24 2 / 2013
Journey around the Peloponnese
Poet and Nobel Prize Winner Seamus Heaney on his journey around the Peloponnese:
“I first visited the Peloponnese in 1995, and as we drove through places with mythic names—Argos, Nemea, where Heracles wrestled with the lion—I could hardly believe they were real. As we entered Arcadia, the road was covered in apples—they must have fallen from a lorry—and we drove over them, crunching. Such sense of omen, good omen, and benediction—and in Arcadia! In Pylos, we found everyone was looking for me, including the Swedish Academy. So the end of that journey was in a helicopter, flying to Athens, feeling rather shocked, grateful to have this time to gather myself.”
