A nice play to stay: 
  

The picture below is taken from a hotel swimming pool on Santorini. You can smim in the pool, and the blue bay of the caldera is a couple of hundred feet below! 
  

'Atlantis City' is discovered under ground  

In late October 2000, The Times reported that the ruins of an ancient town whose fate could have been the basis for the legend of Atlantis were discovered on the southern shore of the Gulf of Corinth.  

Archaeologists believe that they have found Helike, which disappeared one night in 373 BC, under the onslaught of an earthquake and a subsequent tidal wave. Ironically, it was a centre for the worship of Poseidon, the god of earthquakes and the sea.  

Long after the disaster, classical writers reported the ruins of the city could be glimpsed beneath the waves. Then all traces disappeared and the speculation about the lost city of Atlantis began.   

Until now, this has focused on Santorini, Greece's only functioning volcano in the middle of the Aegean Sea. The island, called Thera by the ancients, is known to have been blown apart in about 1400 BC by a massive blast that obliterated a surprisingly advanced bronze age city.  

Greek and American archaelogists, after 12 years of searching, mainly offshore, this summer turned their attention onshore. They began to dig on a plain near the city of Aigion, 130 miles west of Athens.   

Using sophisticated magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar, they found evidence of urban habitation over about a square mile. They had to dig through a 19-ft layer of sediment caused by flooding.  

It's the first strong evidence of Helike consistent with the ancient descriptions.  

The discovery is not far from the view below, you can see the Gulf of Corinth in the distance. That's the Temple of Apollo (again!). 
 

DELOS 
__________________________________ 

Listen, the sigh of lonely evening 
Over black crags and frowning cliffs. 
Through the caverns of ghostly winds 
And the broken lions of Delos. 
And let you feel, if you can feel, 
How love's ecstasy is now lost 
Into the trackless sand of daily habit, 
In the footprints of vain words, 
And in the unnamed shore  
Of our emptiness. 

__________________________________ 

Here's another poem about Delos by Constantine Trypanis, late Professor of Byzantine and Medieval Greek at Oxford. Delos was of course the famous sacred island, in the middle of the Cyclades. No one was allowed to be born or die there, to keep the island pure for the gods, especially Apollo. 
 

It was the thin, warm rain of spring, 
When lemon-blossom glows in damp fragrance. 
But here, only a few wild flowers pierce the stones, 
And a myriad green-grey lizards flash 
At the sound of a foot-fall. 
No gardens, no vines, no olives, not even 
Your holy olive, Delos, island abandoned by all 
And by your gods. Rocks only, and twisted ruins, 
Tormented by the wind and the waves, your only fruit 
The bitter froth of the sea. 

__________________________________ 
 

Is there a connection between Easter, Jesus, and Santorini?  

On the face of it, it does look highly unlikely. However, there is a tenuous connection of sorts. 

When Jesus was making his fateful walk to Golgotha, he stumbled when carrying the Cross. A man nearby was ordered to carry the Cross for him, which he did. His name was Simon of Cyrene. (The event is known as the 5th Station of the Cross.) 

The question is, where or what was Cyrene? It was a famous north African colony, founded by a Greek king from Thera (one of the old names for Santorini). 

IN THE MIDDLE of the 7th century B.C. a Greek adventurer named Battus with a band of hardy followers crossed the Mediterranean in two fifty-oared boats, and set foot on what was then wild, unfamiliar country. They had set out from the Aegean island of Thera [Santorini] in the Cyclades; they landed at Trimi in the Gulf of Bomba. 

Years of fighting with the inhabitants followed, as they worked their way westwards through hostile country towards their first settlement. In was in fertile hilly country overlooking the blue Mediterranean, where a spring gushed out from the rock. 

They called their new city CYRENE, after Cyra, a nymph beloved of the sun god Apollo. It was founded in 641 BC. 

The poet Pindar tells of a prophecy given to Jason and the Argonauts, who sought the Golden Fleece, by Medea the ancient prophetess. 

"Hear me, ye sons of the valiant, men of divine stock, for I say that from this wave-lashed country of Thera, Epaphus' daughter, Libya, will give birth to a line of cities fostered of mortals, near the foundations of Zeus-Ammon. In place of short-finned dolphins, they shall take to themselves swift horses; and instead of oars shall they ply their reins and the wind-swift chariots." 

Their cities rose, five of them: after Cyrene came Barce, Apollonia, Teuchira (or Arsinoe), and Berenice (later Benghazi, another name was Hesperides, the Gardens of the Blessed).  

Wealth increased. The philosopher Plato was invited to draft a code of laws. He replied that no men are so difficult to govern as those to whom wealth and prosperity have brought the illusion that they are happy. 

Their farms had rich pasturage for sheep, goats and cattle. Goats' milk was drunk however, and cattle reared only for their skins and for killing. Barley was profuse, and made into cakes and porridge. Olives produced oil, and there was abundance of honey and figs. In addition to wolves and hyenas, there was edible game in plenty, which was hunted with hounds. The country produced unlimited slave labour and life was leisured, cultured and agreeable. 

Each city became the capital of a kingdom; and each kingdom grew into the semblance of a fairyland, where the necessities of life merged into its pleasures, where noble cities glittered with lights and music, and pleasant woods and sunlit valleys, flowering scented glades and rippling streams tumbled down towards the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean. 

