Legend Says Gold Lies Beneath The Riverbed

Since the dawn of time, humans organized their lives around the liquid element. Some of the most important civilizations thrived around water, while in any mythology rivers were personified and cherished as gods. Of course, rivers gradually discarded their divine nature, and they were “downgraded” to tools facilitating the development of human societies. Nevertheless, despite their disenchantment, rivers still symbolize loss and regeneration, the ancient nature of time and endless change, while legends and traditions accompanying their history always remain. Human traces also remain there as a remembrance of the past, narrating their stories. Initially, rivers running through the valley to the west of Thessaloniki were for me places to escape from reality. Nonetheless, step-by-step and without even realizing it, they transformed into places of quest and destination. The gradual conquest of a spiritual intimacy with the riparian environment, the lust for the unpredictable lurking in every step and the desire to discover the secrets hidden on the riverbank, made me go back again and again. This work records small -human and otherwise- stories along the three largest rivers, flowing from different geographical points, running through the western outskirts of Thessaloniki and flowing into the Thermaic Gulf: Haliakmon, grandson of Poseidon, Axios, son of the brave Paeonian fighters and the “delighted in horses” Loudias.