The Best of GRReporter
flag_bg flag_gr flag_gb

Amorgos: Diving to the endless azure of enlightenment

17 February 2010 / 13:02:18  GRReporter
8177 reads

Agios Pavlos beach with its sand beach, which continues as an underwater reef to the island Nikuriya (owned as most lands here by the Greek Church), reminds more of a Caribbean lagoon than of Aegean bay. The profound sea surrounding of the island has been attracting divers from all around the world for years. Not by accident the French director Luc Besson has chosen St. Anna Bay, which is located below the monastery Chozoviotissa, to shoot his 1985 film "The Big Blue" with Jean Reno. In the film the Sicilian diver Enzo Molinari said to his friend: "God is at the bottom of the sea and I dive to find him.” 

The eight times “Cesar” award nominated film by the French director illustrates the crystal turquoise waters with emerald glow and its natural beauty and archeological excavations once again begin to attract tourists - from pilgrims of antiquity to swept away ecotourism enthusiasts, who explore the ancient and new paths crossing the island. Among the wide range of tourists there are also quite naturally Frenchmen as well. 

The motivation of the tourists, who decided to take the ship from Piraeus (perhaps fortunately Amorgos does not have an airport and the trip to there ranges from 5 to 9 hours depending on the speed of the ship) is different: worshipers of ancient antiquity, fans of religious tourism keen on ecotourism, researchers of the rich aromatic herbs and grasses along the old nature and new paved trails crossing the island. Although lately there is a tourist boom, the profile of the tourists meets the appearance of the island and helps its conservation. 

All religions seek the light, the enlightenment. Buddha means "enlightened" and one of the peaks in the Eleusinian mysteries is the flashing light for those who have understood the dedication. When the wheat class - a symbol of the fertility goddess Demeter, was shown Jesus told his disciples: "I am the light and the path”. Greeks live with this light without analyzing it, without reflecting on it, but for many it is the source of that transparency and clarity in philosophical thought, which is crystallized in the Ionian coasts and the archaic art in the Aegean archipelago. Greeks replace the barbaric intoxication and despotism worship with the divine light and the arts of Apollo, constantly finding with marine passion new and new territories of the spirit, which they try to colonize by expanding and overcoming the light of thought. 

Zdravka Michailova was awarded the prize of the Union of Greek Writers in 2005 for best translation of a Greek author of the Balkan language book "Andreas Embirikos: surrealist, psychoanalyst and photographer”. She has translated thirty books from Greek to Bulgarian and several from Bulgarian to Greek: prose, poetry, essays, theater plays, stories.

 

Tags: Amorgos Cyclades Islands Greece Le grand bleu Luc Besson Buddha enlightenment
SUPPORT US!
GRReporter’s content is brought to you for free 7 days a week by a team of highly professional journalists, translators, photographers, operators, software developers, designers. If you like and follow our work, consider whether you could support us financially with an amount at your choice.
Subscription
You can support us only once as well.
blog comments powered by Disqus