Reading “The Cyclades” – Vanessa Gordon on Naxos

Vanessa Gordon

Who better than Vanessa Gordon, author of The Naxos Mysteries, to read extracts from the Bents’ eventful Xmas 1883/4 visit to that island for our ‘Reading The Cyclades’ project marking the 140th (1885-2025) anniversary of Theodore Bent’s classic The Cyclades, or Life Among the Insular Greeks.

Click here for other readings and if you would like to join in, do contact us.

 

Naxos [Bent’s Ch. 14: Sunday, 23 December 1883 – Monday, 7 January 1884]

The Naxos Mysteries: 1 – 4 (Vanessa Gordon, 2025).

Our third reading from Bent’s extended Naxos chapter taken from his classic 1885 Cyclades travelogue is provided by Vanessa Gordon, author of the six books in the series The Naxos Mysteries, all to do with ‘archaeology, mystery and murder on the beautiful Greek island of Naxos’, involving her lead character, the archaeologist Martin Day; all themes, not totally disconnected from Theodore Bent’s narrative.

The statue of Apollonas, Naxos. Mabel Bent writes in her diary: “We had a great deal of difficulty in the morning about starting to go and see an unfinished colossal statue said to be of Apollo, 1½ hour off near the sea… We had to leave the mules and climb with hands as well as feet to the quarry and on to the statue, which is enormous and very rough and weather worn.” (Wikipedia)

We should not be surprised, therefore, to find Theodore and Mabel making cameo appearances in two of Vanessa’s books – The Search for Artemis (2021, pp. 39-49, 129-30) and The House in Apíranthos (2024, p. 142) – this latter village featuring prominently in her reading here.

In this extract, Bent makes one of the earliest descriptions in English of the gigantic statue of ‘Apollo’ at Apollonas, and listen out, too, for references to the village of Komiaki (Koronida), where the Bents first encountered their mercurial dragoman Manthaios Simos, from neighbouring Anafi. As faithful as mercurial, Simos was instrumental in the rescue of the desperately ill Bents, east of Aden, in early 1897.

Area of Apíranthos, Naxos, Cyclades (Google Maps).

The Secrets of Stelida, Vanessa’s seventh title in her series is due in February 2026. She writes: ‘I love the mystery genre, which enables me to explore the magic of Greek antiquity, the wonderful landscape and the cuisine of Greece, and the rich complexities of human nature. In The Naxos Mysteries I try to appeal to both the mind and the heart of my reader, engaging them in the passions and tragedies of the characters in a context of discovery and exploration.’