The Legend of the Dragon
At a short distance from the thousand-year-old Byzantine monastery of the Virgin Mavriotissa and next to the shore of the lake, half hidden by the centuries-old plane trees, one can see the entrance to one of the most impressive caves in Greece. This is the famous dragon's cave. But who was this dragon?
According to a rather medieval tradition next to the lake there was a cave at the bottom of which was a gold mine whose fearless guard was a dragon. The terrible monster emitted from its mouth flames and poisoned vapors that prevented even the bravest from crossing the threshold of the cave.
But when the settler and first mythical king of the city, Castor, wanting to entertain his guest brother Polydeukis and his father-in-law Kelly, priest of the god Pan and following them, they approached the opening of the cave whence issued the vapors of the breath of the beast.
The beaver announced to those present that whoever dared to mess with the dragon and exterminate him would win untold riches. Then, from the crowd, a young husky, advanced towards the cave, fought bravely with the dragon, and finally succeeded in striking him mortally with his spear, throwing the beast dead into the waters of the lake.
The Dioskuros and the bystanders celebrated the feat and after thanking the god Pan, entered the cave through the now unguarded entrance, holding lit torches. As they moved forward impressed by the beauty of the cave, the atmosphere became suffocating due to lack of oxygen. At one point the passage narrowed, the flames went out and the cave was plunged into total darkness. Then a spooky voice was heard saying: «He who stoops down to pick up a handful of the mud he treads on will regret it, but he who does not pick up will also regret it! »
Some were frightened and afraid to take anything in their hands, while the more daring ones hastily filled their butts with mud. When they emerged from the cave into the familiar daylight, those with the mud in their palms were surprised to find that what they were holding was liquid gold dust!
So those who left empty-handed missed the chance to get rich, while those who got regretted not getting more....
Beyond this nice legend there is no other known reference to the cave. It is likely that the existence of the cave was unknown since its entrance was not particularly obvious due to the morphology, but also because the whole peninsula was accessible only via lake boats. During the difficult years of the Italian-German occupation, the cave was discovered by residents of the city and a little later, with the end of the civil war, the engineering corps of the Greek army proceeded to create the lakeside road, making the cave easily accessible.
