E Thalassa, From Whence We Came

By James Banakis | September 23rd, 2026

“Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?”

               ― Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

 

This old man returned to Costa Navarino after two years to play golf again. My plan was to play all four world class courses, but like all my fluid plans, they always surprise me. Whatever I do for pleasure usually involves impulse. Following my inclinations has always rewarded me with delight. What I will remember about the last two weeks wasn’t the golf, but what the Greeks call E Thalassa, the sea. Hemingway always thought of the sea as feminine. Something that gives or withholds great favors, and like a woman, she’s affected by the moon.

I’ve always been drawn to the sea, and experienced it throughout the world, twice during hurricanes. Maybe all these years, I’ve taken it for granted. These past few weeks I had a transcendent relationship with the beautiful turquoise waters to the crystal-clear blue water beyond the shore. Like being thunderstruck by a powerful nymph-goddess from the Odessey, I surrendered and saw it anew with wonder and respect.

My son-in-law gifted my brother Ted and I a full day exploring Navarino Bay and beyond on a 70-foot yacht. He promised that it would be life altering. When one reaches this third act of our life, there’s an expectation that we’ve experienced most everything in life. When something unexpectedly stirs our souls, we revert to being 20 again.

Our boat departed from Pylos, the three of us, our captain Elias, and his shipmate Jason. Jason, a student at the American University told me that his desire to learn English was driven as a child by wanting to watch American films without subtitles. When I asked what his favorite movies were, expecting classics, he mentioned one about motorcycles. Elias also in his early 20’s had a masterful understanding of history, and I quizzed him.

Navarino Bay is one of Earth’s most naturally mesmerizing, striking ocean enclosures in the world. It entices you to survey it’s 80-foot-high natural encasements dotted with caves and narrow door like openings to the Ionian beyond.

It was the site of the last major naval battle in history on October 20,

1827, fought entirely with traditional sailing ships.  An allied fleet from Britain, France, and Russia surprised hundreds of Ottoman ships, and decisively destroyed the Turkish Navy thus ensuring the creation of an independent Kingdom of Greece. Elias, a masterful diver, had inspected the site many times and reported that there are no remnants of the hundreds of sunken Turkish ships. My head was swimming with heroic visions of Errol Flynn in The Sea Hawk.

We transversed one of the openings and out onto the open ocean. Greece is blessed with thousands of mostly uninhabited islands of varied sizes. Each one begs to be explored. As we circled one then the next it is easy to understand how myths were created. Like steppingstones they lure you to continue in search of whatever quest lies beyond. Geologically these islands and this sea have remained the same since time of Homer.

One of the most magical experiences written about by the poets is sailing into a harbor slowly on a perfect summer morning for the first time. The locals on shore going about their lives you hear church bells, and distant voices. There is an anticipation of wanting to become a part of their small planet.

We drifted smoothly into the harbor of Marathopoli and were met by a fellow restaurateur, Nikos Thalassinos whose last name fittingly means a man of the seas.  Finding out I was from Chicago, Nikos told me his uncle was Perry, the owner of the former Rodity’s restaurant in Greektown. We bonded. He led us to Argiris, his seafood spot, and to a table next to the rocks with the sea splashing at our feet. A stay cat wondered about. Nikos, the perfect host asked what we’d want to sample, and I asked for the freshest catch he had. His son brought out two large clear-eyed beauties, and I chose the slightly smaller. Maybe it was the moment, as I know that can influence one’s senses, but it was the most incredible slightly sweet, perfectly cook fish I’ve ever eaten, and I’ve ingested a lifetime of excellent seafood. This was combined with flawless tomato salad to win my award of my best meal of the last decade. Yes, I rate memorable meals. I’ve collected enough over the years to combine them in a book that I’ll complete in another life.

Returning to our boat it was out to sea again.  We reached a point of a sunken Italian ship sunk by the British during WWII. My son-in-law dived in to explore. I wanted to join him by was stopped by that internal silent warning system we acquire about the age of 60 that tugs us back to the reality of survival.  While we drifted with the engines stopped, Jason inadvertently dropped a piece of equipment in the sea and Elias told me it was necessary for him to scuba dive to retrieve it.

He reemerged three times before popping up to the surface with the black piece of metal. We cheered, as it reminded me of the Epiphany service where a priest tosses a crucifix into the sea to be retrieved by young swimmers. The person who successfully recovers and returns the cross receives a special blessing for good fortune, health, and luck throughout the coming year. As we pulled Elias back aboard, I felt that wave of good fortune.

The following morning, I was supposed to play one of the rounds of golf, but I needed to return to the sea instead. This time on a chaise lounge at the beach with a good book and my playlist of songs. I spent a good part of the day there at the water’s edge with the waves ebbing and flowing like someone familiar breathing next to you.

I found out it became the perfect opportunity to reassess my life and reflect on my blessings. The timeless sea promotes this much like an empty, familiar church. Twice I waded into the surf gazing out into the endless seductive aquatic landscape.

Now I know I’m generations away from ancestors who immigrated from this achingly stunning land, but it always lovingly embraces me as a wayward son.  The eternal thalassa has a lot to do with that feeling. A feeling we all can return to if only in a dream.

I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it we are going back from whence we came.

                                                           – John F. Kennedy

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Jimmy Banakis is a life-long restaurateur.  He was an honorary batboy for the White Sox in 1964. He attended Oak Park River Forest High School, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Chicago-Kent Law School.  He claims the kitchen is the room he’s most comfortable in anywhere in the world. He published an extremely limited-edition family cookbook. He’s a father and grandfather, and lives in Downers Grove Il.

