French Special Editions on Ancient Greece

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)   Two French magazines that enjoy wide readership – “Le Nouvel Obrservateur” and “GEO” –  have published special issues on Greece. “GEO” special issue (GEO Histoire No9), titled “La Grece Antique” is about the Hellenic world as the inventor of the polis, democracy, theatre and philosophy. The focus is on Greek civilization, culture, mythology and on geographical areas rich in cultural heritage such as Crete, Cyclades and the Peloponnese. In the editorial by Jaen-Luc Marty it is suggested that the definitive “summer journey” is a journey to the history of Greece, a land once inhabited by gods and heroes. The special issue of  “Le nouvel Observateur” ( 18.6.2008 ) is dedicated to the century of Pericles, featuring articles on the status of women in Athens, the building of the Acropolis, the sophists, the invention of democracy and the education system. Clause Weill in the editorial notes that the shortcomings of our contemporary political system and the need to understand what has gone wrong was the inspiration behind this special on the century of Pericles, a century described as a “momentum of democracy”. Secretariat General of Information: World Media on Greece – Special Reports

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Death of Leading Scholar of Greek Archaeology

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA) Professor Nicolas Coldstream, who has died aged 80, was a leading scholar of Greek archaeology, specialised in the Early Iron Age in Greece, Crete and Cyprus and on the impact of Greek civilisation on the Mediterranean world. His magnum opus, Greek Geometric Pottery (1968), a work of description, classification, chronology, and attribution of geometric pottery styles from the entire Greek world, became the ultimate reference work for anyone studying the Geometric period. He served as a member, and chairman from 1987 to 1991, of the managing committee of the British School at Athens. He died on March 21, shortly before it was due to hold a celebration to mark the publication of a second edition of Greek Geometric Pottery.

World Media on Greece

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)  In her article “Zagoria – a place that time forgot,” Roberta Avery writes about the village of Monodendri, in Zagoria. One of the attractions is the Vikos-Aoos National Park -126 square kilometres, and according to the Guinness Book of Records, at 1,300 metres deep, is the world’s deepest gorge in proportion to its width. Secretariat General of Information: World Media on Greece – Food, Wine and Travel 

Exploring Greece

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)  Natacha Du Pont De Bie (“Super Mani,” The Guardian”, 8.3.2008) discovers Mani, a blissfully uncluttered and pristine corner of Greece: “Olive groves opaque with pollen, meadows carpeted with wild flowers, melting snow water gushing down mountain-sides before sinking into underground streams to reform as icy tendrils that curl about one’s feet on early morning swims from empty beaches. This is springtime in the Mani, the far-flung central peninsula of the Peloponnese…”  Secretariat General of Information: World Media on Greece – Food, Wine and Travel