CYP TOD 26-55.pdf
CYP TOD 26-55.pdf
CYP TOD 26-55.pdf
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<strong>26</strong><br />
Cyprus Through<br />
the Eyes of Two French Artists<br />
In 1783 when Louis François Cassas was<br />
commissioned by the Ambassador of Louis XVI<br />
in Constantinople to document the Empire, he<br />
left his native country on a whirlwind tour of<br />
the Eastern Mediterranean and Northern Africa.<br />
As part of this epic journey, Cassas also spent<br />
almost two months in Cyprus. His two periods<br />
of stay in Cyprus (from the 9th to 22nd<br />
February and from the 6th to 30th April) are<br />
among the best documented of his journey in<br />
the Ottoman Empire in 1784-85, due in particular<br />
to the correspondence from the consul
in Larnaca, Benoit Astier, who informs us about<br />
the precise dates of his arrival and departure,<br />
as well as the places he visited.<br />
His first sojourn in Cyprus was only a stopover<br />
because of bad weather conditions. That is why,<br />
during this stay, given the uncertainties of his<br />
departure and his impatience to discover Alexandria,<br />
the next step of his voyage, Cassas only left<br />
the ship "La Poullet" for one day in answer to<br />
an invitation by the consul. From the ship<br />
anchored in the bay, he observed the post activity,<br />
the windmills, the residences of the for-<br />
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28<br />
L.-F. Cassas - Larnaca, drawn near the Venetian Consular House. Stavrovouni mountain in the background, 1799.<br />
eign consuls, Stavrovouni and the salt lake.<br />
It was only during the second journey that he<br />
discovered the island and made his sketches,<br />
recording the human and physical landscapes<br />
that his gaze fell upon, in a series of striking lithographs.<br />
Under specific orders to create images<br />
of the French monuments on the island, Cassas<br />
mostly worked in Bellapais, Kyrenia, Famagusta<br />
and Nicosia, giving priority to the French<br />
The monk Kalinikos Stavrovouniotis - drawing<br />
by Ph. Delord.<br />
religious monuments built by the Lusignans,<br />
Kings of Cyprus from 1192 to 1489. Today<br />
these few works (11 in all) a rare glimpse of 18th<br />
Century Cyprus, amount to the first faithful<br />
pictorial representations of these Cypriot views<br />
so many times celebrated by artists and writers<br />
of the 19th Century and an invaluable contribution<br />
to the historical record. It is with<br />
much emotion that we rediscover two centuries<br />
later the ruins of the Abbey of Bellapais, a place<br />
of quietude, retreat and serenity still encircled<br />
by a wide belt of olive trees, citrus and cypresses.<br />
His images help us transcend our temporal<br />
limits and journey back into long gone eras.<br />
In the course of his journey he also produced<br />
character studies and oriental costumes on separate<br />
sheets of paper, in some cases coloured and<br />
developed in Rome after 1787 where he enlivened<br />
his watercolours according to the dictates of his<br />
imagination. Thus the cloister of the abbey<br />
served as a backdrop for a group of Greek Cypriot<br />
musicians and dancers.
Philippe Delord - Larnaca view, 200w.<br />
Philippe Delord - Paphos Fort, 2002.<br />
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30<br />
Castle of St. Hilarion: drawing by Ph. Delord (2003), and engraving by L.F. Cassas (1799).<br />
L.F. Cassas - Sight of the cloister of Bellapais, 1799.
After his death Cassas was largely forgotten and<br />
his work was greatly neglected. When his work<br />
first appeared in a modern publication just a<br />
few years ago it was not only an artistic discovery<br />
but also an inspiration for contemporary<br />
French painter Philippe Delord. He set out travelling<br />
in the footsteps of his artistic predecessor<br />
reviving the French tradition of travelling artists<br />
who explore and deliver information on historic<br />
lands. In a way he completed the work of<br />
Cassas two centuries later. Over the course of<br />
two years, 2002-2004, he spent five months<br />
in Cyprus criss-crossing the island painting and<br />
drawing its coastlines, its historic ruins, monuments,<br />
daily rituals, sleepy villages and vibrant<br />
cities – all the diversity of this land at the<br />
crossroads of the Mediterranean civilisations.<br />
Philippe Delord’s apt choice in rediscovering<br />
the viewpoints of Cassas is the reason for the<br />
holding of the exhibition at the Levention Museum,<br />
Nicosia. The event is entitled "Through<br />
the Eyes of Two French Travelling Artists, Louis<br />
Ph. Delord. Bellapais Abbey, 2003.<br />
François Cassas 1785 and Philippe Delord 2004".<br />
An impressive publication by Gallimard and<br />
Hathor Art Productions with the artist’s sketches<br />
and watercolours is also the catalogue of the<br />
exhibition.<br />
The exhibition was staged at the Lanitis Centre,<br />
Limassol in mid-November, at the Beaux<br />
Arts Museum in Tours, France in March 2005<br />
and other French cities during the same year.<br />
31
32<br />
State Prizes for Literature<br />
The State Prizes for Literature were presented<br />
by the Education and Culture Minister, Mr<br />
Pefkios Georgiades, during a ceremony held at<br />
the Famagusta Gate, Nicosia, on 29th December<br />
2003. The literature awards were for works<br />
published in the year 2002.<br />
"The Cultural Services of the Ministry of<br />
Education and Culture recognise the important<br />
role our literature will be called upon to play<br />
within the framework of the enlarged Europe<br />
and have redefined their policy in this field with<br />
the aim of supporting and developing our literary<br />
output and its projection in Cyprus and<br />
abroad". Dr. Eleni Nikita, Director of the Cultural<br />
Services of the Ministry of Education and<br />
Culture, analysed this new policy in her introductory<br />
speech, from which we quote some<br />
excerpts:<br />
"From its very beginning the European Union<br />
adopted two important principles: that of<br />
promoting and protecting the cultural identity<br />
of its country members and that of affirming<br />
and respecting the multi-cultural character of<br />
Europe. With our entry in this large family, we<br />
must attach particular importance to these two<br />
principles. We must, that is, strengthen and<br />
project our cultural identity, become acquainted<br />
with that of the other countries and learn<br />
to live peacefully in this mosaic of cultural<br />
particularities which is called Europe.<br />
Language is one of the most important agencies<br />
of culture. In and through language all the<br />
cultural particularities of a people are expressed.<br />
It is not, then, fortuitous that as a first practical<br />
implementation of the cultural parity of the<br />
country members of the European Union, all<br />
their national languages have been recognised<br />
as official languages.<br />
To encourage and promote the writing of literature<br />
