"It"~r

;Ejl-LLEiC~ OL" ~ ~~M ~~ ST~

~Lf~.~

_o. 2 (1981>

I

****MODERN GREEK STUDIES

**Department of ClassicsUn~iversity of Toronto **

PROGRAMS OF STUDY+

I. Minor Program: any three (3) courses fromGRK 150Y/245Y/250Y/350Y/355Y/450Y approvedby the Department.

2. Major Program: six (6) courses are requiredin a program of at least fifteeen (15) cour-ses. A. Three courses in Modern Greek at200 or higher level, including GRK 350Y/355Y. B. Three courses from: DRM 260H; FAHcourses in ancient art; GLL 191H 202H, 205Y,225H, 230Y, 250Y, 290H, 300Y; GRH 100Y, 200Y,216Y, 219H, 221H. 223H, 309Y, 312Y, 314Y; anyGRK courses not counted under A; HIS 485Y;NES 251Y, 351Y, 451Y, 471Y; PHL/PHI 200Y, 301Y,302Y. Non-Specialist Electives: 3 courses.

3. Modern Languages and Literatures (CombinedSpecialist Program in Two Languages): Four-teen (14) courses are required in a programof at least twenty (20) courses, seven (7)in each subject. Non-Specialist Electives : four

Our courses in Modern Greek are listed inthe first No. of the BULLETIN.

/2/

courses. For languages other than Greek

one should consult the University of To-

ronto Arts and Science Calendar.

Greek: Three courses in M*odern Greek at

200- or higher level, of which at least one

must be at a 300- level./ Three courses in

Anicient or Hellenistic Greek./ One addition-

al course from GLL/GRK/GRH courses in Greek

History/ FAH courses in Greek Art/ NES courses

in Hellenistic History.

A SURVEY OF BOOKS

Neoellinika Kimena gia to Yimnassio, apo Omadha

Erghassias.(Thessaloniki: Idhryma Manoli Trianta-

fillidhi, 1977 and 1980). Vols. I and II.

Two exemplary selections of modern Greek literary

texts for use in Greek high school, fruit of a col-

lective effort of twelve women teachers and writers

(among whom is the poet Lina Kasdhaghli) in colla-

boration with a number of high-school graduates.

The initial selections were tried, quite success-

fully, at the so-called Hill School, an old and

prestigious school for girls in Athens. The first

volume covers the last two decades of the nine-

teenth century (with works by Palamas, Dhrossinis,

Polemis, Souris, Vikelas, Rhoidhis, Viziinos, Kon-

dhilakis, Mitsakis, Psiharis, Pallis, Eftaliotis,

Kristallis, Hristovassilis, Karkavitsas, V1ahoyian-

nis and Travlantonis), while the second reflects

the modern Greek literature of the first three

decades of the twentieth century.

The introduction to each volume is brief and to

the point. There follows a chronology of the period

coveredj, with listings of important dates in three

different columns: Greek Literature, Greek History,

World Events. Writers are represented in the main

part of the book with some of their best work. The

texts are lightly annotated and illustrated with

reproductions of relevant pictures and drawings.

A special sectionl "Study", lists questions for

students that are meant to test and reinforce com-

prehension. A bibliography lists the anthologized

writers' works with their dates of publication.

The place of publication is understood to be Athens

in most cases, but one is intrigued to knowthat one of Palamas's books was first publishedin Chicago(.)in 1928. Secondary sources (includ-ing afieromata of journals) are also listed. Theglossaries are quite useful as some of the antho-logized texts are heavily idiomatic, in cases likeKondhilakis, Mirivilis and Kondoghlous. Each volu-me is rounded out with a general bibliography andan appendix of suggestions to the teacher for thebetter use of the book. Besides Mirivilis and Kon-

toghlous, the second volume contains works by Xe-nopoulos, Hatzopoulos, Theotokis, Dhraghoumis,Malakassis, Ghriparis, Porfiras, Varnalis, Papan-toniou, Ouranis, Kariotakis, Aghras and Venezis.

