Reviews for Cyclades: Discovering the Greek Islands of the Aegean

The average rating for Cyclades: Discovering the Greek Islands of the Aegean based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-01-15 00:00:00 Jay Nichols John Freely is American, the author of around forty books on popular travel and the history of Greece and Turkey. Now in his late eighties, he is still at it. 'The Cyclades-Discovering the Greek Islands of the Aegean' was published as recently as 2006 and since then he has written on the Ionian Islands, published in 2008. The historical, cultural and geographic detail in this book covers more than seven thousand years of settlement in the Cyclades, from Neolithic, Minoan, Persian, Classic Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman rules as well as Italian and German occupations in WWII and right through to the late twentieth century tourist boom. The author covers each island in the group in fifteen chapters, and it appears there is hardly a village or town or archaeological site or beach that he has missed. Perhaps this is one of the books faults. Some of this detail can become somewhat repetitious, as each islands capital is called Chora, with the attendant fortified construction called Kastro. However, this is much more than just a travel guide. For instance in his history of the island of Melos he writes, "Melos prospered more than most of the Cyclades, since it was the home of many of the mariners employed by the corsairs, most of them French, who at the time were the scourge of the Aegean. One of these corsairs, a Greek named Captain Ioannis Kapsis, made himself master of Melos in 1677, but three years later he was captured by the Turks and executed in Istanbul. Turkish retribution then made life intolerable for the Melians, causing a large number of them, together with refugees from Samos, to sail off to England under the leadership of the Archbishop of Melos, Georgirenes. When the islanders arrived in London they were welcomed by the Duke of York, the future King James II, who allowed them to buy homes in what is now Soho's Greek Street, which takes its name from them. Soon afterwards they bought a plot on Hog Lane, afterwards to be called Crown Street, where they built the first Greek Orthodox church in England." Throughout Freely refers back to the likes of Apollonius of Rhodes and his 'Voyage of Argo', as well as Herodotus and Homer or James Bent's 'Aegean Islands' from 1885. My 'old man' sailed and battled in the Aegean in WWII, I have for too long held a fancy to visit. The final paragraph of this book sums it up. "These are the Cyclades, the islands at the centre of the Aegean world, the lost empire of the sea that awaits discovery at the end of the mule track."

Review # 2 was written on 2015-12-07 00:00:00 Will Jackson I loved this book the women who wrote these stories completely understand how I feel about this beautiful place