and the publication of books both in<br />
Cyprus and abroad, two important institutions<br />
are already successfully functioning at the<br />
Cultural Services: that of sponsoring books of<br />
literary and scientific content and of doctoral<br />
theses on Cypriological subjects and that of subsidising<br />
books by Cypriot writers, implemented<br />
by purchasing a number of books out of all<br />
the notable literary and artistic publications.<br />
These books are sent to Cyprus embassies abroad,<br />
to universities, libraries and cultural centres that<br />
are involved in Modern Greek Studies, for the<br />
purpose of promoting Cypriot literature."<br />
In this context, Dr. Nikita underlined the pressing<br />
need to extend the existing activities in<br />
this field, formulating and implementing a programme<br />
for translating the works of Cypriot<br />
creators into European languages.<br />
With regard to the creator himself, the Ministry<br />
of Education and Culture has instituted measures<br />
which – by way of sponsorship – help the<br />
writer to project his work abroad and to participate<br />
in conferences or other literary meetings.<br />
In addition writers can benefit from the<br />
institution of Honorary Grants, given to people<br />
of Arts and Letters, as well as from the institution<br />
of monthly grants.<br />
"It is our duty", Dr. Nikita concluded, "to pay<br />
tribute to our intellectual creators whose work<br />
is the art of our national character. To those<br />
who, in setting down their heart and soul in<br />
their work, also set down the heart and soul of<br />
our country.<br />
The state does not honour just the works of<br />
these intellectuals but also their toil and their<br />
zeal, their struggle and their anxieties as well<br />
as their boundless creative solitariness. Because,
● Poetry<br />
No award<br />
● Short Story<br />
No Award<br />
● Novel<br />
"Ginger" (∆˙›ÓÙ˙ÂÚ) by Efterpie Araouzou<br />
● Literary Studies – Essays<br />
"Words of Comfort" (§fiÁÔ˜ ·Ú·Ì˘ı›·˜)<br />
by Nicos Orphanides<br />
● New Writer<br />
1. "One Reason to Love Night" (ŒÓ·˜ §fiÁÔ˜<br />
ÁÈ· Ó’ AÁ·apple‹ÛÂȘ ÙË ¡‡¯Ù·), poems by Christiana<br />
Avraamidou<br />
as Ernest Hemingway said on the day he was<br />
awarded the Nobel Prize, ‘there is a great deal<br />
of loneliness in a writer’s life.’"<br />
The Advisory Committee of Letters which, in<br />
accordance with regulations, undertook the task<br />
of selecting the award-winning books in the category<br />
of: Poetry, Short-Story, Novel, Literary<br />
Studies and New Writer for the period 2002-<br />
2004, consisted of Yiorgos Moleskis, Chairman,<br />
Aris Georgiou, Elias Gris, Andreani Iliophotou,<br />
EFTERPIE ARAOUZOU<br />
2. "Short Love Dirges" (ªÈÎÚÔ› ∂ÚˆÙÈÎÔ›<br />
£Ú‹ÓÔÈ), short stories by Kyriakos Margaritis<br />
● Children’s Literature<br />
"Come Down, Moon to Play Hide-and-<br />
Seek" (∫·Ù¤‚· ºÂÁÁ·Ú¿ÎÈ Ó· ·›ÍÔ˘ÌÂ<br />
∫Ú˘ÊÙfi) by Myrianthi Panayiotou<br />
● Youth Literature<br />
"A Star on our Roof" (ŒÓ· ∞ÛÙ¤ÚÈ ÛÙË Ù¤ÁË)<br />
by Elli Venizelou<br />
● Book Illustration<br />
"Come Down Moon to Play Hide and Seek"<br />
(∫·Ù¤‚· ºÂÁÁ·Ú¿ÎÈ Ó· ·›ÍÔ˘Ì ∫Ú˘ÊÙfi)<br />
by Myrianthi Panayiotou<br />
Yiannis Ioannou, Savvas Pavlou and Christos<br />
Hadjipapas. The Committee for Children and<br />
Youth Literature had Elena Theodoulou-Charalambous<br />
as Chairperson and members were<br />
Klitos Ioannides, Roula Ioannidou Stavrou,<br />
Costas Katsonis, Christos Mavris. Finally the<br />
Committee for Book Illustrations consisted of<br />
four members: Yianna Gantsidou, Lia Lapithi,<br />
Marina Partasidou, Hambis Tsangaris with<br />
Elena Theodoulou Charalambous in the Chair.<br />
Born in Cyprus in 1946. Studied Hotel Management and Economics<br />
in Montreux, Switzerland (1961 – 1964) and Business Administration<br />
and Economics in London (1967 – 1969). At a later stage she<br />
attended some extensive courses in English and French literature,<br />
journalism and creative writing at the University of Cyprus (1995 -<br />
1998).<br />
Between 1965 and 1968 she held the position of Public Relations<br />
Manager and Press Officer at the Cyprus Hilton and after 1980 she<br />
was involved in the family-owned Geo-Pavlides and Araouzos Group<br />
of Companies, first as Business Development Consultant (1980 - 1992)<br />
33
34<br />
and then Director and Chairperson of the travel arm of the group RA Travelmasters (1992 – 1998).<br />
Her first novel "Captive", published by Estia, Greece in 1993 was the runner up to the National Literary<br />
Award for book published in 1992 – 1993. Set on an imaginary<br />
island, it is the story of a woman who holds captive an unknown man.<br />
When released, the man refuses his freedom, suggesting that jailer and<br />
captive are one.<br />
"Blue" published in 1997 by Okeanis, Greece is the first title of a trilogy.<br />
Set in 17th century France, it is a series of Gothic tales celebrating<br />
the power of creation as an antidote for survival.<br />
"Ginger" published in 2002 by Okeanis, Greece is the second title of the<br />
trilogy. It is the story of a pre-Dynasty Egyptian embalmer, tracing the<br />
journey of the soul from one body to another through centuries.<br />
At present Efterpie Araouzou is working on a novel entitled "The Wig<br />
of the Emperor Montezuma", a tale that explores baroque Venice from<br />
1730 – 1740 highlighting intriguing portraits of great artists of the time.<br />
G inger<br />
Mary Regina (Excerpt)<br />
Her Royal Highness Mary Queen of England to<br />
Sir Roy Cameron, Governor of the island of Engadi,<br />
colony of the glorious British Empire.<br />
Dear Sir Roy Cameron,<br />
It is with great interest that I have followed for<br />
some time now the British press dealing with the<br />
Museum of the Corpses and the almost disproportionate<br />
developments that took place suddenly<br />
in the colony of Engadi. As in everything,<br />
when one wishes to gain the title of an objective<br />
critic, one has to remain impartial and to see things<br />
through the lens that does not hinder the substance<br />
from escaping the central point of convergence.<br />
To be receptive to everything, as if it were a blessed<br />
conspiracy that is useful if not essential to its<br />
subsequent evolution. For this reason nobody<br />
must be absolute, because in such a case he or<br />
she would not remain impartial. Even if I cannot<br />
restrain myself from wondering: is God absolute?<br />
When he created the universe, did he not state that<br />
the moon is the moon and not a little bit of sky,<br />
or that the sky is the sky and not a little bit of earth,<br />
or that the sea is the sea and not a little bit of<br />
sun, or that Sir Roy Cameron is Sir Roy Cameron<br />
and not a hippopotamus or a frog or something<br />
else? In the act of creation, God must have been<br />
more absolute than his very own nature. That,<br />
however, is not something to discuss at this point,<br />
because it is not the appropriate time, and certainly<br />
