The visit to Dion was a delightful surprise, a revelation and long overdue. As readers of The Cheshire Cat Blog will know, this writer prefers to travel in spring (see, for example Do Meteora dogs dream of floating sheep? and Ionian Spring). However, between October and May the gods on Olympus often draw a veil of clouds around them for a bit of peace after the busy summer months.

I have lost count of how many times I have had to cancel plans to visit Dion because of Zeus' stormclouds looming over Greece's highest mountain. As we shall see, it is the snow and rain from the mountain which make Dion on the plain below the Olympians' green and fertile front garden.

So here I am once again in Macedonia with my plans and maps. This time a bit later in the year, and lo! there is not a cloud in sight; the sun shines down on the ineffably old. And when Haris Tsougaris, archaeologist and director of Pella Museum, invites me to join him on a visit to Dion it is an offer I just can't refuse.

Bright and early the next morning we are five happy travellers driving down the A1 motorway from Thessaloniki to Dion, and it seems we are there in no time at all. We are warmly greeted by Eleni Benaki, a veteran of the archaeological exploration at Dion, who has kindly offered to guide us around the archaeological park and museum.

What a treat it is to take a relaxed stroll through the park in the company of two of the people who have been intimately involved in creating it; Haris also took part in the excavations here. Ms. Benaki navigates us along the footpaths and ancient streets of the sacred city, explaining along the way the historical and spiritual significance of the various temples, sanctuaries and other buildings and precincts.

We learn from her not only the history of the area but also something of the excavations and the development of the site into a park in which culture and nature can be enjoyed at the same time. To a great extent nature has been left to run its course here, although interventions have had to be made to protect the historical monuments and to make it easier for visitors to walk through the site.

In this respect, water is one of the area's greatest assets - you could say it is the predominant element here - but the high water table has to be carefully monitored to avoid flooding. In the museum there are photos of earlier excavations in which you can see the archaeologists, including Ms. Benaki, working up to their knees in water (see photo below).

Rain and melted snow seeps, trickles and cascades down from the Olympus mountain range onto the Pierian Plain on which Dion stands. A labyrinth of streams trying to find their way to the Aegean Sea at the Thermaic Gulf form a marshy wetland.

Here and there the water springs up from the ground in lazy bubbles. In antiquity such springs and streams were considered sacred and inhabited by Nymphs and other supernatural beings. There are several versions of myths and legends concerning the mountains, rivers, and springs here, many of which tell that this was the home of the Muses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (the personification of memory) and sources of inspiration to mortals.

The great bard Orpheus (Ὀρφέως) was the son of the Muse Calliope, and when he was killed and torn to pieces by a gang of angry Maenads (or Bacchae), female followers of Dionysus, the Muses gathered the pieces of his body and buried them nearby. In the second century AD the Greek travel writer Pausanias wrote that locals believed that an urn on top of a pillar along the road between Dion and Mount Olympus contained the bard's remains.

Pausanias also tells us that when Orpheus' murderers tried to wash his blood from their hands in the river, the stream sank underground to avoid becoming complicit in the crime. [1] This legend explained how the River Helikon (today known as the Ourlias), which descends from Olympus, disappears underground then reemerges about 4 km southwest of Dion as the Baphyras. The stream was personified in the form of the local river god Baphyras (Βαφύρας, see photo below right). In the local cult of Artemis the goddess was worshipped as Artemis Baphyria (Άρτεμιδος Βαφυρία).

See a mosaic of a bovine river god (Baphyras?) below.

The river was once navigable and Dion had a harbour connecting it to the Aeagean Sea, then only 1.5 km away. Over the centuries alluvial material brought down from the mountains has silted up the river and extended the land, so that Dion is now much further away from the sea. This is the same fate which led other ancient Greek cities such as Ephesus and Miletus to be abandoned and Pella to lose its strategic importance. It is thought, however, that Dion was destroyed by earthquakes long before it became a landlocked marsh.

The positive aspect of this process, is that the submerged remains of Dion and the other cities were preserved in mud for centuries, protected to a great extent from looting.

