The steward from Bologna, working on the boat on which Lawrence Durrell* first arrives in Cyprus in the 1950s, sums up the island for Durrell curtly   – “ it is not much of a place”…

…“ Arid and without water. The people drink to excess” he clarifies, and the wine is “heavy and sweet”, an affront no doubt to his Italian palate. The girls are “very ugly”, adding after more thought ”very ugly indeed”.

Later, in a more benevolent spirit, he describes Cyprus  as “fertile and full of goddesses and mineral springs, ancient castles and monasteries, fruit and grain and verdant grasslands; priests and gypsies and brigands”.

Durrell himself, almost dismissively, describes Cyprus as an “appendix of the Anatolian continent”. Probably meant as a politico-geological reference, it carries with it the implication that it does not have its own character, its own spirit.  Today, as a divided island swollen by migrants from Anatolia, Durrell’s geographical characterisation carries a contemporary political and social resonance.   

Sheila Hawkins, in her book ‘The Back of Beyond’ about a Brit’s retirement to Cyprus in the 1980s after two terms of service in the RAF,  describes Cyprus as ‘like a leaf randomly cast into the water’ in the eastern Med. She goes on:

“It is a land of sunshine and fair breezes, of history and legend. Fertile valleys and pine clad mountains, of spectacular beauty, leading on all sides to the brilliantly blue sea.”

This would be a fair description of Cyprus some 25 years ago. Today it misses out the (over)development of the coastal tourist strips and the hustle and bustle of an unstoppable expanding Nicosia on the southern side of the island. Here there is little left to remind you of the old sleepy Cyprus with its forgotten kindnesses and isolated villages, and when a stranger was a guest not an opportunity.

And yet:-

• The apostles of Christ walked this land, and knight crusaders ruled from mountain top castles and lowland fortresses;

• Venetians constructed battlements to house whole cities, and Ottomans converted catholic cathedrals worthy of Catalonia or Castile into imposing mosques;

• Byzantine monks built simple churches and magnificent monasteries in tucked away mountain hideaways far from unappreciative raiders, and artisans crafted into their walls and ceilings some of the most dramatic and beautiful frescoes, recognised today by UNESCO as world heritage sites;

• Roman governing classes fashioned houses and theatres to rival those elsewhere in the Roman empire, and hermits scraped out holes in mountainsides to create chapels dedicated to a lifetime of worship of their saviour;

• And ‘pagans’ from all over the Eastern Med. came to worship their gods, and one goddess in particular,  at temples and shrines whose remains litter the island.

Nowadays few visitors nor many natives bother to venture far from the overcrowded beaches to discover the traditional heart and soul of the “Sweet Land of Cyprus”:-

• The diplokampino** has replaced the mule; the restaurant has replaced home cooking (in the true sense of the word – ingredients found at home);

• The villa/ apartment has replaced the adobe farmsteads; commerce and professions have replaced farming and artisanship;

• Hedonism and extravagance has replaced tradition and simple taste;  hypermarkets and malls have replaced the street hawker and door to door salesman;

• Cafe society has replaced the kafeneion; the nuclear family has replaced the extended family;

• Neon light has replaced candlelight; and debt has replaced self-sufficiency.

As memories pass into myth, do they still live in the soul of man?

* Bitter Lemons - an autobiographical work by writer Lawrence Durrell, describing the three years (1953–1956) he spent on the island of Cyprus

** A truck with 2 passenger cabins so it can be used for dual purpose - to haul goods and/or the family