Timos Malanos, Rhodha T.halamou ke Alla Piimata(Thessaloniki, 1979).

Malanos, who spent most of his life in Egyptbefore retiring to Lausanne, is of course known,primarily, for his biographical and critical workson Cavafy and his essays on Seferis and other Greekwriters. At the age of eighty, he decided to collectand publish the few poems which he had written overthe years. Some he had first printed in journalsas far back as the twenties, eliciting favorablecomments from Cavafy, which are printed in thisbook, although Malanos himself denies having anypretensions as a poet.

Most of the poems are in traditional verse andrhythmic patterns that recall the so-called Piissitou Messopolemou. The mood is romantic; there is asense of nostalgia and melancholy. The poems in freeverse are more thoughtful and include a gnomic vari-ation on Cavafy's "Satrapies" and a series of terseepigrams, like the one I reprint here:

Friendly and hostile criticshastened to think of me as dead

and buried.

/5/

But here, again I appearin the bookstore windows.

My eclipsel it seems, was not complete.

To the collection of his own verses Malanos addsa few competent translations from the Hellenisticpoet Meleager, Michelangelo, Giovanni BattistaStrozzi, Baudelaire, Eliot and Aloysius Bertrand.

O Kamenos Kipos ke Alla Piimata (Athina, I980), isa nicely printed small selection of poems by anotherwise prolific writer. Spiros Kokkinis is aprofessional librarian who has published much inhis field of work but also in the areas of Greekhistory and antiquarian research. He has, more-over, edited scholarly journals and anthologiesof poetry. Kokkinis is also a creative writer,whose narrative Taxidhia stin Elladha me Sintrofiatous Palious Yeoghrafous ke Periigites (Athina, I975)was awarded a Greek State prize. The present bookletof poems, The Burnt Garden and Other Poems, is hiseighth collection of verse. Techniques learned fromsurrealism or, possibly, from the elliptic and apo-calyptic style of old Greek texts serve as a kindof warp that catches images, which derive partlyfrom the contemplation of murals and icons in amonastery or other objects of old and partly fromthe poet's own fancy. The result is a cryptic kindof lyricism, interspersed with fragments from reli-gious texts, as in the following passage, numberI of "The All-consuming Hades", where we find aborrowing from The Song of Songs:

Heaven ripened inside me like thefruits of trees forgotten in thesolitude of the plain. I looked foryou in vanity, like all things admi-rable. Yet, who is knowledgeable of

/6/

patience and wisdom of justice?And You (exquisite like the sun,more beautiful than the moon) be-gan your wandering in the world'sall-desolate passions.

Prodhromos Markoghlou (first published in I962)bas always projected a kind of feverish kaimosin his poems, a mixture of sorrow and anger thatmay derive from personal as well as social factors.In the series of prose narratives O Horos tis loan-nas ke o Hronos tou loanni (Thessaloniki, 1980),the kaimos is punctuated and relieved by eros, car-nal exchange between the "space" of the woman andthe "time" of the man. These brief narratives must

be, in partl autobiographical (10. lost one arm whenvery young and so has the loannis of the book). O-therwise, both figures seem to be composites ofvarious people, men and women, who struggle tosurvive and grow up as individuals in an environ-ment of heavy socio-political pressures.

**k

Tassos Korfis, the editor and publisher of "Pro-speros" Publications, has added another volumeto his previous work on the mid-war writer MitsosPapanikolaou (1900-I943). The new title is MitsosPapanikolaou. Kritika (Athina, 1980). We have seenP.'s poetry and translations from non-Greek, prima-rily French, poets. Now, we are offered his criticalarticles on poets like Rilke, Carco and Joyce, per-ceptive book reviews on Greek poets, like Yeralis,Sarantaris, Lapathiotis, Ritsos, Vrettakos, Seferis,and brief essays on Kariotakis, Elytis, Sarantaris.These texts appeared in various journals betweenI920 and I940. They are readable and, in some cases,have been justified by the literary developments post-dating the premature death of their author.

