We returned to the Airbnb after our trip to Cheiron’s Cave and loaded the rental car. Turning the car around, we waved goodbye to our hostess, and drove to a nearby mini market for road supplies. On our walk to the market, I pointed out a very well maintained Chenopodium (photo left). This genus of plants is treated as a weed by many, but our anthropologist Paul notes that it is a historically important food plant. This one, which had been artificially shaped like an arbor vitae, was obviously well-loved by a local resident.

We got in the car and headed back towards Volos, stopping for lunch at a seaside cafe in the village of Agria called FOCO Coffee Bar & Pizzeria. The food was inexpensive, and their pizza really hit the spot after a morning of crawling around in a collapsed cave. Michael P. sat at the end of a concrete pier near our table and dangled his feet in the Pagasetic Gulf, while Paul waded barefoot in the surf.

Michael P. (left) looks like he just wants to eat in peace instead of having me document our meal. 😄

After lunch, we headed through Volos on E92 and then north on the E75 back towards Larissa. This entire area would be ravaged by heartbreaking flooding in the summer of 2023, but it was smooth sailing in September of 2022. The E75 loops south and east of ancient Larissa, the home of King Peleus and birthplace of his son, the mighty demi-God warrior Achilles, by the sea nymph Thetis. We were on a tight schedule, and so didn’t have a chance to stop at the new-ish (2015) Diachronic Museum of Larissa, but a visit there is certainly on the books for a future trip.

Keeping to the E75, we traveled northward, skirting to the west of the mountain fastness of Ossa (upon which the Gigantes had piled Mount Pelion during the Gigantomachy) before slipping eastward between the foothills of Ossa and those of Mount Olympos. From there, the E75 headed northward along the western coast of the Thermaean Gulf, then turned off onto Epar. Odos Katerinis-Limena Litochoriou towards the modern city of Dion and the ancient sanctuary for which it is named.

Dion was an important religious and administrative center in ancient Macedonia and, later, the Roman Empire. Orpheus is said to have been murdered nearby by maenads of Dionysos.

Important structures at Dion include the temple and sanctuary of Zeus Hypsistos (“Zeus the Highest”) and Zeus Olympios, the sanctuary and temple complex of Demeter, and the sanctuary and temple of Isis. A temple of Asklepios is present, as is a theatre dedicated to Dionysos. The river Vaphyras borders the site and was once honored with a temple to the river God. A small temple to Artemis was also present. There is a separate museum nearby in the village, but we were pressed for time and could only spare an hour at the site before heading on again.

Up the hill from the water fountain (photo above) are the remains of the Roman privies (photo left). The abundance of water on the site would have been sufficient to ensure good santitation. Indeed, the site is graced with so much water that the course of the Vaphyras River had to be moved several meters a few years ago because of the flooding that it was causing to the low-lying Isis sanctuary.