Mani Peninsula

The Mani Peninsula (Greek: Μάνη, romanized: Mánē), known historically as Maina or Maïna (Greek: Μαΐνη), is a geographical and cultural region of southern Greece. The Mani is the central of three peninsulas that extend southward from the Peloponnese. The Laconian Gulf and the peninsula of Epidaurus Limera^[a] are to the east; the Messenian Gulf and peninsula of Messenia are to the west. It terminates at Cape Matapan (called Tainaron by the Ancient Greeks), the southernmost point of continental Greece.

Map of Greece; Mani is the middle peninsula at the south of the Peloponnese

The peninsula is divided into the administrative municipalities of East Mani (Ανατολική Μάνη, Anatolikí Máni) and West Mani (Δυτική Μάνη, Dytikí Máni), in the modern regional units of Laconia and Messenia, respectively. The geographic and cultural region is frequently referred to in English-language sources as "the Mani", "the Mani Peninsula", or simply "Mani". These are long-used conventional names for the area that overlap with—but are semantically distinct from—the names of its two constituent municipalities of East and West Mani, both established in 2011 following a nationwide reform.

The Mani Peninsula is the southern extension of the Taygetus mountain range. It is about 28 miles (45 km) long with a rocky, rugged, interior bordered by scenic coastlines. Cities of the Mani Peninsula include Areopoli in the northwest and Gytheio (ancient Gythion or Gythium) in the northeast.

The Mani Peninsula, now designated a historical district,^{[citation needed]} was once known as Maina Polypyrgos ("Many-Towered Maina") for the numerous tower-houses built by locals who engaged in piracy, by raiding coastal shipping. Notable sites in Mani include the ruins of the ancient Temple of Poseidon at Cape Matapan and the Diros Caves with their prehistoric remains near Pyrgos Dirou outside Gytheio. The peninsula also played a key role in the Greek War of Independence that began in 1821.^[1]

The inhabitants of Mani have traditionally been called the Maniots (Greek: Mανιάτες, romanized: Maniátes). They claim descent from ancient Spartans and refugees of the early Roman period and maintain a unique heritage among the regional subcultures of their fellow Greeks.

Etymology

There is no agreement on the origin of the word "Mani". The region's medieval name was Maini, however this is itself of uncertain origin. "Maini" was first mentioned in the Tactica of Leo the Wise (c. 900), and was mentioned again in the writings of Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus (r. 913–959). In 1205, the French established a Crusader state on the Peloponnese in the aftermath of the sack of Constantinople. They built a castle on the Mani in 1250 and called it the Grand Magne, presumably naming it after the region. ^[2][3] Still, folk traditions claim that the Mani is named for the "Frankish"^[b] castle of Grand Magne and not the reverse.

Geography

Regional divisions

Mani has traditionally been divided into three regions:

• Exo Mani (Έξω Μάνη) or Outer Mani to the northwest, corresponding to modern West Mani;
• Kato Mani (Κάτω Μάνη) or Lower Mani to the east, corresponding to part of modern East Mani;
• Mesa Mani (Μέσα Μάνη) or Inner Mani to the southwest, also corresponding to part of East Mani.

The island of Cranae is located just off the coast of Gytheio in Lower Mani. A causeway linking the island to the mainland was built in 1898.^{[citation needed]}

Climate

The Mani Peninsula, like much of southern Greece, has a dry Mediterranean climate with warm summers. The Messenian Mani receives somewhat more rainfall than the Laconian (see: rain shadow) and as a consequence is more agriculturally productive. Locals call the Messenian Mani aposkiaderi, "shady" and the Laconian prosiliaki, "sunny".^{[citation needed]}

Transport

Because its terrain is mountainous and not easily accessible, many Mani villages could be reached only by sea until relatively recent times.^[vague] Today, a narrow and winding road traverses the perimeter, connecting Kalamata and Areopoli on the west coast to Cape Matapan in the south and Gytheio in the northeast. Another road connects Tripoli to the Gerolimenas port near Cape Matapan; public buses of the Piraeus–Mani line use this route.

Administration

Administrative map of East and West Mani, 2012

Administration of the peninsula is now split between modern Laconia (East Mani) and Messenia (West Mani). In ancient times all of Mani was considered part of Laconia, a region dominated by the powerful city-state, or polis, of Sparta.

