For many people, it is the singular, static image of a pretty beach with a tavern on an island in the Aegean Sea.
For some, it is the cradle of Western civilization and somehow it is always blue.
Plato or Zorba, between the myth and corporeality, traveling can bring us closer together.
Please find in this section a brief reference to what of Greece have inspired us to start serving Greece as a destination.
Each ancient site in Greece has its own myth. For the most part, the language of mythology is the language of psychology; all myths have meaning and the power to transform lives.
A sacred place, after all, is a place that people set aside as a symbol of their own spiritual being. It is as much inside as it is out there.
What the ancient Greeks understood was that the divine presence had to be invoked. Their temples, poetry, pottery, drama, festivals were, taken together, an expression of their search for divine relationship.
The purpose of a pilgrimage to a site was to purify the body and the soul and to seek spiritual knowledge.
Dolunay’s explorations of Greece’s ancient temples are designed to emulate the journey of the pilgrim to a sacred site.
More than any other religion, the Greek expression of the divine is manifest in visual images. The perfection of form was often expressed in human guise. Mankind had to do its part to keep spirit alive through prayer, ritual and devotion. Through the power of Apollo, human nature needed to be moderated and the soul had to be aligned with The Spirit.
The Greeks remembered their gods in the landscape, in temples, in sculpture, in drama. The Greek artist did not sign his work, did not claim it as his own creation: The work came from a higher source and he was merely a willing instrument.
It is no wonder that a society with a strong principle of moral and social moderation would become a radiant center of spirituality in the Christian era. Monastic communities in Greece are very special many ways.
The character and appeal of Orthodox monasticism was primarily due to the writings and personal example of the "Cappadocian Fathers": St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Gregory of Nazianus, all of whom were all born in Cappadocia in what is now Turkey in the fourth century AD.
To best portray the ‘lure’ in subject here, please find next an excerpt from a letter dated 358 AD from Basil to Gregory of Nazianus displaying the penetrating power of their esoteric teachings:
"...We must try to keep the mind in tranquility. For just as the eye which constantly shifts its gaze, now turning to the right or to the left, now incessantly peering up and down, cannot see distinctly what lies before it, but the sight must be fixed firmly on the object in view if one would make his vision of it clear, so too man's mind when distracted by his countless worldly cares cannot focus itself distinctly on the truth...Every day brings with it some particular cloud to darken the soul, and night takes over the cares of the day deluding the mind with the same cares in fantasy.
There is but one escape from all that every day brings with it to darken the soul; separation from the world altogether. Now to this end solitude gives us the greatest help, since it calms our passions, and gives reason leisure... Therefore let the place of retirement
be such as ours, so separated from the intercourse of men that the continuity of our religious discipline may not be interrupted by any external distraction."From St. Basil: The Letters
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The Greek Isles..There aren't many places in the world where the forces of nature have come together with ancient treasures to create such dramatic results.
But in such a wide spread with so many to choose from, planning a trip to the Greek Isles can be bewildering. Well, leave it to us - we'll do the work for you.
Greece harbors the longest coastline in Europe and eleventh in the world – a fact provided primarily by the 1,300 islands.
But in terms of land area, it is not a big country. Actually, Greece is only about 1/8th of her sister-neighbor Turkey (including all the islands) and the total population is only about half of the city of Istanbul. However, 80% of its land is mountains and hills, alpine valleys, mountain peaks, gorges and canyons, paths through oak, beech and plane tree forests, rivers spanned by arched stone bridges, watermills, waterfalls, hot springs, national parks with rare flora and fauna, precious wetlands.
In Greece there are 419 Natura2000 sites, as well as 4 Geoparks that are part of the European Geoparks Network protected by the Ramsar Convention.
The lagoons of Messolongi, Gialova, Porto Lagos and Thrace, the Amvracian Gulf, the Strofilia forest, the deltas of the rivers Axios, Nestos, Evros, Acheloos and Arachthos, lakes Kerkini, Vistonis, Vegorotis, Mikri Prespa, Koroneia and Volvi offer a rich world of vegetation and are home to countless species of birds, amphibians, mammals and fish.
So much variety in a small country. A tapestry of landscapes with an amazing array of biodiversity and ecological value:
In national parks, waterfalls, rushing rivers, lakes, wetlands, mountain ranges, even volcanoes on Santorini, Nisyros and Milos.
