Follow in Hercules' Footsteps and Visit Aedipsos on Evia

Aedipsos on the Greek island of Evia has attracted few tourists from other countries. It is renowned for the healing powers of its hot springs.
Aedipsos or Edipsos,in the north of the Greek island of Evia is renowned for the healing powers of its hot springs. Many Greeks are recommended to go there by their doctors, and in summer the spa town is full of people who want to take the waters. Because it is so popular there are many hotels guest houses and rooms for tourists to stay. As well as accommodation, there are plenty of places to eat and drink in the little town. The patisserie close to the bus station is not to be missed if you have a sweet tooth.

Evia is the second largest Greek island (the biggest being Crete) and it is believed that it was once part of the mainland. It was probably severed from it by an earthquake, as there is a fault line close to it.

The Legend of Hercules
It is said that Aedipsos was where Hercules rested in between his labours. He would go to one of the caves where the hot waters flow and gather his strength in preparation for his next Herculean task. He might even have found the cove where the hot water flows into the sea, and bathed there.

The Romans Loved Aedipsos Too
In Roman times many illustrious figures visited the spa to enjoy the waters and the entertainment in the theatre. Marcus Aurelius was a visitor as was the Roman general Scylla, who left his mark on the town. There are many marble plaques commemorating him and the luxury hotel, the Thermae Scylla is called after him, as were the springs which the hotel is built over. (The name means Scylla’s hot baths or springs.) Even the Roman Emperor Hadrian visited to enjoy the delights of Aedipsos. There is also a statue of the renowned Roman beauty, Julia Domna.


Other Things to Do in Aedipsos
There are several beaches to relax on; one with a stream of hot waster flowing into it is close to the Thermae Scylla Hotel. The rocks have become an orange-yellow colour, stained by the sulpherous water. Others can be found if you walk to the other side of the town along the promenade. On the way, take a moment to look at the tall older buildings which are built over hot springs and have their own baths in their basements.

In summer there is an annual cultural festival with plays, concerts and dances performed by national and international groups. There is always some form of entertainment and this is announced from a little van which advertises performances daily.


Ancient Sites near Aedipsos
Evia is steeped in legends and myths. Limni the ancient site of Elimnion was where the marriage of Zeus and Hera took place according to mythology. Istea is where Hera’s sacred bulls grazed, and there are the remains of a Temple of Artemis on the cape close to Aedipsos. Artemis, the goddess of hunting took pleasure in hunting in the area, it is said.


How to Get to Aedipsos
From Athens you can get a bus to Aedipsos from the Liosion St. bus station. If you are driving then you take the National Road from Athens to Lamia, and follow directions to Arkitsa (approximately 150 kilometres from Athens), from where you take a ferry to Aedipsos. This takes forty minutes. From the ferry you will see the steam rising from the hot springs, looking like smoke plumes from a fire. The locals say it’s the rubbish burning. Don’t believe them! You might also be lucky enough to see dolphins.

The other route if you are driving is to take the same National Road, but to follow directions for Halkidi. This will take you over an iron bridge which connects Evia to the mainland. However the roads on the island to Aedipsos can be treacherous if you don’ know them.

If you visit Aedipsos, you will not only be following in Hercules and Roman footsteps; other famous visitors from the more recent past were Edward and Mrs. Simpson, Winston Churchill, Greta Garbo, Maria Callas, Onasis, and many others. It’s a small jewel in the Greek islands and not yet spoiled by mass tourism.

Further Information

•Evia information from the web site euboea.de
•The Greek National Tourist Organization’s website ellada.com
•Other web sites:-travelinfo.gr/evia and edipsos.net


