What a Day In Sardis...

Staying at the Lidya Sardes Hotel and Spa was a pleasure...

the Turkish people are friendly &  helpful in a way that you 

feel that they are enjoying serving you...

As promised by Vedat Ordu, the front desk manager, I was met at 10:00 by: 

Mustafa Uçar 

and 

Beyazit Tan...

Mustafa has written a book entitled "Sardes", for which he spent ten years researching...

(Thank you Mustafa...my books are the fortunate recipients of your knowledge)

I was told that Mustafa did not speak much English , so it seemed a good idea to have a 

translator along...that would be Beyazit...I know girls...simmer down now...

The funny thing was that mustafa understood everything I said, and I think having 

Beyazit along as a safety net, removed any reticence that Mustafa had about speaking, 

so it turned out to be three guys out to review and discover the history of Sardis...

Arriving at the gate 

to the ruins...

we encountered a sight 

that has been a part of this 

landscape since 

time immemorial...

The sheep were shorn by this time...and they were everywhere we looked...

you'll see them in the background of many of the pictures to follow...

and 'twas thus in the time of the Hittites who proceded Gyges, (Grandfather)
Alyattes, (Father) and Crœsus...

Mustafa explained that Crœsus' palace had been built almost 500 years before he occupied it, high at the top of Mount Hyde (pronounced 'heethay')

...that is the mountain in the background of the picture just to the left here...in the foreground we see  Roman ruins...the large blocks of stone in the front are from Crœsus' time and are sandstone...behind them the columns are made of marble  taken from Mount Tmolus...

That is Mount Tmolus behind the

smiling faces of Mustafa and Beyazit...

I think they're smiling because we had

made the decision not to climb 

Mount Tmolus today...:)

According to Mustafa, Crœsus' grandfather, Gydes, was the first to create a coin...Alyattes, Crœsus'

father, built upon them and Crœsus, who is most important in my books, was the king who really put them to use and is referred to by many as the father of the coin...

This is how the coins looked in Crœsus' time...

The Lion, the Eagle and the Bull

were all symbols of Lydia

And it is said that the sunburst 

around the lion's head is 

Crœsus' personal symbol...

The coins were fashioned out of electrum, a natural amalgam found on the shores 

of the nearby Pactolus river...

What looks like a small muddy stream today was once a navigable river... smaller boats were either rowed or pulled by animals along the shore...

The larger ships were moored about 6 kilometers downstream where the Pactolus meets the Hermos River, which flows into the Aegean Sea

My characters sailed from Samos, up the Aegean to Smyrna (Izmir today)

then up the Hermos (against the flow of the river) and moored at the junction of the Pactolus River...Here is a video that explains it better...

Once their ships were moored, they were taken by smaller boats up the Pactolus into Sardis...they were either rowed or towed by mules or oxen, walking on the shoreline, pulling the boats along by ropes tied to their yokes...

Having arrived...they would venture up mount Hyde to Crœsus' palace...



Here are some interesting pics as well as writer's theories as well as facts about Crœsus and his Lydia...

Crœsus is credited with creating 'Legal Tender'...the coins of his father and grandfathers reigns were made of electrum...a naturally occurring substance that consists of bout 50+% gold, 40+% silver and the rest copper...these were used for coins first by the Lydians...

Crœsus created a mint, where the electrum was melted in three processes that yielded pure gold, pire silver and pure copper...

He used these pure substances to create coins of varied denominations

Here are some examples of those coins below...

As mentioned previously, Lydia 's Symbols were the Lion, the Eagle and the Bull...you will recognize these in the examples here...

Artists in the 16th Century painted scenes from the legend of Crœsus...here are a few

Solon and Croesus 1624

Gerrit Van Honthorst

Claude Vignon - 1593-1670

Croesus and Solon

about 1610, Hendrick van 

Steenwyck the Younger

The Delphic Oracle, 1899, 


John William Godward




Here's a legend of Crœsus and the lady on our left...

Croesus and the Delphi Oracle

The Delphi Oracle was renowned both for the ambiguity and the occasional plain accuracy of its answers. Croeus, king of Lydia [560-520BC], wanted to test the most highly regarded Greek oracles. He sent messengers to each one of them with instructions to ask, after exactly 100 days had passed, the following question: “What is the king of Lydia doing today?” Five of the oracles were wrong. A sixth was close. The oracle at Delphi replied as follows:

Lo, in my sense there striketh the smell of a shell-covered tortoise,

Boiling now in a fire, with the flesh of a lamb in a cauldron.

