Corfu
The Ionian islands are softer, greener and more feminine than those of the Aegean, and Corfu in particular was used by Homer as the setting of one of the most beautiful episodes of ‘The Odyssey’, the meeting of Odysseus with Nausicaa. For any of you with short memories of the classics, Odysseus was washed ashore, having escaped Calypso’s enchantments, and is welcomed with warmth and generosity by Nausicaa’s parents, King Alcinous and his wife Arete. Once the Ithacan king reveals his identity the Phaeacians take him back to his island, which he hasn’t seen in 20 long years.
In an earlier tradition, before the Trojan War, the Argonauts, having stolen the Golden Fleece from Colchis, and with King Aeetes on their heels, find refuge and a welcome in Alcinous’ and Arete’s palace. Nice people those two, but the not so nice modernists have installed a Big Mac near their palace.
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