MANI

Travels in the Southern Peloponnese by Patrick Leigh Fermor

ISBN: 978-0-7195-6691-2

First published 1958

310 pages

Cover design: John Craxton

4/5 Stars

Ostensibly a travelogue of the Mani peninsula at the tip of the Southern Peloponnese, it is actually a homage to the lost age of Byzantium, and all Greek culture through the ages. Patrick Leigh Fermor uses the villages and towns of the Mani to take us through ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Frankish, Turkish eras. We learn new stories with each passing dawn.

We understand the blood feuds and peculiar vengeance of the Mani, the outer Mani and the Deep Mani. How the peninsular was always a refuge, for the Spartans when Sparta fell, for the Cretans when Crete fell to the Turks and numerous other groups as well. And how this influenced the nature of the population on the peninsula.

But it is with the description of Byzantium that Patrick excels, he mourns for the lost renaissance that Byzantium would have had, had it not been betrayed by the West (the Catholic West) and conquered by the East (The Islamic Turks). Having first visited Constantinople when he was 18, as detailed in A Time of Gifts, it is clear  he mourns the loss of that culture all too deeply and is looking to find lost traces of it within the people and practices, customs and language of the Mani.

A wonderful book for anyone who wants to understand that Greece is more than just a history book or a City State from 2000 years ago.