Lecture
Celebrating Hellenic Authors: Linda Reid and Deborah Shlian
Authors Linda Reid & Deborah Shlian discuss their most recent book, Deep Waters. For centuries, an ancient shipwreck in azure Greek waters has concealed an astonishing truth. The drowning of an underwater cameraman, then the murder of a highly respected academic - seemingly isolated tragedies? When radio talk show host Sammy Greene and ex-cop Gus...
Celebrating Hellenic Authors: Constance M. Constant
Constance (Connie) Constant discusses her book, American Kid: Nazi Occupied Greece through a Child’s Eyes Many books written about WWII come to us primarily from generals, prime ministers, diplomats, and revered historians who never personally lived through occupation. Yet, childhood war experiences add a dimension to history different from other points of view. American Kid...
Gelina Harlaftis, “Creating Global Shipping: From the Vagliano Brothers to Aristotle Onassis”
by ZoomThe lecture is based on the author's recent book, Creating Global Shipping: Aristotle Onassis, the Vagliano Brothers and the Business of Shipping, c.1820-1970 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2019). It explores the evolution of the European shipping firm through the study of two Greek shipping firms, which provide a prime example of the regional European maritime...
Mary E. Voyatzis, “Exploring Sacred Landscapes in the Mountains of Arcadia”
The mountainous region of Arcadia, situated in the heart of the Peloponnese, has attracted considerable interest and attention since antiquity. Many ancient authors described Arcadia in detail, discussing its rich mythology, many sites, unusual gods, numerous sanctuaries, engaging history, diverse geography, and the important fact that its inhabitants were indigenous, living there even before the...
Marisa E. Marthari, The Early Cycladic Site at Skarkos on the Island of Ios
by ZoomThe site of Skarkos stands in an advantageous position on a hill in a coastal plain, mid-way down the western side of Ios and in proximity to one of the largest sheltered harbors in the Cyclades. The excavations conducted by the author brought to light a multiperiod prehistoric site and, most significantly, a settlement of...
Artemis Leontis, “Going after Eva Palmer Sikelianos”
by ZoomFor more than a decade, Artemis Leontis has carried out a recovery project researching and writing the life of Eva Palmer Sikelianos, publishing her biography in 2019. Leontis knew Palmer as a shadowy figure in Greek cultural history, known mostly as the wealthy American wife of the Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos, who spent all her...
Xenia Politou (Aegeas AMKE Curator of Modern Greek Culture, Benaki Museum), “The Costume of Women in Greece: Styles and References”
by ZoomLocal Greek women’s costumes are impressive because of their wide variety and large number of local variations. A more methodical analysis can bring to the surface certain common characteristics and will help the careful observer to identify from among these varieties the basic styles and main influences that contributed to their creation. The vicissitudes of...
Anna Ballian (Curator Emerita, Benaki Museum), “Bacini or Immured Vessels on Post- Byzantine Churches, 16th-17th Century: The Case of Iznik, Italian and Local Ware”
by ZoomThe image of a small church with immured ceramic vessels on its walls is interwoven with representations of the Greek landscape, whether on the islands or on the mainland. The practice of decorating church façades with brightly decorated vessels is older than the 16th century and the Ottoman period in Greece, and is related to...
Tassos Sakellaropoulos (Head of Historical Archives) and Maria Dimitriadou (Historical Archives), “1821, Before and After: Narrating and Curating 100 Years of Greek History”
by ZoomThe year 2021 marks the bicentenary of the 1821 declaration of the Greek War of Independence. To celebrate this major anniversary, the Benaki Museum, together with the Bank of Greece, the National Bank of Greece, and ALPHABANK are mounting a major exhibition of works of art and historical testimonies under the title “1821, Before and...
Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos, Museum Director, Kehila Kedosha Janina, “Meet Me on the Corner of Broome and Allen: A Visit to Kehila Kedosha Janina”
by ZoomMarcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos gives us a virtual tour of Kehila Kedosha Janina, the only Romaniote synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. The congregation was founded in 1906 by Greek Jewish immigrants from Ioannina, but the synagogue itself was not erected until 1927. The years from then until the Second World War were a time of prosperity...
Leon Saltiel, “Dehumanizing the Dead: The Destruction of Thessaloniki’s Jewish Cemetery during World War II”
by ZoomThis lecture will discuss the destruction of Thessaloniki’s ancient and vast Jewish cemetery which commenced in December 1942. The cemetery, located close to the city center, had long become the object of a dispute between the Christian and Jewish communities, with the former wishing to expropriate it in favor of the city’s new University and...
Rena Molho, “Problems of Incorporating the Holocaust into the Greek Collective Memory”
by ZoomTolerance of antisemitism and neo-Nazism in Greece in recent years shows that the Holocaust has not yet been incorporated into the Greek national consciousness. This could be (partly) because Greece did not commemorate the Holocaust until it became a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2005. By reviewing the reactions of the Greek...