakovidis, of Greek Eurovision song contest fame!- were hell-bent on making this an evening to remember. At 3am they struck up his famous ‘Pote Voudas, Pote Koudas’ and the place ignited. The night club may have had an audience that was in the older age-range than usual, but the energy and excitement were there. Everyone was up, gyrating to the beat, honouring at the same time, Nikos Papazoglou, a local singer/composer whom we lost in that same year and who was strongly identified with that song. Pictures of Manolis and Nikos being projected during the song made the experience all the more poignant. We left at 3.30 and things were still jumping. Since the hour had already changed, it was actually 5 am when we got home – not bad for two oldies!

You may remember we left me literally making a pig of myself at the Dimatis Guest House. What- wild boar? Me?! For most of our time in Aghios Dimitrios we had, what we call in the W. Highlands, smirr. This is atmospherically-suspended moisture, somewhere between a mist and a very fine rain. That is, fine in the sense of minute particles, not as in all is well and good.

 My brother and his wife, being in its proximity for the first time, were understandably keen to view Mount Olympus, but it kept eluding us among these vaporous shrouds. On the morning of our departure as we made our descent, the mighty mountain momentarily appeared for us in all its glory before retiring once more behind its mysterious cloud-cover. That was a really brief encounter but awesome in the fullest sense.

                       

 

 

The final leg of our journey was a visit to Dion, the sanctuary of Zeus, the greatest of the Olympian gods.

Incidentally, for keen linguists among you, the not-so-obvious connection is that Dion is the genitive form of Zeus.  There’s Greek for you!                                                                                                       

We decided to get there by smaller country roads, H fully confident that his sense of direction would steer us through. The road petered out at a local rubbish tip where a herd of goats were scavenging – I see no Dion!  :(

As we backtracked we spied a lone pedestrian and stopped to ask him the way. It was only as we were driving off that I noticed the orange word emblazoned on his deep-blue dungarees: ZEUS.                  

Had we, indeed, been given divine direction?  

In times of yore, the ancients tended to worship the earth goddess, Gaia being the archetypal one.  History has it that when the Olympian cult took over, Gaia was superseded by Demeter. But I guess male superiority prevailed for it was her brother, Zeus, who wielded real power!

 As times changed so did affiliations of a spiritual nature. Different cults paid respects to their respective gods. The female deity continued, too, in the forms of Aphrodite, then Artemis, whom the Ptolemies, with their Egyptian influence, transmuted into Isis. It does seem that politics and religion have always been intertwined. In the time of Philip II and his son, Alexander the Great, Dion served as a large military camp. Philip celebrated his many victories here while Alexander made sacrifices and generous offerings before setting off on his successful Persian campaign.

Teams from the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki began excavations here in 1928 and they have made amazing finds: marble statues, architectural features, furnishings, graves, pottery, jewellery, mosaics, even water supplies and sewage systems. These all testify to the importance of Dion, politically, culturally and spiritually. Sadly, it seems to have been abandoned by the 5^th century AD due to a succession of natural disasters- earthquakes and flooding. But its sense of greatness remains.

Since Zeus’ spirit was believed to reside in trees and water, his shrine was in a spectacular setting. Mists had eventually lifted and we strolled around the site in hot sunshine. Here are Jacqui and Ali standing by a wall whose designs of shields and armour honour the brave Macedonian warriors.

 

 

                                

                                              

The area that I particularly liked was the sanctuary to Isis. This statue is dedicated to Isis-Tyche, the goddess of good fortune. In this sacred precinct there was a long paved corridor, said to represent the River Nile!

  

 

        

As well as sanctuaries, there was a stadium, baths and accommodation. In 1987 an excavation team unearthed a large 2^nd century AD villa with a wonderful floor mosaic of Dionysius emerging from the sea in his chariot. In that same place were found the statues of the four philosophers. This is a favourite of mine – I like to think of them mulling over some ticklish existential issue to the backdrop of water tinkling and bird song.

 

                  

And nature was an equally riveting focus. Here we see a frog keeping cool in the stream, a lizard cunningly camouflaged in the soil and dried leaves. A little derivational detour: the Greek word for lizard is savra, so now you see the lexical base of the names of these Jurassic Period monsters. That big dude was a King Tyrrant …….Lizard??  

                         

 

 Best of all here – spot the fresh-water crab amid the profusion of leaf colour. That could be made into a really challenging jig-saw puzzle!

                                

 

 

 Then it was time to head for home. Jacqui made sure that Mr Mischief got some extra attention after he’d been ‘abandoned’ for several days.  And before our guests pack their bags, it’s time for a meet-up with Tassos, a long-term family friend, and his family. Here we are round the table – now why do so many of our gallery shots feature glasses and plates – and empty ones at that ?!

 It was great to have Jacqui and Ali out to spend some time with us- we had surprisingly good autumn weather. All together we enjoyed a holiday that was great – in fact, in places, even divine!

PS Jacqui, I'd like to thank you for the use of some of your lovely photos here 

and to Maria-Amanda Ziller : thank you for becoming a follower - welcome !!