Cities and settlements

Modern

• Areopoli
• Gerolimenas
• Gytheio
• Kampos
• Kardamyli
• Kyparissos
• Mavrovouni
• Porto Kagio
• Skoutari
• Oitylo
• Parasyros
• Vatheia

Ancient

• Gerenia
• Gytheion, Gythium (modern Gytheio)
• Kardamyli
• Kenipolis
• Las
• Messa
• Oetylus (modern Oitylo)
• Taenarum
• Teuthrone

History

Main article: Laconia § History

Prehistory

Mani, and the entire Peloponnese Peninsula, have been inhabited since prehistoric times. A skull of Homo sapiens dating to more than 210,000 years ago was found in the Apidima Cave on the western side of the peninsula. As of 2019^[update] this was the oldest evidence of Homo sapiens in Europe. Neolithic remains have been found in many other caves along Mani's coast; these include the Alepotrypa Cave.^[4]

Ancient

Map of ancient Laconia and the Mani Peninsula from Pausanias's Description of Greece translated by James George Frazer, 1898. British Library.

Mycenaean

The Mycenaean civilization (1900–1100 BCE) dominated Mani and the Peloponnese in the Bronze Age. Mani flourished under the Mycenaeans. A temple dedicated to Apollo was erected at Cape Matapan. It was later re-dedicated as the Temple of Poseidon. Homer refers to a number of towns in the Mani region. The "Catalogue of Ships" in the Iliad names the ancient Manian towns of Messa, Oetylus, Kardamyli, Gerenia, Teuthrone, and Las.^[5]

The region featured in many myths and legends. One tradition told of a cave near Cape Matapan that led to Hades. Another legend said that Helen of Troy and Paris spent their first night together on the island of Cranae, off the coast of Gytheio.^[6] It was once believed that in the 12th century BCE, the Dorians invaded Laconia, settling first in Sparta and by 800 BCE occupying Mani and all of Laconia. This proposed origin myth has since been disproven.

In the early Greek Dark Ages (c. 1050–800 BCE), Phoenicians arrived in Mani and are thought to have established a colony at Gytheion (modern Gytheio, called Gythium by the Romans). The colony collected the murex sea snail which was plentiful in the Laconian Gulf and processed into Tyrian purple, a valuable dye.^[7]

The area around Mani came under the rule of the powerful city-state Sparta with the onset of the Archaic Period  (800–480 BCE). Under Spartan rule, inhabitants of Mani were classified as belonging to the Perioeci social caste.^[8]

Classical

Tainaron (Cape Matapan) became an important center for mercenary traffic in Classical times (c. 510–323 BCE),^[9] Gytheio, only 27 km (17 mi) away from the city of Sparta, became Mani's—and Sparta's—major port. The coveted port was captured by Athenian forces in 455 BCE, during the First Peloponnesian War, a power struggle between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies fought in part to establish supremacy over the Peloponnese.^[10]

The damaged city and docks were rebuilt; by the end of the war, Gytheio was the main shipyard for the new Spartan fleet.^[11] Spartan hegemony in the Peloponnese lasted until 371 BCE, when the Thebans under Epaminondas defeated Sparta at Leuctra.^[9]

Hellenistic

Throughout much of the Hellenistic period (323–30 BCE) the Mani Peninsula remained subject to Spartan hegemony. This era proved turbulent for Mani and Laconia, marked by frequent military engagements and shifting political allegiances for Mani.

Competition between rival powers resulted in a series of wars that eventually drew in the Kingdom of Macedon and the expanding Roman Republic: the Cleomenean War (229–222 BCE); the Social War (220–217 BCE); the Macedonian Wars (214–148 BCE); and the Laconian War (195 BCE). Gytheio, as a major port, remained an especially sought-after prize for all parties.

In 219–218 BCE, Philip V of Macedon invaded Mani as part of his campaign in Laconia. His forces besieged Gytheio and Las but failed to capture them.^[12]

Nabis ascended to the Spartan throne in 207 BCE; he expanded Gytheio, transforming it into a vital port and naval arsenal.^[13] Rome, allied with the Achaean League—Sparta's Greek rivals—captured Gytheio after a prolonged siege in 195 BCE; Sparta was the allies' next target. A peace treaty granted autonomy to Mani's coastal cities. These cities formed the Koinon, or League, of Free Laconians, with Gytheio as its capital under the Achaean League's protection.^[14]

Determined to retake the vital port of Gytheio, Nabis advanced on the city in 192 BCE.^[15] A Roman fleet soon recaptured Gytheio. Nabis was murdered, and the polis Sparta was absorbed by the Achaean League.^[16] The Spartans, still seeking access to a port, then seized Las, prompting the Achaeans to retaliate by seizing Sparta outright.^[17]

Roman

The Romans emerged as the champion of the destructive and costly wars. With their victory at Battle of Corinth in 146, all of Greece became a Roman possession.^[18][19] The Peloponnese was administered as the province of Achaia. Rome did allow the Koinon of Free Laconians, which included Mani, to maintain its autonomy.

In 395 CE, mainland Greece and the Peloponnese became part of the Byzantine Empire (formally the East Roman Empire), bringing over 500 years of centralized rule from Rome to an end. Mani would nominally be administered by the new government in Constantinople for over a millennium, with periodic interruptions due to unrest and foreign invasions. Mani's remoteness would limit Constantinople's influence.

