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We had arranged for several Texas family visitors to Greece to stay with us at authentic Greek lighthouses. Our Texas nephews Garrett and Joshua Garza often stayed with us, but we wanted them to experience Psaromyta Lighthouse. This one had a fantastic view of the Corinth Channel and the mountain peaks of the Peloponnese.
Of course, the view from the terrace is always the best, but this one forbade entry to the terrace because of the dangerous stairwell and due to disintegration, the removal of the original 20-inch-wide marble railing which had not yet been replaced. Also large marble pieces had fallen from the terrace of the 100-year-old lighthouse.
Joshua, our godson, only 5 years old, watched as his 10-year-old brother, Garrett, used his boy-scout skills to climb up the 90% vertical stone wall. He teased his younger brother, Joshua, as well as Nicholas Lepessis, Danae, Jason and Hermes Arvanitis, the Greek children visiting, because they couldn’t scale the stone wall. They wanted to follow Garrett none the less.
The residing, penultimate Texas cowboy with an ancient Greek name, Homer, never traveling without his cowboy hat, boots, and lasso, devised a plan. He was sure his lassos made anything possible. With the finessing of the “Nonnos,” or Greek Godfather, and the Texas cowboy, they devised a saddle of sorts; they ran the lasso through the loops of Joshua’s life jacket to hoist the younger children to the top. They made conquest of the tower and ascended to the lighthouse terrace.
The children climbed one by one in their “saddle” to their pleasure and the entertainment of those of us who remained below to cheer them on. We realized how much fun we could have without all the modern entertainment devices that lighthouses lack.
As we enjoyed the vistas from the lighthouse, Anthi Vaiou, whom we like to call our very own “Lighthouse Goddess” in her white flowing Greek gown, explained to the visiting Texans the meaning of the name of the lighthouse “Psaromyta,” Anthi explained that the Greek word “psari” means fish and the word “myti” means nose. We were residing in a lighthouse called “the fish’s nose.” With that in mind, it was time to go fishing!
Many Greek lighthouses have meanings connected to the sea, light, antiquity and mythology. The meaning of many Greek lighthouse names can be read in “The Lighthouses of Greece” by Elinor DeWire and Dolores Reyes-Pergioudakis.
This story appeared in the
Mar/Apr 2012 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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