Our Creepy Experience In The Cave Of the Nymphs

22 July 2021

By Arabella and Alex Horsfield

This incident happened while we were exploring the beautiful island of Ithaca, home of Odysseus. The first place that we visited was the Cave of the Nymphs, where Odysseus was said to have slept in upon his return to Ithaca from his epic journey.  Mommy read in a tourist map that it is a popular tourist spot. We expected it to be a dark cave with different rock formations… but there was something else in it, something we never ever expected…

First we drove in a rented car through the bumpy road full of sharp turns and cliffs that went straight down!  Then we saw a big sign that read ‘Cave of the Nymphs closed’.  We ignored it and continued on.  When we arrived at the cave, we followed the trail on google map to a green rusty looking gate and squeezed through a narrow crack between the rocks to enter.

When we stepped into the well known cave, it wasn’t as dark as anticipated since there is a small skylight on the roof of the cave. There wasn’t much head room so you had to duck where the higher level was. From the top level, we looked down to the bottom of the cave and to our surprise saw either a man or a very life like statue?! The man looked like he was in deep slumber or even dead.  His elbows were resting on his legs and his head was hanging down so we couldn’t see his face.  He was quite a big man with very short hair.  He was wearing light blue strippy pyjamas and a pair of brand new mismatched sneakers.  He also had a half empty water bottle and blue bag next to him.  It was an extremely strange and creepy sight.

Alex and daddy shouted ‘Hello? Hello?’  The man was dead still.  All 4 of us got the creeps and were deciding if we should go down or not.  We were very curious and freaked out as there weren’t any pictures or trace of the guy in the cave on the internet. Daddy the bravest went down first followed by Alex the confident. The path down was quite slippery because of the dusty sand and steep incline. There were sticks dug into the sand with rope connecting all of them creating an unsteady railing.  Daddy and Alex went up close to him while Mommy and I looked down from halfway since we were super spooked.  Daddy said he wasn’t breathing at all but he looked extremely realistic.  He took close up pictures of the man.  He couldn’t be a statue, or could he?

Alex said “When daddy and I went down to the man, we got a perfect view of the skylight above. I think it was really creepy cause what if that man just put his head up and shout! I really got scared when I got close to the man or statue… I felt like it was a prank, so I began shouting at him to wake up!  But he didn’t answer. I was getting frustrated so I shouted more. I decided to go back up with my mom and Arabella. Then my dad did the most daring thing, he took out the phone and tapped it on the man’s back.  I was very scared if the man reacted badly!”

Mommy was quietly shouting “Come up quickly! What if he wakes up?” Daddy ignored her for a while and carried on investigating this suspicious man. He saw a difference between skin colours on his neck with pale skin and pinkish skin so he thought the guy might be a statue.  He used his phone and tapped the back of his neck, I thought he was going to wake up (if he was an actual man).  No reaction or movement at all!  After a good 20-30 mins we finally left feeling completely spooked.  We went back to the car to keep exploring the island. In the car we were discussing if the guy was real or just an incredibly realistic statue. Daddy showed us his close up pictures and you could see the veins and body hair. Alex believed he was a statue since he didn’t have any hair in his ears.  Daddy informed her that some people are very well groomed and like to not have hair in their ears and nose.

At the end of our road trip we stopped at a little town called Frikes. While Alex and I went back to the boat, mommy and daddy stayed for a drink.  They also went to their friend John’s shop at the village to say hello.  Daddy had gone to his shop two years ago with Alex and bought some beautiful ceramic birds sculpture there.  They told John the story of that man in the cave.  John immediately recognised the man from his coworker’s story!

John’s coworker’s boyfriend lives close to a church near the Cave of the Nymphs. The night before when he was walking home, he saw a big man with a plastic cup sitting on a bench next to the church in a deep slumber. The boyfriend kept trying to wake the man up.  No response.  So he shouted ‘what are you doing here?  What do you want?’  No response.  All of a sudden, he woke up and blurted out “ WAATER”  The boyfriend got so scared that he ran into his house and locked the door at the speed of light.  We immediately shared the cave man photo with John.  The coworker’s boyfriend identified this person as the same person in the cave!

This means the man in the cave is real!  Now we were really spooked.  What if he looked up or shouted at Alex when she was 30cm away from him?! What if he jumped up when daddy was tapping his neck with his phone?  We looked at the photos again and realised that the difference between skin tones was because he had a really bad sunburn!

John’s dad called the mayor’s office and told the people what happened. Today on 22/07/2021, this mad man scaring everyone in this town was found and caught by the residents.  Who else did he try to scare?  Where does he come from?  What are his motives?  Why would he try to scare people? Is he mad? Under drugs? Hypnotised?  Is he a performance artist?

This is our crazy experience in the Cave of Nymphs, Ithaca, one that I’m sure we will never forget.