The British traveller and topographer William Martin Leake, who arrived in Dion (then known as Μαλαθριά, Malathria) in December 1806, reported that the locals had considered the land unsuitable for farming and it had become stony, barren, overgrown in some places with wild bush and deserted apart from a few shepherds. He discovered the theatre and other submerged buildings and concluded that this was the site of ancient Dion, thus laying claim to its rediscovery. [3]

Leake also discovered that shortly before his arrival the local Ottoman governor Vely Pasha, recognizing the richness of the soil, had settled some Greek labourers who cleared away the scrub for planting corn and built houses - the foundation of the modern village.

I wish I could tell you what kind of fish lurk in the cloudy waters of this lake. I should have asked Eleni. Squid, known to the ancient Greeks as teuthides (τευθίδες), are said to have once lived at the mouth of the Baphyrus River.

"Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, says that both the teuthus and the sepia are short-lived fish. And Archestratus, who travelled and sailed over the whole earth, for the sake of gratifying his greedy appetite, says:

'The best of all the teuthides are those
Caught near Pierian Dium, near the stream
Of Baphyras. And in Ambracia's port
You will see mighty shoals of this same fish.'"

Athenaeus of Naucratis, The Learned Banqueters [4]

Whether squid are still to be found here is another thing I forgot to enquire. If so, you will probably find them on the menu of one of the local tavernas as kalamaria. Kali orexi!

As everybody will tell you, the local water tastes wonderful. Imbibing the water of the Pierian spring, at the birthplace of the Muses, was said to supply the drinker with inspiration and knowledge. This drinking fountain in the park allows you to test the legend completely free of charge. But beware:

"A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring:
There shallow Draughts intoxicate the Brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fir'd at first sight with what the Muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of Arts,
While from the bounded level of our mind
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind;
But more advanc'd, behold with strange surprise
New distant scenes of endless science rise!
So pleas'd at first the towering Alps we try,
Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky,
Th' eternal snows appear already past,
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last;
But, those attain'd, we tremble to survey
The growing labours of the lengthen'd way,
Th' increasing prospects tire our wand'ring eyes,
Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!"

From An Essay on Criticism (1711)
by Alexander Pope (1688-1744), lines 215-232.

The sanctuary of Isis was founded in Dion in the 2nd century BC, replacing that of Artemis. The buildings of the sacred precinct, discovered in 1978, are of the 2nd century AD and include temples of Isis Tyche, Isis Lochia and Aphrodite Hypolympidia (see photo below). Statues of these goddesses found here are now in the museum.

Isis-Tyche was an amalgamation of the Egyptian goddess Isis and Tyche, the Greek goddess of fortune, abundance and personification of the city, known to the Romans as Fortuna. In her left arm she holds her symbolic cornucopia, the horn of plenty. The original 2nd century AD statue was excavated in autumn 1979 and is now in the archaeological museum.

Several copies of statues now in the museum have been set up around the archaeological site at the places where they were unearthed to give visitors a better understanding of the monuments in which they once stood. Purists may not approve of this practice, but I feel that this - and the restoration of the site overall - has been done in a very sensitive and attractive way.

The fact that so many new discoveries have been made in Dion since continual excavations began here in 1973 mean that there is much more to be unearthed on this large site, only a fraction of which has yet been explored.

The cardo was the 5 metre wide main street of ancient Dion, running north-south through the city. The enormous paving stones were laid in the 3rd century AD, during the period of Roman occupation. In the 4th century a wall was built along the street using stone from earlier monuments and buildings.

The restored remains of the "Monument of Shields" (photo, right) have been set up on the west side of the cardo, near the centre of the ancient city. The facade, thought to have originally been part of a 37 metre long victory monument, has a row of alternating panels of reliefs of shields and corselets (body armour) onto which were attached the armour and weapons of defeated enemies displayed as trophies. The monument has been dated to some time after 200 BC.