it does not bear any relation to the matter about<br />
which I am writing to you.<br />
The burning issue today is the Museum of Corpses<br />
and the developments taking place on the island<br />
of Engadi, even if, as far as the former is concerned,<br />
I am still not convinced as to whether or not it is<br />
a devilish expression of your soul. However things<br />
may be, you have succeeded in creating something<br />
extraordinary, for which I warmly congratulate<br />
you. I imagine that the Museum of Corpses, about<br />
which everyone is talking, and which I have not<br />
personally visited, must be a temple of dark prayer<br />
and shivering of the soul, so discordantly combined<br />
that they inspire awe even in someone<br />
who does not want to accept it. The truth is that<br />
you have made a major discovery: that a dose of<br />
bad taste is essential in order to approach
humanity. I am sure that you have devoted<br />
some significant thoughts to the establishment<br />
of this Museum; just as I am sure you have worked<br />
hard, gradually building up your subconscious.<br />
I would not be surprised to learn that you have<br />
deprived yourself of all pleasure and delight, in the<br />
hope that what you achieve will one day build<br />
up the foundation of an eternal satisfaction. However,<br />
you have forgotten something. Sometimes<br />
we become rich with what we do not possess. While<br />
concentrating exclusively on the idea of the long<br />
journey, you have neglected to cast now and<br />
then a glance on the small and insignificant footpaths<br />
around you that could have led you to a jungle.<br />
For that alone you must pay. Usually, those<br />
that pay are the most ambitious – those who are<br />
naïve enough to believe that they can change the<br />
world by themselves. As for that little, insignificant<br />
embalmer – with red hair like a badly fried<br />
prawn, Pyroushe, glorified by accident and obviously<br />
your instrument in fulfilling your purposes<br />
– he also must share your sad indifference towards<br />
the universe, otherwise he could create with such<br />
dexterity.<br />
The French ambassador in London was telling me<br />
some days ago on the occasion of the French Embassy<br />
ball, that the Museum of Corpses at Engadi has<br />
caused a sensation, not only among the French<br />
intellectuals, but also among other eminent literati<br />
worldwide, who – annoyed by the idea of a collection<br />
of corpses – claim that it is yet another sign<br />
of the rampant corruption prevailing in the world<br />
and an additional instrument in its spreading<br />
further. Personally, I do not share this opinion.<br />
I believe that this simply symbolises a reflection of<br />
your own insecurities and of an ambition to<br />
project yourself since any trace of love inside you<br />
must have faded out long ago.<br />
To these reasons must be ascribed the great reservations<br />
–not to employ the term disgust, hardly<br />
appropriate to my position – that I entertain for<br />
your Museum. The idea alone repels me. What<br />
a megalomaniac and hysterical act of an imagi-<br />
nation that is frenzied through emotional deprivation!<br />
If the Museum of Corpses were the creation<br />
of some artist – painter or writer – I would<br />
understand it, because it is a way of living their<br />
own reality and of taking their revenge on life,<br />
which they clearly regard as tedious. When, however,<br />
leaders like you exploit their position to<br />
polish their image in such an unacceptable fashion,<br />
they then become destructive and dangerous.<br />
Remember, Sir Roy Cameron: he who dares<br />
does not necessarily become a hero. He can end<br />
up a loser.<br />
A body of a naked dancer, with the name Lexi and<br />
the signature of The Throat of Quetu.<br />
The embalmed body of a dwarf woman wrapped<br />
in white lace, with the name of Dwarf goddess.<br />
A female English archaeologist, with the name of<br />
Zeta.<br />
Ladies of the knight, heavily made-up, with names<br />
such as Altaflor, Soltamor, Sarakilia, Dianora,<br />
Penthesilia the golden handed.<br />
Nuns dressed in their habit, and pale-faced with<br />
names such as Sister Tereza, Sister Beatrice, Sister<br />
Floridia.<br />
Merchants and petty tradesmen with labels on their<br />
embalmed bodies, number one, number two, number<br />
three, four.<br />
Clerics dressed in the most ostentatious of vestments.<br />
And the most tragic thing of all is that the costumes<br />
for all these mummies, which are lined up in the<br />
rooms of the castle like faux objets d’art, are made<br />
up of this new material called nylon. At least if they<br />
could have been dressed in cotton.<br />
Simplicity, Sir Roy Cameron.<br />
You know what simplicity means.<br />
The security of a child. Except that your journey<br />
has not yet taken you there.<br />
Do you not enjoy the security to create with simplicity?<br />
To create without wearing tasteless earrings<br />
and using loud colours on a dark background?<br />
35
36<br />
Like a vase with anemones? A prayer in the night,<br />
the sun as it sets behind the mountains, the<br />
waves as they follow the natural rhythm of the sea,<br />
the smile of a child. Why all this stupidly adorned<br />
dead world with an expression of false forbearance?<br />
What are you trying to prove? That you are nurturing<br />
souls and hope? Or are you merely trying<br />
to serve your own ambitious plans? Yes, the island<br />
of Engadi may be richer now and its voice heard<br />
more in the world at large. I have even heard that<br />
many locals who used to take their bath in solidly<br />
fixed zinc bathtubs in small rooms at the rear of<br />
their houses, where the floor consisted of well-trodden<br />
earth, now have special rooms lined with that<br />
expensive Italian marble called Stucco Venetiano<br />
and that the bathtub is made of expensive porcelain,<br />
of the type one uses to make one’s most expensive<br />
false tooth. However, what does this island<br />
have to offer to humanity except a bunch of cold<br />
bodies masquerading as souls? I could write for<br />
hours on this subject, because it would seem that<br />
a writer’s blood runs in my veins, but let me return<br />
to the purpose of this letter.<br />
The Museum of Corpses.<br />
The Foreign Office is being subjected to great pressure<br />
from foreign governments, but also from<br />
our own members of parliament, to put an immediate<br />
end to this questionable Museum, which<br />
presents a picture of Britain abroad that is anything<br />
but flattering; a picture that as you know,<br />
the government – but also the character of its inhabitants<br />
– demand be kept to a low profile. Because,<br />
as you know, Sir Roy Cameron, whoever keeps a<br />
low profile can do what he wants without provocation,<br />
just as a woman who has gradually acquired<br />
the title of lady can behave like a slut, without anybody<br />
commenting on it. When you are elevated<br />
quickly, however, it is only with difficulty that you<br />
