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toyotaTRD — State Of Grace
#arta #bridge #greece #hellas #river #epirus #arachthos
Published: 2015-08-19 17:45:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 397; Favourites: 33; Downloads: 3
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Nikon D5000Location: Arta, Greece
According to the folk ballad, 45 masons and 60 apprentices, under the leadership of the Head Builder, were building a bridge, but its foundations would collapse each night. Finally a bird with a human voice informed the Head Builder that, in order for the bridge to remain standing, he should sacrifice his wife. As she is being buried alive in the foundations of the construction, she curses the bridge to flutter like a leaf, and those who pass it to fall like leaves also. She is then reminded that her brother is abroad and might pass the bridge himself, so she changes her curses so as to become actual blessings: "As the tall mountains tremble, so shall the bridge tremble, and as the birds of prey fall, so shall passers fall".
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Comments: 3
Almost identical story relating to the Curtea de Argeş Monastery:
Manole legend
A legend tells of Radu Negru employing a Meşterul Manole or Manoli as architect. With Manole being unable to finish the walls, the prince threatened him and his assistants with death. At last Manole suggested that they should follow the ancient custom of placing a living woman into the foundations; and that she who first appeared on the following morning should be the victim. The other masons warned their families, and Manole was forced to sacrifice his own wife. Thus the cathedral was built.
When Manole and his masons told the prince that they could always build an even greater building, Radu Negru had them stranded on the roof so that they could not build something to match it. They fashioned wooden wings and tried to fly off the roof, but, one by one, they all fell to the ground. A spring of clear water, named after Manole, is said to mark the spot where he fell.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtea_d…
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Indeed. I guess being Balkans has a lot to do with our similarities in myths and folk stories. Nothing wrong with that, I like the fact that with have common grounds to share
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I think you guess right. Even the most recent genetic studies indicate Balkan peoples are closely related, which means sometime in the past they had common ancestors sharing more or less the same culture, no matter how different are the tongues we speak today- Slavic, like the Bulgarians and the West Balkan peoples, Greek, of course like the Greeks, Illyrian-Thracian, like the Albanians, or Latin, like the Romanians and the Vlachs.
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