Have you ever been to hell? Would you go there deliberately? Well some brave, or perhaps stupid, might be a better description, Greek heroes did.
One who did was Theseus, helping his friend Pirithous. Both young men, after accomplishing their many amazing feats, decided they should take new wives for themselves. They decided they would help each other in finding their wives. They didn’t choose a partner who was going to be easy to get. Some nice girl next door who you could just marry and settle down with. No they couldn’t possibly have found more difficult partners. Heroes didn’t woe the women they desired, they took them. Theseus chose the beautiful wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. A young girl known by the name of Helen. That is a massive whole story in itself. So we’ll leave the dramas of the Trojan Wars for another time.
Pirithous, the other hero, decided that the girl that he wanted to take to wife was the legendary beauty Persephone. Menelaus may have been a fearsome warrior and the king of Sparta a nation of the fiercest warriors, but Persephone’s husband was something else. I’m sure you know his name, even if you don’t know anything else about mythology. His name was Hades – the king of the underground. Hell. Get the picture!
To get to hell you had to travel to a place on the southern tip of the Peloponnesian Peninsula known then as Tainaron. Today it’s better known as Cape Matapan. From 27 to 29 March, 1941, the Royal Navy fought a vital battle off the coast of Cape Matapan against the Italian Navy. Prince Philip too, like Theseus and Pirithous crossed into the gates of hell.
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