can keep your balance. You cannot do something<br />
in secret, without having the eyes of the world<br />
on you. Let alone that the sudden height makes<br />
you dizzy – the rush of oxygen chokes you. In any<br />
case, confidentially, you have no other choice,<br />
because the British government has decided to con-<br />
fer its independence on the island of Engadi. This<br />
news is at present unofficial, but soon will be communicated<br />
formally to its inhabitants. The island<br />
of Engadi will become independent, just like all<br />
other colonies of the British Empire – once again,<br />
of course, this is between us since there has not<br />
been a formal announcement yet.<br />
One thing remains. If you wish to truly offer something<br />
to your country and to be of service in a time<br />
of need, so that all our efforts do not go in vain, I<br />
would suggest the following: according to reliable<br />
and serious information that we have received, St<br />
Thomas’s Hospital is conducting serious experiments<br />
on the battle against the ageing process. The<br />
drug that plays the leading role in this therapy is<br />
based on an old recipe, already quite unfamiliar to<br />
many: powder produced from grinding down<br />
mummies. If you give your consent for the Museum’s<br />
mummies to be pulverised and for the powder<br />
to be offered to St. Thomas’s Hospital, then<br />
the hospital will have material at its disposal for a<br />
long period of time, which will permit it to ameliorate<br />
the drug offering the answer in its experiments.<br />
This is a genuine offer. You will tell me:<br />
what if the island’s inhabitants do not accept, since<br />
the corpses are theirs? Let us not forget that the<br />
British Government has purchased these corpses,<br />
and consequently they belong to us. When it comes<br />
down to it, compensation is always acceptable. For<br />
this reason do not delay in coming to your decision.<br />
As the drastic philosophy of Carl von Clausewitz<br />
sets out in his book on war, at the time of decision-taking<br />
or of war, the existence of a certain<br />
doubt or hesitation already entails the loss of balance.<br />
Your positive reply will naturally be linked to the<br />
corresponding invitation to dinner at the Palace.<br />
I trust you will not disappoint me. Summer is<br />
always beautiful in London. Especially when<br />
one walks daydreaming next to the Serpentine.<br />
I await your news.<br />
With my regards, Mary Regina<br />
Queen of England
The above letter was found in the pocket of Sir<br />
Roy Cameron’s suit. His body was hanging,<br />
erect and proud as usual, from the gallows he<br />
had cobbled together outside the main entrance<br />
of the Governor’s House. The only thing that<br />
betrayed some relative stress was his hair, which<br />
NICOS ORPHANIDES<br />
the breeze had ruffled, and his eyes, as they hung<br />
out of their sockets, forming a membrane that was<br />
as cloudy as the grey, surrounding damp.<br />
His tongue, sticking out, could possibly have been<br />
his answer to Queen Mary.<br />
Born in Kythrea in 1949. Graduated the Pancyprian Gymnasium<br />
(1967), then proceeded with his university studies attending the<br />
School of Philosophy at the University of Athens where he obtained<br />
his degree in 1972. In 1990 he got a Ph.D. degree from the University<br />
of Crete sustaining a doctorate thesis on" Hellenism in the<br />
Work of the Greek Poet , Kavafis".<br />
From 1972 he served as a teacher of Greek literature in secondary<br />
schools, and of Philosophy at the Cyprus Pedagogical Academy. He<br />
was promoted to the position of Assistant Headmaster (1990-1994),<br />
Secondary School Inspector (1994-2000), then First Educational<br />
Officer in charge of the State Educational Institutes and the Department<br />
of Programme Development from the Ministry of Education and Culture.<br />
Between 2002 and 2003 he held the position of Substitute Director at the Cyprus Research<br />
Institute. Since September 2003 , he has been the Director of the Pedagogical Institute.<br />
He is a founding member of the Philosophical Society of Cyprus being responsible for its annual<br />
review "Zenon"and the publisher of the literary review "∞ÎÙ‹"which has been issued since 1989.<br />
He was also member of a number of committees: the Advisory Committee for Letters, the Advisory<br />
Committee for Publications , the Committee for Awards for Excellence and the Committee<br />
for Honorary Pensions of the Ministry of Education and Culture.<br />
He is the recipient of several awards:State Prize for Poetry (1989),State Prize for the Essay (1982,<br />
1997 and 2003), the Costas Montis Poetry Prize (2001), and the Prize for Prose awarded by the<br />
Women of Rhodes Cultural Society (2001).<br />
Nicos Orphanides has published seven collections of poems , among them: "The Sun’s Adventure"(<br />
Nicosia, 1975)," Persephoni’s Songs" (Nicosia, 1979),Within the Walls" (Athens, 1983),"The<br />
Other Winter" (1993), "The Other Biography" (1999), and prose works: "Cypriot Diary"(Athens,<br />
1986), "The Angel Who Left Was Happy" (Athens, 1997), "Cleo" (Athens, 2000). He also published<br />
five volumes of essays, studies in Greek literature and in philosophy.<br />
He is a founding member and for 20 years has been the General Secretary of both the Pancyprian<br />
Antianaemic Association and the Coordinating Committee for the Enlightenment of Blood<br />
Donors.<br />
37
38<br />
Excerpt from<br />
"Aphrodite of Cyprus" A Quest for the Mythical Thread and Archaic Memory<br />
In eras of existential poverty, as ours, when<br />
the death of Being has been proclaimed officially<br />
and with anguish, the return to the archetypal<br />
and primeval memory seems to be the<br />
sole path of escape or salvation. As our century<br />
founders on the impermeableness of rationalistic<br />
absolutism, the discourse of the myth,<br />
with its uncertain meanings and also its many<br />
meanings, intersects the impasses<br />
and leads to some other<br />
prospects of understanding<br />
our presence in the world.<br />
Myth constitutes the opposite<br />
of the deprivation and the<br />
metaphysical wasteland of our<br />
era. In the ungodly world in<br />
which we live, the myth awakens<br />
and drags into the light<br />
the holiness that has been slain.<br />
In the impermeableness and<br />
the impasses of logic, the myth<br />
recalls that beyond reason there<br />
is another reality, not of course<br />
a-rational or irrational. It is precisely this,<br />
beyond reason, beyond the impermeableness<br />
of logic, that constitutes perhaps the ultimate<br />
raft of escape. Without the discourse<br />
of philosophy being revoked, with the myth<br />
we meet everything or almost everything<br />
signified by the saying "The lord whose oracle<br />
is at Delphi neither speaks out nor conceals<br />
but gives a sign." It is precisely this that<br />
the philosopher of archaic obscurity, Heracleitus,<br />
notes. It was not by chance that he<br />
