World Poetry Day – 2011 Elytis Year

Odysseas Elytis and his work will be the focus of this year’s World Poetry Day, which is celebrated each year on March 21.
The National Book Centre of Greece (EKEBI) launches a poetry campaign including several events.
One of the day’s highlights is an event jointly organized by EKEBI and the Hellenic Authors’ Society which brings together well-known poets and writers such as Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, Vassilis Vasilikos, Kiki Dimoula and Evgenia Fakinou to recite poems by Odysseas Elytis.
Athenians and citizens of Thessaloniki, Mytillini, Rhodes and Zakynthos will have the opportunity to come across illustrated verses by Elytis as public transport means will feature some of the Nobel laureate’s most beloved and renowned poems. Poetry reading nights, with young poets will also be held in Athens and Thessaloniki.
Moreover in Athens, poet Nanos Valaoritis will present a new theory regarding Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey at the Hellenic American Union, while at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, World Poetry Day will be celebrated through poetry, music and stand-up poetry.
The year 2011 has been designated as an Elytis Year by Culture and Tourism Ministry, in order to mark the 100th anniversary since the birth of the Nobel laureate poet.
Nobel Prize Organisation: Excerpt from Worthy It Is, Poetry International Web- Odysseas Elytis: I Lived the Beloved Name, Drinking the Sun of Corinth, Marina of the Rocks, The Wind That Loiters.
(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)

Advertisement

Συνέντευξη του πολωνού ποιητή Άνταμ Ζαγκαγιέβσκι στην “Ελευθεροτυπία”

Ανταμ Ζαγκαγιέβσκι «Οι πολιτικοί ας αφήσουν την Ιστορία στους ποιητές»
Ο Ανταμ Ζαγκαγιέβσκι είναι ο κορυφαίος Πολωνός ποιητής των ημερών μας και ένας από τους -πολλούς και ενδιαφέροντες- προσκεκλημένους στο Πρώτο Διεθνές Λογοτεχνικό Φεστιβάλ Τήνου ( 29, 30 και 31 Ιουλίου ). Στη συνέντευξή του στην «Ε», ο Ανταμ Ζαγκαγιέβσκι μιλά για την ποίηση, τη μνήμη, την Ιστορία, την πολιτική και τη διαδικασία της σύνθεσης απόψεων που πάντοτε οδηγεί σε καλύτερα αποτελέσματα από τον τυφλό φανατισμό.
Προ τριμήνου ένα μεγάλο μέρος της πολωνικής ηγεσίας χάθηκε σε αεροπορικό δυστύχημα ενώ προ εικοσαημέρου εξελέγη νέος Πολωνός προέδρος, ο Κομορόφσκι. Πώς είναι τώρα τα πράγματα στην Πολωνία; Είχε προηγηθεί η διακυβέρνηση της χώρας από τους αδελφούς Κατζίνσκι, οι οποίοι ήταν φιλοαμερικανοί και εχθρικοί τόσο προς τη Ρωσία όσο και προς τη Γερμανία και την Ευρώπη.

Argonauts Revived

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)   A replica of the legendary ship “Argo” which, in ancient mythology carried Jason and his Argonauts in the quest of the Golden Fleece in Colchis, (now city of Poti, on Georgia’s Black Sea coast) reached Poti on June 19.  3,500 years after the first sail from ancient Iolkos (now city of Volos) -according to the myth-, the 50 modern Argonauts reached Georgia anew, this time not to recover the Golden Fleece but to convey messages of hope and peace in a region much troubled.  ‘Argo’ and the Greek delegation were received by President Mikheil Saakashvili.  The reception was followed by the inauguration of a new museum for the Argonaut expedition. An archaeological conference was also held in the city of Batumi.  The modern ‘Argo’ is a reconstruction of an ancient Greek ‘penteconter’ with a ram, a single tier of oarsmen, and a single sail made of half-cured wood cut from forest timber.  It belongs to the same family of Homer’s long ships and later ram-equipped warships of antiquity. The modern ‘Argo’ took over six years to complete, with the use of Bronze Age tools only.  

A Lighthouse “At the End of the World”

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)          The lighthouse on Cape Tenaro in southern Peloponnese has been totally restored and renovated, and now has its own full-time guard.   The renovation was undertaken by the Ekaterini Laskaridis Foundation in collaboration with the Lighthouses Service of the Hellenic Navy and competent ministries.  Cape Tenaro also known as Cape Matapan or “the end of the world” is the southernmost point not only of mainland Greece but also of the European continent and the site of a cave claimed to be the mythological entrance – home of Hades, the god of the dead. Located in eastern Mani, Laconia prefecture, Cape Tenaro was firstly mentioned by Homer in his “Iliad.”

Reading Greece

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)   Homer :   Where is Ithaca described in detail in Homer’s Odyssey? The island of Ithaki, most have assumed. But Homer says that Ithaca is “furthest towards the dark,” i.e. the west, a group of islands. In their fascinating albeit controversial award-winning best-seller, published by Cambridge University Press in October 2005, titled “Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer’s Ithaca”, Robert Bittlestone, enthusiastic Homerist, geologist John Underhill, and classics scholar James Diggle believe the island of Kefalonia is indeed the answer, or rather, its westernmost peninsula Paliki. In the “Odysseus Unbound” website (www.odysseus-unbound.org) you can read more about their project. The book has been updated with the latest developments from the island of Kefalonia and is published in Athens by Polytropon. 

Homer, The myth of Troy in Poetry and Art

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA) The Basel Museum of Ancient Art and Ludwig Collection, Switzerland, the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen in Mannheim, Germany, and the Art Centre Basel, Switzerland, are jointly organizing an exhibition (Homer, The myth of Troy in Poetry and Art) which focuses for the first time on the myths and facts about the Greek poet-singer Homer and his two epics, the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey”, together with high-calibre works of art from the Bronze Age until today (Basel, Switzerland – March 17, 2008 – August 17, 2008 Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig, Mannheim, Germany – September 13, 2008 – January 18, 2009 – Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen).