1471, MOROCCO

The commercial town of Tangiers, Tingi (Τιγγίς in Ancient Greek)
in the study of the year 1471 had starred in my old mind,
                                                                                   [a mind antique.

Tangiers is a major city in northwestern Morocco,
                                                  [located on the Maghreb coast,
at the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, a place where a ghost,
the ghost of the ancient Greek hero Hercules hovers eternally,
as it is the place where the cave of Hercules lies,
                                                [the heart of the myth (kernelly)..
the place where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean
                                                                                  [a truly key location.

According to the Greek Mythology, it's attributed to the giant Antaios,
                                                                [the pre-Christ city's foundation,
and whose tomb and skeleton are pointed out in the vicinity...

There was the land of that half-giant son of Gaia,
                              [and Poseidon, god of the sea in antiquity.

Tangier has always been a wish and a target of various conquerors,
kings, emperors, adventurers, a number of colonists,
                                [and even unemployed mercenaries, wanderers..

The town fell to the Roman-Byzantine Empire,
       [before coming under the control of the Umayyad Caliphate in 702,
up to this year one thousand four hundred seventy one
                                                        [where captured by..........guess who ?

The Portuguese, who started their colonial empire,
           [by taking nearby Ceuta and they occupied Tangier, a few years later....

The inhabitants of Tangier αre proud of their history,
                                                         [but for them, there is something greater,
Matish, Delacroix, Beckett, Bernardo Bertolucci,
                                                                          [Zan Zene, Truman Capote,
those people who praised Tangier, the subject of painting or stories wrote....

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to be continued 

" IT COULD BE OTHERWISE  in verse" 

Texts and Narration: Odysseus Heavilayias - ROTTERDAM //
Language adjustments and text adaptation: Kellene G Safis - CHICAGO//
Digital adaptation and text editing: Cathy Rapakoulia Mataraga - PIRAEUS//

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 ELEGHOS... at history