ended his life, according to tradition, by<br />
taking refuge "exiled" in the space of the sanctuary.<br />
My essay will concentrate on the mythical<br />
Aphrodite of Cyprus. The Aphrodite who, of<br />
course, is not only of Cyprus. Cyprus, how-<br />
ever, is now the furthest border of Hellenism.<br />
And it is essential that we remember Hellenism<br />
in its larger dimension. It is not fortuitous that<br />
the Goddess of beauty, the supreme value of<br />
the Greek character, crosses the Greek seas<br />
to emerge on the shores of Cyprus.<br />
Thus, when someone speaks of Aphrodite, he<br />
opens himself up towards a wider cultural horizon,<br />
that which takes us to another<br />
experience, that of the greater<br />
fringe of Hellenism. To a Hellenism<br />
whose essence is no longer<br />
geographic but cultural and perpetual.<br />
This journey of Aphrodite<br />
precisely describes a vibrant Hellenism,<br />
which is developing<br />
in the universality of the "whole<br />
world", as it is expressed in<br />
the space or cradle of the Mediterranean.<br />
And it takes us even to<br />
the depths of the Greek experience.<br />
Because, behind all the<br />
variations, convergences or meetings<br />
with the east, there underlies or reigns<br />
the pre-eminently Greek experience of light<br />
and love.<br />
Cyprus is a place pre-eminently erotic. Not<br />
because of the landscapes or the dominance<br />
of the light but because memories preserve a<br />
devotion to the love that gave birth to the<br />
world and beings; to the birth and manifestation<br />
of the world; to that which rescues<br />
the sanctity of things and the metaphysical<br />
depth from the deceptive surface. It is a metaphysical<br />
or better an existential memory, which<br />
is preserved behind the sacred, of which some<br />
things have emerged and others are in darkness,<br />
concealed behind toponyms and legends.<br />
And even through a poetry which, from the<br />
time of the sacred "Hymns to Aphrodite" to
the love songs of the end of the Middle Ages<br />
or the contemporary love songs of the folk poets<br />
of Cyprus, concentrates on the sacredness of<br />
love. It is important, perhaps, for someone to<br />
pause at this tradition of the erotic poetry of<br />
Cyprus, which also illumines the substantive<br />
essence of the Hellenism of the region which<br />
remains attached to its sacred memories, as it<br />
carries them within itself from the age of Homer.<br />
When I call Cyprus a place pre-eminently erotic,<br />
I mean that in Cyprus the sanctity of things<br />
is still preserved despite the vicissitudes, despite<br />
the blood and rampant eudemonism. I speak<br />
about a place where the sanctity of life and of<br />
the world is present through the miracle of light<br />
which hallows and sanctifies.<br />
Cyprus, and her Aphrodite, has the privilege<br />
of being the bridge between the Greek light<br />
and the mystic darkness of the east. That is why<br />
in the Paphos sanctuary Herodotus meets not<br />
only Aphrodite but the Goddess Mylitta of the<br />
east as well. It is a memory which Seferis brings<br />
back, in the 50s, as he goes through the<br />
sacred gardens of Paphos. However, as we stroll<br />
through Cyprus, the farthest boundary of Hellenism,<br />
we find the victory or imposition of the<br />
Greek harmony of the world on the vulgarity<br />
and a-rational of the east. Because the Greek<br />
Goddess Aphrodite of Cyprus, the deity of Love<br />
is at the same time the deity of light. As she rises<br />
or emerges into the light, she completes<br />
the manifestation of Being, which sanctifies or<br />
hallows the world. It is another version which,<br />
surpassing the common womb of the eastern<br />
matriarchy, is led to the clarity and lucidity of<br />
reason and harmony.<br />
CHRISTIANA<br />
AVRAAMIDOU<br />
Christiana Avraamidou<br />
was born in<br />
1978 in Athens.<br />
After graduating<br />
the English Language<br />
and Literature<br />
section at the University of Cyprus, she<br />
proceeded with her postgraduate studies specialising<br />
in English Literature and Psychoanalysis.In<br />
2001 she was awarded the third prize<br />
by the Derek Poetry Award in Britain. Some of<br />
her poems were translated and published in a<br />
Spanish Poetry and Prose Collection. Poems<br />
have also been translated in the Italian and Serbian<br />
language and included in anthologies.<br />
In 1999 she published her first poetry collection<br />
"Ropes and Wrecks", and in 2002 her second<br />
collection "One Reason to Love Night"<br />
for which she was awarded the Cyprus State<br />
Prize for Young Poets.<br />
A great number of<br />
her poems have been<br />
published in newspapers<br />
and literary<br />
magazines or included<br />
in anthologies of<br />
Greek poetry.<br />
Her poems deal<br />
with the themes<br />
of love, death, time<br />
and human vanity.<br />
Profound and sincere emotions permeate<br />
her poetry.<br />
39
40<br />
Poems from the collection<br />
One Reason to Love Night<br />
-1-<br />
You are that kind of night, that makes me<br />
nail my eyes on truth, the truth lying in the<br />
echo of your silence.<br />
And you are precisely that kind of sorrow,<br />
that smiles and smells like lilies<br />
letting the town<br />
be loved in ignorance<br />
And you startle<br />
As the soul of my beauty is revealed<br />
And you strive to live<br />
But you are exactly that kind of absence<br />
That touches like a spoiled wave,<br />
And exactly that kind of shadow,<br />
that creeps away<br />
secretly<br />
On its toes….<br />
-23-<br />
The only presence beside me at night,<br />
shadows,<br />
talking of you.<br />
-Do you remember?<br />
-How can I not?<br />
You look like something that dropped out<br />
of my pocket<br />
in the afternoon<br />
Like everything I step on at nights in avenues<br />
-Remember?<br />
Moonlight it was,<br />
but were we all looking at the same moon?<br />
In darkness,<br />
everything is gentler…..<br />
-1-<br />
ErÛ·È âÎÂÖÓÔ Ùe Âr‰Ô˜ Ùɘ Ó‡¯Ù·˜<br />
appleÔf Ìb οÓÂÈ Óa ηÚÊÒÛˆ Ùa Ì¿ÙÈ· ÛÙcÓ<br />
àÏ‹ıÂÈ·,<br />
ÙcÓ Í·appleψ̤ÓË Ìb˜ ÛÙe àapplefiË¯Ô Ùɘ<br />
ÛȈappleɘ ÛÔ˘.<br />
K·d ÂrÛ·È âÎÂÖÓÔ àÎÚȂᘠÙe Âr‰Ô˜ Ùɘ<br />
χapple˘<br />
appleÔf ¯·ÌÔÁÂÏÄ Î·d Ì˘Ú›˙ÂÈ ¬appleˆ˜ Ùa ÎÚ›Ó·,<br />
àÊ‹ÓÔÓÙ·˜ ÙcÓ applefiÏË<br />
Óa àÁ·appleÈ¤Ù·È âÓ àÁÓÔ›ˇ· Ù˘.<br />
K·d Û·ÛÙ›˙ÂȘ...<br />
ÛaÓ ÛÔÜ Ê·ÓÂÚˆıÂÖ ì ηډÈa Ùɘ çÌÔÚÊÈĘ<br />
ÌÔ˘<br />
ηd apple·Û¯›˙ÂȘ Óa ˙‹ÛÂȘ.<br />
Ma ÂrÛ·È âÎÂÖÓÔ àÎÚȂᘠÙe Âr‰Ô˜ Ùɘ<br />
àappleÔ˘Û›·˜<br />
appleÔf àÁÁ›˙ÂÈ Î·ÎÔÌ·ıË̤ӷ ÛaÓ Î‡Ì·,<br />
ηd âÎÂÖÓÔ àÎÚȂᘠÙe Âr‰Ô˜ Ùɘ ÛÎÈĘ<br />
appleÔf ʇÁÂÈ ÎÚ˘Êa<br />
ÛÙd˜ ̇Ù˜ ÙáÓ appleÔ‰ÈáÓ Ù˘....<br />
-23-<br />
MfiÓ˜ apple·ÚÔ˘Û›Â˜ ‰›appleÏ· ÌÔ˘ Ùa ‚Ú¿‰È·,<br />
ÛÎȤ˜,<br />
appleÔf ÌÈÏÄÓÂ ÁÈa Û¤Ó·.<br />
— £˘ÌÄÛ·È;<br />
— ᘠÓa ÌcÓ ı˘ÌÄÌ·È.<br />
MÔÈ¿˙ÂȘ Ìb οÙÈ appleÔf ÌÔÜ ’appleÂÛ àapple’ ÙcÓ<br />
ÙÛ¤appleË Ùe àapplefiÁÂ˘Ì·,<br />
Ì’ ¬,ÙÈ apple·Ù¿ˆ Ùa ‚Ú¿‰È· ÛÙd˜ ψÊfiÚÔ˘˜.<br />
— £˘ÌÄÛ·È;<br />
·ÓÛ¤ÏËÓÔ˜ qÙ·Ó...<br />
Ma ‚Ϥapple·Ì ¬ÏÔÈ<br />
Ùe ú‰ÈÔ ÊÂÁÁ¿ÚÈ;<br />
Ùe ÛÎÔÙ¿‰È...<br />
Ùa apple¿ÓÙ· ÂrÓ·È êapple·ÏfiÙÂÚ·.
