Hymettus

This guide to Mount Hymettus above Athens opens with a story from the ancient writer Olympiodorus: as an infant, the philosopher Plato was carried up to a cave sacred to Pan on the mountain's southern slope, where a wild swarm of bees settled on his open mouth without harm. You'll hear why the Greeks read that as an omen about the child's future, and why Hymettus was already famous across the ancient world for its thyme-fed honey and its bees. It also traces the blue-grey marble quarried from these slopes, and the purple evening haze travelers have described for centuries.