The most famous military monument known to have been erected in Dion was the Granikos Monument (or Granicus Monument), a large bronze equestrian statue group made by Lysippos and commissioned by Alexander the Great to commemorate the 25 members of his Companion cavalry who died at the Battle of Granikos against the army of Persian King Darius III in 334 BC. The statues were later taken to Rome by Quintus Cecilius Metellus as war booty, after Macedonia was made a Roman province in 146 BC (see the article on the Alexander the Great page of the MFP People section).

Many of the buildings in the archaeological site, mostly from Hellenistic and Roman times, have been reduced to their foundations or lower walls. Most will be of interest only to those with a special interest in history, archaeology and ancient city planning. However there are many areas of interest for other visitors, particularly the sanctuaries of the gods and the remains of grand houses and their enormous floor mosaics.

The large roofed area in this photo is part of the "Villa of Dionysos", named after a large mosaic featuring the god of wine on the floor of what was a banqueting hall (see photo below) of this enormous building complex, which also included a cult area, library, shops, workshops and baths. According to one theory this complex may have been a school of philosophy. The original mosaic is still in situ, which explains why the roof is needed.

In the backgound is the Olympus mountain range, already clouded over by mid-morning.

Another large mosaic, featuring the head of the Gorgon Medusa (photo right), and sculptures found in this complex are now in the archaeological museum. See more photos and information about the Gorgon Medusa on the Medusa page of the MFP People section.

In the foreground the mosaic panels have abstract motifs, and the central panel is made up of complex pattern of spirals and concentric circles (see a similar mosaic in the Great Baths below).

In the upper part of the photo is the Dionysus mosaic after which the "Villa of Dionysos" was named by archaeologists. The central panel depicts a "triumph of Dionysus", a common theme in ancient art. In this case the image has aquatic overtones, and is referred to as a "marine triumph": Dionysus, holding his trademark thyrsos staff, stands with his companion Papposilenos in a chariot drawn by two panthers led by two sea Centaurs (see also the mosaic of Dionysos riding a panther in Pella Museum). Above and below this image are six actors' masks, a reminder of the wine god's association with the theatre. The image areas are surrounded by sophisticated borders of spiralling plants, guilloches and spiral waves.

Unfortunately, the sides and far end of this room are fenced off, so it is difficult to get a good look at this excellent work of art.

When the mosaic was first discovered in 1987, Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis, director of the excavations at Dion, dated it to 200 AD. [5]

See also Hellenistic floor mosaics of the 4th century BC in Pella:
the Stag Hunt by Gnoseis and the Abduction of Helen.

Dion had not only one but two sanctuaries for the supreme god Zeus, after whom the city was named. The larger sanctuary was dedicated to Zeus Olympios, the chief deity among the Olympian gods and the one we generally asscociate with ancient Greek religion and myth.

This smaller sacred area for the cult of Zeus Hypsistos (Ὕψιστος, Most High) is a more modest affair, with a small temple which contained a smaller-than-lifesize statue of the god sitting on a throne. A copy of the statue has been placed in the temple, while the original is in the archaeological museum.

Little is known of the exact nature of the worship of Zeus Hypsistos around whom a cult (or cults) flourished at several places in the Greek world between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, during the Roman Imperial period. Dedications to Hypsistos and cult sanctuaries are also known from Athens, Philippi, Didyma, Klaros and around the Bosphorus. Theories abound that the cult was an early form of Greek monotheism influenced by Judasim or even Zoroastrianism. [6]

Looking at this mosaic and the similar one in the Villa of Dionysos (above), I was wondering how I could describe the sophisticated geometric pattern of intersecting radial spirals and concentric circles which are defined not by contours but by the black and white triangles formed by the intersections. I also wondered about the symbolic significance of such mandala-like patterns in ancient mosaics. This is something I'll have to get back to some other time.

Another large mosaic in the Great Baths complex has a panel featuring a monstrous creature with the front part of a bull and the swirling tail of an aquatic animal (photo, right). The face of the bull looks soppy, but maybe it is meant to appear noble or benign.

River gods (Ποταμοί, potamoi) were often depicted on ancient coins and reliefs as bulls or combinations of bull and man or bull and fish/water serpent. One of the best-known was Archeloos (Ἀχελῷος), god of the powerful, "silver-swirling" river which flows from the Pindus mountains. [7] Perhaps this mosaic is meant to represent the Baphyras River: somewhat docile compared with other raging torrents, but nevertheless constant, mostly beneficent and essential to life and worship in the city.