-7-<br />
I don’t like you being open and windy.<br />
I don’t like it that you last,<br />
everybody is awake.<br />
You keep fitting,<br />
being measured<br />
belonging…..<br />
I like that you evaporate,<br />
I am left lonely.<br />
-11-<br />
I’m forgetting my manners tonight,<br />
and thought I should exist.<br />
The air would call it<br />
one desperation on top of another<br />
but I’ve gathered together all your things<br />
in a basket,<br />
for I’m forgetting my manners tonight<br />
deciding I should exist.<br />
I’ll bring you plenty of caresses from<br />
the basket,<br />
because you are unemployed and have to live.<br />
-32-<br />
There is something about your hands<br />
I don’ t like tonight.<br />
Our outside, simple,<br />
As if we are talking about Athens at night,<br />
As for our insides,<br />
Some other time...<br />
In our next lives,<br />
Like always...<br />
Better days will come<br />
If you forget, they will<br />
Forget<br />
-7-<br />
¢bÓ Ì\ àÚ¤ÛÂÈ appleÔf ÂrÛ·È àÓÔȯÙe˜ ηd Ê˘Û¿ÂÈ.<br />
¢bÓ Ì’ àÚ¤ÛÂÈ appleÔf ‰È·ÚÎÂÖ˜,<br />
͢appleÓÉÛ·Ó ¬ÏÔÈ.<br />
≠OÏÔ ¯ˆÚĘ,<br />
ÌÂÙÚȤ۷È<br />
àÓ‹ÎÂȘ...<br />
Ì’ àÚ¤ÛÂÈ appleÔf âÍ·ÙÌ›˙ÂÛ·È.<br />
M¤Óˆ ÌfiÓË.<br />
-11-<br />
·ÚÂÎÙÚ¿appleËη àapplefi„Â<br />
ηd Ârapple· Óa ñapple¿Ú͈.<br />
^O à¤Ú·˜ ıa Ùe ’ÏÂÁÂ<br />
ì ÌÈa àappleÂÏappleÈÛ›· apple¿Óˆ ÛÙcÓ ôÏÏË.<br />
Ma ö¯ˆ Ì·˙¤„ÂÈ Û’ ≤Ó· ηϷı¿ÎÈ Ì·˙d<br />
Ùa appleÚ¿ÁÌ·Ù¿ ÛÔ˘,<br />
ÁÈ·Ùd apple·ÚÂÎÙÚ¤appleÔÌ·È àapplefi„Â<br />
ηd Ϥˆ Óa ñapple¿Ú͈.<br />
£a ÛÔÜ Ê¤Úˆ ¯¿‰È· appleÔÏÏa àapple’ ÙcÓ àÁÔÚ¿,<br />
ÁÈ·Ùd ÂrÛ·È ôÓÂÚÁÔ˜ ηd appleÚ¤appleÂÈ Óa ˙‹ÛÂȘ.<br />
-32-<br />
K¿ÙÈ ‰bÓ Ì’ àÚ¤ÛÂÈ ÛÙa ¯¤ÚÈ· ÛÔ˘ àapplefi„Â.<br />
Ta ö͈ Ì·˜ êappleÏ¿,<br />
ÛaÓ Óa ÌÈÏÄÌ ÁÈa ÙcÓ \Aı‹Ó· Ùa ‚Ú¿‰È·.<br />
°Èa Ùa ¤Û· Ì·˜<br />
ÌÈa ôÏÏË ÊÔÚ¿,<br />
ÛÙd˜ ëapplefiÌÂÓ˜ ˙ˆ¤˜ Ì·˜,<br />
¬appleˆ˜ apple¿ÓÙ·.<br />
£¿ ’ÚıÔ˘Ó Î·Ï‡ÙÂÚ˜ ̤Ú˜.<br />
òAÓ Í¯¿ÛÂȘ, ı¿ ’ÚıÔ˘Ó.<br />
•¤¯·ÛÂ.<br />
41
42<br />
Born in Mesoyi, Paphos in 1941. Studied Sociology in Greece and<br />
England. Worked until 1996 at the Welfare Office.<br />
She has been writing poetry from an early age, the last ten years only<br />
being dedicated to children’s poetry too. Many of her poems have<br />
been translated into other languages and included in anthologies.<br />
She is the recipient of a number of awards both from Cyprus and<br />
Greece. She is a founding member and the President of the<br />
Paphos Literary Society.<br />
Published works: “Return” (1978), “Heroic Echoes” (1983, First<br />
Prize in the Pancyprian Competition), “Timeless Nature” (1988),<br />
“Flutters” (1992, Prize of the Cyprus Association of Youth and<br />
Children’s Books), “Summer Landscapes” (1994, Prize of the Cyprus Association of Youth and<br />
Children’s Books), “Reverberations of My Earth” (1997, Prize of the Cyprus Association of Youth<br />
and Children’s Books), “Letter to a Missing Person” (1997, Ministry of Education and Culture<br />
State Prize), “In the Sun’s Crater” (1999, First Prize in the Panhellenic Competition), “Come<br />
Down Little Moon to Play Hide-and-Seek” (2002, Ministry of Education and Culture State<br />
Prize), “The Girl Baker” (2002, Children’s Tales).<br />
ELLI VENIZELOU<br />
MYRIANTHI PANAYIOTOU PAPAONISIFOROU<br />
Born in Limassol. Studied History and Archaeology at the University of Athens. She taught<br />
Greek Literature in Secondary schools in Cyprus. She writes short-stories for the youth.<br />
Published works: "The Hat is Coming" (1994,commended by the Women’s Literary Society of<br />
Athens in the Pan-Hellenic Short Story Competition,1990), " Jasmine Fragrance"(1995, recipient<br />
of the same commendation in1991), "Green Stories" (1997),"A Star on our Roof" (2002, State<br />
Prize for Youth Literature).<br />
ELENA PULCHERIOU<br />
Born in Lakatamia. Graduated from the English School, Nicosia.<br />
Studied Fine Arts, first in London and later at the University of Connecticut,<br />
U.S.A. At present , she teaches English and draws illustrations<br />
for children’s books.<br />
In 1992, she was awarded an Honourary Distinction by the Ministry<br />
of Education and Culture for the illustrations of the book "O<br />
M¿ÚÎÔ˜ ÌÔ˘ ÎÈ’ÂÁÒ", by Era Yienagritou.<br />
In 1993, she participated in the Bratislava Biennale of Illustrations<br />
representing the Cyprus Association on Books for Young People<br />
(National Section of I.B.B.Y.).<br />
In 2004, she won First State Prize for the illustrations of the book<br />
"Come Down Little Moon to Play Hide-and-Seek",by Myrianthi Panayiotou Papaonisiforou.
