Neda waterfalls
Crossing the canyon of Neda, one has a unique chance to get in touch with the mysteries of the Greek mythology and the treasures of nature. The river springs from the foot of Mount Lycaion, in Petra of Messinia, a quite peaceful landscape. As it flows, it gets rapid and foamy, because many rocks stand in its way, narrowing the river-bed.
Perhaps the most well-known myth of ancient Greece is the one about god Cronus, who used to swallow his children, fearing they would dethrone him, When his wife Rhea gave birth to her last child, Zeus on Mount Lycaion, according to the natives of Arcadia, she decided to save him, so she entrusted him to the care of nymphs Neda, Thissoa and Agno, and asked them to raise the child. According to the descriptions of ancient traveler Pausanias, after the childbirth the nymphs cleaned the puerperal and threw the impure water with the placenta to Lymakas, a river in Figalia which empties into Neda. The ancient Greek word for this dirty water is “lymata”: that’s how Pausanias explains the name of the river.
He also offers us valuable information about Neda. He lets us know that the river was navigable for small vessels; various signs of anchorages have been found and that nearby, on Mount Elaion, there was a sacred cave. It’s in this cave that goddess Demeter, the protectress of agriculture, took refuge in and hid for a long time, dressed in black, mourning because her daughter Persephone had been kidnapped. The Olympian Gods moved heaven and earth to find her, because the soil was no longer fertile and people were dying of hunger like flies, God Pan, who had gone hunting in the region, ran across Demeter and said it to Zeus. The king of Olympus sent the Fates to soothe her anger. They managed to convince Demeter to come out to light again. Unfortunately, archeologists have not located the cave yet.
Pausanias also informed us about a devout custom according to which the youngsters of the region used to cut their long hair short and throw it into Neda, in order to thank the deity of the water for their happy transition from childhood to adolescence.
By word of mouth, nymph Neda changed into river and her long braids became wonderful waterfalls, that have decorated the canyon ever since. The descent towards the canyon starts from the village Figalia which used to bear the name of Pavlitsa, where an important archeological area is located. Hikers would be interested to know that a path of medium difficulty {M2} starts right from the ancient spring of Figalia. The traveler gets for the first time in touch with the singularity of Neda when he meets the waterfall “Asproneri” (which means “White Water”), which falls from a height of 60m. and continues its course towards the river. The waterfall can be approached by another road, which crosses the village.