Post-Byzantine period: Folk beliefs around the caves and the rock-cut spaces of the Hills

 
On this barren landscape lacking any form of vegetation, the natural caves and ancient rocky cuttings inspire stories in which history mingles with legends, while superstitions and folklore take shape. According to medieval tradition, the cave of the “Evil Sisters”, near the ancient Barathron was haunted by the sisters named “Plague”, “Cholera” and “Smallpox”.
 
Selected bibliography:

Dodwell 1819, 396; Kampouroglou 1922, 26–27; Dakoura-Vogiatzoglou 2009.

Top: Representation of the “Evil Mother-in-law” rock, upon the Hill of the Nymphs, where, the legend says, resided the “Moirai” and the “Fine Ladies”.

Bottom: The cave of the “Evil Sisters”. Photographs by Olga Dakoura-Vogiatzoglou.

(Source: Dakoura-Vogiatzoglou 2009, 10–11)