Page 42 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Corfu & the Ionian Islands

40 ❯❯ The Top 10 of Everything

Myths and Legends

The Odyssey, Ithaki
Agios Spyridon,
1 4
Corfu
According to legend, Ithaki
was the home of the ancient Credited with saving Corfu
Greek hero Odysseus, who from Turkish invasion in 1716,
was depicted so vividly in St Spyridon is the patron saint
Homer’s epic poem The of the island. His miraculously
Odyssey. The great warrior pre served remains were
returned here from Troy to be brought to Corfu from
reunited with his love, Penelope. Constantinople after
the 1453 Ottoman
Corinthians,
2 relics are carried in
conquest. His
Lefkáda
In ancient times, a narrow procession on Palm Sunday
strip of land connected and other holy days.
Lefkáda to the mainland.
Analipsi Spring,
Legend has it that the 5
Corinthians, who had Corfu
established Leukas city – Odysseus statue, Local legend says that visitors
modern-day Lefkáda Ithaki port who drink from the Analipsi
Town – wanted complete spring, near the highest point
con trol of the territory, so they of the Kanoni peninsula in southern
destroyed the isthmus to create Corfu, will never return home.
the island of Lefkáda. Poseidon, Paxí
Hermit Gerasímos,
3 6
Legend has it that Paxí was
Kefalloniá
joined to Corfu in the past, but was
St Gerasímos, the patron saint of separated when the sea god
Kefalloniá, lived as a her mit in the Poseidon (Neptune) became enraged
Agios Gerasímos cave near Argostóli. and dealt a blow to the region with
Close by is a convent founded by the his trident. The single island split
saint in the 16th century, and the to become two, so the story goes,
Monastery of St Gerasímos (see p45), and now the island of Paxí lies to the
which houses the saint’s remains. south of Corfu.

Neptune’s Horses (1893), an oil painting by Walter Crane

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