Kea’s World of Fairytales

For the 11th consecutive year, the Festival of Fairytales will yet again unfold  for ten whole days between the 19th to 29th of July 2013. Fairy tale heroes will pop up on beaches, in the streets, on cobbled paths, the threshing plains and around Kean springs speak of stories about the "wisdom of the world". The type of wisdom profound in its thoughtfulness and simplicity that nurtures Greek civilisation for millennia.   

Kea: Cyclades’ unassuming historical niche (#2)

Kea: Cyclades’ unassuming historical niche (#2)

Kea’s turbulent political status following periodic affairs with the powers that were at the time meant that a series of watch towers needed to be built around the island as an early warning system to protect them from their enemies.

Kea: Cyclades’ unassuming historical niche (#1)

For a tiny island off Attica, Kea is rich in myth and history. 

Once upon a time, according to ancient myth, Kea was a lusciously green island called Hydrossa and was populated by beautiful mythical creatures, the water nymphs, who blessed it with its many fresh springs and fountains. 

So affluent was the island that the nymphs caused the envy of gods who punished them by sending a fierce lion that turned the island into this seemingly dry land. The faithful inhabitants appealed to the semi-god Aristaios, son of Apollo and the nymph Kyrini who rescued the island and made sure that Zeus was kept appeased by dedicating a temple to him at the highest point on the island.