Aptera

My wife, Tove, and myself recently returned from a three week holiday in our house on Crete. It was a wonderful break. I love Crete, the Cretans, cretan food and Cretan culture. When I am on Crete I feel as if I can really be myself, I am 'home' in a way.

On one of our last days there we visited the ancient town of Aptera. We had visited the location before, but more excavations have taken place since our last visit.

The town was founded at some point during the Minoan period (3650 to 1400 BCE) and its name is found on Linear B tablets dating from the 14th - 13th Centuries BCE. It was a powerful City State throughout this period, counterbalancing the power of Knossos, and remained influential throughout the Hellenistic Period (323 BCE - 31 BCE).

In Greek mythology, here was placed the scene of the legend of the contest between the Sirens and the Muses, when after the victory of the latter, the Sirens lost the feathers of their wings from their shoulders, and having thus become white, cast themselves into the sea, whence the name of the city Aptera (literally meaning "without wings").

During the Roman period, from mid-1st Century BCE, Aptera was a large and flourishing provincial city within the Roman Empire. It was a part of the Roman province of Creta et Cyrenaica.

Most of the remaining ruins are from the Roman period, particularly from mid 1st Century BCE to the 2nd Century CE.

This is a view of the recently restored theatre at Aptera, with Tove in the middle. The theatre dates from the Hellenistic period, but was greatly modified by the Romans at least twice, becoming much more spectacular than the original structure.

The last picture is from the audience towards what would have been the stage.

The above two pictures are of the Roman water storage cisterns. There are three like this and they are huge.

The above two pictures are views of the Roman baths. They are quite well preserved. The last time we visited the site one could go into the baths, but not anymore.

I thoroughly enjoyed our day at Aptera. I love anything Ancient, especially Roman. I people the ruins with human beings in my imagination. Human beings just like us, with hopes and dreams, fears and worries. Human beings who loved and hated, just like we do.

I also try to 'rebuild' the ruins in my minds eye. The walls would be plastered and brightly painted. All the statues would have been painted too.

Anyway, that is a brief record of our visit to Aptera. We had lunch in a marvellous taverna afterwards too.