Brass is the vessel below, and brass the cover above.

As it happened, Croesus was, at that very moment, cooking a lamb-and-tortoise stew in a brass pot. Convinced of the oracle’s accuracy, he questioned it about the weightier question on his mind, namely the Persian Wars. The answer was that a great army would be defeated. Taking this for a good omen, Croesus sent his army into battle against Cyrus the Great. Again the oracle hit the mark, but it was Croesus’ army that was defeated.

And so the legend continues that Cyrus' having destroyed Crœsus's kingdom did what victorious kings do to the vanquished...he placed him on a funeral pyre and lit it...

But, Crœsus prayed to Apollo and a thunder storm occurred and the rains extinguished the fire...

Cyrus interpreted  this as an omen and took Crœsus as his advisor...

It is said that Crœsus lived out his life in peace...

What a man! That's who I want Æsop representing...

And that is just what he does...(you'll enjoy this more when you read the book...:)

So now, having followed Quincy Jones mantra..."If You DOn't Go, You Don't Know',

I now have vivid memories of Sardis that will color my stories from henceforth...

Walking this land and seeing the mountains that my characters saw has a great influence

on what I see when I am writing...

For me, the stories I write come in on a consistent basis...and form the basis of the greater work...

it appears almost as a skeleton...complete from head to toe...then the flesh, muscles,

tendons and bones as well as the lungs, heart and breath come from what I experienced

by visiting places such as Sardis and breathing the air of his great land...

Thank you Sardis, Thank you Lidya Sardes Hotel and especially Mustafa and Beyazit

We are now Facebook friends and staying in touch!

And here is the Fable of the Week...

The Lioness 

        A CONTROVERSY prevailed among the beasts of the field as to which

of the animals deserved the most credit for producing the

greatest number of whelps at a birth.  They rushed clamorously

into the presence of the Lioness and demanded of her the

settlement of the dispute.  "And you," they said, "how many sons

have you at a birth?'  The Lioness laughed at them, and said:

"Why! I have only one; but he is a Lion." 

Thank you and a Happy New Year to all!

A grateful Thomas...:)

     

On to Sardis...

Tumi and I drove to Sardis from Kusadasi on Sunday December 5...(I drove:)

The drive was beautiful...first to Izmir, which is a LARGE city...

a population of about 3.5 million people...

We drove through on our way to Sardis, and it was impossible not to notice

how dense the brick and mortar...

Still, it is surrounded by

beautiful mountains...







The drive was interesting in regard to the difference between

the city and the country...in and around the smaller villages we encountered on the way,

it seemed that agriculture reigns...

In those rural areas, I saw something new...to me anyway...

I saw speeding cars, trudging tractors, lollagaging sheep herders and pedestrians

all sharing the two lane highways...sometimes the car's speeds exceeded 140kmph or

around 80+ MPH...while of the above was happening...

It was some sort of beautiful ballet...no stress...just flowing movement...

Soon...(an hour or so...) we arrived at our hotel in Salihli, which is adjacent to Sardis...

The hotel was impressive...

and reasonable rates

Perhaps it is because it is off season...

Checking in, I explained the mission at

hand...to see ancient Sardis...did they have a guide

Who might help me to focus on 600 BC? Vedat Ordu, the desk manager suddenly showed

a smile of great pleasure...he turned and reached for a small book and brought it forth...

The title: "Sardes" (One of the many spellings of Sardis)...as I glanced through it, although

it was written in Turkish, I could see that it covered most, if not all of the areas I have studied 

about this place for many years...the author, Mustafa Ucar, would be our guide the next day...

When we went up to the room...this is what I saw outside the window...

The mountain on the right is Hyde (pronounced 'heethay')

at the top of which Crœsus' palace resided...










I couldn't wait...I left Tumi to rest in the room and headed 

for the destination I have had pictured in my mind for so long...

Sardis...Sardes...Sart...

I guess if begins with SAR...whatever...

Then I saw it up close...

Oh my...in the foreground 

are Roman ruins...(latecomers...)

Then...180º across was the 'Little Tmolus', where Æsop was to have jumped to his death...well, that's what Crœsus thought...

To see these mountains in person was overwhelming...my heart hadn't beat so fast 

since Mynet Marks 'doubles' skated with me at the Culver City Rollerdrome...

This is where it happened...

my arm around her waist..

my hands trembling...

We looked good though...oops

this isn't us...what did I do 

with that Picture?

No...that's not it....that's the book I was reading...