KYRIAKOS MARGARITIS<br />
Kyriakos Margaritis was born in Paphos in 1982. After graduating from<br />
the Lyceum he went on to study Classical Philology at the University of<br />
Athens. The works he has published are «Georgakis from Karpasia», historic<br />
novel, Nicosia 1998, commended by the Women’s Literary Society,<br />
«The Village of Bedsheets» children’s novel, 1st Prize of the Cyprus Association<br />
of Children’s Novels, «Small Love Dirges», short stories 2002, State<br />
Prize for Youth Literature, «The Tin Knight», children’s novel 2004.<br />
Excerpt from the short story "Magdalene of the Angels"<br />
The house was white and around it had settled a<br />
desolation that wept. Weeds grew in the paving<br />
stones of a grey pavement and the road was<br />
completely empty. Street of tranquillity. Street<br />
of terror and silence. A street studded with poplars<br />
and madness. A thriller film in the background of<br />
cypress trees and empty tombs waiting perpetually<br />
for their victims, and some black and white<br />
photographs adorning their nakedness. Dates of<br />
birth and death. Beginning and end and the<br />
rain was lashing asphalt that was melting from a<br />
heat-wave and fear. A wooden door, painted white<br />
like a ghost. That door was a gateway which led<br />
to infinity, to the den of paranoia. Hollow sounds<br />
and their echo like tolling bells at a funeral. Oh,<br />
superlative scene of my childhood and adolescent<br />
phobias! How did you become like this?<br />
I didn’t go by there very often. I regretted the questions<br />
I hadn’t dared to solve, the mysteries that<br />
remained secret. My mind a strange jackdaw that<br />
cawed in the night. The wolf inside me yelped,<br />
howling at an empty moon which was trying in<br />
vain to light the street of my years and days. Time,<br />
time wounded me in the loneliness of dreams.<br />
And I wanted to pass through the gates of that<br />
bottomless abyss. I was sure that behind the doorphone<br />
and the mortal bell you pressed to enter,<br />
the fathomless sea of my darkest fantasies was waiting,<br />
suspicious, for me. A self which all us conceal<br />
within us would push me in that direction. I knew<br />
it. Thus, I simply waited for ignorance or my suspicious<br />
nature to boo at me.<br />
The castle of mad Magdalene. No one in the neigh-<br />
bourhood had ever seen her. Remote neighbours<br />
heard shrieks at night and were sure that<br />
orgies were going on there. The orgies that the<br />
decent, law-abiding townspeople kept away by<br />
going round their bedrooms and yards with incense.<br />
From the half-open window lights flickered like<br />
imprisoned stars and occasionally brown butterflies<br />
ventured out to protest at all they had seen,<br />
all they had heard, all they had sensed with their<br />
antennae. Magdalene, a presence that accompanied<br />
the anxiety of my coming of age. Magdalene,<br />
a fellow-traveller on the road of my adolescence<br />
and doubts. Oh, I should, I should have seen her,<br />
touched her, listened to her, spoken to her. I should<br />
have looked into her crazy eyes to discern the things<br />
mirrored within her, that scared her in her wild<br />
nights, that lulled her to sleep in her sightless,<br />
blind days.<br />
She had no relatives and her friends remained a<br />
mystery. Cars with opaque windows stopped for<br />
a while at the entrance and romantic figures<br />
with strides crossed her threshold. Then they left,<br />
like the clients of brothels, always looking straight<br />
ahead to the door of the car which was waiting<br />
like a horse ready to ride off into the sunset. They<br />
went away, blowing away the dust from the eyes<br />
of the rest who were trying to penetrate their heads,<br />
the heads with the long hair and the earrings, to<br />
see all that was hidden in their sick, as they supposed,<br />
minds. Mad Magdalene, who upset our<br />
neighbourhood and fostered fairy tales, legends<br />
and modern-day myths in an era which dismisses<br />
witches. And fairies.<br />
43
44<br />
About 70 authors and translators from 21 European<br />
and Mediterranean countries attended the<br />
3rd Mare Nostrum Conference in Nicosia,<br />
between 3-5 November, calling on the governments<br />
and institutions of Europe to affirm<br />
their commitment to tolerance and freedom of<br />
speech and expression and to uphold that "<br />
the pen must be mightier than the sword". It<br />
is the third Mare Nostrum Conference, the first<br />
being held in Delphi, Greece in 1999 and the<br />
second in Barcelona in 2001.<br />
The three–day conference under the title<br />
"The Mediterranean: Dividing Waters or Common<br />
Ground ?-The role of literature and<br />
writers in world in conflict" – was organised by<br />
the Union of Cypriot Writers with the support<br />
of the European Communion and sponsored<br />
by the Ministry of Education and Culture<br />
and the Cyprus Tourist Organisation.<br />
Opening the works of the conference, the Minister<br />
of Education and Culture, Mr. Pefkios<br />
Georgiades addressed a special welcome to participating<br />
Turkish Cypriot writers, noting that<br />
their cooperation with their Greek Cypriot counterparts<br />
was an important contribution to the<br />
effort for peaceful coexistence on the island.<br />
In his welcoming speech UCW President, Christos<br />
Hadjipapas referred to the efforts for the<br />
reunification of the island and underlined the<br />
fact that since the Turkish invasion in 1974,<br />
Cypriot literature in both communities has as<br />
its common reference their "divided country,<br />
the streets that lead nowhere, parched love,<br />
Aphrodite’s stabbed body". He noted that plans<br />
have already been laid for a joint anthology in<br />
Greek and Turkish, with a grant from the Ministry<br />
of Culture, whereas the Turkish Cypriot<br />
side has already reached an agreement with a<br />
Mare Nostrum III<br />
Christos Hadjipapas, Chairman of the Union<br />
of Cypriot Writers addressing the Conference.<br />
well-known publishing house in Turkey.<br />
The Mare Nostrum literary meetings with<br />
cultural and professionally related exchanges<br />
among writers and their public in the Mediterranean<br />
area have already contributed in the past<br />
to a reflection on the sources, values and<br />
future of European identity in diversity - including<br />
the effort of conveying the results to the<br />
more "Northern" countries of the European<br />
Union and beyond. Integrating subjects focus<br />
on the role of writers and their working conditions<br />
resulting from the economic and<br />
social North-South divide in Europe caused and<br />
increased by the globalisation process. Special<br />
workshops deal with literary translation issues<br />
and cultural policy concerning the book market,<br />
the promotion of reading, the relations and<br />
interdependency between literature and audiovisual<br />
or digital media.<br />
Mare Nostrum III established in a friendly-professional<br />
way new ties with the cultures and cul-
tural protagonists in the Eastern and Southern<br />
parts of the Mediterranean , providing an opportunity<br />
