Paros Island, the Cyclades.
Thomas Hope’s Anastasius, or Memoirs of a Greek, first published in 1819, is partly based on Nicholas Mavrogenis (see p. 34–35) of Paros and his world and times. The book caused a sensation when it was first published in London; Byron privately admitted that he wished he had been its author. A paperback edition was reissued in 2001, by Elibron Classics. Paros: History, Monuments etc. by Yannos Kourayos (Athens 2004) is an exemplary guide to the island’s antiquities—clear, authoritative and to the point. For the remarkable figure of the Marquis de Nointel and his Christmas mass in the Cave of Antiparos, see: Henri Omont, Relation de la visite du Marquis de Nointel à la grotte d’Antiparos (1673), Bulletin de géographie historique et descriptive, 1892 (4), pp. 4–33, and Albert Vandal, L’Odyssée d’un ambassadeur. Les voyages du Marquis deNointel (1670–1680), Paris, 1900. Theodore Bent, The Cyclades, or Life among the Insular Greeks (1885), reis sued 2002 by Archaeopress, Oxford in the ‘3rd Guides’ series, contains his descriptions of making the earliest excavations of prehistoric Cycladic remains on Antiparos.
South of Parikia
At the southern end of the promenade, the shore-side road rises towards a windmill and makes a detour round the small, cuboid chapel of Aghia Anna (key in house op posite Demarcheion, 50m to south), which is almost entirely constructed from ancient blocks of Parian marble. Originally a 17th century chapel, it was restored in 1900, and then re-pointed with a mortar made with marble dust after an accidental fire in 2003. Two hundred metres further west, just beyond where the shore road rejoins the peripheral road, a scarp rises to the left (south) where there are the vestigial remains of two places of cult—the Hellenistic sanctuary of Asklepios on the lower terrace just above the road, and the Archaic sanctuary of Apollo Pithios (his father) on the level above. Of the latter little remains, except some of the retaining terrace and parts of foundations. A small memorial chapel, built as a pastiche of a Hellenistic mausoleum, marks the site. More has survived from the 4th century bc Asklepieion below, which occupies a site typical for such a place, beside some rising springs of mineral water (now almost dry) and situated a little way out of the inhabited centre—two elements essential for the treatment and the isolation respectively of the sick who frequented the place. The sanctuary centred on a Doric ‘abaton’ or cultic building, projecting per pendicularly from a stoa which ran along the base of the scarp. The rectangular, marble-lined pools by the springs can be seen against the rock.
Travel Guide to Paros & Greece
