Ελλάδα

"Macedonia is a problem. It is such a problem that the French named fruit salad after it: macedoine des fruits. Four wars have been fought over it in the last eighty years, each bloodier than the previous one. They were fought to determine not only where exactly Macedonia is, but who lives there and in what state they should live." With this sense of historic complexity in mind, Will Myer travelled to the troubled Balkans in autumn 1994 and the following spring. His aim was to discover the political and human reality of a region beset by conflict and controversy, fought over for centuries by rival powers. In particular, he sought to explore the true nature of Macedonian identity, or rather of a multiple identity. Travelling in Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and the newly independent Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Myer encounters a bewildering array of political and cultural opinions--Orthodox Christians and Muslims, Communists and nationalists, warlords and modernisers. His investigations take him to Orthodox weddings and Easter parades, political meetings and religious ceremonies. He encounters widows and witches, dervishes and mystics. Throughout, he remains fascinated by the human dimension of Macedonia's deep-seated identity crisis. More than a simple travelogue, People of the Storm God casts light on the troubled history of Macedonia and its unique melting pot of politics, religion and ethnicity. Compared to the work of Patrick Leigh Fermor, this book evocatively reveals the extraordinary cultural diversity of the Balkans and the weight of history borne by its different peoples.

Troppo a lungo gli antichi greci sono rimasti immobili su un piedistallo, fissati in immagini senza tempo. In queste pagine, invece, prenderanno vita, in tutta la loro prosaica quotidianità! Tramite aneddoti curiosi, divertenti e commoventi – nascosti in alcuni tra i più importanti testi letterari della classicità – l’autrice ci descrive la vita quotidiana dell’epoca come non l’avremmo mai immagina­ta. Incontreremo Pericle, Socrate, Euripide ed Eschilo, ma anche tanti semplici cittadini, mentre sono alle prese con il lavoro, le relazioni sociali e personali, mentre fanno bisboccia, litigano, s’ingannano e s’innamorano, in una città che pulsa di vita, proprio come l’Atene di oggi.

The surprising story of how Greek classics are being pressed into use in contemporary China to support the regime's political agendaAs improbable as it may sound, an illuminating way to understand today's China and how it views the West is to look at the astonishing ways Chinese intellectuals are interpreting-or is it misinterpreting?-the Greek classics. In Plato Goes to China, Shadi Bartsch offers a provocative look at Chinese politics and ideology by exploring Chinese readings of Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, and other ancient writers. She shows how Chinese thinkers have dramatically recast the Greek classics to support China's political agenda, diagnose the ills of the West, and assert the superiority of China's own Confucian classical tradition. In a lively account that ranges from the Jesuits to Xi Jinping, Bartsch traces how the fortunes of the Greek classics have changed in China since the seventeenth century. Before the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the Chinese typically read Greek philosophy and political theory in order to promote democratic reform or discover the secrets of the success of Western democracy and science. No longer. Today, many Chinese intellectuals use these texts to critique concepts such as democracy, citizenship, and rationality. Plato's "Noble Lie," in which citizens are kept in their castes through deception, is lauded; Aristotle's Politics is seen as civic brainwashing; and Thucydides's criticism of Athenian democracy is applied to modern America. What do antiquity's "dead white men" have left to teach? By uncovering the unusual ways Chinese thinkers are answering that question, Plato Goes to China opens a surprising new window on China today.

The festival of the Panathenaia, held in Athens every summer to celebrate the birthday of the city's goddess, Athena, was the setting for performances of the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey by professional reciters or "rhapsodes." The works of Plato are our main surviving source of information about these performances. Through his references, a crucial phase in the history of the Homeric tradition can be reconstructed. Through Plato's eyes, the "staging" of Homer in classical Athens can once again become a virtual reality. This book examines the overall testimony of Plato as an expert about the cultural legacy of these Homeric performances. Plato's fine ear for language--in this case the technical language of high-class artisans like rhapsodes--picks up on a variety of authentic expressions that echo the talk of rhapsodes as they once practiced their art. Highlighted among the works of Plato are the Ion, the Timaeus, and the Critias. Some experts who study the Timaeus have suggested that Plato must have intended this masterpiece, described by his characters as a humnos, to be a tribute to Athena. The metaphor of weaving, implicit in humnos and explicit in the peplos or robe that was offered to the goddess at the Panathenaia, applies also to Homeric poetry: it too was pictured as a humnos, destined for eternal re-weaving on the festive occasion of Athena's eternally self-renewing birthday.

