14 Cartoons About Corfu Kerkira That'll Brighten Your Day
If you were focusing back in school when you first read Homer, you have actually already 'checked out' Corfu, in the company of the crafty Odysseus. Near the end of his storm-tossed wanderings, and harried up until the last immediate by the wrathful sea-god click here Poseidon, Odysseus cleaned up on the shores of Scheria, land of the seafaring Phaiakians - they of the terrific rudderless ships - and was rescued by the daughter of King Alkinoos, the high and lovely Nausikaa, who was playing ball with her housemaids on a splendid beach.
Nausika's matchless beach was, we opinion, that of contemporary Paleokastritsa, still a kind of paradise in the world with azure waters, intimate coves, dramatic and verdant promontories - and still populated by gorgeous youths. Homer explains all of it lingeringly in Books V and VI of the Odyssey, and it is not tough to believe that it was on Corfu that Odysseus finally found a happy break from his long experience.
The image of the rudderless ship of the Phaiakian seamen is still quite in evidence on Corfu - on buildings and monuments, and used as a logo design for whatever from Corfiot travel companies to cruising clubs. Like all large, fertile islands, Corfu was primarily settled and pillaged by great powers with huge fleets. It wasn't so at the very start.
On Foot and by Sea They Came The very earliest visitors, Stone-Age hunter-gatherers, walked throughout from Epirus throughout the last terrific Ice Age, which began some 70,000 years back, but by 10,000 years ago the ice had melted, the Mediterranean had increased, and later visitors would have to come by boat. And come they did.
The ancient Egyptians were amongst the earliest visitors, and papyrelles, boats made of papyrus (bulrushes) of the type utilized by Nile Delta mariners, have been discovered on Corfu's west coast. In about 750BC, the Eretrians - from Euboea, north of Athens - colonised Corfu en path to Italy, beating the first documented occupants of the island, the Liburnians.
The Eretrians were followed by the Corinthians in 734BC, and it was they who first left substantial proof of their layover: city walls around their ancient town of Corcyra, located near the present day Mon Repos; kilns for shooting their distinctive ceramics; and grand structures, such asa the Temple of Artemis. Not much remains of Corinth's fantastic monuments - there have been too many other movers and shakers, plunderers and builders, who hauled off the ancient stones for use in their own bastions and estates. Skirmishes between the two fantastic marine powers continued, with the last fantastic conflagration, waged near the islets of Sybota in 433BC, triggering the terrific Peloponnesian War (431-404sC).