Spring 2005

Vol XI1 No 1, Spring 2005

Briefly Noted_________________

A glowing aura permeates the garden; the sinking sun filtering through the clouds. The white- topped wall running through one side of the orchard is sharply outlined between the undulating Rosemary bushes in front and the tall green Leyland trees in the back; Colors and hues change the garden giving it a chameleon character, a stage setting illuminated by nature. As I was doing my chores cutting the weeds with my trusty tractor swarms of birds swooped down over the cut areas; it was as if I had just laid the dinner table for them; after a few minuets they would rise up in the air angling elegantly and come to rest on the pistachio tress twittering happily to each other. The swarms do not limit themselves to birds, but to ants, caterpillars, worms of every variety aerating the earth, field mice, clusters of hedgehogs and in springtime mounds of tortoises, shuffling speedily through the undergrowth leaving behind their newborn soft- shelled minute offspring. Every week a new variety of bird appears, adding their voice to the melodious orchestra. I marvel at the invisible conductor of this orchestral composition. Two nights ago it was Wagner with the wind blowing hard, every tree moving musically, today it was Erik Satie, soft, serene. Change is the lingua franca in this Attica enclave fighting its battle against the noise and nefos, Western civilizations' gift to its cradle. The visuals are so important; just as food affects our health what we see affects our mind. I never tire of looking at nature's repast .  The expression of  'feasting one eyes' gets full use at this optical culinary table. I believe in at least three optical feasts a day with some snacks thrown in to offset the visual cacophony of the city. It's not only the visual harmony but the order.  An ordered garden should be an example to those entrusted with safeguarding our country. In Shakespeare's  play Richard II, the disorganized garden is compared to the disorganized state. The terrorist weeds sprouting  surreptitiously have to be identified and removed.  This has to be done delicately, though, lest we upset the protean balance. The  Duke of York's gardener  remarks to the servant:

Programs on Spetses_________

Poetry Workshop: June 19-July 9

This summer poetry workshop will be open to poets, writers and individuals interested in creative writing and poetic expression. Conducted by award-winning poet Alicia Stallings the workshop will include nightly readings with Katerina Anghelaki Rook, Tassos Denegris, Nikos Papandreou and other Greek and  foreign poets.

Art Workshop: June 19-July 9

The workshop will emphasize water colour painting and drawing and is open to individuals with or without previous artistic experience. The Greek island architecture, the natural beauty of the island of Spetses, all contribute to an environment conducive to artistic expression  and Judith Allen will be the artists- in- residence .

Greek Language:  The Centre will offer its three-week summer Modern Greek language program on Spetses, from June 19-July-9. The sessions include instruction from Greek I through Greek VI, as well as a Modern Greek Literature course for advanced students.  Courses are open to adults of all nationalities.

Theatre Workshop and Festival: The University of Detroit Mercy will conduct its annual summer theatre workshop and Festival, with a production of  Aristophanes' The Birds, and Euripides 'Electra at the Anargyrios Amphiteatre on Spetses and in the open- air theatre at the American College of Greece in Athens. Dr. Arthur Beer and Mary Bremer will conduct the workshops and direct the productions.

Programs in Athens___________

 The Pennsylvania State University Spring Semester in Greece.   Dr.Mark Munn  and Dr. Mary Lou Zimmerman Munn are the Faculty of  Record for the program.

In Spring the Centre will host the University of Chicago’s Classics Quarter. Elizabeth Asmis and Maria Fusaro will conduct the classes and lecture on-site.

 Also in spring, students from the  AHA/NCSA Consortium of colleges and universities in Oregon, Washington State and Alaska,  will participate in a Greek  classic studies semester.   Dr. Curtis Yehnert will be the Faculty of Record.

In early summer Boston College will hold their annual Classics program in  addition to Westminster College and the Graham School of the  University of Chicago. Other programs this year included Colby College and the University of Delaware.

The  Modern Greek Language Program will offer classes on all levels throughout the year  in Athens. Program details at:

www.athenscentre.gr

Guest Lecture______________

The Richard Trapp Memorial lecture will be given this year by Professor Stephen Tracy, director of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. Dr. Tracy will speak on  Athenian Culture and the Persian Wars.   Wednesday May 18, at 7.00 p.m. at the Athens Centre, 48 Archimidous Street.

