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Sidelights and Myths

Arion on the Dolphin

This is a catch all for some of the longer stories about the islands...

A bowl of Samian Wine

The ancient wine of Samos

A Fragrant Mythology

Smelling doings and strong women on Lemnos

A Litany to Dittany

Viagra, Cretan Style

A Note on Byzantine Art

Vehicles of the spirit

Deciphering the Minoans

How Michael Ventris did it

Crete Mythology

The Birth of Zeus, and Europe’s Bullish Origins

Understanding Crete's mythology

What's it all about?

Admiral Miaoúlis

The Man who Captivated Nelson

Alexandros Papadiamántis

Master of Neo-Hellenic Prose

Angelos Sikelianos

and the Delphic Idea

Ariadne on Naxos

Why did Theseus do it?

Brotherly Love

The marriage of Hera and Zeus

Christophoros Kolombos

Was he really from Chios?

Daskalogiánnis

The first rebel against the Ottomans

Detroit, Greek island style

The story of the Enfield 8000

Dionysios Solomós

Poet of Freedom

El Greco

When Saints burst into flames

Erotokritos

Crete's national epic

Euripides

and his man cave on Salamina

Hayreddin Barbarossa

The Terror of the Aegean

Human Rights, Dorian-style

The law code of Gortyn

Kítron

The liqueur of Naxos

Mastic

The precious ‘tears’ of Chios

Melissus and Aristarchus

Before Copernicus

Minoan Art

Rise and decline of 'the world’s first naturalistic art'

Musical Myths of Lesvos

Orpheus's Head and Arion

Mysteries of the Great Gods

Still something of a mystery

Nikos Kazantzakis

The Father of Zorba

Odysseus

His strange birth and death

Pythagoras

The Sage of Sámos

Rhodes: Dark Tales from the Island of the Sun

Curious myths

Robert Guiscard

Genius and Extrovert

Santoríni in a glass

Vines woven like baskets

Santoríni’s volcano

Will it erupt again?

Sappho

The Tenth Muse

Skyriot Houses

And a curious passion for plates

Sponge diving

A brief history of an age-old trade

The Ant People

Origins of the Myrmidons

The Bull in the Calendar

Secrets of the border

The Cow and the Gadfly

How the Ionian Sea got its name

The First Belgian on the Beach

Andreas Vesalius on Zákynthos

The Siege of Heráklion: 1648–69

History's second longest siege

The Sinking of the HMHS Britannic

The equally unlucky sister ship of the Titanic

The story of the Venus de Milo

Unclear Disarmament

Theophilos Hadzimichail

Greece's great folk artist

Tourists versus Turtles

Loggerheads over loggerheads

When Medusa Rears her Ugly Head

How Sérifos was petrified

Where Achilles wore Drag, and Theseus Fell

Tales from Skyros

Where Ikaros Fell

On Ikaria they know the exact spot

Why the Oracles are Silent

It happened near Páxos

Text © Dana Facaros

Image by François Boucher