Cyrene, in Greek and Roman times, was the home of many famous men. There was the philospher Aristippus, a pupil of Socrates, and Hegesias, a later follower of his school, who preached the philosophy of seeking pleasure, or hedonism. In the second century BC, a later philosopher of Cyrene, Carneades, founded a school known as the New Academy at Athens. There was the famous poet Calimachus, too, who in 200 BC became librarian of the great library at Alexandria, a descendant of the first king, Battus; and Eratosthenes, the geographer. 

"Bright with sunlight and dark cypress-groves, the city united Hellenic ideals to the vigour of Africa. Upon that height the silence, the clear air were conducive to thought, whilst in winter a touch of austerity fell with the breath of snow. Cyrene evolved her own philosophy, Hedonism, the faith in the positive value of happiness, combined with the Socratic belief in the Inward Light."  

The synoptic Gospels of the New Testament relate how "Simon of Cyrene carried the Cross of Christ to His Crucifixion" (Mark 15:21).  
 

Documents of the Founding of Cyrene, c. 630 BC 
 

Grinus (they say), the son of Aesanius, a descendant of Theras, and king of the island of Thera, went to Delphi to offer a hecatomb on behalf of his native city. On Grinus consulting the oracle about sundry matters, the Pythoness gave him for answer, "that he should found a city in Libya." When the embassy returned to Thera, small account was taken of the oracle, as the Therans were quite ignorant where Libya was. 
      
Seven years passed from the utterance of the oracle, and not a drop of rain fell in Thera: all the trees in the island, except one, were killed with the drought. After a while, everything began to go wrong. Ignorant of the cause of their sufferings, they again sent to Delphi to inquire for what reason they were afflicted. The Pythoness in reply reminded them reproachfully "that if they and Battus would make a settlement at Cyrene in Libya, things would go better with them." So, as there was no help for it, they sent messengers to Crete, to inquire whether any of the Cretans, or of the strangers living amongst them, had ever travelled as far as Libya: and these messengers fell in with a man named Corobius, a dealer in purple dye. In answer to their inquiries, he told them that contrary winds had once carried him to Libya, where he had gone ashore on a certain island which was named Platea. So they hired this man's services, and took him back with them to Thera. A few persons then sailed from Thera to reconnoiter. Guided by Corobius to the island of Platea, they left him there with provisions for a certain number of months, and returned home with all speed to give their countrymen an account of the island.  
      
The Therans who had left Corobius at Platea, when they reached Thera, told their countrymen that they had colonized an island on the coast of Libya. They of Thera, upon this, resolved that men should be sent to join the colony from each of their seven districts, and that the brothers in every family should draw lots to determine who were to go. Upon this the Therans sent out Battus with two penteconters, and with these he proceeded to Libya; but within a little time, not knowing what else to do, the men returned and arrived back off Thera. The Therans, when they saw the vessels approaching, received them with showers of missiles, would not allow them to come near the shore, and ordered the men to sail back from whence they came. Thus compelled, they settled on Platea. 
      
In this place they continued two years, but at the end of that time, as their ill luck still followed them, they went in a body to Delphi, where they made complaint at the shrine to the effect that they prospered as poorly as before. Hereon the Pythoness made them the following answer: "Know you better than I, fair Libya abounding in fleeces? Better the stranger than he who has trod it? Oh! Clever Therans!" Battus and his friends, when they heard this, sailed back to Platea: it was plain the god would not hold them acquitted of the colony till they were absolutely in Libya. So they made a settlement on the mainland directly opposite Platea, fixing themselves at a place called Aziris. 
      
Here they remained six years, at the end of which time the Libyans induced them to move, promising that they would lead them to a better situation. So the Greeks left Aziris and were conducted by the Libyans towards the west, their journey being so arranged, by the calculation of their guides, that they passed in the night the most beautiful district of that whole country, which is the region called Irasa. The Libyans brought them to a spring, which goes by the name of Apollo's Fountain, and told them, "Here, Hellenes, is the proper place for you to settle; for here the sky leaks."  
      
During the lifetime of Battus, the founder of the colony, who reigned forty years, and during that of his son Arcesilaus, who reigned sixteen, the Cyreneans continued at the same level, neither more nor fewer in number than they were at the first. But in the reign of the third king, Battus, surnamed the Happy, the advice of the Pythoness brought Greeks from every quarter into Libya, to join the settlement. Thus a great multitude were collected together to Cyrene, and the Libyans of the neighborhood found themselves stripped of large portions of their lands. 

Strabo, Geographia, c. 20 CE  

Cyrene was founded by the inhabitants of Thera, a Lacedaemonian island which was formerly called Calliste, as Callimachus says: Calliste once its name, but Thera in later times, the mother of my home, famed for its steeds. The harbor of Cyrene is situated opposite to Criu-Metopon, the western cape of Crete, distant 2000 stadia. The passage is made with a south-southwest wind. Cyrene is said to have been founded by Battus, whom Callimachus claims to have been his ancestor. The city flourished from the excellence of the soil, which is peculiarly adapted for breeding horses, and the growth of fine crops.  

Source: 

From: Herodotus, The History, George Rawlinson, trans., (New York: Dutton & Co., 1862), Book IV; Fred Morrow Fling, ed., A Source Book of Greek History, (Boston: D. C. Heath, 1907),  pp. 38-39. 

(This text is part of the Internet Ancient History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history.)   
     

Thanks to the 14 Swedish and Danish girls who e-mailed me with their names and their plans. This summer they are visiting Santorini on holiday. (But if I went too, what kind of "sightseeing" would I be doing?!) 

This picture of the volcano I found recently from an interesting site. It enables you to conjure up some idea of the explosion that ripped out the central part of the island.