(under the covers with a flashlight)

How did my dream get in this blog?

Where DID I put that picture?

Oh here it is!

Where was I? 

Oh yeah! Crœsus...Sardis...Well, as I said...just seeing where Crœsus lived and reigned...

I decided to go back to the hotel and wait for the morrow when I would have a proper guide...

When I arrived back in the room...there was Tumi looking out at Mount Hyde (Heethay)...

I guess the sights sort of got to her too...

Tomorrow...Mustafa fills my senses with the information I have sought...

Meanwhile,

I am happy to declare that ÆSOP approved the adding of one of his fables to this blog:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Fable of the Week

A STAG overpowered by heat came to a spring to drink.  

Seeing his own shadow reflected in the water, 

he greatly admired the size and variety of his horns, 

but felt angry with himself for having such slender and weak feet.  

While he was thus contemplating himself, 

a Lion appeared at the pool and crouched to spring upon him. 

The Stag immediately took to flight, and exerting his utmost speed, 

as long as the plain was smooth and open kept himself easily at a safe distance from the Lion.  

But entering a wood he became entangled by his horns, 

and the Lion quickly came up to him and caught him.  

When too late, he thus reproached himself:  

"Woe is me! How I have deceived myself! 

These feet which would have saved me I despised, 

and I gloried in these antlers which have proved my destruction."  

TUMI and THOMAS Take A Trip

Finding more Treasures here in Samos

My new friend Colin Penfold had become a great traveling buddy...

This past Saturday, Colin and I headed out to travel to the 'End of the Road' here in Samos...

It is the village of Drakei...and more about that in a minute...

I must say, one of the reasons I enjoy adventures with Colin is the fact that we both are

interested in all that is around us...case in point, We began our journey on the

'Sacred Way' that leads to the Ireon, or, in English, The Heraion...

I blogged about that memorable place on November 15th...and BTW

since then, I found an artists rendering of the Ireon in its full glory...

So here it is for you as

a reminder...then...

and 2600 years later...

Hey...nothing last forever...it brings to mind the first

song I did with Quincy Jones...

"Everything Must Change"

But I digress...we took a right at the Y and headed through the village of Hora on our way to Drakei

When we passed an olive processing plant in the village of Koumaridei...

when I mentioned that I'd always wanted to see how olive oil was made, 

Colin hit the brakes on the Suzuki Jimmy and parked her...

And there it was...

.

Colin signaled with a sort of British sign language that we would like to come in 

and with a smile we were welcomed...and...

We saw people loading and unloading...

Olive grove owners unloading bags of olives, harvested from their trees and brought by their personal truck to the plant, into the waiting vat...

And after the olives were unloaded, they loaded these larger bags of leaves and 

debris culled from the pressing process to spread as fertilizer...

I have been told by many people here..."Nothing goes to waste with the Olive Trees...

every part of the tree is used..."

The olives are transported from the vat up the conveyor to the washer...

Then out of the washer into the first pressing phases...

And out it comes...like Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory, only olive oil...

And What Olive Oil...the gentleman running the press brought us fresh bread drenched

 in olive oil that was still warm from the press, sprinkled with a little salt...YUM

And if that wasn't gift enough...he brought out two cups of Suma

 (In Greek it is spelled soyma..the y following the o calls for the sound of 'u') 

and no matter how it is spelled...what a breakfast!

Then we were off to our original destination...what was that? 

Oh yeah...Drakei...

But on the way, only about 4 kilometers later in the village of Pirgos, 

we came upon a house with a boat being built in a workshop the front yard...

so we stopped for a moment...

Then we saw the kittens and the puppies...                                   

Ah...Greece...Ah...Samos...so many kittens...so many puppies...no fences...

and they get along like one big family...

One more look at the fishing boat being built...using the same methods 

that were used in 600 B.C. when my stories are taking place...

Having enjoyed the solitary boat bulder's residence/workshop, 

Colin offered to take me to Isadoris, where there is a major boat yard...

happily I accepted the invitation...

I didn't realize how high we had climbed until Colin pointed out the boatyard below...

"That's it wayy down there?" I asked..."uh, yes," I believe was Colin's reply...

so we began our descent to the boatyard below...it was an unpaved road...once again, 

"Jimmy Jeep" came to our rescue...

On the way to the boatyard, we encountered some interesting sights...like this mansion tucked in the hillsides, surrounded by the Samos Black Pines and, of course, olive trees...

(very similar to one of my main character's abodes)

The Black Pines of Samos are rich in resin and are highly prized for boatbuilding...

