The Truth about Aegli by Adriana Shum

 This article first appeared in The Symi Visitor newspaper, May 2003.

This is the first in a new series of articles giving some explanations about mythological names with which visitors may not be familiar.  This is not intended to be a comprehensive dissertation and if any readers have any other variations and related myths and legends to tell, we would be interested to hear from them.  Regarding spelling, these vary not only because of differences between alphabets but also because the Romans adopted many of the Greek gods and gave their own names to them.  For the convenience of the reader I have used the most familiar spellings as they are likely to be seen on Symi and in popular literary references.

Greek mythology is a very complex web.  While we have all heard of the basic pantheon - Zeus, Athena, Aphrodite et al, mythology was part of a rich oral tradition, adapted to suit local circumstances with the telling and very much embellished.  Just as today’s media moguls vie to produce ever more impressive ‘special effects’ and torrid tales to keep box office figures up and viewers glued to their soap operas so ancient bards and story tellers had to keep their listeners enthralled.  The popular fascination with the seedy side of the rich and powerful has not changed much over the millennia either.  Amorous antics were as keenly heard as tales of heroic feats, monsters and the supernatural. 

People lived very closely with nature and tried to explain the world around them in ways they understood.  The sun, the moon, the stars, the seasons, the weather, creation - man is a curious creature who wants to know ‘why?’  These early explanations were often anthropomorphic.  In other words, animals, plants etc were endowed with human (or superhuman) powers, similar to the animist religions still practiced in some parts of Africa, Asia and South America today. 

In an early take on ‘spin’ the stories of real historical figures and their actions became so generously embellished in the telling and retelling that the original mortal easily became a god with amazing powers.  After all, if a man has a reputation for great physical strength, why should he not be capable of completing tasks determined by the gods and turn into Hercules?  And if it suits the storyteller to provide his protagonist with another wife or numerous additional children to impress his audience or make a point, why not? 

Bearing all this in mind let us start with a name that a first time visitor arriving may come across, particularly if arriving on that wonder of the twentieth century, Symi’s hydrofoil, the Aegli.  This is not only the name of the local hydrofoil but also of the nineteenth century reading room above the pharmacy and an old hotel in its proximity.  The name is by no means unique to Symi and there are numerous hotels, restaurants and other businesses of that name through out Greece, as even a cursory internet search will reveal. ‘Aegli’ means ‘dazzling light’ or ‘rays of the sun’.  It was one of the three Hesperides, the other two being Hespere and Erytheis. They lived in a remote orchard and sang very beautifully.  But more about them next month, when we have a look at Nireus, another well known Symi name.

Popular Symiot legend has it that Aegli was the daughter of Apollo and that she was kidnapped by Glaucos (Also spelled Glafkos, Glaucus) , the first King of Symi, and became Queen of Symi.  The preamble to this is that Aegli was the ‘other woman’ for whom the hero, Theseus, abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos, only for Glaucos to steal her away.  Glaucos was a fairly busy fellow because an alternative version gives Symi as the name of a water nymph to whom he was married and after whom the island was subsequently named.  The name ‘Aegli’ was also used in ancient times to refer to the island itself.  Glaucos, however, was not just busy with Aegli and Symi.   He also ventured further afield. 

According to Bulfinch,  Glaucos, son of Poseidon and a mortal woman, was a fisherman who by eating a magic herb left over from the Golden Age became a sea-god.  He fell in love with a beautiful maiden, Scylla, a favourite of the water nymphs.  He appealed to the enchantress, Circe, to help him win Scylla.  Circe tried to dissuade him from pursuing an earthly love and rather find someone his equal - like Circe herself, for instance.  He rejected her suggestion and, as she was too partial to his appearance to punish him, she gave vent to her frustration by attacking Scylla instead.  She mixed up an evil brew which she poured into the sea at Scylla’s favourite bathing place, causing the lower half of Scylla’s body to be turned into seething mass of serpents and sea monsters. 

Rooted to the spot the once beautiful maiden became a hideous and lethal hazard to sea farers.  She destroyed six of the companions of Ulysses (Odysseus) and tried to wreck the ships of Aeneas.  Eventually she was changed into a rock which is still a menace to mariners.  This rock, however, is off Sicily which is a long way from Symi.  The magic herb not only endowed Glaucos with immortality.  It also enabled him to swim for days and dive to tremendous depths - very useful traits in the legendary father of the Symi sponge diving industry. 

The name Glaucos means ‘grey-green’ or sea coloured and Glaucos is often depicted as a merman type figure.  He was not only a notorious philanderer and superb diver but also a master shipwright who, so one  story goes, built the fabled ‘Argo’ in which Jason and the Argonauts set forth to Colchis.  The other version is that Jason commissioned the vessel from Argus the Thespian but any Symiot who knows his heritage will tell you to the contrary because after all everyone knows that Symiots have been expert shipbuilders since ancient times - and the godly contribution to the gene pool was definitely to the benefit of the shipbuilders as well as the sponge divers.

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