Athitos / Folklore - Tradition / Legends - Traditions

TOPONYMY & LEGENDS

Legend of the Ancient spring of Babakilet
Above the spring, on a rock, the year 1733+ is incised. The name was given by somebody named Papaggelou or Papaggeletis.

There is a legend saying that, after the battle of Toroni, General Agisipoles of Sparta did not die in the holy temple of Dionysus but near this spring. He was later placed in an earthenware jar full of honey and transferred to Sparta . Agisipole's golden armor is said to be buried somewhere near the spring which is guarded by a huge snake that was the terror of Aphito's residents.
Since this fountain was hidden in the trees, women used to take their bath and wash their clothes, avoiding, in this way, men's indiscretion.

Legend of the ancient spring of Vrisitsa
The elderly people say that the prehistoric hill, Koutsomilos, was hollow and somewhere there was a secret passage that led to a cave which was the hideaway of the Aphetes from their conquerors. At the bottom of Koutsomilos hill there is an ancient spring named Vrisitsa. During a raid of the invaders, the princess and the villagers took refuge there. As she was knitting, her ball of thread fell to the ground and got stuck in the spring. The invaders saw it and noticed the existence of the cave, they found and killed all the villagers and the princess.
Of course the trough created by the spring is not big enough to conceal someone, but according to testimonies there really is a secret alley in Koutsomilos hill, that leads to the fountain head from where the citadel got its water at times of siege.

• Hey, Maria, did 'ya learn about the mess and pitiful state? God'll burn us in hell for that!
• Why what happened Limounia?
• Didn't you learn about Gerakina's baby? They christened the might and they are not at all ashamed 'bout it.
• Why, man, what's bad about that?
• But the name they gave the poor might, they've wasted him.
• What did they name 'im? C'mon tell me!
• Be gone with you! I can't. It's too embarrassing! Forgive me, Lord!
• Gamemnou, they called 'im (exp. The name was Agamemnon but with their village accent "Gamemnou" sounds like an offensive sexual phrase).

TRADITIONS OF SIMPLE PEOPLE OF APHITOS
(Extracts from the magazine "Cassandra", issue No 3, Dec.1994)

Uncle John's narration
Uncle John Giovani, son of Dimitris and Sophia, was born in 1914 and he related the following:
The first memories he has are from the Asia Minor catastrophe. They had brought the people of Fokaia to Cassandra. They settled them at Lavreotiko (property of the St. Laura monastery). They suffered greatly. They were mowed down by disease. They would carry the dead in a cart and bury them. Later they built houses for the refugees in the St. Paul area, where the village of New Fokaies is found today.
He also remembers the dictatorship of Pagalos in 1926.
What he said about the 1930 - 40 period is that people worked very hard in the fields, but wheat sold at a good price. It had reached 8 drachmae per oke (1280 gr). Most of the villagers were farmers. There were some fishermen but they were not organized. People celebrated only during name days and during the carnival. When it was somebody's name day, all the relatives gathered in his house bringing wine, sausages, chicken etc. with them. When they all had plenty to eat and drink, they started singing. First they sang simple songs and then songs to dance to. He remembered a song that his father sang during the carnival.

Translation:
- Where are you going, you poor ant, so heavily loaded?
- I've got grapevines and grapes I'm going to pick.
- They vines are heavy with grapes
- Some are eaten by the crows, and some by the field guard,
- What is left I stamp on to get a little wine.

About the destruction of Cassandra:
"The destruction was extensive. When the Turks came to Portis (Potidea) they reached a place called Pinakas, it was a village. They burnt it to the ground. That's where the people of Pinaka come from. In Valta, by the church of the Nativity, as you go through the entrance there is a marble slab with a vine. They had taken the vine from Pinaka. The Turks proceeded and came to Athitos. Besides the Taxiarches church, they only left three houses standing. I still remember some of the murals of the church. An archaeologist had said that they had been drawn in 1300. But they demolished this little church." (Order given by Callinicus of Cassandra)

The mules and the asses.
A beekeeper from Valta sold a dead mule for a deer to one of the villagers of Aphitos. As he was leaving he went to the top of Koutsomilos hill and shouted:

Whoever cooked had better cook again
Because this wasn't a deer with antlers,
But a mule with horseshoes.

To get back at them, a man from Aphitos sold an ass loin as veal shank to the people of Valta. And that's where the nicknames came from, Mules for the former and Asses for the latter.

Narration of uncle Dimosthenis
Uncle Dimosthenis Argiroudis, son of Sophocles, a potter, was born the year the Turks were leaving. This is how his mother remembers it because she didn't know the year. This was in 1912.
This is what his grandmother told him about the destruction. At Portes (Potidea) there was a castle with loopholes and that's where the people of Cassandra kept the Turks for five years! (legend) . His great grandmother, Helen, went to Olympus after the destruction of Cassandra to save herself. She came back when she was pardoned.
Uncle Dimosthenis also remembers the rebellion of Kamenos, of the A' Military Corps in 1934, and how the rebels gave themselves up at the bridge of Sidirokastro. He was doing his military service then as a recruit.

Folk poets
Uncle John Pavlis also wrote many other poems. The following is for his wife Maria.
Translation:
I was a poor lad with pick in hand
And then I married Mary.
I was poor, she was poor, both without a loaf,
But nobody goes amiss if God so wishes.
In the oppression when everything was dark
Not a dime did we ever have.
But after the war all was fine
And many a problem had been solved.

Maria, his wife, relates the following:

"Once he (uncle John) sent a letter to queen Frideriki because he used to cut down bushes in the forest with his pick and the forest rangers caught him and took him to court. And then he said: "I'll take care of you". So he sent a letter to the queen. And queen Frideriki sent a reply. We got the letter and we kept it. When he was called before the judge they asked him: "Why do you cut down bushes in the forest?" "Because I am poor and I want to have a field" he replied. "But don't you know that the law forbids this?" "I know it, but what can I do? Sue me if you want". "We will" they said. Then Uncle John took out the queen's letter and said to them "Read this letter!" When they read it they said, "Oh, with this letter you can cut down the whole forest."

Aphitos in a festival race competing with other villages.

Let Fourka and Calandra burn,
And sinking be to Valta,
But let poor Athitos once more,
The Lord's protection gain.