Try saying Katakekaumene after a few Veras me old china! (Catta-keck-a-mean) a very burnt area without trees but plenty of vines and the Cattakeckamenitic wine is said to be as sumptuous as any. The area is ashy and black but the wine is good. Not far from Mysian Philadelphia, which is constantly getting mashed up but loyal residents like the challenge of living in a precarious volcanic city. Most folks live in the farms in the surrounding area instead. They say the earthquakes are instigated by the god Typhon who has fifty heads supposedly. Bit of a vengeful bloke.
They say that during the festivals at the sanctuary of Artemis near lake Koloe at Gygaia even the baskets dance. Old Strabo the geographer said it was a load of bollocks. They say Koloe could be an artificial lake which was dug in order to syphon off water as the area regularly experiences flooding. Situated next to the lake is the mound of Alyattes and Herodotus said it was built entirely by prostitutes and all the women of the town were prostitutes and the mound is dedicated to prostitution.
Kallisthenes reckons Sardis was taken by the Kimmerians. Good leather workers in Hyde but Hyde doesn't appear to exist anywhere but it's curious how the word leather is synonymous with the word hide. Some think Hyde was actually Sardis. Pindar was sceptical of this story. Sardis is the royal city of the Lydians. Mt Tmolos lies above the city. The Persians built an exedra made of white stone on the top of its peak. Gold dust was carried down the Paktolos stream making the city affluent and luxurious. Old Kroisos became very rich on it. He must have been up in that exedra plenty of times looking over his splendid city of gold. The roman Emperor Tiberius has rebuilt much of Sardis which has been hit by Typhon of the fifty heads many times
over the years and there's even pub called the Rumbling Ground. Zonas was from Sardis who tried to get the people to revolt against King Mithridates VI.
Pergamon had a succession of kings going back to that old sibling killer, Lysimachus. Philatairos of Tios the eunuch ran the fortress for years while Seleukos invaded and Ptolemy overthrew Seleukos. Philatairos held out throughout the troubles. He had two brothers Eumenes and Attalos. Eumenes became king and beat off Antiochos I at Sardis. Attalos I succeeded to the throne and conquered the Galatians and was mates with Rome and beat Philip of Macedon with the help of the Rhodian navy. Eumenes II became king and was also mates with Rome in the war against Antiochus III the Great and Perseus of Macedonia. He really made Pergamon a splendid city and installed a sanctuary to Nikephorion. After 49 yrs Attalos III became king but he was a kid so Eumenes brother Attalos II was his guardian. He beat Demetrios and with the Romans he fought the Macedonians and Kainians. Then a guardian called Philometer was in charge. The Romans later called it Asia.
At Hieraklion there are hot springs and the Plutonion. It is said the water solidifies and turns to stone. Could be calcification. Streams make their own fences of stone. Calcification? The hole is deep and a man could fit down it. A strange cloud forms when it fires up but it's harmless when calm. A bull was thrown in and died instantly. Strabo threw in some sparrows who immediately croaked. The Galloi people use it for some sort of religious ceremony and climb down and hold their breath but sometimes look as though they're choking in ecstacy. They are eunuchs so it's probably not a sexual high. More of an elation. They say the water solidifies but it is still potable. That's fine then. Hierapolis is full of natural baths. Mesogis river.
Antiocheia is on the Maiandros river near Phrygia and is famous for a certain dried fig which is called the three leaf fig. Again so full of earthquakes you don't know where to put your foot. My beer disappeared down a crack. Diotrephes the sophist lives here but never seen him.
Kabalis is just down the road.
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