Normally I would recommend visiting a museum before its adjoining archaeological site in order to learn something of the background to a place: context is everything. But in this case I am very glad we walked around the archaeological park before entering the museum. Apart from enjoying the best light of the morning, we avoided the afternoon heat. It is also the case that once in a museum some of us - myself included - find it difficult to leave.

As Eleni Benaki shows off the wealth of exhibits in the museum, Haris Tsougaris comments admiringly on the veritable forest of marble on display. Do I detect the tiniest hint of envy in his observation? So far not many marble statues have been discovered on his turf at the Pella Archaeological Site, while at Dion over 35 statues and numerous inscriptions have been found in the sanctuary of Isis alone. It is enough to make any museum director turn green.

A strong connection was established between Dion and Pella after King Archelaos I (ruled 413-399 BC), who moved the Macedonian capital from Aigai (today Vergina) to Pella, founded the city of Dion at the ancient sacred location and made it the most important religious centre in Macedonia. He established an Olympic games here as a festival lasting nine days, each dedicated to one of the nine muses. Plays by the Athenian tragedian Euripides, who lived at Pella, were also staged here. (See History of Pella.)

Phillip II celebrated his victory over Olynthos here in 348 BC (see History of Stageira and Olympiada part 6), and his son Alexander the Great sacrificed at Dion before embarking on his military campaign against Persia. The city remained important to subsequent kings until Macedonia was conquered by the Romans, under whom Dion enjoyed a second period of fame and prosperity. It remained a religious centre in the Christian era, and was the seat of a bishop.

Although Dion, the City of Dios (Ancient Greek, Δίον; Modern Greek, Δίο; Latin, Dium), was primarily dedicated to Zeus, other deities such as Dionysus and Asklepios were also worshipped here. Among the many sancturies, all of which were outside the city's walls, several areas were devoted to female deities, including Athena, Aphrodite, Artemis, Demeter, Hygieia, Isis and Nemesis.

The sanctuary of Demeter in Dion is one of the oldest places of worship of the goddess in northern Greece, and temples for her were built here from at least the Archaic period. The sanctuary included smaller buildings and altars for the worship of other deities associated with fertility and the underworld.

Several terracotta statuettes and other objects typical of votive offerings to Demeter as well as small marble statues, vases, lamps and jewellery have been discovered here and are now on display in the museum.

The mother goddess Demeter (Δημήτηρ), sister of Zeus and Hera, was one of the twelve Olympians, the major deities of the Greek pantheon. She was credited with the gift of agriculture to humans, and, along with her daughter Persephone (who was abducted by Hades), was associated with the underworld and the cycle of the seasons, life and death. In the Homeric Hymns she is referred to as "rich-haired Demeter, awful goddess", and "Queenly Demeter, bringer of seasons and giver of good gifts". [8]

Worship of Demeter included a mystery cult, particularly popular among women, which had its most important centre at Eleusis, northwest of Athens. Most of the details of the cult are unknown since initiates were sworn to secrecy. As the Greek historian Herodotus wrote:

"And of the mystic rites of Demeter, which the Hellenes call Thesmophoria, of these also, although I know, I shall leave unspoken all except so much as piety permits me to tell." [9]

Herodotus was convinced of the Egyptian origin of Greek gods, and in his work Histories he often compares the myths and worship of the gods of Egypt and Greece:

"... in the Egyptian tongue Apollo is Horus, Demeter is Isis, and Artemis is Bubastis." [10]

Alexander the Great was particularly fond of Isis, and when the worship of Egyptian deities spread through the Greek world in the Hellenistic period she was often represented with attributes of Greek goddesses such as Demeter and Tyche (Fortuna).

