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.
The Northeast
Two kilometres east of Naousa is the base of a cylindrical Hellenistic tower (reached by two successive first-left branches off the main road after it turns south to Marpisa). Known locally as ‘Palaiopyrgos’, the tower stands to almost 2m in height, with four courses of regular 4th century bc, trapezoidal masonry which are well preserved. The position has not been chosen for strategic surveying of the coast or sea routes, and its purpose on a low eminence in the middle of an open fertile area must have been related to the protection of the surrounding agricultural land and activity. To the southeast are the foundations of a wall of the same period, suggesting that the tower may have been the centre of a farmstead. To the south, a plain of grain fields, dotted with oaks, stretches as far as the twin Kephalos hills which sweep to conical summits above the coast. To the north, the beetling promontory of Viglakia has subsided in recent geological history, leaving its irregular shape surrounded by detached islets. A prehistoric settlement, clearly surrounded by a wall, is still visible on the islet of Oikonomou to the west of the neck of the peninsula, while at Filitzi island on the eastern side there are the ruins of another ancient settlement.
Travel Guide to Paros & Greece
