The Shape Of Water

Greece's relationship with water is fundamental to its being. The flag of the Hellenic Republic (modern Greece) is Aegean Blue. In the Ancient Greek Pantheon of Gods, Poseidon – God of the Sea – was one of the top three guys. His Brother Zeus controlled the sky and heavens – which aren't incidental to sailing and safe passage. 

In a land that isn't simply land – but an archipelago – both fresh and salt water are life. Greeks have spent thousands of years connecting mainland to island, islands to each other and even using water to more efficiently move where an overland journey would be slow, difficult or treacherous. 

This morning as I headed to the marina, several delivery trucks were pulled up to the town square unloading all kinds of goods including pallets of water to furniture to electronics. It always boggles my mind that just about everything on this island from furniture to vehicles to gasoline to groceries to everyone's underwear to the municipal water itself arrives by boat. And the garbage and recycling leave on the same ships from whence they came. Patmos without ferries, oil tankers and water boats would be in dire shape.

In his 2021 Nights of Plague, Orhan Pamuk wrote about the fictional Mediterranean island of Mingheria facing an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1901. To anyone who has traveled Greece and Turkey, Mingheria is obviously a composite of Aegean islands and in some ways a rough caricature of Cyprus given the island has a 50-50 Muslim and Christian, or Turkish and Greek population. Pamuk, genius novelist that he is, did his research and used numerous extremely authentic details such that Mingheria's neighborhoods and villages have many of the same names as places on Patmos like Hora and Flisvos. 

While in its prime the Ottoman Empire held almost all of modern Greece, by 1901 it was weakening and had only a portion of its Aegean possessions remaining – which included thee Dodecanese, of which Patmos is a part. 

Without totally spoiling the novel, the outbreak of plague causes Mingheria to be cut off from the outside world – no more ferries or boats of any kind. It was a situation sadly imaginable to me. Mix plague and what was effectively a siege together and well, things get a little weird, if not out of control.

We all know the end of World War I gave way to Greek independence and by the end of World War II, even the islands held by foreign powers (Italy and Britain couldn't quite help themselves to a few interwar possessions), Greece  - a country we all perceive as largely have existed intact for 3,000 or more years – was reborn after hundreds of years of being held by other countries and empires.

Sometimes I think Greece pulled off something between a sleight of hand maneuver and a tour de force. How many cultures survive 400 years under an empire and retain their distinct language, religion and identity? Factor in a couple of hundred years under the Byzantine Empire (which was much friendlier to the Greek identity) and prior to that 400 years under Roman rule – by the time Greece began to become a modern state in the early 1800's (a process that took almost 120 years to complete) it hadn't known anything resembling independence in almost 2,000 years – and even that independence wasn't politically unified, but instead a collection of city-states with a common language and cultural base. 

Yet most everyone I know thinks of Greece as a very old country that has somehow had a single, continuous existence. 

I believe the water itself gave Greeks some advantage. Unlike Britain, the Ottomans were never masters of the sea. Their island provinces were not only challenging to control, but aside from Cyprus, not popular among its muslim population. Greeks may not have been able to win the war, but they could effectively resist Ottoman direction. Luckily for Greeks (and I'm sure they did not see it this way at the time), the Ottoman Empire was fairly liberal for an empire of its day and cared more about receiving tribute than it did about cultural and religious uniformity. In other words, for most of its history, the Ottoman Empire didn't really need to govern in detail so long as taxes were paid. And Greeks lived to fight another day – and eventually govern themselves.

Back to the marina….. when I got there this morning, Michelle and I got on a day boat that takes tourists to nearby islands and amazing coves to swim. The kids and I call this experience Boat Day which is a favorite for Sennen and me. The best thing about boat day: jumping off the boat into tourmaline, sapphire, clear, white and other shades of water. It's a day of swimming in beautiful places with the extra perk of not needing a beach setup. It's just jump and go.

As the day boat took Michelle and me – and 40 or so of our newest BFF's – out to sea, it navigated between islands over to Marathi and Arki. When in this environment, it's so easy to understand the stories of Greek mythology. Everywhere are narrow passages, calm waters that turn to rough currents as you round a bend, little islands adjacent to big ones, and seas easily disturbed by a strong gust from Boreas, the North Wind. The neighboring island of Lipsi is where Odysseus was bewitched and held captive by Calypso for seven years. It's easy to imagine how we might have crashed navigating around the passage between islands, getting caught in the strong current and winds and becoming victim to the sharp rocks at the island's edge. It's just as easy to understand how one might relent to a comfortable life on beautiful Lipsi with a beautiful nymph. 

Our boat had a motor, radar, communications and other navigational tools, but at times, it still rocked or bobbed hard. How did Odysseus stand a chance?

Of course we deliberate chose and paid for the experience which ultimately brought us to Tiganakia beach – a cove of crystal clear, sparkling tourmaline water. It was been my favorite since 2010 and it may now be Michelle's favorite. Jumping off the boat into brilliant, clean tourmaline is an experience almost impossible to describe. We swam there for the better part of an hour.

I feel confident few, if any Ottomans ever did that.

As Michelle marveled at the beauty of Tiganakia and Boat Day in general, it struck me that a "country" with thousands of years of civilization has managed to keep so much of its territory clean and beautiful.  I imagine that in many ways, what Odysseus might have seen and what we saw today aren't that terribly different. In today's world, it seems amazing there are still things can't or people won't allow to be taken away. For that, Greeks have a lot to be proud of.