Mousis’s Mario

Legend has it that during the festival of Saint Thekla in Pontamos, pirates in disguise kidnapped a beautiful young woman, Mariou, the daughter of Mousis, and took her away from the island to the coast of Africa, where they sold her into slavery. Many years later, in an African port, Mario met some sponge divers from Chalkis and asked them to take her back to her homeland. The sponge divers asked her to name three landmarks to prove she was telling the truth. She replied: Cold water from Grapia (a spring on the road to Kammeno Spilaio), scarus from Liaotes, and grapes from Kato Gi. Convinced that only a woman from Chalkis could know these things, they wrapped her in a mat and brought her back. Thus, Mariou managed, even if just a little before the end of her life, to return to her homeland. Centered around this folkloric story is a two-day event that will include music and dance, a “theft” but also a “return”… At the feast of Saint Thekla (October 3), by candlelight and without any technical assistance, Savvas Perselis (lyre) and Binis Zampetoulas (lute) play using only the natural power of their instruments.

Kaiti Koullia takes the lead in celebrating this “return” (October 4); with her distinctive voice and authentic island sensibility, she is one of the most distinctive figures in Greek traditional song. With a deep knowledge of our musical tradition, she passionately interprets songs of the Aegean, connecting the past with the present through truth and emotion. There could be no more fitting voice to musically “clothe” a legend that honors women, nostalgia, and love for the homeland.