Thessaloniki, summer 1967. A couple of young explorers pack two large suitcases and board a train car. After a long journey through Yugoslavia, Italy and France, he arrives in Madrid and begins an enthusiastic search for sources in the National Library of Spain. Academician Ioannis K. Chasiotis, having taken the first steps in the research that determined his later life, day by day begins to shed light on the unknown chapter of Greek navigation and the Greek diaspora, namely our participation in the Spanish expeditions to explore the oceans during the 16th century century.

He will sit there for eight months, delving deeper into the Spanish world and its culture, not only lavishly studying the archives, but also buying modern books, learning all about local history, art and literature. As the 88-year-old academic emeritus professor of modern history at AUTH tells us, “A historian who stops only at the facts and does not extend to society is half a historian.” Research continued in Venice, as well as in the “Himank archive” in Valladolid and in the so-called “Archive of the Indies” in Seville. And then came the Internet, and with it the feeling of worthlessness. “Notebooks, notes, photographs, microfilms… all of a sudden seemed useless to me, since I found that they were all collected on my computer,” he emphasizes and adds that “if you do not explore the “archive”, you have lost part connections with history.

He remembers that while still a student, under the guidance of Professor Linos Politis (son of the great folklorist Kostas Politis), he photographed thousands of manuscripts in the libraries of Mount Athos. In these early studies he received valuable preparation for immersing himself in his great long-term studies in the “archives of the Indies”, which are condensed in a recent publication entitled “Odysseus in the South Seas – Greek Presence in the Overseas Possessions of Spain (16th century). -XVII century)” editions of the University Studio Press. There he details the decisive but forgotten presence of the Greeks in the Iberian Peninsula, in the interior of South America, as well as in the great expeditions of the Spaniards in the still unknown waters of the seas of the planet. In the pages of this fascinating book we we learn about the Greek navigators who took part in the voyages of Columbus, but mainly about their impressive – and decisive – participation in the Magellan expedition, which made the first circumnavigation of the world (1519-1522).

In the expedition of Magellan, the Greek navigators were not only present, but also played a decisive role. “These journeys were more difficult, more daring than those that astronauts made on the moon. These were journeys that challenged geography,” emphasizes the professor. In fact, we probably cannot even imagine what it would be like to sail outside the columns of Heraklion, on small wooden sailboats (about 20 m long) through unknown and terrifying seas. It was there that the ancient connection of the Greeks with the sea was manifested. “They were all inhabitants of the coasts and islands with great traditions in maritime affairs. Let’s not forget that they have learned to move in the Aegean, which is not an easy sea. They knew how not only to maintain their wooden ships, but also to build them. In a nutshell, they had a fleet.”

From the 448 pages of the book, as well as from the stories he himself tells us about the years he researched the archives in the Spanish libraries, it becomes obvious that next to these fearsome Greek sailors of the 16th century stands the Odysseus and immersed in his own research, persistent and valuable researcher of our recent history, Ioannis K. Chasiotis.