Like an Alexandrian fairy tale taken from the Fountain of Styx

The last war council (in Pella) convened by the macedonian king alexander Before The transition of the greek force to asia Led by him (elected by The congress of The greeks – “except The Lacedaemonians” – at The isthmus Of corinth In 337 BC) was coming to an end.

It was coming to an end with the generals Perdiccas, Antipater, Parmenion, Hephaestion and Cleitus present, who were skeptical and silent as their leader spoke about the state of the army.

The oldest shipwreck ever discovered is located in Dokos

The briefing had already been completed and Alexander left the explanations regarding the issue of financial coverage of the campaign against the Persians for last, adding in conclusion – to reassure his anxious generals – that the sources of revenue for his daring venture were not in Greece, but in Asia. In the cities they would conquer.

Επιπρόσθετα, τους αποκάλυψε ότι είχε συμπεριλάβει στο σχέδιό του – πέρα απ’ τις λύσεις χρηματοδότησης ακόμα και για διασφάλιση της σταθερότητας στα μετόπισθεν (βασίλειο της Μακεδονίας) – τον τρόπο συνεχούς τροφοδότησης της πολεμικής μηχανής που κληροδότησε από τον πατέρα του (Φίλιππο Β’), η οποία ήδη είχε ενισχυθεί από 1600 Θεσσαλούς ιππείς, μισθοφόρους από τη Θράκη, 700 Αθηναίους στρατιώτες και άλλους Έλληνες (Αργείους, Ακαρνάνες, Θεσσαλούς κλπ, πλην των Σπαρτιατών που απουσίαζαν για θρησκευτικούς λόγους).

The big revelation, however, had to do with sharing his paternal inheritance with them (the generals, that is), because he himself would not need it! It was as if a bolt of lightning had struck among those present, who stared at him numbly for a few minutes with bad forebodings.

Then Antipater (whom Alexander ultimately decided to appoint as leader of the Macedonian forces that would remain in Macedonia and as Commissioner of the Macedonian Kingdom) took the floor to tell him what everyone felt and hesitated to reveal to him. That is, instead of sharing with them the inheritance that Philip left him, perhaps he should find a wife who would give him an heir before they left for the campaign.

Alexander glared at him and replied curtly that – with Persia ready for a new war against Greece – he had no intention of matchmaking and bridal beds. But Perdiccas interrupted him, overcome with anguish, and said to him, clearly agitated:

– We do not want gifts, without you by our side. We prefer to have a share in your hopes and not in your estates, at least for as long as we can bear to fight at your side…

A frozen silence suddenly spread. Then a soft cry began, like a lament for the leader who was in a hurry to part with them, dividing his property (farmhouses, forests, villages and royal estates, which his father had left him)...

Alexander had already left the war council chamber and was bidding farewell to his mother, Olympias, outside their palace. The generals returned to their posts. Only Antipater remained to watch the farewell, trying not to cry.

Alexander caught sight of him out of the corner of his eye. He embraced Olympias for the last time, hearing her wish, "May the gods be with you!", and then turned to Antipater, who was approaching.

He looked him straight in the eyes and said, his beautiful features drawn with emotion:

– Antipater, I leave Macedonia and my mother in your hands. And because I trust you as my brother, I ask you to honor her and never embitter her.

– I swear it to you. I swear it to both of you, he said in a troubled voice and, after kissing Alexander crosswise and the edge of Olympias' mantle, he walked away with a pang in his heart, giving Alexander the opportunity to search for his sister Cynan to say goodbye to her (ed.: Cynan was Alexander's half-sister, daughter of Philip II by the Illyrian princess Awdati).

But he did not find Cyna, to give him what she had promised him and to say goodbye to her. So Alexander set off for the Greek camp disappointed, yet having the feeling that he could hear somewhere nearby the neighing of her horse and her whispering...

A whisper of incomprehensible words coming from afar. And they were coming from afar, because at that very moment Kynani was in Greece. She was galloping towards the Aorania Mountains of the Helmos mountain range, until at some point she reached rocky ground.

Σταμάτησε απότομα, ξεκαβάλησε και έδεσε το άλογό της σε ένα δέντρο, για να κάνει πεζή την απόσταση που ήθελε να καλύψει. Πέρασε μέσα από πυκνές χαράδρες και νεροσυρμές οι οποίες κυλούσαν από έναν απόκρημνο, σκιερό βράχο (2.100 μέτρα πάνω απ’ τη θάλασσα της Αχαγιάς στην ορεινή Αιγιάλεια της Αχαΐας της βορειοδυτικής Πελοποννήσου), απ’ όπου ανάβλυζε το ”Ύδωρ Στυγός” – όπου τοποθετεί τις Πύλες του Άδη ο ποιητής της ”Θεογονίας” Ησίοδος: 8ος αι. π Χ) – στη θέση που μέχρι και σήμερα ονομάζεται ” Μαυρονέρι”.

