Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese

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Mani
ManiBook.jpg
First edition (UK)
Author Patrick Leigh Fermor
LanguageEnglish
Genre Travel
Publisher John Murray
Publication date
1958
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages320

Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese is a travel book by English author Patrick Leigh Fermor, published in 1958. [1] It covers his journey with his wife Joan and friend Xan Fielding around the Mani peninsula in southern Greece.

Contents

Travel

The book chronicles Leigh Fermor's travels around the Mani peninsula in southern mainland Greece. The region is typically viewed as inhospitable and isolated from much of the remainder of Greece due its harsh geography. The Taygetus mountains run down the middle of the peninsula, limiting most settlements to small villages on or near the coast. They begin near Kalamata, and then proceed south along the Mani coastline (mostly by boat or caique), ending the book in the town of Gytheon.

Leigh Fermor's book almost never mentions his travelling companions, and only rarely delves into first-person experiences. Much of the book concentrates on the history of the Maniots and of their larger place in Greek and European history; the middle portion of the book contains lengthy digressions on art history, icons, religion, and myth in Maniot society.

His future wife Joan accompanied him on the trip and took a number of photographs for the original version of the book. [2]

The cover of the book was designed by John Craxton. [3]

Reception

Mani is sometimes listed as a companion volume to Leigh Fermor's book Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece. [4]

Translation

It was translated into Greek by future prime minister Tzannis Tzannetakis while in internal exile imposed by the Greek military junta. The translation was revised after his release with Leigh Fermor who added a further chapter on olives. [5]

Later life

Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor later settled in the Mani peninsula, living in a house near Kardamyli that the two designed and built.

Related Research Articles

Mani may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Leigh Fermor</span> British author and soldier (1915–2011)

Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's greatest living travel writer, on the basis of books such as A Time of Gifts (1977). A BBC journalist once termed him "a cross between Indiana Jones, James Bond and Graham Greene".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mani Peninsula</span> Geographical and cultural region in southern Greece

The Mani Peninsula, also long known by its medieval name Maina or Maïna, is a geographical and cultural region in the Peloponnese of Southern Greece and home to the Maniots, who claim descent from the ancient Spartans. The capital city of Mani is Areopoli. Mani is the central of three peninsulas which extend southwards from the Peloponnese. To the east is the Laconian Gulf, to the west the Messenian Gulf. The Mani peninsula forms a continuation of the Taygetos mountain range, the western spine of the Peloponnese.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gytheio</span> Municipal unit in Greece

Gytheio or Gythio, also the ancient Gythium or Gytheion, is a town on the eastern shore of the Mani Peninsula, and a former municipality in Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality East Mani, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 197.313 km2.

Las, or Laas (Λάας), or La (Λᾶ), was one of the most ancient towns of Lakedaimonia, located on the western coast of the Laconian Gulf. It is the only town on the coast mentioned in the Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax between Taenarus and Gythium. The Periplus speaks of its port; but, according to Pausanias, the town itself was distant 10 stadia from the sea, and 40 stadia from Gythium. In the time of Pausanias the town lay in a hollow between the three mountains, Asia, Ilium, and Cnacadium; but the old town stood on the summit of Mt. Asia. The name of Las signified the rock on which it originally stood. It is mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad, and is said to have been destroyed by the Dioscuri, who hence derived the surname of Lapersae. There was also a mountain in Laconia called Lapersa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottoman–Egyptian invasion of Mani</span> 1826 Greek military campaign during the Greek War of Independence

The Ottoman–Egyptian invasion of Mani was a campaign during the Greek War of Independence that consisted of three battles. The Maniots fought against a combined Egyptian and Ottoman army under the command of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt.

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Oitylo, known as "Βίτσουλο", pronounced Vitsoulo, in the native Maniot dialect, is a village and a former municipality in Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality East Mani, of which it is a municipal unit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maniots</span> Ethnic subgroup from southern Greece

The Maniots or Maniates are an ethnic Greek subgroup that traditionally inhabit the Mani Peninsula; located in western Laconia and eastern Messenia, in the southern Peloponnese, Greece. They were also formerly known as Mainotes, and the peninsula as Maina.

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References

  1. Leigh Fermor, Patrick (1958). Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese. Harper. ISBN   9781590171882.
  2. Veronica Horwell (17 June 2003). "Obituary: Joan Leigh Fermor | Global". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  3. "Biography – John Craxton 1922-2009" . Retrieved 9 February 2024.
  4. Greenberg, Michael (23 June 2016). "New York Review Books". Nybooks.com. Retrieved 16 July 2016.{{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  5. Cooper, Artemis Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure (John Murray, 2012) p349-50