  Briefly Noted

September 2003

On going through my old files recently I came across one of my old cancelled Greek passports issued in 1955.  As I leafed through it I noticed that I had obtained a 'visa' to 'Europe Occidental'. Of course, the European Union did not exist at that time, but if Greece was not considered part of the West, where was it and what was it part of?  In my understanding, the Orient, or Near East, began on the other side of the Bosphorus in the divided city of Istanbul, or Constantinople as it is called  by the Greeks. The countries surrounding the eastern Mediterranean basin were referred to as 'The Levant', whereas the countries east of the Adriatic and bounded by the Bosphorus were the Balkans. Greece shared elements of both these areas, neither  of which  entitled it to be part of 'Occidental'  Europe.

During the liberation of Greece from the Ottoman Empire, circa 1821-1830, Western Europe had a major preoccupation, in arts and letters, with the  Orient and Orientalism. It was a time of territorial expansion by a Western Europe seeking new markets and raw materials. The French and the British vied for Egypt, the Russians and the British were trading places in Afghanistan, the Raj was going into full swing in India, Asian and oriental societies abounded, and  aside from the impassioned writing of the British poet Byron, not much was heard about Greece or things Greek.  Perhaps we had slipped through the geopolitical Balkan  crack. Greece had just emerged as an independent country  with a glorious history, but to Europeans,  the modern nation seemed populated by 'barbarians' who seemed unrelated to their Classical ancestors, and by a few itinerant philhellenes, engravers, travelers and  young men on the grand tour of the Levant.  Western Europe judged foreign territories by its own standards of 'civilization' and Greece was somewhere out there with a plangent poetic past, an obscure present and a very uncertain future, led by a 18 year old Bavarian prince and a few expatriate Greeks who had boarded the freedom train called the "Greek Cause."

The post - Byronic period in Greece marked a further decline in European interest in Greek affairs. Edward Lear's  19th century book  Journal of a Landscape Painter in Albania and Ilyria, became a popular and enduring travelogue but it restricted itself to those parts of Greece that had yet to be liberated. In May 1866, Crete made a brave attempt at liberation but Ottoman rule was restored on the island  with the consent of the Western powers. Charles Dickens had warned the Greeks on Crete that" they must keep quiet now, since no help would come from Europe.    David Roessel, writing in his book  In Byron's Shadow, says  that " the perception of Greece as geographically indeterminate remained prevalent in the middle of the nineteenth century, although the clear dichotomy  of ancient/West and modern /East had began to break down?..modern Greece was viewed as something of a gray area between East and West without being a full or credible member of either region." On the other hand, Charles Dilke, a prominent liberal politician, asserted in 1878 in Parliament that "I believe in Greece - believe in the ultimate replacement of the Turkish State by Greece" which would be " an outpost of Western Europe in the East."  The general opinion about Modern Greeks, however, was negative, although the sentiment of most travelers who had actually been there was romantically philhellenic.

Things changed slowly. When Greece won the first allied victory of World War II by defeating the Italians in Koritsa,  in November 1940, the world suddenly looked at this 'quaint' country with new interest. Writers such as Miller and Durrell had previously depicted Greece as a place to find oneself.  After the war, tourists discovered the Greek islands, the charm and Filoxenia, hospitality, of the Greek people. Politically, Greece  had become a buffer zone between  East and West. It was the only Western allied country in the Balkans after the Yalta Pact, and it was  Christian, friendly and part of the Western NATO alliance. The rise of  Greece as a modern European country was helped and hindered by its dual identity emanating from both its known classical past and its mostly unknown Byzantine heritage.

This year Greece undertook the Presidency of the European Union. In  150 years it has made up for the absence of the Renaissance, lost geographical boundaries and lost identity by creating and educating a nation which included   Nobel prize winners, educators, musicians, artists, a commercial navy second to none and a future as a major player in the emerging Balkan states. Its role in international affairs is usually one of conflict resolution rather than conflict creation.

We have a long way to get to Ithaca, but no more visas to go to Europe,  not even a passport.

Briefly  Noted_________

January 2003