{"id":3641,"date":"2011-09-09T17:57:48","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T21:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=3641"},"modified":"2018-08-04T22:01:55","modified_gmt":"2018-08-05T02:01:55","slug":"thursday-september-9-2011-before-the-gates-of-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=3641","title":{"rendered":"Thursday, September 9, 2011 \u2014 Before the gates of Excellence.\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

The Idaean Cave on Mt. Koussanas<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2026 the Gods have placed sweat.<\/em>
\nLong is the road there\u00adto and steep and rough at first.<\/em>
\nBut when the height is won, then is there ease, <\/em>
\nThough griev\u00adous\u00adly hard in the winning.<\/em><\/p>\n

- Hes\u00adiod<\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/p>\n

We woke after a fair enough sleep at the chapel, and con\u00adtin\u00adued through the maze of sideroads until we came down of the foothills at Nerochori.<\/p>\n

There was one more archae\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal site that I was inter\u00adest\u00aded in, which we now real\u00adized we were quite capa\u00adble of reach\u00ading: the Idaean Cave, on the north slope of Mount Kous\u00adsanas, above the Nida Plateau, in the cen\u00adtral Psilori\u00adtis Range. This required us to dri\u00adve east\u00adward along the north coast, then go inland to Anogia. Past Anogia there were no more vil\u00adlages, only a wilder\u00adness that, at the high\u00ader ele\u00adva\u00adtions, is a lunar land\u00adscape bare of veg\u00ade\u00adtion which could eas\u00adi\u00adly be mis\u00adtak\u00aden for the Tibetan plateau.<\/p>\n

Along the way, we passed a young cou\u00adple stolid\u00adly advanc\u00ading on foot. But they had no climbers gear or over-large packs, so they did not look like ded\u00adi\u00adcat\u00aded hik\u00aders who would dis\u00addain a ride. We backed up and offered one. Both Fil\u00adip and I are long time hitch\u00adhik\u00aders, so we picked them up despite the dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adty of squeez\u00ading them into the lit\u00adtle Nis\u00adsan. We were reward\u00aded with pleas\u00adant com\u00adpa\u00adny, for they were young Aus\u00adtri\u00adans of seri\u00adous mein. She, a pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adal archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgist, he a pro\u00adfes\u00adsor of Aus\u00adtri\u00adan lit\u00ader\u00ada\u00adture. I\u2019m weak on that last sub\u00adject, but Fil\u00adip knows a thing or two. Elis\u00ada\u00adbeth Ram\u00admer is strict\u00adly a Neolith\u00adic spe\u00adcial\u00adist, with lit\u00adtle inter\u00adest in Minoan stuff, but I knew enough about her area to keep up in the conversation.<\/p>\n

The Idaean Cave is main\u00adly of inter\u00adest to Neolith\u00adic archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgists, though it has yield\u00aded finds from every era. It\u2019s prob\u00ada\u00adbly the old\u00adest sacred site in Crete. A side cham\u00adber, eight meters above the floor of the main cham\u00adber, over\u00adhung with stalegtites, was the sacred precinct. We are among the last to see the cave in rel\u00ada\u00adtive\u00adly pris\u00adtine con\u00addi\u00adtion, walk\u00ading up to it on a sheep track, and pay\u00ading noth\u00ading to see it. A con\u00adstruc\u00adtion crew was there, lay\u00ading the ground\u00adwork for a new, con\u00adtrolled access.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

The Nida Plain, seen from the Idaean Cave<\/p><\/div>\n

After leav\u00ading the cave, we head\u00aded back along the rim of the Plain of Nida, a bas\u00adket-like moun\u00adtain plateau. Our guests were head\u00aded north, so we dropped them off when we turned east\u00adwards, to fol\u00adlow a long and rather scary, com\u00adplete\u00adly unin\u00adhab\u00adit\u00aded dirt road to the south\u00adern end of the Psilori\u00adtis Range. The final descent, dozens of hair\u00adpin turns, was the most spec\u00adtac\u00adu\u00adlar of our routes. It defies description.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

We returned the car in Aghia Gali\u00adni, then took a bus to Irak\u00adlion. It was slow and delayed by traf\u00adfic, and we made the fer\u00adry just as it was about to close its doors. We were the last on board.<\/p>\n

This is writ\u00adten at sea.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026 the Gods have placed sweat. Long is the road there\u00adto and steep and rough at first. But when the height is won, then is there ease, Though griev\u00adous\u00adly hard in the win\u00adning. \u2014 Hesiod<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,927],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-ap-blog-2011"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3641"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7681,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641\/revisions\/7681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}