The drought in Europe has not only reduced such major rivers as the Rhine and the Danube to little more than muddy creeks. The drought has caused unusually high heat and terrible wildfires. Two firefighters died on Crete fighting the fires. And hundreds of acres on Mount Cithaeron, a mountain on the mainland, famous from Greek mythology, have been reduced to ash.

Let’s start with the myth of Oedipus. According to the legend, King Laius and Queen Jocasta abandoned their son Oedipus, who seers foretold would kill his father and marry his mother, on the slopes of Mount Cithaeron. The parents pierced his ankles and left him to die. (Sorry, most of the myths are dark!) But a shepherd found the child and saved him, thereby putting the foretelling into effect.

Then there is the myth surrounding Acteon, a hunter who accidentally saw Artemis bathing. She changed him into a stag, Unable to speak, he was torn to pieces by his own dogs.

Mount Cithaeron plays an equally central role in Euripides’ The Bacchae. It was on the mountain that the followers of Dionysus gathered to perform ecstatic rituals honoring the god of wine and revelry. When King Pentheus of Thebes attempted to spy on the celebrations disguised as a woman, Dionysus drove the worshippers into a frenzy. (Dionysus, angry because the King refused to honor the God, played a part in persuading Pentheus to spy on the women. Nowadays that would be called entrapment. Just saying.)

Anyway, the women—including his own mother, Agave—tore him apart in one of Greek literature’s most shocking scenes.

When I was in Greece several years ago, I saw Mount Cithaeron. It was so beautiful and I could easily imagine the woods populated by satyrs and nymphs. Seeing photos of the destruction is heart rending.