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The toponyms of Psiloritis constitute a distinct field of research, study, and tradition, revealing how the local history of the central mountainous massif of Crete has been shaped through time—through the succession of civilizations and the continuous human presence on the mountain.
“The beginning of wisdom is the examination of names,” according to Antisthenes, since every toponym is a different key that opens the door of time to the history, myths, and legends of the mountain.
With the launch of the METartUm Project – “The mitata of Psiloritis as virtual shelters of inspiration and laboratories of contemporary art,” the aim is to produce works emerging from the synthesis of myth, folk culture, and cultural heritage, interacting with contemporary art, emerging technologies, and the social realities of the present.
Three locations were selected, each bearing its own history embedded in its name, in the tradition of the builders of their dry-stone structures, and in the collective cultural memory of the people who continue to keep the pastoral world of Psiloritis alive.
The area where the first performative artwork took place—combining musical and choreographic improvisation—is the peak Chaméni or Chamenoi, within the pastoral grazing lands (apóstrofes) of the Kefalogiannis family, in the mountainous territory of the Municipality of Anogeia.
The peak Chaméni or Chamenoi, according to local oral tradition, narrates through its very name a tragic story from the period of Ottoman rule. Its name refers to the collective disappearance of Anogeian civilians at the hands of Ottoman occupation forces.
In this specific area, many women and children from Anogeia were located, captured, and ultimately “lost”—with their fate remaining unknown to this day—while seeking refuge on the rebellious slopes of Psiloritis during periods of revolutionary activity and resistance against the occupiers (Σμπώκος, 2015).
From this dramatic event and the “Lost Ones” of this peak, the people of Anogeia named the entire toponym Chamenoi / Chaméni as a tribute of memory and honor to the women and children who sought protection by turning to the mountainous land of Ida.
On this same land, in a mythical past, the newborn Zeus, after the flight of his mother Rhea, found refuge in the Idaean Cave (Idaion Antron) under the protection of the Kouretes and the Idaean Dactyls, and was nurtured by the goat Amalthea and the nymphs Melissa, Adrasteia, Ida, and other mythological beings.
This first divine refugee of Greek mythology later becomes the king of the Olympian generation of gods, prevailing in the Titanomachy against his father Cronus, thus inaugurating the third theogony.
Within this new anthropomorphic order of gods—mortal and immortal—Zeus transforms: from stranger to Xenios (protector of strangers), from suppliant to Hikesios (protector of supplicants), and from a child hidden in a secret cave to the guardian of asylum and hospitality in what has been called the “Bethlehem of Antiquity,” the sacred pantheon of the Idaean Cave.
This entire cycle of stories, myths, and legends forms the inspiration for a contemporary artistic action of choreography, physical theatre, and musical improvisation titled “ProsfyGaia – Prosfygaea.” Its central conceptual axis revolves around the ideas of birth, protection, war, displacement, and hope, as a timeless invocation of supplication and asylum in the land of the Cretan-born Zeus.
It is a journey of refuge that begins in the mythical past of Ida and continues into the historical Psiloritis of today—a mountain that has welcomed, along its slopes and in its communities, the persecuted, hainides (Cretan rebels and outlaws), revolutionaries, resistance fighters, forbidden lovers, and seekers of refuge, with hospitality practiced as a customary moral principle and tradition of continuity.
Through a collaborative process, actress and performer Maria Athitaki, together with performer and certified trainer Stella Melampianaki, created a composition of contemporary choreography and physical theatre, accompanied by the musical improvisation of the Anogeian musician Vasilis Dramoundanis on the mandolin.
Inspired by the thematic axis of the timeless search for protection in the Earth (ProsfyGaia) of Psiloritis, this collective artistic action was realized with the creative contribution of Manolis Papadakis (director and filmmaker), Thodoris Evdaimon (researcher at the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory of FORTH), and designer Giannis Oikonomakis, in a collaboration between Androidus Project Tank, the Municipality of Anogeia, and the Institute of Computer Science of FORTH.
We warmly thank Mr. Kostas Kefalogiannis (Thrabalokostas) and the family of Mr. Vasileios Kefalogiannis (Kountovasilis) for hosting this action at their mitata (traditional stone shepherd’s huts of the Cretan mountains) on the peak of Chamenio (Psiloritis UNESCO Global Geopark) at an altitude of 1,260 meters.
We also extend our sincere thanks to lawyer and political scientist Konstantinos Kefalogiannis and entrepreneur Aris Kefalogiannis for their meaningful support in the realization of this action, as well as to student Andreas Kefalogiannis for his welcome and assistance during the event.
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