It's all in the stories

A recent much-too-short trip to Greece tossed up different reactions from each of us that composed the tour group. Some sat transfixed and stared in awe, some grew wings on their feet and whizzed around trying to experience each thing twice in the hope that it would stay longer in memory.

A few plodded along grumbling about the bare bones of a civilization long dead, others could ‘see' in the now bare friezes every carving that once existed, could visualise the walls between the broken, freestanding columns, and even picture the grandeur of the many statues that had adorned the Parthenon, the temples of Poseidon and Aphaia, and the other places we visited.

What do you do when you experience a place so full of stories that your mind and heart overflow with images and emotions? Do you store them in pixels in your camera or do you try to carry them around in your mind's eye to flip through at will whenever you need a break from the routine of the day? And now that you are back at the grindstone, do you wish yourself again on those cobalt blue waters or before those mighty columns of marble?

We were blessed during our trip with a guide who brought history and mythology alive for us and through her tales we ‘witnessed' the wonderful moment when the gods fought for the right to be the patron of Athens. There stood the mighty Poseidon, striking his trident into the rock of the Acropolis and bringing forth a gush of sea water along with huge war horses to keep Athens ever victorious in war. Then came wise Athena, with her gift of an olive tree to bring prosperity to the people - and the choice was made. Athena it was - and Athens came to be!

Choosing prosperity over military might did not seem like a choice a group like ours, largely composed of retirees from the armed forces, would have made. "Imagine if the Greeks had opted for Poseidon!" the most vocal among us repeated ruefully every few minutes. "The course of history would have been different! Greece would be THE superpower and we wouldn't be walking among ruins!"

But ruins were not all we saw in Greece. We did our share of cruising among the islands and driving along the coastline, holding our breath as each bend in the road revealed a pretty little bay, the open sea, an island that seemed within swimming distance ... and at practically every turn we heard a tale. "This was the centre of the slave trade," "Here's where tons of silver were carted down from the silver mines that gave rise to the wealth of Athens," "This is where there was a cave lake a thousand years ago ..."

Our ears still ringing with the stories of the past — mythology, history and fiction, all wrapped together — I think back to the adaptations and abridged versions of The Iliad and The Odyssey that I heard when I was young. I had always found it hard to understand how Odysseus, the man who was credited with the winning strategy of the Trojan Horse, could spend a decade wandering around the islands of the Aegean Sea, lost, getting into one horrific scrape after another before finally returning home.

He did not have a guide as good as ours, I think, to tell him the stories, and forewarn and forearm him. Or then again, maybe he did. And her stories made him want to experience each island first hand — as I do now, willing to miss the flight and stay on to live every saga I have heard.

Cheryl Rao is a journalist based in India.