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Unless otherwise noted, all pictures on this site were taken in Pelion, Greece, shown on the map below.

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View images of the Common Toad, an ugly, bulky, but really sweet creature with an interesting... nightlife.

  Veggie of the Month

Learn about the Salsify, a beautiful plant, with edible and medicinal properties, that is currently blooming in Pelion.

  Cool Destination

Visit Mourtias, one of Pelion's most picturesque beaches on the Aegean coast.

  Exciting Site

Tour the Volos Archaeological Museum, a pretty century-old building, whose exhibits span a historical period of over 10 millennia!

  Month's Wallpaper

Download a fantastic picture of a rickety jetty in Lefokastron, Pelion, taken by Huw Jones.

Cerambus, the Stag Beetle

There once lived a famous musician, Cerambus, son of Euseiros and grandson of the sea god,  Poseidon. He was famous worldwide, because he was the first man ever to assemble the  pan-pipes and the first to play the  lyre.

The  nymphs, who inhabited the streams, rivers and trees of  Othris, were enamored of his melodies, so they assisted him in herding his large flocks of sheep and goats, while he, in return, amused them with his compositions. On occasion, they would even leave their hideouts and appear before him, dancing and singing to his divine music.

One cold, winter day, the pastoral god,  Pan, who was particularly fond of Cerambus, approached the musician and advised him to move his flocks lower, to the plains, as a heavy blizzard was rapidly drawing near.

But the arrogant Cerambus disregarded the pastoral god's warnings. In fact, he even went so far as to defame the nymphs, who had so generously offered him their help and protection.

Some say he told the pastoral god that the nymphs weren't  Zeus' offspring, as was widely believed, but the daughters of  Spercheios and Deino. Others say he alleged that Poseidon was once madly in love with one of the nymphs, Diopatre, so he transformed her sisters to poplar trees, until he had satisfied his desire, whereupon he switched them back to their original form.

Of course, the nymphs became infuriated. So, they let Cerambus' flocks perish in the snowstorm and metamorphosed the insolent musician into a Stag Beetle (Lucanus cervus), an insect that wanders around the forests, feeding on sap oozing from trees and decaying wood.

It wasn't long before the Stag Beetle became the favorite  arthropod of children in ancient Greece, who used to capture the unfortunate insect, chop off its horned head and pretend they were playing Cerambus' favorite instrument, the tortoise-shell lyre.

The master musician is still remembered today, as entomologists have given his name to a large family of insects, Cerambycidae, which contains over 20,000 longhorn beetles, but, sadly, not Cerambus, the Stag Beetle.


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