After thousands of years since the first journey was made a group of Greek citizens got together and decided to organize one of the most exciting adventure ideas to date. "The "Adventures of Philoctetes" will take travelers to areas such as the island of Lemnos, and the mythical cities of Troy and Melivoia. In fact it will follow the same path our ancient Greek hero did. The new initiative was taken by mamal.gr, which began this effort in the hopes that it would become the cultural event of the summer as well as open a new window on newer travel ideas giving Greece's maritime infrastructure a shot at highlighting people's adventures. It combines the beautiful region of Kisavos on the island of Lemnos, as well as takes you on a journey through time.
According to Greek mythology, Philoctetes was the son of King Poeas of Meliboea in Thessaly. He was one of the many men who competed for the hand of Helen of Troy and as such was required to participate in the conflict to reclaim her for Menelaus in the Trojan War. He was the subject of at least two plays by Sophocles, one of which is named after him, and one each by both Aeschylus and Euripides.
Apparently Philoctetes was stranded on the Island of Lemnos after suffering a snake bite while hunting and this caused his foot to let out such a stench that it put off a lot of the people around him, but then again there are a few more versions as to why he was apparently abandoned here. Regardless, Philoctetes was exiled by the Greeks and was angry at the treatment he received from Odysseus, King of Ithaca, who had advised the Atreidae to strand him. Medôn took control of Philoctetes' men, and Philoctetes himself remained on Lemnos, alone, for ten years.
Acccording to Wikipedia, Helenus, the prophetic son of King Priam of Troy, was forced to reveal, under torture, that one of the conditions of the Greeks' winning the war was that they needed the bow and arrows of Heracles. Upon hearing this, Odysseus and a group of men (usually including Diomedes) rushed back to Lemnos to recover Heracles' weapons. Surprised to find the archer alive, Odysseus nonetheless tricked the weaponry away from Philoctetes, but Diomedes refused to take the weapons without the man. And then Heracles came down from Mount Olympus and told Philoctetes to go and that he would be healed by the son of Asclepius and win great honor as a hero of the Achaean army. And he did. After the war, he returned home to Meliboea. From there he went to Italy where he founded the towns of Petilia and Crimissa in Calabria and established the Brutti. He also aided Sicilian Greeks. When he died, he was buried next to the Sybaris River.
There is apparently an underwater cave with streams and a serene environment named after Philoctetes on the island of Lemnos which is very close to the archaeological site of Kaviria and visitors can go by boat or by foot.
If you want to learn more about this, then go to mamal.gr
And if you are booking a trip to Greece remember to do so on our right-hand column.
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