Serifos
The island of Serifos, where according to myth the hero Perseus spent his childhood, is part of the Cyclades. Judging strictly from photographs, it isn't much to look at. No spectacular archaeological ruins like Crete or Santorini, nothing that special. It's like many other Greek islands: brown, barren hills, windswept scrub, and brilliant blue water. Not as iconic or evocative a place as, say, Mount Pelion, where Achilles, Patroclus, and Ajax the Great spent their boyhoods under the tutelage of Chiron the centaur.
Serifos today is the product of drought due to climate change, wildfires, and many years of overcultivation and overgrazing. This same process, called desertification, can be seen throughout the Aegean. There have been attempts at conservation, but unfortunately the current social and economic problems in Greece limit these efforts.
Was it always this way? Archeoecological studies show that nearby Crete, also plagued by the effects of desertification, was much greener and more forested in ancient times; the same can probably be said for Serifos and other Cycladic islands. We know there was a period of drought/climate change around 1200 B.C. that led to widespread unrest in the Aegean and the Near East, but Perseus would have lived 150-200 years before that; the Serifos I depict in Danae might had more vegetation.
Here are images of some of the places I mention in Danae:
Chora is the island's capital. It overlooks the island's only harbor at Livadi. A church and the ruins of a medieval castle occupy the highest ground. Archaeologists have found traces of older ruins on the summit as well, so if a Mycenaean Polydektes existed, his citadel would have been there, too.
There are other ancient ruins on the island, including the remains of four great watchtowers and a sanctuary near Ganema.
A view fit for a Mycenaean king. A southern view from the Chora acropolis, encompassing Livadi and its great bay toward the island of Sifnos.
A beach around Livadi. Pelargos is a fictional fishing village, but it is located in this general area, and would have looked very similar.
The beach at Ganema where Diktys lands his boat after a midnight escape from Pelargos.
Curious about ancient Serifos, or the Perseus myth? Head on over to Amazon to read Danae on Kindle. Also available through Smashwords.