Medieval

Byzantine

The Mani Peninsula had a turbulent history during the Byzantine era (395–1453), as various powers fought over the territory since the establishment of rule from Constantinople. Between 395 and 397, Alaric I and his Visigoths plundered the Peloponnese and destroyed what was left of Gythium.^[20] In 468, Gaiseric and the Vandals attacked Mani, hoping to use it as a base from which to conquer the whole Peloponnese. As Gaiseric's fleet tried to land at Kenipolis near Cape Matapan, the townspeople attacked. The Maniots inflicted heavy casualties on the Vandals, and Gaiseric was forced to retreat.^[21] Some historians posit that in 590, the Eurasian Avars (along with the Slavs) attacked and occupied most of the western Peloponnese.^[22] This claim is not universally accepted.^[23]

Over the subsequent centuries, Mani was fought over by the Byzantines, the French, and the Saracens.

In the wake of the Early Muslim conquests, Arabs captured the island of Crete in the 820s and established an emirate there. Arab raiders then began to attack Mani and the coastal cities of Peloponnese.^[24][25] The Byzantines retook Crete in 961.

Crusader States

Following the Fourth Crusade and sack of Constantinople in 1204, the Mani Peninsula, along with Laconia and much of the Peloponnese, became part of a "Frankish"^[c] crusader state called the Principality of Achaea (1205–1432), primarily under French rule. William of Champlitte and Geoffrey I Villehardouin defeated the Peloponnesian Greeks at the Battle of the Olive Grove of Koundouros (1205), and the Peloponnese became the Principality of Achaea. In 1210, Mani was given to Baron Jean de Neuilly as Hereditary Marshal, and he built the castle of Passavas on the ruins of Las. The castle occupied a significant position as it controlled an important pass from Gythium to Oitylo and contained the Maniots.^[26][27]

With the establishment of the Principality, the Slavic Melingoi tribe began raiding Laconia from the west, while Tsakonians in the eastern Peloponnese resisted French rule. In 1249, the new prince, William II of Villehardouin, used the newly captured fortress of Monemvasia to keep the Tsakonians at bay, and he built the castle at Mystras, in the Taygetus, overlooking Sparta, in order to contain the Melingoi. To stop the Maniot raids, he built the castle of Grand Magne, possibly at Tigani. It is described as "at a fearful cliff with a headland above".^{[citation needed]} A Latin bishop was appointed for Mani during the 1250s. In 1259, the bishop was captured during the Battle of Pelagonia by the newly resurgent Byzantine Empire.^[28]

Despotate of the Morea

Main article: Despotate of the Morea

Maniots maintained a significant degree of autonomy during the Principality's existence. From the mid-14th to mid-15th centuries, control over the region gradually shifted to the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea (1349–1460), a semi-autonomous province of the Byzantine Empire.

Modern

Ottoman rule

The Ottomans completed their conquest of the Byzantines in 1460, and would remain nominal rulers of Mani and the Peloponnese until the outbreak of Greek revolution in 1821. Due to its remoteness and isolation, Mani in particular retained a degree of autonomy not offered to other regions of Ottoman Greece. According to local tradition, members of noble Byzantine families such as the Palaiologoi fled to Mani following the fall of Constantinople.^[29]

Mani retained its self-government in exchange for an annual tribute to the Sublime Porte, although this was only paid once.^{[citation needed]} Beginning in the late 17th century, Maniot chieftains deemed beys ruled Mani on behalf of the Ottomans. There were eight Beys of Mani in total; their rule concluded with the onset of the Greek War of Independence in 1821.

The first such bey was the Maniot Limberakis Gerakaris installed c. 1669. An oarsman in the Venetian fleet turned pirate, he was captured by the Ottomans and condemned to death. The grand vizier pardoned him on condition that he manage Mani as an Ottoman vassalage or client state.

Gerakaris accepted the offer and used his new position to pursue his standing feud with the powerful Maniot Stephanopouloi family. His forces besieged the family's seat at Oitylo,^[when?] captured 35 of them, and had them all executed. During his twenty-year reign^{[citation needed]} Gerakaris shifted allegiances between the Republic of Venice and the Ottomans.^[10]

According to oral tradition, the last Bey of Mani Petros Mavromichalis proclaimed the revolution at Areopoli on 17 March 1821.^[30] In 1826, a combined Ottoman and Egyptian army invaded Mani.

As Istanbul's power had been weakening, the local klephts—bandits who fought the Ottomans—made their strongholds in the rugged mountains of the Mani. The waning years of the empire also saw a sizeable Maniot emigration to Corsica.^[31]

Greek independence

Map of Mani published in 1926

Many Maniots who stayed on the peninsula contributed to the struggle for independence. Following the Greek victory and establishment of the First Hellenic Republic, Maniots sought to retain the local autonomy they enjoyed under nominal Ottoman rule; many became dissatisfied with controls imposed by the central government in Athens.

