Mani Peninsula Piracy Tradition

On the Mani Peninsula in southern Greece, piracy remained a primary source of income well into the 18th century. It was so normalized that clergy blessed raiding ships and sometimes joined their crews. The roots of this acceptance ran deep. In the pre-classical era, Greek societies treated piracy as an honorable profession, and texts like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey mention it as a normal part of life.

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