The Gods

We have been in Greece for nearly a week, but have been battling the gods, so have had  no time to blog yet. I don't want to wallow in the details, so instead, I will try to identify which gods we have offended.

Certainly Hermes, who influences both travel and luck, is at the top of the list.  We had travel problems that began even before we arrived at the airport as the flight that 7 of us were scheduled on took off 3.5 hours late which meant we would never make our connection.  We all had to be rebooked. That was just the start.  We had trouble with ferries and buses as well.  More than once I  nearly had to hold a set of boarding doors with my body.

Hermes by Praxiteles, at the Olympia Museum

We know about the statue of Zeus in Olympia from images on coins.

Here is Zeus, making off with Ganymede, who will become the cup-bearer of the gods.

Zeus, who looks after weather and also guests seems to be ambivalent.  We have had 3 days of rain, which is unheard of in Greece.  I was worried that it would make me seem like an unreliable professor as I'd scoffed at questions about umbrellas and rain jackets, but luckily at our orientation at Deree everyone talked about how unusual  this was, and the president himself showed off his rain  jacket that he said he had to dig out of the bottom of a closet, and then blamed the rain on global climate change.

Poseidon, who oversees the sea and earthquakes is warning us, but doesn't seem to be actually irritated yet -- we've had two small earthquakes.  One was the day we arrived on Kefalonia, but my friends say that because we were on the bus and it was very small, we didn't feel it.  The other was in the Peloponnese the day we arrived there, but again, we didn't feel it.

I am not sure if Demeter is allied against us or not.  We had two scheduled tours that left no time for lunch,  and my poor jet-lagged students were scrounging for sustenance on boats.  But that might have been Zeus or Hermes rather than Demeter (goddess of grain, harvest), as the food we have had has been fantastic.

So far, Athena is with us, and seems to be guiding us.  Although this has been the single most challenging traveling experience I've ever had, we have been able to solve all the problems, wrangle pilots, drivers and ticket-takers, and outwit the gods of lost luggage, and engage the sympathy of friends, guides and minor gods along the way.

Athena giving Herakles a helping hand, from the Temple of Zeus.

Hera, the goddess of moms, at the Olympia Museum

Hera, who influences women and mothers seems to be fine with us.  Ditto Apollo, god of music, poetry, and the sacred.  Thank goodness Hades is ignoring us, as is Dionysus, who has plagued us other years with drama and American teenagers' approaches to alcohol.  I am going to remain silent on Aphrodite and Eros.  I just don't want to  know.  Artemis is not someone whose influence we would see on the trip (fertility and childbirth), nor Ares (war).

But Greece is a crossroads and a very old country, so there is more than one set of gods to consider.  I usually keep a small icon of St. Christopher in my purse, but at the last minute I switched purses, and he's not been with me this year.  He wouldn't be offended -- and that is a key difference between the Greek gods and the Orthodox saints who came later, but often took over spheres of influence and places of worship.  Greek gods need to be placated, while Orthodox saints are at worst, indifferent, and usually seen as a source of assistance.  I haven't lit any candles in churches, which perhaps might help to do overpower the influence of the capricious pagans.

Saint Christopher

Saint Telemachus, in a church on Ithaca--perhaps an appropriate saint for travellers?