The World Greece Of Odysseus

Greece's best small museums

All museums are suffering from budget and staff cuts, so opening times may be curtailed without notice; many may also be affected by public-sector strikes.

The centrepiece is the colossal marble kouros (statue of a youth), wearing a serene, Buddha-like smile and a hairdo that is irresistibly reminiscent of Rasta-style locks. Seek out other gems: the defaced but sensuous wooden figurine of a nude woman, dating from the seventh century BC, and the marvellously intact 18-inch tall ivory image of a kneeling youth.

Best of all, the place is often deserted (Iroon Polytechniou, Vathy; 0030 2730 27469; http://odysseus.culture.gr/index_en.html ; €3/£2.65; under-18s and students free; over-65s €2/£1.75).

Vori Folklore Museum, Crete

Of all the islands, Crete is the place where tradition lingers longest. It’s only one generation since many of the household and farming implements on show here were in everyday use.

The museum brilliantly shows how life was for villagers within living memory: tough but not necessarily unhappy. Chaffing sleds, rakes and picks used to wrest a living from rocky soil, wooden looms, but also walls hung with graceful lyras and other musical instruments (Vori village; 28290 91392; http://odysseus.culture.gr/index_en.html ; €3/£2.65; under-18s and students free).

Museum of Modern Greek Art, Rhodes

A reminder that Greek art isn’t all marbles, icons and traditional embroidery, this little museum has just six rooms hung with prints and paintings by 19th- and 20th-century artists.

A Look At Yacht Charter In The Northern Ionian Sea ...

No look at the Ionian would be complete withouth mention of Homer and the Odyssey. The Odyssey tells the storey of Odysseus and his travels and adventures throughout the Mediterranean in around 800BC. The Trojan War concluded when the Greeks sucseeded into bringing a wooden horse into the city of Troy. Greek soldiers were hidden inside and opened the city gates to the Greek army who sacked the city. Odysseus and the other Greeks could know return to their kingdoms across the sea. To say Odysseus’s journey was eventful is rather understating the matter. For people who want to try car rental on holidays, you can turn to a dealer of rental cars for information on car hire .

On departing Troy in what is now north west Turkey he sails south through the Aegean Sea. On reaching the southern tip of Greece he is blown off course to the lotus eaters in what is thought to be Libya. The it’s on to Sicily where he runs into Cyclops. This one eyed giant eats two of the crew before they escape. More trouble in the Laestrygonians – Corsica or Sardinia. Here the fleet is attacked by giants hurling boulders and more of the crews are devoured. Theh survivors head east to Italy and the enchantress Circe.

She entertains the sailors and then with a wave of her wand, turns them into swine. Odysseus is protected by the herb that the god Hermes has given him. At some point in the journey reference is made to the pillars of Hercules. And this is supposed to be the Rock of Gibraltar and Jebel Musa in Morocco. These two mountains sit either side of the straights that are the enterance to the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. Now he must pass the Sirens whose sweet singing lures sailors to their deaths. Odysseus plugs fills the ears of his crew with wax and then lashes himself to the mast so he cannot steer the ship onto the waiting rocks. Passing through the straits between Sicily and mainland Italy they run into Charybdis, who swallows the sea in a whirlpool, then spits it up again. And Scylla who uses each of her six hands to reach down from her cliff and pluck a sailor from the deck and then promptly, yes you guessed, eats them.

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