Saturday, December 26, 2015

Spil Mountain National Park

A text only post, and about history, afield from fauna and flora, sort of...and grim, so dear readers, a caution to read on...

I'll put the search strings in bold, these are the beginning of a quote, and the link(s), the ulr(s), which are highlighted too, will be the quote(s) end(s)...


hmmph...on page 58 of Robert Graves' book The White Goddess, there's this:

"The Centuars' Mother Goddess was called, in Greek, Leucothea, 'the White Goddess', but the Centaurs themselves called her Ino, Plastene, and her rock cut image is still shown near the ancient pinnacle-town of Tantalus..."

and I tasked myself with finding that rock cut image on the web...the town Tantalus, I believe is at...

Tantalus Turkey Plastene

Her father was the ruler of a city called "Tantalis"[1] or "the city of Tantalus", or "Sipylus", in reference to Mount Sipylus at the foot of which his city was located...

Niobe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
 A more famous monument, a full-faced statue carved in rock mentioned by Pausanias is a statue of Cybele, said by Pausianias to have been carved by Broteas is in fact Hittite
 

Tantalus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
 
 
I'm not sure where the 'pinnacle town' is, possibly a monastery built on the slopes of two mountains close together thereabout, one a volcano with a crater lake,  and the other...
 
Mount Sipylus
 
Spil Mountain National Park is rich in history with many myths. According to one, the mountain was named after Cybele, the wife of god Cronos where she is carved into the rocks in Akpinar.
 
 
and of course there is some controversy now as to if the carving is a goddess or a god!...it is much eroded, which gives it even more charm!...anyway, it was a fine roundabout searchabout to find it, and seems a very fine thing that it is nested in a Turkish National Park...another quote from same site:
 
"You will also find a wide variety of flora and fauna. Cavernous developments in the area have resulted in many canyons, caves and steep valleys. The main species of trees here include pine, juniper, poplar, walnut, elm and oak, 20 of which have been determined in scientific research as scarce. Also found here are the Manisa tulips, which gave their name to a period of the Ottoman Empire and were taken to Europe. Species of wildlife living in the park include bears, jackals, roe deer, foxes, badgers, wild goats, vultures and eagles, and there is also a pheasant production farm. You can find some great furnished housing options in the area when visiting as well as camp sites."
 
bit suspicious of the wild goats...but the great god Pan is next!...
 
DavidDavid
 
 
 
 



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