/7/

Thanassis Niarhos, Kata Metopo. Dhokimia (Athi-

na, I980).

These thirty-some essays may strike certainreaders as too abstract or dispassionate, blandreflections of the author on the social realitiesof our time, the foibles and habits of humans,theproblems, rewards and abuses of relationships, theprivate and public ethos of individuals. Yet, thereis a place for this kind of essay in our nervousand hurried world, as is also implied in the intro-duction to the book by the poet Nikos Karouzos. So-me of the titles: "Consequences of Hyperbole", "TheNew Martyrs", "Public Opinion", "The Factions"',"The Counterfeiting", "The Silent Agreement", "Dir-ty Alliances", "Clarifications". Here is a briefsample from the essay "Universal Disease":

There are people who spend their livesjudging and commenting on the lives ofothers, most often censoriously, as theythink that by abominating others they bringtheir own virtue into a higher relief. Theyenjoy association and communication withpeople not through the active exercise oftheir own qualities but with the constantissuing of damning verdicts against thosewho are absent...

Besides being an essayst and poet, in his ownright, Niarhos is also active as an anthologizer,radio interviewer, translator and editor (withAntonis Fostieris) of the magazine I Lexi.

JI·LJI

Ihe booklet by A. Navidhis, Preloudhio. PiimataI972-I979 .(Lehena, I980), contains poems pickedout from among many more that were thrown intothe basket, as the poet notes. The first piece

/8/

is a tribute to Seferis and the others draw their

inspiration from ancient myth and modern Greekrealities as well as personal experiences. Lackof originality in these verses is somewhat com-pensated by the young writer's positive attitudeto life and his faith in the future

A moment will comewhen the good newswill criss-cross the universeand life will no longer floatin the canals of unclean existenceunless it deserves death.

***

The very first verses of Ilias Kefalas,Ta Mastiga.Piimata (Athina, I980), leave no doubt about hisall too human urges:

I am impatient for spring and the seaI am impatient for life

Then, Kefalas goes on to chart the obstacles on theway, both external and internal, as the poem "TheWhips" suggests; for, the poet himself may respon-sible for some of the adversities. In the process,night becomes a pale substitute for day:

The things that are born inside usare in a hurry to goonly their anger lingers oneating silence and love away.

I have found my life as I left itone evening of summer.Since then, I have borrowed sensationsto be conscious of my fall.

The best poem in this collection is "The Soldier",where a simple soldier reading the letter of hisbeloved, "with his smile of a becalmed god/ witha salt-dripping rift between the eyes") becomesthe prototype of the yearning poet.

/9/

A "Flower of the Desert" from the Holy Mountain.

The Byzantine monastic tradition of Athos has beengiven some new strength in recent years by the de-cision of a comparatively large number of youngermen to forsake the pleasures as well as the ordi-nary struggles of this world and become monks. Asthe writer of this review noted during his secondvisit to the Holy Mount in 1980, at the core ofthe monks' life there remains prayer, then comethe dhiakonimata, the daily chores that ensurethe physical existence of the monastic community.There is little time left for anything else. Yet,some of the denizens of Athos complement theiractivities with writing, translating older theo-logical texts and publishing books and journals.Father Theoklitos of the Monastery of Dionysiou,who edits the periodical Athonian Dialogues, andFather Vassilios, the abbot of Stavronikita, aretwo monks better-known for these activities.

