Bike Odyssey guides us in many stories and legends from ancient and modern Greece.

First of all the word «Odyssey», a concept so powerful that is used around the world describing a great and difficult project that can come to successful completion, it returns to the country that gave it birth. Odysseus’ saga comes alive for each athlete taking part in this unique event.

 Odyssey

The Odyssey, the saga written by Homer, was named by the main hero of the project, Odysseus King of Ithaca, which explains the fall of Troy. Wanting to return to his homeland after the fall of Troy fell into disfavor and wrath of the sea god, Poseidon. Ten years kept the wanderings of Odysseus. During this time he wandered in different places. In the land of Cicones in Thrace, the Lotus Eaters, the Cyclops, the island of Aeolus, the land of the Cimmerians in Thrinakia, and finally in Ogygia where goddess Calypso kept him for seven years as her husband.

From Ogygia, headed by a decision of the gods, which was taken after the warm support of his protectress, goddess Athena. After a terrible storm of Poseidon, he is shipwrecked on the island of Phaeacia (Corfu). The King Alkinoos after he took care of him and honored him, he gave him a boat to return to his homeland Ithaca. But there he has to face another challenge.

During his absence, in under the guise of candidates suitors of Odysseus' wife, Penelope, several young people from the class of the nobility of the place and the surrounding islands of the kingdom have gathered at the palace and squander his livelihoods and fortune. The son of Odysseus, Telemachus, cannot crush the suitors with war, while Laertes, Odysseus' father, is old and has retired to his farm. With the warm support of the goddess Athena the suitor are killed by Odysseus and after twenty years he becomes the owner of his own house again.

The legend of Pindos

In ancient times the Pindos Mountains were a sacred place dedicated to Apollo and the Muses. The name Pindos (according to the mythology) came from the son of Macedon, Pindos. The Macedon, the Hellin, the Magnis and the Amfiktionas were children of Zeus (one version), or of Aeolos (the other). The Macedon then had three sons, one of them was Pindos. Once the brothers envied the Pindos and decided to kill him. He learned it and he left and hid up in these mountains. There, he lived by hunting. In the endless solitary wanderings he meets a dragon and since he lived with him. But the brothers discovered the place that he was living and one time that the dragon wasn’t there, they lurked and killed him. The dragon lamented Pindos and gave his name in this mountain range in order to honor him. That is one version.

The other version says the following: The three brothers were transformed into three dragons. One chose the Lakmos Mountain (Peristeri), the other the Tymphi Mountain (Gamila) and Pindos the Smolikas Mountain. They started a war among them throwing large rocks to each other and after a while the other two managed to kill Pindos. This explains the fact that in Drakolimni (Dragonlake) of Smolikas we meet white rocks while the area has only black and in Drakolimni (Dragonlake) of Tymphi we can see blacks in contrast to the whites that this mountain has.

The stories and the legends do not end here. Each of the 57 villages that passes the Bike Odyssey hides a story behind it. Come and discover them with us!