Mani is the name of a book by Patrick Leigh Fermor written in 1958, describing his visit (with Joan) to the remote region of Greece of this name. I didn’t know where Mani was until I was lent this book, but it’s the central peninsula of the three which extend southwards from the Peloponnese in southern Greece. Until recently, it was largely cut off from the rest of Greece by the Taygetus mountain range and hemmed in by the Aegean and Ionian seas. Wikipedia tells us that until recent years many Mani villages could be reached only by sea. It seems that this was the case when Fermor visited – although he walked over the Teygetus range. Even now, Google maps shows only a very limited network of roads.
The book rambles around, somewhat like Fermor’s trip. He certainly roughed it while travelling, but of course that’s his style – on small boats, on public buses and of course a lot of walking. The book goes into detail about his encounters with the mostly very friendly people, interspersed with interesting diversions on matters such as the traditional the funeral dirges of the region, the many mythological connections, the long running family blood feuds (and the towers in many of the villages as part of this), late arrival of Christianity, linguistic characteristics (including links with other Greek dialects and languages), sartorial issues and much more. Lack of education and a low rate of literacy appears to have been an issue in the past (there was no school in the entire region until the 1830s) and there’s little literature or “culture”. Yet the region is said to have been comparatively rich, thanks to piracy. There’s lots of history mixed in with the descriptions . However, although many of the descriptive passages are very comprehensive, few dates or even reference points are given, so it’s often a little hard to discern the era in which various events occurred.
The Maniots claim to have descended from the ancient Spartans, and have a 
wild and turbulent history, which Fermor delves into. Mani was never fully subdued by the Ottomans, and Maniot culture involved piracy (often associated searches for slaves), superstition and violent and long-running vendettas amongst themselves. Christianity only reached the area relatively late – although Fermor tells us that no pirate expedition of any consequence was complete without a priest!
This is intermingled with the many connections with mythology. A whole chapter (“Gorgons and Centaurs”) is on the pagan gods and mythical figures, including how many were “captured, baptised and camouflaged” to became figures in the Christian tradition. This explores issues from far and wide, not merely from Mani, but as a rural area, many of the old superstitions and traditions lived on here for longer (and even still exist today). As he says, “when Christianity became the State religion of the Empire, the expulsion of the old gods after thousands of years of tenure … was a serious task”!
Overall, Fermor’s depth of knowledge and familiarity with the Greek language and Greek traditions shines through.
After the book was written, in 1964, PLF and Joan bought land near Kardamyli (in Mani) and slowly built a house there where they lived for many years.
We don’t plan to hire a car while in Sydney, but out of sheer curiosity I checked rates and availability. There was only limited availability (mainly of top-of-the range vehicles) and the prices quoted weren’t cheap. In fact it seems that there’s a shortage of hire cars over the whole country. Random searches on the internet suggest that the same applies in tourist destinations such as Cairns and Tasmania, and I’ve been told that it’s hard to find cars in Melbourne, and if you can find one, it’s expensive. Looks like our plan to rely on Opal cards and Uber are the way to go!
Musings and Mutterings 