An area "marked" by ancient Greek Mythology, which wants the existing fountain - a natural spring, to be more precise - to gush "dark" water, which then turns into a waterfall ending in a gorge of the Aorani.

The "dark" water of the daughter of Oceanus, who (from her union with the Titan Pallas) gave birth to Zeal, Victory, State and Violence. The first - according to the myth - hides within it envy, but also noble rivalry. The second success and the last two the ruling forces in human society.

In addition to these four children, however, Styx (from her mating with Erebus-Darkness) gave birth to Hades-Pluto. The king of the Underworld, of death and the dead, hated by gods and men, who came from the bowels of the coldest, harshest and most hated Oceanid deity.

Αυτής που οδηγούσε στον θάνατο όποιον θνητό έπινε από την πηγή της, αλλά έδινε την αθανασία στις θεότητες και τους ημίθεους που ζητούσαν τη συνδρομή της. Στα ιερά νερά της πηγής, σημειωτέον, είχε βουτήξει – κατά τον Όμηρο – η νηρηίς Θέτις τον νεογέννητο γιο της Αχιλλέα για να τον κάνει αθάνατο, άτρωτο, αφήνοντας κατά λάθος απ’ έξω τη φτέρνα, που έγινε το τρωτό του σημείο. Και από τα ιερά ”ύδατα της Στυγός”, μετέφερε η γοργοπόδαρη απεσταλμένη του Δία Ίρις νερό σε χρυσό τάσι στον Όλυμπο, για να ορκιστούν σε αυτό οι θεοί, κι όταν ακόμα εξέτιαν ποινή ως τιμωρημένοι.

Sacred waters, but "dark", black (according to Homer always), from the moment the goddess Hera was reflected in them, transformed into a mare, wanting to avoid the harassment of her brother Poseidon who forced her to disappear transformed into the herds of Ogion (son of Apollo)... Waters of Styx, immortalized by the great Homer in his Epics (see Odyssey E 185 and K 466-560, Iliad B 755, I 369 // Dim. Maronitis: Nekyia).

Where Cynan fled to carry water to her beloved brother Alexander, before he embarked on the campaign that would entangle him in the net of war and death. Only – as tradition says – she did not have time to save him from the heavy shadow of his destiny of survival.

And this is because, even when she found him dying in Babylon and gave him the immortal potion to drink in a cup of wine, he (in a few moments of her absence) changed the glasses, granting immortality to his sister, before he died.

The invincible military leader and interculturalist, the only man who achieved so much in such a short period of time, had already gone down in history as "The Great", closing with his death at the age of 33 (June 13, 323 BC) the cycle of the era of the classical Greek world after incredible military and cultural achievements!

In his person, the legends and traditions of the Greek people have since found the ideal of imagination and unfulfilled visions. The one and only one who keeps alive the elusive and the unexplored, the magical and the charismatic.

The symbol of a transcendent world that forever embraced Cyna. "Cyna" (as Alexander affectionately called her), who "flew" with her steed into the "Waters of Styx" begging the goddess to give her brother the immortal water:

– Drop by drop, my haunted water gushes from the bare rock, where you keep the evil souls of men submerged. Oh, if only I could take just one drop of you, to make Alexander immortal!

The big-hearted Cyna, who - unable to bear the pain of his loss - transformed into a mermaid who, with an endless and heartbreaking lament, has since then traversed the seas of the Hellespont and the Aegean, stopping her crying only when she receives a positive response from passing sailors about the fate of her brother:

And this question and answer with Cynan is still experienced intuitively on some magical nights by the sensitive, traveling souls of Greeks, like that of Karkavitsa's lightly shadowed hero in his short story "The Mermaid".

The "Mermaid" who saw her appear in front of him (one night when she was "swimming half a channel with Captain Farasis's brig") asking him with anguish:

– Sailor-old sailor, is King Alexander alive?

To see her transform into a "terrible monster", "a Cyclops with half his body covered in silk" and "living snakes in her silky hair", when he replied to her thoughtlessly and sarcastically:

– Now, my Lady!… Now King Alexander! Not even his soil is on earth…

And then to see her become a beautiful maiden again, when in fear he realized who he was facing and "cried out with broken knees":

– No, Lady, lies!.. He lives and reigns and rules the world!

He lives and reigns in the hearts and dreams of countless Greeks and foreigners, at least...

Krinio Kalogeridou