Many of us go to the beach to enjoy the sun and have a good time during the summer holidays. Studies have shown that for many of us, spending time at the beach is synonymous with decompression. Contempling the ocean immerses us in a light state of meditation, the smell of the breeze soothes us, the heat of the sand envelops us and, above all, the continuous and regular noise of the waves allows us to relax completely.
But the holidays at sea only became prized from the end of the 19th centurye and the beginning of the XXe century, by the wealthy classes of Western countries. The first Europeans, in particular the Greeks of Antiquity, considered the beach as a place of suffering and death. As a people of sailors, they lived mainly on the coast, but they feared the sea and thought that an agricultural lifestyle was safer and more respectable.
As a culture historian and specialist in Greek mythology, I am interested in this change of attitude towards the beach.
The sensory experience of the beach
As I write in my book published in 2016, The Sea in the Greek Imagination (not translated), we do not identify in the old Greek literature no positive evocation of the beach and the sea. Only the negative aspects are mentioned, which underlines the discomfort that the Greeks of Antiquity were experienced with regard to the beach and the sea in general.
Greek literature, for example, emphasizes the intense smell of algae and salt water. In theOdyssey of Homer, long epic poem of VIIIe Century before our era which takes place largely at sea, the hero Ménélas and his companions are lost near the Egyptian coast. They must hide under seal skins to catch the Marine Divinity Proted and ask him to tell them the way back. The smell of seals and salt water is so repugnant to them that their ambushes fails to turn into a disaster. Only a magic ambrosia placed under their noses, neutralizing the pestilential smell, saves their business.
The sand of the beach and the sea itself were considered sterile, unlike the fertility of the fields.
Likewise, if the sound of the waves in calm weather is often experienced as relaxing, the violence of storms at sea can be scary. Ancient Greek literature focuses only on the frightening power of the agitated seas, comparing it to the noises of a battle. In theIliadthe other large known epic of Homer, the assault of the Trojan army on the Greek lines is compared to a storm at sea: “They advanced like a deadly storm that sweeps away the earth, with thunder of Zeus, their father, and agitates the sea with a prodigious roar, leaving behind swapping waves on the resonant waters, tight rows of large white arched waves of foam such as a storm, full of tremors and clamors, rushed.”
Finally, even the beautiful Ulysses is made ugly and scary by exposure to the sun and the salt of the sea. In theOdysseythe hero wanders at sea for ten years on the way back after the Trojan War. At the end of his tribulations, he clings to a raft somehow during a storm sent by the God of the Poseidon Sea, angry. He ends up letting go and swimming until shore. When he landed on the island of the Pheacians, he scares the servants of the Nausicaa princess with his skin burned by the sun, “All soiled with salt water”.
The sand of the beach and the sea itself were considered sterile, unlike the fertility of the fields. This is why theIliad and theOdyssey regularly qualify the sea as“Atrygetos”which means “not harvested”.
This design of the sea as sterile is of course paradoxical, since the oceans provide approximately 2% of the total calorie contribution of the human population, 15% of its protein intake and could probably provide much more. The Greeks themselves ate a lot of fish and many marine species were considered delicate dishes reserved for the rich.
Death on the beach
In ancient Greek literature, the beach was frightening and evoked death. It was also common to cry forces who died on the beach. The tombs were often located by the sea, in particular cenotaphs, empty tombs intended to commemorate those who died at sea and whose bodies could not be recovered.
It was a particularly cruel fate in the ancient world, because those who could not be buried were condemned to wander eternally on earth in the form of ghosts, while those who received worthy funeral went into the beyond. The Greek underground world was not a particularly enviable place: it was wet and dark, but it was considered a respectable end.
Thus, as the specialist in classical culture Gabriela Cursaru has shown, the beach was a “Liminal space” In Greek culture: a threshold between the world of the living and that of the dead.
Revelation and transformation
However, the beach did not only have negative aspects for the Greeks. As it served as a bridge between the sea and the earth, they thought that it also connected the world of the living, that of the dead and that of the gods. The beach therefore had the power to offer omens, revelations and visions of the gods. This is why many oracles of the dead, where the living could obtain information from the deceased, were located on beaches and cliffs by the sea.
The gods also frequented the beach. This is even where they sometimes appeared to their worshipers, whose prayers they heard. In theIliadthe god Apollo hears his priest Chrysès complaining on the beach of the ill -treatment inflicted on his daughter by the Greeks. The angry god retaliated by immediately unleashing the plague on the Greek army, a disaster which can only be arrested by returning the girl to his father.
In addition to these religious beliefs, the beach was also a point of physical connection between Greece and distant land. The enemy fleets, merchants and pirates were all likely to land on the beaches or frequent the coasts, because old ships did not have the capacity to stay at sea for long periods. As a result, the beach could be a fairly dangerous place, as noted by the military historian Jorit Wintjes.
On the other hand, the wrecks could bring pleasant surprises, like unexpected treasures, which have often marked a turning point in many stories of ancient Greece. In the ancient novel Daphnis and Chloé (Longus, IIe or IIIe century), for example, the poor Berger Daphnis finds a scholarship on the beach, which allows him to marry Chloé and lead their love story.
There may be something left today of this conception of the beach. THE beachcombing (Collection of objects on beaches) is always a popular hobby and some people even use metal detectors. In addition to its demonstrated positive psychological effects, the beachcombing testifies to the eternal fascination of the human being for the sea and all the hidden treasures that it can conceal, from shells and sea glass to Spanish gold coins.
Just like for the Greeks, the beach gives us the impression of being at the dawn of a different world.
