Der mächtige Berg Taygetos bildet
den Dorn des SüdPeloponnese. Sein Gebirgsmassif fängt
in Arcadia
und seine eindrucksvollsten Gipfel sind im Mani, das eine natürliche
schützende Sperre bildet. Der Anruf Maniates es "der heilige
Berg" oder "der männliche Berg". Seine höchste
Spitze eingeweiht dem Gott der Sonne Helios. (Apollo). Der Grieche
nennt ihn das botanische Paradies von Morea, während 27 aus
den 80 eingeborenen Betrieben von Griechenland heraus auf dem Taygetos
gefunden werden können und 23 nur auf diesem Berg wachsen.
Das Mani ist pocketed mit den kleinen Dörfern,
die durch kaldereemia, alten cobbled oder gepflasterten Esel oder
die Maultierschienen, die, angeschlossen werden benutzt wurden,
bevor die Straßen errichtet wurden. Esel und die Maultiere,
die mit olivgrünen Niederlassungen treten beladen sind noch,
diese abgetragenen Bahnen und neue Signposts sind jetzt aufgerichtet
worden, damit Wanderer einen Schritt in die Zeit zurücknehmen
können, die in den Schritten von denen tritt, die entlang sie
in den Zeiten gingen, die vorbeigegangen wurden.
Der Charme dieser schönen aber austere Landschaft von Griechenland
ist seine fortwährende Vielzahl. Das Auge ist ständig
überrascht. Eine Schiene, die durch eine Waldung der spektralen
Olivenbäume führt, kann auf dem Rand einer Klippe plötzlich
auftauchen oder eine kleine Steinbrücke oben kreuzen
ein breathtaking Tropfen in ein tiefes gorge. Zypressen, die wie
Kerzen, Tannen, Myrten und Figbäume aussehen, wachsen auf den
Bergabhängen und im Früjahr dort sind Mohnblumen wie Tropfen
des Bluts und des Heidekrauts für die Bienen. Die Dorfbewohner
erfassen die Gebirgskräuter und kochen sie für Nahrung.
Sie suchen heraus die Bienenstöcke voll des wilden Honigs und
schätzen die Familienziege, die Milch für Fetakäse
produziert.
The
landscape of the Mani is not like any other and to discover
what is unique about this landscape will reveal a great deal
about the Maniates themselves. Their formation of strongly
knit family
clans feuding and fighting from their fortified tower houses.
Finally, uniting with ferocious courage behind their motto
“Freedom or Death”. Raising the flag at Kalamata
and leading the country towards their common cause, to be
rid of their Ottoman oppressors. The landscape can be divided
into three elements: water, land and light. Natural springs
are cherished - initially dedicated to the worship of the
pagan Gods. Villages grew up around them. For village
women the well or spring is the centre of life. Every crumb
of local gossip is shared there as they fill their water bottles.
At the end of Persephone’s dark months in Hades and as the dark
funeral and bumblebee orchids begin to emerge they congregate around
the village spring A cacophony of shrill voices washing and scrubbing
the winter rugs and blankets, a social gathering, a celebration
- from darkness into light. Heralding the dawn of the newly
awakening spring and their release from winter monogamy accompanied
by the rush of the cold clear spring hurtling down its mountainous
course. The men do their gossiping more comfortably
in the Kafeneion warmed by small cups of thick, black coffee, cigarette
stubs in nicotine stained fingers enveloped by the fug of
cigarette smoke.
Voices rising and falling – crescendo, allegro, pianissimo, problems,
solutions, history, the world – no subject unworthy of debate
in their microcosmic centre of the World.
The colours and shapes of the landscape
are haunting and beguiling. This is truly the land of roaming spirits,
lost but not forgotten ancient Gods. Their shapes, their hues, their
essence roam freely catching you unawares as you turn a corner and
the light falls on their forms. They’re in the twisted and gnarled
olive trees and the limestone rocks as they tumble and fall creating
new forms, new figures, new faces all changing with the light .
The dusty brick red of the soil is everywhere, the bare dirt, the
tiled roofs, and the dust on the hands of the farmers. The red earth
held in the embrace of the sea makes the landscape unique. To the
Greek peasant this red dry soil is the hard master from whom he
must coax enough food to sustain life
However, it is the light of Greece, the Mani, the Peloponnese, which
is its most enduring and dazzling feature. The blue, green, white,
grey
of the sea. The sky. Blood red sunsets in summer, soft pastels in
autumn, ice blue and grey in winter turning to yellow and orange
in spring and back to burning red in summer. The light strips things
naked, revealing them to the eye with total honesty. A fisherman
sitting on the sand mending his nets becomes, in the intoxicating
light, all fishermen, The Fisherman. The Hibiscus, the Bougainvillea
assault the eye as though it had never seen flowers before . The
quality of this light tolerates no half tones, no secrets. It sets
every object ablaze with significance. The ancient Greeks worshipped
nature and found it natural to discover metaphysical meaning in
the environment and to give objects physical form. Apollo the personification
of light and learning. The two were one.
"It lies bathed in a light such as the eye has never seen
in which it rejoices as though now first awakening to the gift of
sight.
This light is indescribably keen, yet soft
one can compare it to nothing except spirit "
Hugo Von Hofmannstal 1923
When I first came here an old Greek Shepherd asked me what I would
say about this place so that people would want to come here. After
three years of being here this is what I say to those who want to
walk, to paint, to take photographs, to write to feel at one with
nature. You will not discover the Mani on the beaches of Stoupa,
beautiful as they are. You need to go up into the mountains , to
tread the donkey paths, to paint in Kardamili, to attempt to capture
the landscape, the light, to feel the beauty and spirituality of
place. To engage and make contact with the spirits. "Hellas
– A portrait of Greece "– Nicholas Cage
