From the 1950s to the 1980s, there has been a revival of interest for Orthodox Christianity in Greece. The main authors associated with this revival are often referred to as “neo-Orthodox.” [1] Influenced by nineteenth and twentieth century Russian theology, these authors have dealt with… Read more
Nationalism as a source of collective identity is the most persistent spiritual offspring of the French Revolution. The collapse of Yugoslavia refuted the view of Eric Hobsbawm (1990) who thought that the subject of his book was, historically speaking, in full retreat. The topicality of this phenomenon of nationalist revival… Read more
The recourse to history for creating literary products has anchored much of the most notable 19th and 20th century Greek fiction and poetry writing. Several names come readily to mind: among poets, Solomos, Kalvos, Cavafy, Sikelianos, Palamas, Elytis, Ritsos, Anagnostakis stand out. Fiction writers prove equally ready to rely on… Read more
This article examines Manolis Anagnostakis’s eight collections of poems, Τα ποιήματα 1941–1971 (Εποχές 1–3, Συνέχεια, Παρενθέσεις, Συνέχεια 2–3, Ο Στόχος [Epochs 1–3, Continuation, Parentheses, Continuation 2–3, The Goal]) that exemplify the spiritual journey of a (poetic) consciousness in crisis, suggesting an interpretive model for understanding and overcoming some of Greece’s… Read more
Historian Eric Hobsbawm defines “invented tradition” as “a set of practices… of a ritually symbolic nature” that “automatically implies continuity with… a suitable historic past” (1983:1). Sometimes the past—suitable or not—is there for the taking. This paper explores the interaction between fiction and reality in the musical culture of western… Read more
Translated by Panayotis League Our knowledge of the dragoman of Cyprus, Christofakis Konstantinou, was until fairly recently limited to two allusions in historical sources of the eighteenth century to his violent death on Easter 1750, and to the pictorial evidence of his sponsorship of the reconstruction and wall–painting of the… Read more
The appeal of the great liberal statesman Eleftherios Venizelos among the Greeks outside Greece is not in itself very surprising. As Lily Macrakis has pointed out in her excellent study on Venizelos’ early career, he was a politician who combined a bold modernist vision tempered by a pragmatic approach along… Read more
Poet and diplomat George Seferis composed the poem “Last Stop” while moored in Italy after four itinerant years with the exiled Greek government. During those four years, the Nazis battered and weakened Greece. “Last Stop” is a long-form, stream of consciousness poem with a confessional tone where the speaker seeks… Read more
I first met Lily Macrakis when she became Dean of Hellenic College in 2002; she was literally “a breath of fresh air.” In the years we worked together, I came to further appreciate her scholarship, and benefited enormously from her leadership. With her incredible ability to persevere against all kinds… Read more
Eleftherios Venizelos was a historical figure; but, like many historical figures, he has also acquired the patina of a mythological hero. Nowhere is this more evident than on Crete, where today even those who represent ideologies that would have been anathema to him (and that would have anathematized him as… Read more