A still younger monk, one of the new recruits, isFather Symeon, again of Stavronikita, who translatedinto modern Greek and printed with the help of hismonastery Palladios's Lausaikon, in the series"Flowers of the Desert". The book came out in 1980.Palladios was a monk who lived between 364 and 431A.D. and became bishop of Helenoupolis in Bithynia.In a loose string of prose vignettes, Palladiosnarrates events of particular.significance fromthe lives of saintly men and women, of whom hehad first-hand experience. His style is simpleand direct, spiced here and there with theologi-cal utterances which conform to the Gospel andChristian tradition. Father Symeon has done a goodjob in translating or, rather, adapting the earlyByzantine Greek of Palladios to the modern Greekdemotic. The stories include those of the maidenAlexandra who confined herself in an undergroundchamber so that her good looks could not scandalize

/10/

a man madly in love with her, of Serapion whohad himself sold as a slave to pagan actors whomhe then converted to Christianity, and of manyother hermits who went to extremes in their effortto mortify their flesh for the glory of God. Someof these extremes will undoubtedly repel the modernreader who will be tempted to interpret them in aFreudian frame of mind. But there is always some-thing admirable in heroism, whatever its motives.Moreover, every faith needs its martyrs to takeroots.

Father Symeon's Palladios is a voice from anothertime and a place that is very different from theones most of us know. Athos continues its exclusivelife with a definite goal, a better communion byits monks and indirectly by mankind at large withGod. Secular people will continue being fascinatedby the Holy M[ount and what it represents, and willgo on writing about it. Here one could add that,among many others, two North-american Greeks, Con-stantine Cavarnos and the late George GeorgiadisArnakis, have written books on Athos.

Three Lips of Light: Poetry Noir, by Nicholas Kar-kasinas (Worcester, Mass.: The Helicon Press, 1977).

This is a selection of twenty poems, variations onone basic mood, melancholy. The mood is underlinedby the title of the booklet as well as by some un-usual drawings by the illustrator Joanne Schmidt.The Greek-american poet Karkasinas is a person ofmany interests, including film. He uses as an epi-graph to his poems the opening title of Bergman'sThe Hour of the Wolf, and many of the verses readlike scene descriptions in a scenario. One is sur-prised, though, that a man of the city like thepoet seems to draw most of his imagery from nature:the moon appears several times, water and wind areused to symbolize the inconstancies of life, whilethe mysteries of the naked human body are exploredin new and original ways.

/11/

One notices the expressionism of certain verses:the moon is a patch of ice/ on which a dream couldslip on, and: near a lake black with sorrow/ thestreams that fed it had dried up/ a patch of chil-dren throw stones at the eldest trees. In the lon-ger poems the good lines are occasionally smotheredby flat and repetitive verses; obviously a tighten-ing of "screws" was needed there. Rather awkwardis also the attempt in some poem to combine a refe-rence to Baudelaire's disease with the sexual rela-tionship between two other French poets, Verlaineand Rimbaud. The poem is forced in an artisticsense, besides reflecting a now dated view of homo-sexuality as a disease.

The best poem in this selection is also the leastmelancholic. "On the edge of need" (written aftera visit to Hancock Shaker Village) has a terse man-ner and a maturity of vision, which set it apartfrom the other poems:

The craftsman plied his tools.He knew that skill and patiencekept tedium and agitation in the

distance.

Put your lips togetherand pronounce the word endure-

Endure.

And the days gone by go by again.His eyes tilt toward the windowand fall back on iron and wood.

To embellish the object would takeaway from its meaning.

For how many years did people usethis chair?

Extra-routes to Beauty are idle pur-suits.

To need makes our work endure.To need makes our meaning clear.

G. Thaniel

rrInPrOSl AANIHAl

O A.EHIAOUTEPOA10OTOLTHE ATOSNIAL

NIKOC KAXTITEHE

Elaaywy) 07v4 ZOij 10o

EKA~OCEIE NEQBAIHAOHNA + 1981

ACTIVITIES & NEWS*

1. INTERNATIONAL POETRY FESTIVAL, sponsored bythe League of Canadian Writers. May 2-9, 19-81, at Harbourfront, Toronto. Greece was re-presented by the Greek-American writer Stra-tis Haviaras, curator of the Poetry Room, La-mont Library, Harvard, who read from his poe-try and also his novel (already published inmany languages) When the Tree Sings. Prof. G.Thaniel entertained Mr. Haviaras (an old friend)and his companion, Heather Ellen Cole, at theUniversity and showed them the Library.