And that has also been a fact since

600 B.C...Love this island...

And lo and behold...

tucked into the mountain...beautiful caves...

more about those later...then we came upon...

                          BTW...

Who, among our geology buff friends,

can tell us about the strata of this rock?

Interesting, beautiful and mystifying...

especially to the untrained eye...

At last, we came upon the boatyard...the first thing we noticed were all of the band saws...

They begin with the raw timber of Black Pine, run it through these various band saws to cut the specific parts for constructing these sturdy fishing boats...

There were five boats

in the midst of construction...

I'll bet your asking yourself...

"What's up with all the

orange paint?"

It is the primer coat...






Although this facility may appear derelict...no such thing...it has the organization of an ant

hill...or my father's garage...they seem to know where every piece of wood resides and

its place in the construction...case in point...

This mother cat is in charge of inventory...

Her two young assistants

barking...ahem...meowing

orders to the boatbuilders

as to the location of

the cuts they sought...




You can see here how they begin with

raw timber...find the proper

 log and cut it to fit...

it is really a beautiful operation...

in comes a log...

out comes a boat...

literally like the period in my

books...I have a high regard for the

quality and the pace of work here in

Samos...I believe they live and work

in a way that we have lost...

Here is a smaller fishing vessel in the throws of

construction with Colin in the background getting one

of his masterful black and white shots...

 

And here is a bow piece

that has been cut and

set out to dry...

you can feel and smell the

resin in this Black Pine...

If you take a closer look, you will see

that it is cut with the

grain of the wood...

so there is no stress on the wood...

Cool!

So much to enjoy in this boat yard

Like the obligatory

weathered door and sashes...

not to mention the

scattered wood...

Three more

boats-in-waiting

among the

drying cuts...

This could be a shot from the 6th century B.C. (only if there were iPhones back then:)

It is with a tinge of

reluctance that we leave

the boat yard...

beckoned by our hunger.

It was like a slice of

history for me...

there it resides below...

at the tip of a crescent...


So its on to Drakei...and lunch!

Now, no offense intended;

while the village itself may not seem memorable, it is, for the following reasons:

1. it resides at the base of Mount Kerkis, the 4500 foot mountain at the west end of Samos...

2. We were hungry...

              Drakei

This is Greek Village Heaven...

We ordered a large Pork Chop

and Wine...interesting taste...

it was sort of a dark pink...

and went nicely with the pork...

Please excuse Colin's

finger in the picture...

he's used to more

sophisticated cameras

than an iPhone...

the toast still still stands...

here's to you!





We ate a full lunch and filled ourselves with dark pink wine...so what next?

Oh, I've got it!  let's climb up to Pythagoras' cave!

Brilliant idea...no doubt brought forth by the wine...

Off to the Cave!

But then on the way...yet another Samos Sight to behold...

OK, Where were we...Oh Yeah, that cave thing...

But look at this!

Yeah, yeah, let's get on with the cave trip...you stalling because you're full of pork chops and wine?

"Yup..."

So, do you see that little white line in the middle of the picture?

That's the damn cave...

Sorry, no pictures on the way up...too busy trying to breathe and

curse myself for taking on this adventure...

However...once we reached the cave...something I thought might never occur,

after all it took so long to climb, I thought the great sidereal movement

might keep it "just beyond my reach..."

But alas...we made it...scary as hell though...what was Pythagoras thinking?

He didn't triangulate this well at all...

Do you see that little red speck next to the triangular red and white roof below?

That's 'Jimmy Jeep' and I know she is laughing...!

So, how did they get food up to Pythagoras up here?

We did not pause on that question too long...we made our way back to the car and saw this...

Good idea... but its off season...no such luck...

So it was time to go home...it was a full, interesting and fulfilling day...

and best of all, it all relates to my stories...

my heart is full of gratitude...

And then on the way back...this sort of topped it all off...

Good evening Sweet Samos...thank you for revealing your secrets to me...

And thank you Colin and Jimmy Jeep...we're a team!

Thomas

Now for the Fable of the Week...

One day a countryman going to the nest of his Goose found there an egg all yellow and glittering.

When he took it up it was as heavy as lead and he was going to throw it away, because he thought 

a trick had been played upon him. But he took it home on second thoughts, and soon found to his 

delight that it was an egg of pure gold. Every morning the same thing occurred, and he soon 

became rich by selling his eggs. As he grew rich he grew greedy; and thinking to get at once all 

the gold the Goose could give, he killed it and opened it only to find nothing.