Among the most influential books in Western civilization, Aristotle's Poetics is really a treatise on fine art. In it are mentioned not only epic and dithyrambic poetry, but tragedy, comedy, and flute and lyre playing. Aristotle's conception of tragedy, i.e. the depiction of a heroic action that arouses pity and fear in the spectators and brings about a catharsis of those emotions, has helped perpetuate the Greek ideal of drama to the present day. Similarly, his dictums concerning unity of time and place, the necessity for a play to have a beginning, middle, and end, the idea of the tragic flaw and other concepts have had enormous influence down through the ages.
Throughout the work, Aristotle reveals not only a great intellect analyzing the nature of poetry, music, and drama, but also a down-to-earth understanding of the practical problems facing the poet and playwright. Now, in this inexpensive edition of the Poetics, readers can enjoy the seminal insights of one of the greatest minds in human history as he sets about laying the foundations of critical thought about the arts.

Ας μιλήσουμε στους αγγλόφωνους αλλά και σε όλους τους επισκέπτες της χώρας μας για το σπουδαίο ρεμπέτικο τραγούδι και για την παρακαταθήκη του στην ελληνική κοινωνία και στο σύγχρονο πολιτισμό μας. Μόλις κυκλοφόρησε από τις Εκδόσεις Αιώρα το βιβλίο Ρεμπέτικα: Τραγούδια του παλιού ελληνικού υποκόσμου. Το βιβλίο –το πρώτο που κυκλοφόρησε στα αγγλικά, λίγο μετά την πτώση της δικτατορίας και τώρα επανεκδίδεται– περιλαμβάνει κείμενα κορυφαίων προσωπικοτήτων και μελετητών: ο Ηλίας Πετρόπουλος, ο Μάρκος Δραγούμης, ο Τεντ Πετρίδης και ο Σάκης Παπαδημητρίου. Καλύπτει μια ποικιλία θεμάτων γύρω από τα ρεμπέτικα: την προέλευσή τους και την ιστορική εξέλιξη, τα κοινωνικά χαρακτηριστικά των τραγουδιών και των δημιουργών, την ιδιαίτερη μουσική, τους χορούς –το ζεϊμπέκικο, το χασάπικο κ.ά.–, και τέλος τα συγκρίνει με τα αμερικανικά μπλουζ. Συμπεριλαμβάνονται επιπλέον οι στίχοι 54 τραγουδιών, στα ελληνικά και στα αγγλικά, 8 μουσικές παρτιτούρες και γλωσσάρι, ενώ τα συνοδευτικά σχέδια είναι του Χρόνη Μπότσογλου. Η μουσική, οι στίχοι και ο χορός που συναπαρτίζουν το Ρεμπέτικο Τραγούδι είναι ο δυνατός κρίκος στην αλυσίδα του πολιτισμού μας: συνέχισε τη βυζαντινή και δημοτική παράδοση, ανέδειξε τον Ζορμπά, καθιέρωσε το μπουζούκι, αποκάλυψε άγνωστες πτυχές της νεότερης δημιουργίας, ταυτίστηκε με τις περιπέτειες του ελληνισμού στον πολυτάραχο 20ό αιώνα, εξαπλώθηκε και αγαπήθηκε από το μεγαλύτερο κομμάτι της κοινωνίας.

Andreas Laskaratos (1811-1901), a prominent figure in modern Greek letters, was a writer and poet, a social thinker and, in many ways, a controversialist. A life-long enemy of hypocrisy wherever he found it, on many occasions he turned against politicians, while he ceaselessly fought against corruption and religious prejudice and fanaticism. Much of his writing is savagely satirical, but his Reflections set out calmly, clearly and wittily his uncompromising and finely reasoned beliefs. As the essence of his thought they could be read with profit by present-day politicians and teachers of any nationality, and indeed by everybody with an interest in social and moral questions.

A bold reconception of ancient Greek drama by one of the most brilliant and original classical scholars of his generationWhen John Winkler died in 1990, he left an unpublished manuscript containing a highly original interpretation of the development and meaning of ancient Greek drama. Rehearsals of Manhood makes this groundbreaking work available for the first time, presenting an entirely novel picture of Greek tragedy and a vivid portrait of the cultural poetics of Athenian manhood. Ancient Athens was a military conclave as well as an urban capital, and male citizens were expected to embody the ideal of the Athenian citizen-soldier. Winkler understands Attic drama as a secular manhood ritual, a collaborative aesthetic and civic enterprise focused on the initiation of boys into manhood and the training, testing, and representation of young male warriors. Past efforts to discover the origins and development of Greek tragedy have largely treated drama as a literary genre, isolating it from other Athenian social practices. Winkler returns Greek tragedy to its social context, showing how it was one among many forms of display and performance cultivated by elite males in ancient Greece. The final work of a celebrated classical scholar, Rehearsals of Manhood highlights the civic function of the dramatic festivals at classical Athens as occasions for the examination and representation of boys on the verge of manhood, and offers a fresh explanation of how dramatic performance fit into the social life and gender politics of the Athenian state.