Tensions came to a head in 1831 when Ioannis Kapodistrias, first Governor of the Hellenic State, ordered the arrest of Petros Mavromichalis for anti-government activities. Outraged, the sons of Mavromichalis responded to this affront to their father's honor by assassinating Kapodistrias in the town of Nafplio, in the eastern Pelopennese.^[1]

In 1878, the national government imposed limits on local autonomy and strengthened its control of the Mani.^[1]

Twentieth century

Meanwhile, emigration continued, with many Maniots moving to major Greek cities or leaving the country for western Europe and the United States to join the Greek diaspora. Mani was considered a backwater until the 1970s, when the government started to build roads which made the peninsula more accessible by car. A tourist industry took hold, and population and economic growth ensued.^[1]

Recent history

The municipalities of East Mani and West Mani were established in 2011 by the Kallikratis Programme, a sweeping administrative reform that resulted in mergers of regional and local governments in the Peloponnese and across Greece.

Economy

Mani's economy is heavily oriented towards tourism and maritime activity.

Culture

Architecture

Mani is known for its unique tower houses, called pyrghóspita, and clan houses.^[32] These towers were usually surrounded by other houses, family churches, and cemeteries, forming a fortified complex known as a xemóni in Greek, which served as a clan-based settlement.^[33]

Cuisine

Maniot cuisine includes glina or syglino, pork or pork sausage smoked with aromatic herbs such as thyme, oregano, mint, etc. and stored in lard along with orange peel. Mani is also known for honey and extra-virgin olive oil, soft-pressed from partially ripened olives of the Koroneiki variety, which are grown on mountain terraces.

Maniots

Main article: Maniots

Maniots claim descent from ancient Spartans and refugees during the Roman period. They maintain a unique heritage among the regional subcultures of their fellow Greeks.

Regional linguistic peculiarities exist within Maniot culture, particularly in surnames. Family names in Messenian Mani typically end in -éas, while those in Laconian Mani end in -ákos. There is also the -óggonas ending, a corruption of éggonos, "grandson".^[1]

Religion

Main article: Religion in Greece

Christianity came later to Mani than to the rest of Greece, which by the 5th century was firmly established in Greece, the Balkans, and Anatolia (see timelines of Eastern Orthodoxy in Greece) as core territories of the Byzantine Empire. The first temples began to be converted into Christian churches in the 11th century. The monk Nikon "the Metanoite" (Greek: Νίκων ὁ Μετανοείτε) was commissioned by the Greek Orthodox Church in the 10th century to introduce Christianity to Mani and Tsakonia, then still practicing paganism.

The populations did eventually convert, though it was only in the 11th and 12th centuries that Maniots as a whole accepted Christianity and that most traces of pagan religion and traditions were eliminated. Nikon was canonized by the Greek Orthodox Church, and St. Nikon became patron saint of Mani and Sparta.

Patrick Leigh Fermor wrote of the Maniots and their conversion:

Sealed off from outside influences by their mountains, the semi-troglodytic Maniots themselves were the last of the Greeks to be converted. They only abandoned the old religion of Greece towards the end of the ninth century. It is surprising to remember that this peninsula of rock, so near the heart of the Levant from which Christianity springs, should have been baptised three whole centuries after the arrival of St. Augustine [of Canterbury] in far-away Kent.^[34]

Gallery

• 
  Tower houses in Skoutari
• 
  Tower houses in Vatheia
• 
  The port city of Gytheio
• 
  Oitylo village
• 
  Diros cave
• 
  Landscape
• 
  Port of Areopoli
• 
  The Church of St. Spyridon in Kardamyli
• 
  Byzantine Saints Theodoroi church in Kampos
• 
  1821 banner reading "Victory or Death"

Notes

1. Incorrectly labeled just "Epidaurus" on the map of Greece shown. Epidaurus Limera was an ancient town on the peninsula and the name is sometimes used to distinguish the peninsula from Cape Maleas at its tip. The town was a colony of the original Epidaurus on the Argolid Peninsula to the northeast
2. "Frankish" and "Franks" as used by the Greeks after 1204 are anachronisms. See Principality of Achaea and Frankokratia. From the latter: "The terms Frankokratia and Latinokratia derive from the name given by the Orthodox Greeks to the Western French and Italians who originated from territories that once belonged to the Frankish Empire, as this was the political entity that ruled much of the former Western Roman Empire after the collapse of Roman authority and power. The political situation proved highly volatile, as the "Frankish" states fragmented and changed hands and the Greek successor states re-conquered many areas." Francia, the historical Kingdom of the Franks, in fact existed from c. 480 to c. 800.
3. See note "a" on "Franks" and "Frankish" as used by the Greeks.