Celebrating Hellenic Authors: Jim Birakos
Jim Birakos discusses his recent book, Unlucky Tuesday: Will Civilization Die on a Tuesday? On a tragic Tuesday, Al-Qaeda terrorists plowed into the Twin Towers. On a shameful Tuesday, Ottoman hordes defiled God’s majestic cathedral, Hagia Sophia, and massacred the Byzantine faithful. But Tuesday in Greek means “three.” And a thrice-occurring tragedy is believed inevitable....
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...
Konstantinos Zachos, “Excavations at the Victory Monument of Octavian Augustus at Nikopolis, Epiros: A Monument that Marks the Turning Point in the History of the Ancient World”
On September 2, 31 BC, Octavian’s forces defeat those of Mark Antony and the queen of Egypt Cleopatra off the western coast of Greece. The battle is known as the Battle of Actium, after the name of the peninsula at the entrance of the Ambracian Gulf, where an ancient sanctuary to Apollo existed. Few episodes...
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...
Greek Book Club: Κάτι θα γίνει, θα δεις του Χρήστου Οικονόμου
Via ZoomΔεκάξι ιστορίες από τα Καμίνια, τη Νίκαια, τη Δραπετσώνα. Από τον ντόκο των Κρητικών, από το ουζερί "Υπάρχω", από το φουγάρο της ΔΕΗ στο Κερατσίνι. Ιστορίες για τράπεζες που παίρνουν σπίτια, για σπίτια που παίρνουν φωτιά, για όνειρα που γίνονται στάχτη. Για το σκοτάδι που ζει στη διπλανή πόρτα. Κάτι θα γίνει όμως, θα δεις....
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...
Polina Kosmadaki (Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Head of the Department of Drawings and Prints, Benaki Museum), “Charting Mediterranean Archaisms in a Modern Framework: Christian Zervos and the Cahiers d’art Method”
by ZoomChristos or Christian Zervos (Argostoli 1889–Paris 1970) played a definitive role in shaping the cultural climate in interwar Paris through his journal Cahiers d’Αrt, which he founded in 1926 and published until 1960. It was one of the longest-lived modernist journals, which numbered 97 issues. As early as the first issue, Cahiers d’Αrt had focused...
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...
Greek Book Club: Λος Άντζελες· Οδηγώντας στη Νότια Καλιφόρνια της Σώτης Τριανταφύλλου
“Ενα πρωί βρήκα τα υπολείμματα των ημερών σου, είδα τις πατημασιές σου στην ερπετώδη γη, άκουσα πάλι την αναπνοή σου: στα ρημαγμένα τοπία, στη μακάβρια αταξία, σε είδα να γίνεσαι ένας άνθρωπος ασυνήθιστα συνηθισμένος. Ηθελα να σου φωνάξω πως όταν σε βρήκα ήσουν ήδη χαμένος, όμως, δεν σου είπα τίποτα· έμεινα να σε κοιτάζω με...