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Spas in Ottoman Greece

Evangelia A. Varella

Based on ancient travelers’ chronicles and architectural remnants,
as well as on manuals of a remote academic past, the following paragraphs are tracing the outlines of the spas, which flourished in nowadays
Greece during the Ottoman period, e.g. up to sometime between
the early 19th century and the 1920’s. From the mountains of Thrace,
Macedonia and Epirus to the plains of Thessaly and Central Greece,
from the Peloponnesian seaside resorts to the hot springs of the Aegean islands, outstanding examples of a rich tradition are carefully investigated as to the services and comfort offered to the patients.
The systematic construction of public baths proved to be one of the most durable inheritances of the Greco-Roman world to the Islamic, prone to adopt any institution supporting the meticulous purification rituals ordered by the Koran. Warm, sometimes sparkling or slightly sour, often bearing a characteristic sulphuric smell or a hardly discernable color, most mineral waters are displaying their unusual constitution even at macroscopic level. However, the scientific tools of the period are not capable to explain the pronounced peculiarity of certain sources by the presence of compounds since ever used in the pharmaceutical praxis. Hence the beneficent activity remains a fact simply approved by experience, and correlated with the general hygienic function of baths, or is often ascribed to godly intervention.
Sometimes, as in northern Greek Aghia Paraskevi, the presence of dark red iron oxides points to a place of martyrdom; at other moments the sulphuric stink is attributed to the incidence of a delinquent: most significant among them the high priest Caiapha, Jesus’ illegal judge, who tried in vain to find relief in the homonymous Peloponnesian baths, and spoiled them for ever with the odour of sin.
Hardly less metaphysical is an Islamic anecdote about bath facilities in the sacred Macedonian site of Yanitsa. Around 1660 the great Ottoman voyager Evliya Ηelembi [1] will consider the high temperature of the water as a heavenly gift to the pious owner sheikh Ilahi, and speak of seven immortal flames, which disappear when impious eyes look at them. Although usually less articulated, the approach is steadActa- Congressus Historiae Pharmaciae 2001 ily nurturing the ambiguity, swinging between theological interpretations and physiological facts. Only at the end of the 18th century the chemical analysis of about eight hundred known springs will elucidate the causes, define the possibilities, proceed to imitations.
In spite of all theoretical doubts and practical inconveniences, well known antique or medieval spas keep on greeting the patients.
Near Thessaloniki, Byzantine Langadas is disposing in the 17th century of a very well equipped spring with vivifying warm water, producing a moody marsh when poured out of the pool; those suffering from hydropicy, leper or syphilis enter the pool and are fully healed if they stay into the water for half an hour; when cherry trees blossom, upper class citizens from Thessaloniki arrive equipped with tents and provisions to take baths, finding recreation for one or two weeks, or even a whole month. This is not the only choice. Referring obviously to Thermi with the attractive Ottoman pool, the watchful Russian pilgrim Vassilij Barskij [2] will mention around 1725 three mineral springs used by the population of the city. The concurrence obliges Langadas to invest: thus at the end of 1806 decent lodges surround a marble pool amphitheatrically led. Later on, the army of the Orient will discover adjacent Souroti, since 1916 a provider of excellent drinking mineral water. Further east, in late Ottoman Eleutheres the progressive tenant Z. Zachos is endowing the community with excellent bath equipment and six hotels; the steamer needs just two hours to Kavalla. Venerated in Roman times, Traianoupolis at the river Evros is disposing of a magnificent vaulted construction of 1375/80, probably credited to ghazi Evrenos, a famous warrior of the conquest years, while after almost four centuries Thessalian Smocovo will be connected with another leading personality. Indeed, the barracks built 1662 by local monks will be enlarged to welcome Ali pasha of Ioannina, and fall in ruins after his extermination. Slightly to the north, Tsayesi at the river Pinios gains in the last decades of the 19th century an outstanding economic importance, as it is exporting many thousand bottles of mineral water to Greece, Turkey and Egypt.
Easy to reach Ypati is preferred by the notables of Central Greece: the health resort will be thoroughly renovated when assigned to Greece, together with Edipsos, an elegant spa having once welcomed emperors, but utterly destroyed at 1814. In the Peloponnesian coast isolated Methana is saving Medieval Latin memories and keeps being en vogue, along with cosmopolitan Loutraki and picturesque Kyllene, both bearing perfect pools for all social classes, good service, shopping, coffee houses and theaters.
The fame of Melos is vivid for centuries in the Aegean sea of de Mirone, Thomson, Ferriθres Sauveboeuf, or Sonnini [3]. In fact, the mineral wealth of the island gives birth to naturally sheltered hot sources, excellent against rheumatic affections and venereal diseases.
In the same part of the Cyclades, the Byzantine baths of Kythnos are mentioned by Boschini around 1650, and by Tournefort [4] in the beginnings of the 18th century: they shall be renovated in 1782 by the Constantinopolitan notable Nicholas Mavroyenis. In later times, exemplary equipped complexes are built on Lesbos, once a resort for the aristocracy of the Asia Minor coast, and on Nissyros in the Dodecanese.
The municipal sources of the latter will be subsidized 1884 by Greek immigrants in the USA, while the local physician P. Pantelides will inaugurate around 1895 a luxurious private health establishment.
In the framework of a multicultural world lasting for roughly five centuries, medieval medicine and occidental updating were reconciled in a complex interaction of scientific knowledge and social acceptance.
Open to both traditional approaches and a rationally documented curative quality, the spas of Ottoman Greece are interesting interpretations of a therapeutic reality that succeeds in combining the venerated Hippocratic heritage and the newest research results, while at the same time pioneering in the field of high class specialized tourism.
References
[1] Evliya Ηelembi, Sehayatnβme, Istanbul 1927
[2] Vassilij Barskij, A Pilgrimage …, Kiev 1725
[3] M. de Mirone, Nouveau Voyage … des Echelles du Levant, Lisbonne 1702
- Ch. Thomson, Travels Containing Observations on … Turkey, Reading 1752
- M. de Ferriθres Sauveboef, Mιmoires Historiques, Politiques et Gιographiques des
Voyages faits en Turquie …, Paris 1790
- Ch.N.S. Sonnini de Manoncourt, Voyage en Grθce et en Turquie, Paris 1801
[4] M. Boschini, L’ Archipelago, Venice 1658
- M. Pitton de Tournefort, Relation d’un Voyage du Levant, Paris 1717

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