From nauplion@charm.net Fri Sep 29 14:56:16 2000 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.05/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id OAA56476 for ; Fri, 29 Sep 2000 14:56:14 -0700 Received: from fellspt.charm.net (root@fellspt.charm.net [199.0.70.29]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id OAA02957 for ; Fri, 29 Sep 2000 14:56:14 -0700 Received: from charm.net (coretel-116-211.charm.net [209.143.116.211]) by fellspt.charm.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id RAA02417 for ; Fri, 29 Sep 2000 17:56:11 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <39D50F5A.EFFC70D9@charm.net> Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 17:53:33 -0400 From: Diana Wright X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en]C-DIAL (Win95; U) X-Accept-Language: en,el,tr MIME-Version: 1.0 To: classics@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Argive groves References: <200009291706.NAA07859@smtpsrv0.isis.unc.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Eric Dugdale wrote: > Does anyone have any leads on the location of the following groves in > the Argive landscape: > a) the grove of Io (Sophocles, Electra 5) I suspect Sophocles was not up on the geography of Argos, but the Inachos river, pathetic as it is, runs dues south from Argos to the gulf & serves as a deposit for tin cans, used condoms, film packs, etc. Judging from the depth of the track, it has on occasion carried considerable water. By the mouth, near the water, there is now a grove of eucalyptus trees, & sometimes considerable grass, but the eucalyptus arrived in the Argolid in the 1930s. The Erasinus had/has its outlet nearby, & at times of year the immediate area can be quite lush with deep grass, yellow iris, & rushing deep green water. This would be the best location for Io's grove. > b) the grove of Argos (Herodotus 6, 78) Now this one is -- or was -- absolutely perfect, the headwaters of the Erasinos. I think I have raged about it here before. When I encountered it 22 years ago, there was a great grove of enormous old plane trees & lots of other trees, at the mouth of massive caverns [stalagtites, etc.] from under which roared the great rushing spring of Erasinos, which does, as Herodotus says, come underground from somewhere far away -- I don't know if Stymphalia is correct. Pausanias writes about this place in connection with the rites of Demeter & Dionysos. There is a church [white, turquoise, gold] built into one of the caves, of Zoodochos Pe:ge: [Virgin of the Spring: Icon has the Virgin perched in a bird bath] which has a sister-church in Atlanta, GA. Site of pilgrimage since Neolithic times. There was a Justinianic basilica with gold mosaics, stained glass, frescos, & monastery before the Slavs came through & stomped it flat. In my day, there were 3 restaurants, 3 deformed musicians who played very old strange wonderful music. People danced. Greeks would come there for the day from Athens, as it was quite beautiful, & also had a healing spring--deep churning waters, & always a wonderful roar. The Greek government in its inexplicable wisdom built aqueducts & took the waters elsewhere, & when I went on pilgrimage 5 years ago, the sacred fountain was dry & the musicians were no more. But once upon a time, it was perfect. DW > > > Thanks, > Eric Dugdale .