Hot! Hot! Hot!

Astypalaia can be an extremely windy place. Wooden shutters bang against buildings, landing a plane becomes difficult, beach towels and hats fly away, dust devils dance on the road and your hair whirls around your head tying itself in knots. Local people tell us that winter brings the heaviest winds, and that they are so strong that keeping yourself upright while walking down the road is a major challenge.

The wind here in the summer is more gentle, but still rather strong.  It seems to me like a perpetual Santa Ana, maybe 20 mph.

The constant noise of the whipping of the wind can drive you mad, it just never stops and makes people a little edgy after awhile. Recently students have started to pray for the wind to stop.  We gently counsel them not to hope for a still day, because then it becomes unbearably hot. One day without the wind is all one needs to start begging the gods for the wind to return.

We are currently experiencing the doldrums here in Astypalaia, and now we are all praying for the wind to return. We promise the Greek gods that we will never be dissatisfied or complain about the wind again, just please let it return.

You can tell that the wind has dropped and that the sea has gone flat in this photo. you can see the currents running out at the edge of the bay. People describe the sea as having gone oily when the winds die.

Ancient Greeks also struggled with the dying of the winds as evidenced by the play Iphigenia written by Euripides. The story goes something like this.

King Agamemnon is on his way to the Trojan war, but unfortunately he offends the goddess Artemis. Incensed, she kills the wind so that the king and his troops are stranded, unable to attack. The warriors grow restless, and then a bit crazy waiting in vain for the wind to pick up again.  Finally Agamemnon is convinced that in order for the wind to return he must offer his daughter Iphigenia as a human sacrifice to appease the aggrieved Artemis. So, in a heart wrenching scene, the king kills his own daughter in order for wind to fill the ship's sails. It works. Artemis is placated and the wind pushes the ships on to Troy.

Greek tragedy at its best in my humble opinion.

We eagerly await the return of the wind here in Astypalaia.

More soon.