2. CANADIAN VOICES/ CREATION CANADIENNE, sponsor-ed by the Multiculturalism Program, Governmentof Canada, and the Community Relations Officeof the University of Toronto. A celebration ofwriters and books. At Hart House U. of T., May12, 1981. Events included a book display, poe-try readings by "Ethnic" poets, music by theCompaneros (including the Greek singer NikosTsingos), and the launching of Tales of Heri-tage, a collection of ten myths from ten dif-ferent cultures, told in English and in theoriginal languages (G. Thaniel provided a Greekversion of the Jason myth) and illustrated bythe artist Saul Field. The book can be boughtat the bookroom of the Art Gallery of Ontarioand other Canadian bookstores.

3. Prof. Thaniel was invited to take part in theFirst Poetry Festival at the University of Pa-tras, Greece, in July 1981, but was unable toattend, being very busy in Athens, at that time,

Continues the column VARIA in The Amaranth, No.1 (1981).

/14/

with the production of his book on the Greek-Canadian writer Nikos Kachtitsis (1926-1970),O Lepidholpterologhos tis Aghonias, Nikos Kach-titsis (Athina: Nefeli, 1981). This volume,that looks particularly aesthetic thanks to thecare lavished on it by E. C. Gonatas, includesan essay on the life of Kachtitsis, thirty let-ters, three English works with their translationin Greek, bibliographies, photos and fascimilesof title pages from some of Kachtitsis's publi-cations.

4. The Publishing House Nefeli also brought out in1981 a second revised edition of G. Thaniel's IProkes. Poems 1959-1968. Other poetry books byToronto-based poets came out during the pastyear: Christos Ziatas's Trianta Tessera ki'EnaParalogha gia ton Erota, and Fontas Bratsos'sNifadhes. Worth-noting is also an anthology often Greek poets, which came out, recently, inMontreal under the Title Piissi. Sira Proti(a review of this book by the present writerhas appeared in a Toronto Greek newspaper).Sfragidholithi, on the other hand, is the titleof the latest collection of verse of the poetessLydia Avloniti, who is also based in Montreal.

5. THE WASPS of Aristophanes was presented in theoriginal Greek at the George Ignatieff Theater,Trinity College, University of Toronto, on the24, 25 and 26 of September 1981, by a dramagroup from King's College, London, England. Theproduction was sponsored by the Department ofClassics and some money was contributed towardsit by the Modern Greek Trust Fund. The Britishactors (mostly students of King's College) repeat-ed their performance in several American univer-sities before returning to Britain.

/15/

6. Writer Vassilis Vassilikos was the Greek par-ticipant in the Symposium "The Writer and Hu-man Rights" (in Aid of Amnesty International),held by the Toronto Arts Group for Human Rights,at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Educa-

tion, October 1r3, 1981. The Symposium was com-bined with public readings at Harbourfront, Ta-ronto, September 29-October 6.

7. THE GREEKS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN FROM HOMER TOALEXANDER. That was the theme of the Fall Con-ference (October 16-17, 1981) of the Societyfor Mediterranean Studies. Speakers includedProfs. W. E. McLeod ("Homer and History"), J.W. Shaw ("The Greeks on Crete as Seen at Kommos"),J. H. Corbett,("The Greeks and the Phoeniciansfrom Homer to Alexander"), G. P. Schaus ("GreekSettlement in North Africa and its Influences on

Egyptians and Libyans"), A. E. Samuel ("Philip,Alexander· and Hellenism"), and A. N. Oikonomedisof Ares Publications ("Greek Inscriptions andCoins from Southern France and Spain"). Thesecond issue of SCRIPTA MEDITERRANEA, journalof SMS, was financed partly with money donatedfrom the Modern Greek Trust Fund.

