THE ARGONAUTS
In a distant past, the small pebbles on the gravel beach, which are still
visible today, were all white in colour. Apollonius of Rhodes told how
the Argonauts, reaching Elba in their search for the golden fleece, dried
the sweat from their bodies using the pebbles on this beach. Since then,
legend has it that the white stones have become stained with grey and
blue droplets. This story, which is probably a fable, is an obvious popular
transposition of the works of classical authors (Hesiod, Sophocles, Herodotus,
Strabo and many others), but could be linked to the exceptional finding
in the 1960s of ruins under the sea just off the pebble beach which appear
to prove the existence of the mythical port of Argivo on Elba.
THE LEGEND OF THE CAVES
Princess Alba and the knight Sabinus, both consumed by a love that was
both passionate and condemned by others, turned to the goddess Venus for
protection. She told them the island of Elba was a safe place to hide,
with a promise that they would dedicate a place of worship to her in the
house they lived in. However, the young couple forgot about this, and
the goddess took revenge by making Sabinus loose his memory. He tramped
around the island as a madman, and the unhappy Alba went to the place
of their lost happiness and called out his name in vain. People tell oh
how her calling can still be heard among the ruins of the Roman house
at the caves of Portoferraio.
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