Comments 20

  2. Love your delivery! “the waves ebbing and flowing like someone familiar breathing next to you.”
    Your words are like a paintbrush bringing your story to life. What a gift!
    Thank you.
    Best wishes to John and Betty…God be with you, in every breath.

  3. Oh the memories this brings back! I was in Rhodes in the ’80s trying to find a Greek fisherman’s cap that would fit my father by measuring against an adjustable baseball cap. I got to talking with the owner who came over to help. Learning I was from New Jersey he called over his American brother who was visiting and who owned a restaurant that I had passed every day on the bus while commuting to college. I became a frequent customer and later taught two of his grandsons. The ancient Greek custom of xenoi still endures.

  4. We all go back to the sea except for the poor beluga whales who unfortunately came back to Chicago for their departure to the afterlife…..as they say, they joined the crowd.
    Sorry to break the revery, just an old guys lament.

  9. Awesome. I might quibble with the date of the last major naval battle. Iron Bottom Sound by Guadalcanal, might have something to say about it (1942). Still, I cannot imagine the cannons thundering from wooden sailing ships in 1827. Nor can I imagine the courage it must have taken to be aboard one of them.

  10. “It was the site of the last major naval battle in history on October 20,
    1827, fought entirely with traditional sailing ships. ”

    Plenty of sea battles after that fought by steam powered metal ships.

  11. Thanks Mr. Banakis

    I think that all of us in this “third stage” of our lives, look back at our beginnings.
    Memories of Family members that have passed on. The friends we were so close to.
    All of John’s subscribers could write something about the neighborhood roots we all share. I’m not sure that we could write it as eloquently. I think it is very apparent from these words and the picture of Mr. Banakis on that Boat, that he is at peace.

    I pray that everyone here on John’s site can find some measure of that peace. If not sailing the oceans, it might be on a golf course (not my choice), in a back yard in NW Indiana, sitting with your children or grandchildren, or maybe even cheering for the White Sox or Cubs in the upcoming playoffs. I’ll also pray that we understand that the source of that peace is found in our relationship with the Lord.

    John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

  13. I went to Greece in 1974 as a very young 19 with my high school friend. As we were reminiscing recently over pictures we came to the realization that the family thought we were husband hunting. That brought a few laughs. I have been to Greece a few times since then, but the memories of those three weeks stayed with me.
    I, too, miss Rodity’s.
    Thank you for sharing your memories.

  14. Excellent column James, thanks for sharing a world many of us only see in museums.
    John Kass News has assembled the best team since Mike Ditka and Walter Payton thrilled Chicagoans with their perseverance and determination to win, against all odds.

    Your visit to the Peloponnese is inspirational to Kass readers who retired out west or down south, far from the cultural mosaic we grew up with in the older neighborhoods of Chicago.
    Many of us would return to the city of our parents and grandparents, if there was a glimmer of hope that common sense will return to local and state government. Instead we see greed and deception, multiplied many times over.
    I wonder what European tourists say about the ugly Obama monstrosity that intrudes into Lake Michigan’s serene shoreline like a vulture lurking over the sailboats.

    In the fifth and final Indiana Jones movie “The Dial of Destiny” the archeologist travels across the Mediterranean Sea in pursuit of relics invented by Greek mathematician Archimedes.
    The scenery is spectacular, with deep-sea diving filmed in Sicily. George Lucas and his crew show respect for ancient Greece ; unlike self-centered Hollywood moguls who re-write history to accommodate left-wing political obsessions.

  15. Jimmy,
    I am first generation Greek born in this blessed country, from parents both born on the Aegean Island of Ikaria – of mythological fame. You may remember Icarus and Daedalus were imprisoned in a tower by king Minos because Daedalus revealed the secret of the maze created to devour entrants, by the Minotaur. In any event, Daedalus started collecting feathers by the many seagulls that he enticed to visit them in their tower. He melted wax from candles, and created wings for him and his son to excape by flying out and away. He cautioned his son, don’t fly too close to the sun or your waxed wings will melt. No different than many sons, Icarus didn’t heed dad’s advice, and soared high with his new found freedom, ultimately plummeting from the sky as his wings fell apart. The rock on which he apparently landed was named for him – Ikaria. It is told Hercules took his body and interred it somewhere on the island….as yet undiscovered! In other word, the sea is in my veins, and has been all my life. It’s in the genes Jimmy, from which there is no escape!!

  16. My wife and I were at that restaurant in Marathoupoli , We were having a nice lunch and my wife said , I know the people at the next table, I said we are 6,000 miles from Chicago are you kidding me? So then I hear some english so I said what the heck and go over and introduce myself, They were also from Chicago area, what church do you attend, I said Holy Apostles, and he replied do you know John Kass? I said he’s my cousin. Turns out I was at his daughters wedding to Johns brother Nick, He then asked us to join him at his table, and we had drinks, watermelon etc, for about two hours, it was a memorable experience, You never know who you will run into in Greece.

  17. A beautifully crafted article, Mr. Banakis. I had thought you to be from Crete by your name. I had the good fortune to befriend a Cretan in graduate school and have visited several times through the years.
    Your writing reminds me of Kazantzakis’ Zorba and the boss with Madame Hortense as she described the various ship Captains.
    Every day we would go snorkeling near Chania to the north or Sfakia in the south, depending on the weather. The beauty is stunning, and the grilled octopus in Chania harbor is unsurpassed.
    My friend Filippos repeated the myth that when God finished creating the world he had a pocketful of stones left over and just dropped them in the ocean, and that became Crete.

  18. Third picture, the rocky bluffs. The formation on the left, I first saw a ram, then perhaps a dog. On the right, the head of a gloriously bearded pharaoh, or Assyrian warrior, with a rectangular eye.

    Anyone else?

    Sublime writing.

    Bravo.

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