Mytilini: A Virgin Hope in Kontoskali, Constantinopletranslated

"The only goddess good for man is Hope. The other gods left us and fled to Olympus", wrote the elegiac poet Theognis the Megareus in late archaic times. These lyrics run through your mind while walking through the alleys in Kontoskali, Istanbul. In Kontoskali of the Romans, in today's Koumkapi (meaning the gate of the sand), a direct descendant of the dock of Constantine the First, the new port of Julian, the port of Sophia, the port of Koturga. Of the port of the galleys and the convicts in their docks... They finally named it Contoscalion, which means "small wharf".

Fewer Romans in Kontoskali, a little more Armenians (here is also the seat of the Patriarch of Armenians). Inscriptions on public buildings of the once brilliant Roman Community, schools and places of culture, churches, large and imposing. Alone now... Alone and ready to collapse and many of the houses of the Roma...

Somewhere there you shake your hand and insist on "the only goddess good for man, Hope. Because the other gods left us and fled to Olympus".

Going up the main road of Kum Kapi, the full of…