8. Prof. Thaniel had been invited and was planningto take part in the International Writers Meeting,sponsored by the Cyprus PEN club at Nicosia, No-vember 2-6, 1981. Being unable to go, however,he sent his scheduled talk on "Seferis's Poemson Cyprus" by mail. The theme of the Meeting was"Freedom and Literary Creation in a Troubled World"

9. MUSIC OF THE WORLD'S PEOPLES,-October 21-November

11, Music Room, Hart House, University of Toronto.A series of folk music concerts organized by theHart House Music Committee and the Cormmunity Rela-tions Office of the University. The last concert

/16/

of this series, on November 11, featured theGreek folk group Brotherhood Pontion.

10. The Department of Classics sponsored a numberof seminars and public lectures this seasonby well-known speakers, like T. J. Cornell,Deryk Williams, Francis Cairns and George For-rest. Professor Forrest of Oxford also deli-vered the Mary White Memorial lecture, on Octo-ber 2, on "Herodotus and Athens". The annualreception of the Department was held in theMusic room of Hart House on November 6, 1981,and was hosted by the new chairman of theDepartment, Dr. John Grant, and Mrs. Grant.

11. A Chair of Peace Studies may be establishedat University College. Speakers for the PublicLectures Series of the college, aimed at intro-ducing a non-specialist audience to specificareas of study, have been drawn this year fromUniversity College members representing a widerange of disciplines. The College poetry readingshave been held, as usual, in the Walden Room ofthe University College Union. Irving Layton,this year's writer-in-residence at the Univer-sity of Toronto, offered an additional readingfrom his works on November 4, 1981.

12. About 100 sound recordings of Greek folk andpopular music (records and cassette tapes)were offered by the Modern Greek Studies Pro-gram to the Music Library of the Universityto shortlist and make available to studentsand the public. This material, together withother recordings of literary and dramatic readings,formed the basis of a collection built with moneydrawn from Wintario and the Greek Ministry ofCulture and Sciences. Our special collection ofcassette recordings of modern Greek writers

/17/

discussing their work and reading from ithas been enlarged considerably during thepast few months. We intend to publish a fulllist of our holdings in the next issue of theBulletin.

13. The Greek composer Stephanos Karabekos, whois connected with the School of Music, YorkUniversity, offered a concert of songs andorchestral pieces at the O'Keefe Center, onSunday, November 1, 1981. Kostas Skondras &Ariadhni Filippidhou were the guest singersfrom Greece, in a program of pieces with Greekthemes and lyrics by P. Beleghris and (on oneoccasion) by Ch. Ziatas. Shawna Farrell, ayoung soprano from the Canadian Opera Company,performed songs based on George Byron's poemson Greece. The Orchestra, which was conductedby Mr. Karabekos himself, included these in-struments: piano,l bouzouki, flute, cello, bass,guitar, percussion and drums.

14. Scheduled lectures by the Program of modernGreek Studies: "On Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis",at the MLA annual meeting, in New York City,in December 1981; "Aspects of Greece" (withslides), .in the context of the Greek photoexhibit at the Pape and Danforth Public Libra-ry, in January 1982; "Great Women in Greek Mythand History", for the Kingsway Women's Club,in February 1982; "The Other Diaspora: GreekCities of South Italy.and Sicily", for theGreek Community Teachers' Association, in May1982.

Xp. Zuingç

Tptavza zecaspaKt EVa ·napahoya

vta zov Epoaa

oS ..a

OMlIAOL EAAhHNOZNAlOTOTEXNO;N MlONTPEAA

H]OIH LHI

MONTPEAAl 1981

I'vbpyou doervr@`

OI IJIPOKEZ:

HTorS ~amc (1959-1968)

A9HNA, 1981NEGEAH

r

:;::!lil··:ii;,:,i::iiiiiiiiii.iiiil!iii

iii!iiiii:;iiiiii~iIliill~·!'~".'i'l'i

a _i 1

l"'i""'""?""""""""""'""'"""""' ;ililli;ll"l""""""" l"""""""?l""li"i""i";""'"""";"l""""i"iii

t"liiiiii$ijiljjll/;I

m~~~···-·-~·f·~·i~·o~~~~·~·