Clik here to view.
BYZANTINE SOMNOPHILIC RAPE AND THE VICTIM’S VOICE
From sixth century Byzantine poet and courtier Pavlos Silentarios comes this deeply disquieting epigram, whose narrator describes the violent assault and rape of a woman who he finds asleep:«Δειελινῷ...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF REEDS
The village of Perama is mostly known for its remarkable cave, replete with stalactites and stalagmites more twisted and tortuous than the inhabitants themselves. Extending for over a kilometre it is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
FLESH AND BONES OF A DISTANT HOMELAND
In 1952, a motion to allow women to become members of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria was defeated at an Annual General Meeting with members present making comments such as “Let...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PUSHKIN AND THE GREEK REVOLUTION
Despotic miscreant I hate you and your throne! Tremble o tyrants of the world ! And you, unwakened slaves, listen: Be strong, take courage, and revolt! These are the kind of sentiments, from the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
DECONSTRUCTING ZALONGO
“You’re from Epirus,” an enthusiastic mother exclaimed at the recent 25 March celebrations. “I love that Zalongo song. The one which goes«στη στεριά δε ζει το ψάρι/ούτε ανθός στην αμμουδιά» (on land,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE 123 OF GREEK EASTER
It was the poet Angelos Sikelianos who referred to Easter as «Πάσχατων Ελλήνων» (Pascha of the Greeks), and rightfully so considering that even in this secular age, Easter is arguably still the most...
View ArticleClik here to view.
POST-PASCAL BLUES
I am loathe to admit, but I feel rather down post-Easter, even though it is the most joyous occasion in the traditional Greek Australian’s calendar. A friend, who is a doctor, ascribes my melancholy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
CARRYING ON ABOUT CLEO
You find me enmeshed in the throes of issuing proceedings against the International Astronomical Union (IAU), an ostensibly benign and inoffensive body that purports to promote and safeguard the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
SOTERIOLOGY
The reader finds the diatribist this week outside Westminster Abbey, seeking admittance to the coronation of King Charles. The various misleading rumours that have gone more viral than an email sent...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE OTHER VOICE
The Constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians as the First Peoples of Australia and a formal acknowledgment of the manner in which their land was taken from them by the colonialists is long...
View ArticleClik here to view.
GENOCIDE RECOGNITION IN TASMANIA
To paraphrase a certain Marxist, a spectre is haunting Australia. The spectre of Genocide Recognition. South Australia was the first Australian state to officially recognise the genocide of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
CRETAN COLLABORATORS
The other day I attended the commemoration of the Battle of Crete at the Shrine of Remembrance. In a solemn and poignant ceremony, members of the Australian and Greek armed forces and members of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PAYROLL PERPLEXITY
I can’t drive past our community day schools, Alphington Grammar, St John’s College and Oakleigh Grammar, without feeling an immense sense of pride and achievement. Visiting Oakleigh Grammar the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
COMPOSING GREECE
A few days ago, while contemplating my next move upon the giant chessboard before the State Library of Victoria, I overheard a university-aged girl with large plastic rimmed glasses and a decidedly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WEAVING THE TANGLED WEB: ARACHNE AS FEMINIST
“Live on then, and yet hang, condemned one, but, lest you are careless in future, this same condition is declared, in punishment, against your descendants, to the last generation!” Ovid,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
ROMAIC REQUIEM
Kyr Yiannis, whom I encounter most Sundays at church, despairs of the Greek race, past, present and emerging. So much so in fact that every time he sees me, he invariably quotes James Madison, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
UNA RAZZA UNA MUSICA
The Calabrian word for bagpipes is zabogna, from which the Greek islanders derive their own term for the instrument, τσαμπούνα. Ultimately, the word is descended from the Greek συμφωνία, which is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
GRIGORIS
«Μες το μαχαλά πέφτει κουμπουριάΟι ζεϊμπέκηδες χορεύουν στου Ντελή ΘρακιάΠίνουνε ρακί τρώνε παστουρμάΚαι χτυπάνε τα ποδάρια με τα γεμενιά..»The year is 2002 and it is Grigoris’ twenty fifth birthday....
View ArticleClik here to view.
WHEN YOU ARE BROTHERS WITH THE GREEK
Once upon a time, a young Turk, working as a press attaché in the Turkish Embassy in London, began to feel homesick. Post-war 1947 London, still reeling after the bombings of the Second World War, was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE UGLY SIDE TO THE ILIAD
“This was the ugliest man who came beneath Ilion. He was bandy-legged and went lame of one foot, with shoulders stooped and drawn together over his chest, and above this his skull went up to a point...
View Article