State of the me, and island history
Apr. 5th, 2007 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bktheirregularWork let out early; I knocked around the apartment, organizing, gathering dry cleaning, getting in touch with Stateside, that sort of thing.
Tomorrow at half-past three in the afternoon, I have a ticket for a cat-ferry to the island of Sifnos, which, while not one of the most famous of the Greek islands, has a history of its own. The island once boasted rich gold and silver mines, enough to justify the islanders building their own treasury at Delphi, to house their offerings to the Oracle there. (The treasury is still there today.) Legend has it that every year, the islanders would send a solid gold egg to Delphi, as their tribute to the Oracle; one year, the egg they sent was merely plated with gold, with lesser metals at its core. Supposedly, the Oracle cursed them, causing the mines to dry up.
(My pet theory is that they got cause and effect flipped, and the reason for the plated egg was that the mines were already largely tapped.)
Even after the gold and silver mines dried up (or were flooded out, the history's not clear how they went bust), there were veins of tin which kept the island fairly prosperous - and, by the way, helped make Sifnos a target for pirates.
Long story short, there's the framework for a lot of legends on that island. Last time I went, it wasn't overly touristy, not like Mykonos or Santorini or some of the more famous islands.
I'll yammer more about it later. While I'm there, I probably won't be able to do much posting or communication.
Tomorrow at half-past three in the afternoon, I have a ticket for a cat-ferry to the island of Sifnos, which, while not one of the most famous of the Greek islands, has a history of its own. The island once boasted rich gold and silver mines, enough to justify the islanders building their own treasury at Delphi, to house their offerings to the Oracle there. (The treasury is still there today.) Legend has it that every year, the islanders would send a solid gold egg to Delphi, as their tribute to the Oracle; one year, the egg they sent was merely plated with gold, with lesser metals at its core. Supposedly, the Oracle cursed them, causing the mines to dry up.
(My pet theory is that they got cause and effect flipped, and the reason for the plated egg was that the mines were already largely tapped.)
Even after the gold and silver mines dried up (or were flooded out, the history's not clear how they went bust), there were veins of tin which kept the island fairly prosperous - and, by the way, helped make Sifnos a target for pirates.
Long story short, there's the framework for a lot of legends on that island. Last time I went, it wasn't overly touristy, not like Mykonos or Santorini or some of the more famous islands.
I'll yammer more about it later. While I'm there, I probably won't be able to do much posting or communication.
