Mount Paggaio

Between History and Myth

A mountain full of surprises, a world inextricably linked to the past, a place where for thousands of years people and cultures have left their traces of glory, but also their doctrines and secrets. All these elements of history and mythology, of reality and legend, travelling through the centuries, reach the present day, challenging the mind for their interpretation, but also enveloping Mount Paggaio with their mystical haze.

Euripides, in his tragedy “Rhesus” (453 BC), calls it “the mountain with the volumes of gold, whose earth hides silver”, because of the rich deposits of gold and silver that supplied the treasuries of the kings of the time and financed their campaigns. The mythical King Midas is also associated with the gold-bearing mountain, as according to legend, his wealth came from the gold of Paggaio.

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    <p class="info-card__title">Did you know?</p>
<p class="info-card__text">As Pseudo-Plutarch informs us in his work “On the appellation of rivers and mountains”,a tragic occasion led to the renaming of the mountain, which used to be called Carmanion; unable to bear the guilt of the unwitting incestuous relationship with his daughter, Paggaios, son of the god Ares and the mortal Kritovouli, climbed the mountain and committed suicide. Since his death, the mountain has taken his name.</p>
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Paggaio, a place of gods and mortals

According to mythology, this is where the Olympian god of war, Ares, was born and raised, but also, the place where he fled after the revelation of his illicit affair with the goddess Aphrodite, wife of Hephaestus.

This is also the place of action of the god Dionysus or Bacchus and of his followers, who were filled with animalistic power and who, through the wine, their dance and their orgiastic ceremonies, sought communication with the divine. Herodotus is the first to mention the existence of the oracle of Dionysus in the area, while Euripides’ “Rhesus” also makes clear reference to the existence of a cave of Dionysus on Paggaio (“...Bacchus prophet [...] was enthroned on a stone of Paggaio.*). Even today, in the area of Nikissiani, Dionysian customs are revived with the burning of the flea and the resurrection of Dionysus - the victory of life by the so-called “Arapides”, people dressed in animal skins carrying large bells, making a deafening noise.

According to some narratives, Orpheus, the mythical melodist, who enchanted the Sirens with his lyre and his song, was the first to live in the inaccessible gorges of Paggaio in the company of wild beasts. It was here where he mourned the final loss of his beloved Eurydice, as Virgil informs us in the “Georgics” (fourth book), and where he died, hunted by the Maenads; it was also here where the mystical cult of Orphism was developed.

* “on the rock of Paggaio, the prophet of Bacchus was enthroned”