Kos

Although very close to Rhodes, topographically Kos is quite different. It has one large mountain at its centre and another on a peninsula at the southwestern end of the island, but apart from that it is quite flat. This is due to the fact that it was inundated in volcanic ash from the eruption of a volcano on the nearby island of Nissiros. It also means that the soil is quite fertile, and compared with Rhodes it is very green.

Another consequence of the flatness of the island is that many people ride bicycles. This was encouraged by the Italian authorities during their tenure of the island, and apparently in some of the villages one can still find old people riding Italian made bicycles of pre-war vintage (they are quite valuable as collector items now). Also the present day authorities have constructed dedicated bicycle lanes especially in Kos town and in the tourist areas. Not surprisingly this has attracted a lot of Dutch tourists. So thanks to a volcanic explosion in prehistoric times we have cafes in Kos selling broodjes and lumpia (which the Dutch adopted during their stay in Indonesia). The world is linked in strange and unexpected ways! But in this area of the Eastern Mediterranean so many people have come and gone that it is perhaps not so surprising.

The Koans (as the inhabitants of Kos are known) seem to be a bit more laid back than the Rhodians (or Rhodiots?). There seems to be quite a high frequency of blue eyes among them, In one small village, Zia, every other Greek seemed to be blue-eyed. Constantinos, the guide on our conference excursion explained this by saying that among the ancient Greeks there were many tribes, or sub-groups of different genetic makeup. The Minoans are believed to have had blue eyes – although the evidence for this is based upon just one or two frescoes. And it seems that Minoan painting was quite stylized – for example men were always depicted as having a coppery coloured skin, while women had white skin. This seemed to be the only difference between them – no breasts or genitalia, similar size and hair etc. Nonetheless the Minoan theory is a plausible hypothesis. After all the Minoans had a maritime empire and it seems quite believable that they settled on Kos, although as far as I know there is no archeological evidence to support this. That a trait such as blue eyes should be more common in villages could easily be explained from the fact that the villages form a small relatively isolated breeding population. But of course there are many other alternative explanations. Many other blue-eyed peoples, passed through here. The Crusaders comprised diverse Europeans including Normans, Franks and Germans. It is quite possible that Vikings came here too – it is known that they were in Constantinople which is not too far from here.

On the subject of genetic traits, apparently all ancient Greek statues of humans have the “Greek toe” i.e. the first toe is longer than the big toe. This apparently is not the case for Roman statuary. Also classical Greek statuary (550BC to 400 BC) is much more ‘idealistic’ than later Hellenistic period or Roman statuary in the sense that in always portrays ideal human forms (or perhaps even better than ideal in that a curve may be exaggerated here, or muscles emphasized there. Later sculptors were more willing to show forms as they appeared to them.

Much of the town of Kos is, like Rome, a great big archeological site. In the centre of the town there are open areas with ancient ruins. The largest is probably the Ancient Agora or marketplace. There is also the Odeum, or theatre, restored by the Italians, and the Western Archeological Site which is a large open area with ruins. Also interesting is the Casa Romana, a large Roman-era villa which has been restored. It has been done quite well. It is obvious what is original and what is restored, but it gives a very good feeling for what such a villa would have been like. There are some frescoes and fragments of frescoes as well as a number of mosaic floors which are original.. However many mosaic floors from Kos have been removed and are now present in the Archeological Museum in Rhodes.

The other great site from antiquity in Kos is the Asklepion. An asklepion is a place for healing (named after Asklepios, son of Appollo who was brought up by Centaurs, and was the Greek god of health). The Asklepion of Kos is famous for its connection to Hippocrates, who in many ways can be thought of as the father of scientific medicine. Hippocrates, who had studied with Pythagoras on the island of Samos, started to move medicine away from witch doctor practice to a science based on observation. Many modern medical terms originated at this time (around 400 BC) e.g. dia-gnosis (through knowledge). Because of its association with Hippocrates, the Asklepion of Kos became famous throughout the Greek world. It eventually became a universally recognized site, which was considered off limits in military campaigns. It occupies a very attractive site overlooking Kos town, the sea and the Anatolian coast. There are pine and cypress trees all around and avenues of bay trees and myrtle (both used by Hippocrates). He also used ASA (aspirin) from white willow and wine diluted with sea water. The site is on three levels. It was partly restored by the Italian army, but apparently they were instructed to concentrate on the Roman bits, and not to do too much which might show off the Greeks in a good light. So apart from a few pillars in a temple on the middle level it is probably pretty much as it looked when an earthquake destroyed it in around 500BC.

We went on an excursion with the conference which ended up with a boat trip from Kefalos at the southwestern end of the island. We sailed on the boat of Captain Ioannis, who single-handedly managed to raise the energy levels of everyone on the trip with his generous servings of raki and his enthusiastic shouts of “Opa” (like ‘ole’ or ‘arriba’) and “Ela” (like ‘forza’). He sailed us around the end of the island to a deserted beach, where he had a primitive setup with a barbecue and some sun shades, and a flat area for dancing. As the sun went down, and the sea and islands turned into a pastel painting we ate grilled souflaki, octopus and sausage along with a Choriatiki (village) salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and feta. The tomatoes, which Ioannis said were from his own garden were the best I have tasted in Greece. The octopus was great too.

Captain Ioannis was something of a Zorba like character. He had sailed the world in the merchant marine as a young man. He had lived for eight years in Spain. He enjoyed life and seemed to want to share his gusto with everyone. He started dancing and soon dragged a Japanese woman up to dance with him. She looked completely stunned so I joined on the line at her side, and soon there were ten or fifteen people dancing round on this small paved area. It was a simple dance – left kick, right kick, three steps to right then left kick, right kick etc. over again. The catch was though that the music got faster and faster and soon everyone was dashing to keep it going. I felt quite fagged at the end. There were lots of other dances, and cries of “opa”. Perhaps the most interesting was one that Ioannis and our guide Constantinos did first together, and then solo. It was full of passion to a slow deliberate tempo. When I asked what the words were about Constantinos explained that it wasn’t about the usual broken heart or the longing for a far away woman or home. This song was a very special one he said and the words were something like a poem exploring how the singer or dancer related to the universe and how his life fitted in with the great scheme of things. I think it is perhaps a bit like Portuguese fado. The music has the same kind of tormented nature and certainly in the dancing one gets the feeling that the dancer is dancing out his pain. The only thing lacking were glasses to smash on the ground to encourage the dancer or at least to let him know that we were with him on his journey of exorcism. We tried the plastic glasses, but they just didn’t have the same effect!
On this same excursion we stopped at a small winery. All of the equipment seemed very new, but they had been in production for at least 10 years for some of their vintages were that old. We did the usual tour of the fermentation vats and saw the oak barrels that they used for ageing. Apparently they can only use them 4 times, so they have quite a rapid turnover. Also after each use they are cleaned with brandy and ash. Apparently in France, the barrels are turned over for brandy after their use for maturing wine, but that is not done here. The oak was of Spanish origin. The wine was quite good. I especially liked a tempranillo, which had a very rich bouquet and complex flavours, and a rose, of which we bought a bottle and will be consuming quite shortly when the sun is over the yard arm.

The battery on my computer is running low and so is my energy. So for now adieu from Kos. Tomorrow we sail for Bodrum, Turkey.