It is time to relax between presentations, away from medical crowds, from lectures and posters, from science, medical education, and eager pharmaceutical representatives. It is also a respite from sleet and snow, and there is no need to wear a coat, for the sun shines almost all day.
This is also an opportunity to learn more about Rhodes. Originally a Dorian settlement, it became a powerful state and site of the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Some 108 feet tall, the statue had been erected in 280 BC to celebrate the island’s successful defense against the Macedonian king called Demetrios Poliorketes or the “conqueror of cities,” son of one of the successors of Alexander the Great. The statue was destroyed by an earthquake in 226 BC and was lost without a trace. The island subsequently was conquered by the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Genovese, the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem (after 1309), the Ottoman Turks (after 1522), and briefly by the Italians (as part of the Dodecanese from 1912 to 1945).
Rhodes is now part of Greece and its main harbor or Mandraki is guarded by statues of a deer and a doe. There is also an old windmill that once had cannons to protect the island but is now demoted to a lighthouse. Double walls still surround the turreted castle of the Great Master that the knights of St. John built when they ruled the island for some 200 years until Suleiman the Magnificent put 150,000 soldiers on the island and breached the walls, though it took him fifteen years to do so.
A prominent yellow building with green awnings stands in the Nea Agora, the new market. It is topped by a black round domed roof and turns out to be a local club. There is also a bank, a telephone building, a row of cafes that offer Greek coffee, kataifi, and week-old newspapers. Dominating the square is St. John’s cathedral, its slanting brick roof linked to the Nomachia, the government building erected by the Italians and criticized for being more Venetian than Greek. The turret of the minaret of Murad Reis is half hidden behind the Nomachia, and there is a cemetery with gravestones inscribed in Turkish letters. The mountains of Anatolia rise only a few miles away across the blue Aegean Sea.
In the harbor, men in a little Turkish boat play backgammon with the local people, oblivious of larger international conflicts. Their red Turkish flag adds an exotic flavor as it merges with the blueness of the water. Smoke rises from the huge tourist ship, the Orpheus, and its passengers are herded into town by large white buses. A lady waves from the bus, pleased to break away, if only for one instant, perhaps only in her imagination, by waving from the safety of her bus to the physician she supposes to be a native. The sun is now straight south, moving in parallel to the jagged edges of the walls of the castle of the knights.
Now come the cyclists, an older man with a white hat and a sweater, followed by a younger woman in chestnut brown pajamas. I look her in the eyes—she smiles—and softly says bonjour. The Cyclades, a smaller ship, has pulled by the side of the Orpheus. An old man walks by in black trousers and sandals, carrying a multicolored set of worry beads. Then, there is a sudden activity in the little Turkish boat, and it seems that the descendants of Suleiman the Magnificent are about to set sail home. But on the nearby road, cars keep on roaring past, and the violence they do to the idyllic scene reminds us that nowhere can one escape this brutal symbol of our civilization.
But soon, the sun will have set, and a little further inland, Mr. Samourakis, once young and handsome but now a little stooped, has deftly used a stick to pull down the blue cloth awning of his unbusy jewelry business. An Orthodox priest and two women are waiting for the bus. Samourakis gives a toothless smile and looks relaxed. The overhead of his shop must be low, so why worry about it or kill oneself working? He wears a blue sweater saying Elle et Lui across his chest, sits in front of his shop playing backgammon, and throws the dice. For those attending the meeting, however, it is time to go back for the evening session and leave ancient Rhodes behind.
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