In the relief above, found on the steps of the main temple of the sanctuary of Isis, the subject has been identified as Demeter (Demeter as Isis, or Isis as Demeter?) and dated to the 2nd century BC, the time of the foundation of the sanctuary of Isis. [11]

The frontal view of the "rich-haired" goddess shows her with wavy hair, parted in the middle and gathered in thick plaits held by bands. Her strong face and broad nose are almost masculine, but her expression is gentle, perhaps motherly. Her thick neck and large, long-fingered hands also lend the impression of a robust agricultural worker, an impression added to by her large, broad-brimmed hat. She holds two ears of wheat (her gift to humanity) and a sceptre, usual attributes of the Greek grain deity.

In the Iliad, Homer also mentions her hair, and describes her active participation in the harvest of grain. You can almost see her rolling her sleeves up for her tasks:

"And even as the wind carrieth chaff about the sacred threshing-floors of men that are winnowing, when fair-haired Demeter amid the driving blasts of wind separates the grain from the chaff, and the heaps of chaff grow white." [12]

It is thought that the small hole in the front of the brim of her hat may have been drilled for the attachment of a metal solar disc between two bull's horns, a symbol known as the headdress or crown of the Egyptian goddess Hathor, which Isis is shown wearing in ancient Egyptian art. [13] The circle above/behind the hat is also thought to be Isis' solar disk, and the curve of the brim may have been designed to echo that of the horns of her emblem.

Although I have so far found no reference to the thick knot on the shoulder of her garment, I wonder if this is meant to represent the Egyptian tyet (welfare/life), a symbol of Isis also known as the Knot of Isis, Buckle of Isis or the Blood of Isis, thought to symbolize eternal life or resurrection.

The inscription in the top left corner of the relief states that it is dedicated by Kallimachos and Kleta to the triad Serapis-Isis-Anubis, Egyptian gods adopted in Greece during the Hellenistic period.

Σαράπιδι Ἴσιδι Ἀνούβιδι Καλλίμαχος καὶ Κλήτα [.] χαριστήριον τῆς πλανητέας Inscription SEG 48:788 (SEG, 48, 1998, 788)

To Sarapis, Isis and Anubis Kallimachos and Kleta [.] for thanks-offering to the wandering (deity).

Height of relief 30.8 cm, width 34 cm, depth 4-8 cm.

Here is something you don't see every day, unless you live in Hollywood. Four of these "footsteps" (βηματα, bemata) votive offerings, also known as plantae pedum dedications, were discovered by archaeologists at the entrance to the temple of Isis. All dated to the 2nd century AD, they are are now in the archaeological museum [15]. In this example, the grey marble plaque has two sculpted footprints of different sizes, placed above a terse inscription from Getianos Pasiphilos, apparently a priest who may have been a pilgrim to Dion, addressed to Isis:

Γετιανὸς Πασίφιλος ἱερώμενος Inscription SEG 34:624 (SEG, 34, 1984, 624)

Getianos Pasiphilos priest

Height of plaque 42.5 cm, width 19.8 cm, depth 4.5 cm.
Height of footsteps: left 21.7 cm, right 25 cm.




Conclusion

I would love to tell you more, and there is much more to tell, but I'm sure you have other things to get on with. I know I have. Hopefully, one day I can find time to put together a comprehensive travel guide to Dion.

We had a wonderful day in Dion, and I hope I shall visit the place again soon. It has now become one of my favourite places in northern Greece, and it is a lot more accessible - in several senses of the word - than many other places of historical interest, and relatively easy to get to from Thessaloniki. We recommend you go there immediately, and don't forget to take something to feed the geese.

Tobacco is still a major crop around Dion and other farmlands in Macedonia, although production has been declining for many years. The industry is no longer the source of great riches for the "tobacco barons" who once monopolized the weed trade during the Ottoman Empire (see an article about the Tobacco Museum in Kavala).

Nicotiana tabacum, the aromatic, small-leafed variety grown in Greece, the Balkans and Turkey, is known as "Oriental", "Balkan" and "Turkish". The annual herbaceous plant grows to a height of between 1 and 2 metres, and produces small, pink, tube-shaped flowers in the summer. The harvested leaves are usually dried in the sun at the farms before being transported to factories for processing into cigarettes and pipe tobacco.