Shipwrecked, naked and starving, he comes ashore after 20 days at sea and sees a beautiful girl who gives him clothes, food, palatial shelter and frankly the will to go on.
‘Are you mortal or divine?’, a dazed Odysseus asks Princess Nafsika, as she cradles him for the last leg of his 10-year journey home.
No wonder Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens took a leaf out of Homer’s book and named the heart of its waterfront retreat after the feminine ideal of hospitality.
For the Nafsika suites, at the center of this elegant yet energetic hotel, teeter on the edge of heaven.
Views of the Saronic Gulf from our expansive master bedroom and terrace are so captivating that it takes a few moments to register the luxury within.
Soft carpets, leather headboards, a spa-like bathroom, the thickest pillows monogrammed with the initials ‘FH’.
‘Ah! This has to be my bed,’ laughs my son Felix (12) as he advances on the super king rather than the sofa bed waiting for him and his sister Evie (17) in the adjoining room.
This is our first family vacation without our oldest daughter, Rose, 18, who left home for college, insisting she doesn’t mind our trip as long as we send pictures.
Fiona Hardcastle and her family check into one of the luxurious Nafsika suites at Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens, which has breathtaking views of the Saronic Gulf.
The hotel, Fiona explains, took a leaf from Homer’s book, The Odyssey, and named the Nafsika Suites after the feminine ideal of hospitality, Princess Nafsika.
Water treat: Fiona and her family enjoy the hotel’s ‘perfect’ pool with olive trees (above)
But it would take Olympic levels of magnanimity to resist the photos of our newfound splendor, and as starry-eyed emoji responses turn to tears, we realize it’s time to call it quits. Hubris rarely has a happy ending.
Time for dinner at Mercato, one of the hotel’s six glitzy restaurants, a buzzing Italian awash with Greek spirit.
Like a well-oiled army, phalanxes of waiters weave around our table, each dedicated to their specific roles, which extend far beyond the delivery of food.
Felix only had to sneeze before a leather-bound box of tissues appeared.
Evie, recently seized by a cough so severe she broke a rib the day before our trip, tries and fails to stifle a bark when a smiling waiter with a steaming cup of lemon and honey does not arrive.
We finish with a titanic tiramisu and I’m fit for Hypnos, despite my husband’s protests that, with the two-hour time difference, it’s only 8pm.
The promise of the next day at the Acropolis – shamefully, my first – is reason enough for an erstwhile Klassis to get an early night.
Fiona writes: ‘Views of the Saronic Gulf from our expansive master bedroom and terrace are so captivating that it takes a few moments to register the luxury within.’ Above: An Arion Panoramic Sea View Suite
Fiona describes the rooms at Four Seasons Athens as ‘teetering on the edge of heaven’
Four Seasons Athens has a chic bar as well as six glamorous restaurants, with Fiona and her family dining at Italian Mercato and Taverna 37, which serves traditional Greek food
After Greek salad omelets for breakfast we were off – a 40 minute taxi ride to the fifth century BC.
Our first point of pilgrimage is the Acropolis Museum, a dazzling, light-filled construction nestled in the south-eastern slope and home to the ancient A-list.
Towering twin terracotta Nikes, softly lit on plinths at the exhibition entrance, are the first spine-tingling signs of the treasures within. Wingless now, but no less awesome.
The sloping glass ground floor, through which you can see excavations below, is home to ceremonial wedding vases, spindles, marble dedications and masks – touching symbols of life and death.
The top floor is even more spectacular as you weave through towering marble figures as if walking through a crowd.
Suddenly I am face to face with my favourites: Athena Nike tying her sandal, a beautiful bronze oil lamp in the shape of an ancient vessel called a trireme and five imposing Caryatids (the sixth is in the British Museum) .
Last stop is the top and the frieze of the Parthenon gallery, bathed in glorious sunlight and displayed against the majestic backdrop of their former home.
Creamy originals mingle with bright white replicas and, heresy it may be, I can’t help but wonder if the noble horse head of Selene might be happier here.
The contours of the Peloponnese and the twinkling lights of luxury yachts bobbing in the sea at night amazed Fiona and her family.
The Four Seasons has an indoor pool overlooking the sea – a great option for a rare day with bad weather
Four Seasons Astir Palace is an ‘elegant yet energetic hotel’, notes Fiona
But that has always been the problem, says Dimitrios, our charismatic guide who meets us afterwards and shepherds us to the Parthenon itself, entertaining and informing with myths, legends and a potted history of invasions by Romans, Franks, Ottomans, Venetians and Nazis.
The western end is framed with scaffolding – rebuilding, he says, will take much longer than the original build ever did – but the awe is undeniable.
Everyone wants this piece of Greece.
Back to the Four Seasons and the piece of Greece we most want to claim is a table at Taverna 37, in its bougainvillaea-clad waterfront setting.
We are soon revived by a knife of local delicacies, spicy tzatziki, crumbly feta cheese and chilli, followed by juicy slow-cooked lamb for the carnivores and stifado cauliflower for the vegetarians.
The prospect of a last lazy day by the perfect swimming pool with olive trees awaits.
The wind is up but the Ouzo soon warms and as we retreat to our private terrace, mesmerized by the darkening contours of the Peloponnese and the twinkling lights of luxury yachts bobbing below, a tantalizing idea takes shape.
Anyone fancy our own Odyssey – albeit one where we don’t wash up?
