As lovely as it was, we had to leave Mykonos behind. Our heading at the moment is south by southeast. We’ll go 180 miles before arriving at the eastern-most Greek island – Rhodes. Rhodes has an interesting history. And I have a personal history with a different Rhodes, as you will soon see.
We’re a long way from home. Rhodes is nestled in towards the eastern end of the Mediterranean sea. If we overshoot by 80 miles, we’ll be in Turkey.
A Well-Traveled Sea Route
We’re on the same course traveled by many a trader and by many a Crusader back in the day. Rhodes’ strategic location has been a blessing and a curse. A blessing due to the wealth brought by trade, but a curse because every powerful state in the region has wanted to claim Rhodes as its own.
A thousand years ago, Rhodes was the final outpost for ships sailing from Europe before entering a drastically different land. To the trader, it would be a land of exotic goods -silk, oil, sugar, pepper, and spices. To the Crusader, it was the land of the Infidel.
Crusaders stopped at Rhodes on their way to the Holy Land. But there had been fighting a-plenty here long before Europeans were on the scene. There were Greeks, Romans, Persians, and Turks. And before them, Egyptians, Macedonians, Babylonians, Syrians, and more.
Thanks to its strategic location, the beautiful island of Rhodes often found itself in the middle of all the action.
There was Another Rhodes
I have my own history with the name, “Rhodes.” Not because of the place we’re headed for, but because of a lad by that name with whom I shared a certain musical experience.
He and I were both in “Orchestra”, such as it was, in elementary school. To call this rag-tag assemblage of twenty dust-covered urchins an “orchestra” is a stretch. Some of those kids wanted to be there, but Mr. Rhodes and I would have rather been playing marbles or kickball.
My “instrument” was the drums. I got to hit things and make noise, which was good. But also not so good because I had to do so in a controlled, disciplined manner.
Young Mr. Rhodes attemted to play the violin – not a popular pursuit by schoolboys in my neighborhood at the time.
Trouble
During class, when the orchestra played, young Rhodes would occasionally fake it. He’d move the bow back and forth while deftly keeping it a quarter inch above the strings, lest he make any actual noise. The other violins made enough noise to cover for him.
When I’d look across the room and see young Mr. Rhodes faking it, I’d lose control and miss a few beats on the drums.
While standing there faking it, he’d look over at me with an innocent “who me?” face, his eyes darting from side to side. I had absolutely no chance of maintaining self-control.
The result was always the same. The instructor, who was not enamored with me to begin with, would stop the music. Then he and I would spend some quality one-on-one time in front of the rest of the class. This was never a good experience.
I’ll always have a special memory when the name, “Rhodes”, appears.
Worse Trouble
But let’s get back to the Rhodes, the island. So much fighting was done on Rhodes back in the day. Perhaps the most well-known battle for Rhodes came about when a marauding Macedonian named Demetrius the Besieger decided he wanted to add Rhodes to his list of conquests.
Not only that. He wanted to teach the Rhodians a lesson. Demetrius and the Rhodians had once teamed up against a common foe. When the going got tough, the Rhodians left Demetrius in the lurch. Now it was payback time.
You know, it’s never good when someone named “Demetrius the Besieger” comes to call. Say the doorbell rings one day. You ask, “Who’s there?,” and the answer comes back, “Demetrius the Besieger.”
Even if you’ve never met, you’re probably going to yell out, “We’re not home! Come back in 50 years or so!”
But let’s leave Demetrius the Besieger standing at the door to Rhodes for now. We’ll pick it up right here next time.
To be continued…
Map Credit: in2greece.com
