When the going gets tough,
the Greek Government leans on us for more taxes. The first picture is of a queue of
people outside the bank (just imagine what inside scenes were like!!) getting
ready, but not necessarily being ready, to pay their property tax. How much we had to pay was only recently announced
and Friday was the deadline, otherwise you were fined.
You are allowed to pay in
installments but I paid my share in one go: if you are going to suffer a wound,
then let it happen once!
Taxes go up, our pensions have undergone further cuts. Could we possibly reach
the stage when our tax demands are greater than our income is? This is not a
droll or hypothetical question, since taxes are estimated not on our actual
salary or pension as stated in our tax declaration, but on the income the state
decides we must have to afford the property and possessions we have. L
In the next picture, this nasty, slimy
writhing mass is a miniscule amount of the black millipedes or diplopods which have invaded our
perimeter area, some of them trying to gain access to our basement.
Apparently when their natural
habitat is overrun by a population proliferation or when conditions are too
damp, then some of this burgeoning mass must migrate- and we got lucky and were
on their path. H has been dispensing insecticide spray,
chlorine, petrol to deal with those crawlers-in-their-thousands. When stamped
on they emit a vile smell - our animals gave them a wide berth though they
neither sting nor bite.
This picture provides evidence that their
migration wave is abating, fortunately.
It’s beginning to get quite cool
at night: today was a beautiful midday high of 17oC but will fall to 8oC at
night. So you take full advantage of the warmth of the sun, soaking up as much
as you possibly can. Below the fluffy Mr. Mao and his dad, Pushkin, toast
themselves on the balcony while Prunella, true to her nature, strikes a more
elegant pose on the kitchen window-sill. Now she looks a really cool and smooth operator!
And now for the rough but
only to the touch, for on the eye they are very pleasing– I complete the
information from my last post on the final four Enchanted Ones, those seen on the outer sides of the pillars.
First here we have Nike, a name not unknown to us today, so let’s see where that
famous sports-wear brand took its name from.
This winged goddess, daughter of the Titan, Pallas, and Styx, personified
the concept of victory and she was the charioteer of the gods. Here she is
shown descending from Mount Olympus to reward some victor with the cloth band
she is holding. Victors could also be rewarded with palm branches or laurel
wreaths.
Next
is Aura, daughter of a Titan and a
mortal, who personifies the refreshing, cool breeze of the morning. She is alo
associated with the souls of the dead who appear and reappear like a breeze.
Here we can see her light cloak billowing behind her to form an arch, a feature
that usually identifies images of her.
Below
we see a Dioskouros, that is, one of
the Dioskouri, Castor and Pollux, identified as the twin sons of Zeus.They were
well known for taking part in the expedition of the Argonauts and other
mythical campaigns. They became the constellation, Gemini, whose appearance is
beleieved to be a good omen by sailors.They reperesent boldness and brotherly
devotion and were patrons of
horsemanship, sailors and travellers.
The
final character we will deal with is that of Ganymede, here seen with the eagle. He was reputed to be from a
prominent family in Troy and so handsome
that Homer described him as ‘the handsomest of mortals.’ While he was tending the family flocks, Zeus
fell in love with him and, transforming himself into an eagle, caried Ganymede
off to Olympus where he became the cup-bearer of the gods. Here is a rather
sensuous depiction of his abduction to Mount Olympus.
And with that, our description of
the scenes sculpted on the pillars, Las
Incantadas, comes to an end.
As I said in my previous post, these probably
formed a part of an important public building in the late 2nd and
early 3rd centuries AD. This building survived until the 19th
century in the Roogos Jewish quarter of Thessaloniki.
In 1864, Emmanuel Miller, a
French paleographer, was given permission from the Ottoman authorities to take
possession of this monument. He broke it into transportable pieces which he
transported to Paris. The surviving pieces are still on display in the Louvre.
In 1957 a piece of a pillar with
part of the head and wing of Nike was found in Rogkot Street and can be seen in
the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.
A final fitting shot, from the 19th
century, is the only surviving one of the Enchanted Ones, signed by Georgios
Colomvos, an Athenian photographer. This is part of the private collection of
Pierre de Gigord, Paris.
This is a moving scene of the past grandeur and rich history
of our much-loved city, Thessaloniki .
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