for individual writers and literary translators<br />
from Israel, Palestine, the Lebanon, Syria,<br />
Egypt to meet and work in groups with their<br />
relative neighbours, their colleagues from Greece,<br />
Turkey and Cyprus.<br />
Participants included Turkish poet and essayist<br />
Cenkiz Bektas, who spoke on the need for<br />
Greeks and Turks to forge a new relationship<br />
based on trust, while Israeli translator from Arabic.<br />
Yael Lerer appealed to Israeli and Arab writers<br />
to allow their work to be translated into each<br />
other’s language.<br />
Salwa baker from Egypt, Aamer Husein from<br />
Pakistan and Matia Margaroni from Cyprus,<br />
developed the theme "Orient and Occident –<br />
The Fiction and Conflict"<br />
Ecaterini Aristidou, Neshe Yashin and Lefteris<br />
Papaleontiou spoke of Cyprus as an example of<br />
Cultural heritage and of discovering the image<br />
of the "other". The experience of translators<br />
in Cyprus was presented by the Greek Cypriot<br />
Thomas Symeou and the Turkish Cypriot Mehmet<br />
Kansou.<br />
At the end of the Mare Nostrum III Literary<br />
Conference in Nicosia, the European Writer’s<br />
Congress, which represents 52 writes’ associations<br />
from 28 countries, with a membership<br />
of 54,000 individual authors and literary trans-<br />
Culture Minister, Pefkios Georgiades addressing<br />
the conference.<br />
lators, adopted a Cyprus Resolution.The Resolution<br />
"deplored the resurgence of intolerance<br />
and xenophobia throughout the world and<br />
Europe" and concluded: "On this island, which<br />
still suffers from unjust division and lies just a<br />
few kilometers from the cockpit of Middle Eastern<br />
injustice and conflict, the European Writers’<br />
Congress encourages and facilitates contact<br />
and cooperation between the writers from all<br />
sides of the "dividing waters" of the Mediterranean<br />
in a spirit of conciliation and healing,<br />
and calls upon the government and institutions<br />
of Europe to reaffirm that the EU is a consenting<br />
association of nations dedicated to tolerance,<br />
freedom of speech and expression and<br />
that "the pen must be mightier than the sword".<br />
Costas Hadjigeorgiou, Theoklis Kouyialis, Thomas Simeou were present at the Conference.<br />
45
46<br />
Within the framework of the conference, a session of poetry was held, where poems by<br />
five Greek Cypriot poets and five Turkish Cypriot poets were recited.<br />
A Blind Speaker at a Meeting for Peace<br />
by Giorgos Moleskis<br />
A blind speaker rose to the podium<br />
opened his manuscript<br />
began to talk, touching words one by one<br />
with his fingers. A Turk<br />
speaking Greek. His words<br />
Greek and Turkish together<br />
flew over frontiers like birds<br />
whose nationality cannot be determined.<br />
And as he spoke, palpating words with<br />
his fingers<br />
releasing them to the air<br />
more and more he resembled a potter<br />
who molded birds, animals, men<br />
who molded a round earth, a unified<br />
country,<br />
without sectors of death, a dove of<br />
peace...<br />
he molded them in his fingers one by<br />
one,<br />
breathed life in them and released them<br />
to fly around the hall,<br />
searching for windows, for open doors<br />
through which to soar out into the world<br />
1998<br />
Tragedy of Roots and Soil<br />
(Köklere ve topraklara iliskin tragedya)<br />
by Fikret Demirag<br />
When a root is pulled out it feels remorse,<br />
so does the soil separated from the root,<br />
and a tragedy of flesh and bones<br />
emerges;<br />
However shaken, something will remain<br />
in the root<br />
from the soil it has been pulled out,<br />
and in the soil, capillaries will remain<br />
from the root.<br />
This, because they ’re not wholly<br />
separable<br />
from the flesh they ’ve left in each other.<br />
The incurable cavity the root has left in<br />
the soil,<br />
is the wound the parting son has left in<br />
the mother,<br />
and what remains of the soil in the root,<br />
as a souvenir<br />
to the one parting.<br />
The root rots far away, while the soil<br />
keeps bleeding.<br />
The wounds do bleed of the deserted and<br />
the pulled out;<br />
in the son, something remains of the<br />
place pulled out,<br />
from the son, something does remain in<br />
the heart of the mother.<br />
Nicosia, 27.7.1983
The Association of Cypriot Book Publishers<br />
At a press conference held by the Association<br />
of Cypriot Book Publishers, the<br />
Chairman of the Association, Mr.<br />
M.A. Sofocleous, announced the<br />
establishment of this institution as<br />
an absolute necessity after the accession<br />
of Cyprus to the EU. He made<br />
known a number of initiatives that<br />
were taken to enable publishers,<br />
as an organised entity to develop new strategies.<br />
The founding members of the Association are:<br />
Armeda Publications, Demetrakis Christoforou<br />
Publications, En Tipis Publications, Epiphaniou<br />
Publiations, Kyproepeia Publishing House,<br />
Pago Publications, Power Publishing, Tamasos<br />
Publishing. Some more publishers, such as<br />
Moufflon and Aigaion have also been invited<br />
to join in.<br />
Defining the policy adopted by the Association,<br />
Mr. Sofocleous referred to the collaboration<br />
they have with other institutions such<br />
as: the Ministry of Education and Culture, the<br />
Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry,<br />
the Book Vendors’ Association, the Writers’<br />
Union and the Publishers from Greece.<br />
Concerning the collaboration with the Min-<br />
The Chairman of the A.C.B.P. welcoming the Greek Prime<br />
Minister, C. Karamanlis at their bookstall in Athens.<br />
istry of Education and Culture, Mr. Sofocleous<br />
quoted Dr Eleni Nikita, Director<br />
of the Cultural Services of the<br />
Ministry of Education and Culture<br />
who underlined the pressing need<br />
to encourage and promote the<br />
publication of books both in<br />
Cyprus and abroad. "We must<br />
strengthen and project our cultural<br />
identity in the mosaic of cultural peculiarities<br />
called the EU", she said "so much more<br />
as we are a small country with a language of<br />
small circulation".<br />
Dr Nikita welcomed the creation of the<br />
Association of Cypriot Book Publishers which<br />
will certainly upgrade the Cypriot books and<br />
bring them to parity with those of other European<br />
countries. It is inconceivable for a writer<br />
to be publisher, promoter and deliverer, all in<br />
one, as the case stands in Cyprus.<br />
Concerning the collaboration with the Book<br />
Vendors’ Association, it aims at a successful<br />
confrontation of the Cyprus book market.<br />
The necessity for the creation of a "connective<br />
association" was considered imperative,<br />
which would act as observer keeping the two<br />
associations well informed of each other’s activities.<br />
A Unified Programme of Action was proposed<br />
separating the different fields of action into<br />
groups under the following names:<br />
Zenon – Communications Policy<br />
Stasinos – Publishing Policy<br />
Hermes – Sales Policy<br />
Evagoras – Collaboration Policy<br />
Europe – European Topics Policy<br />
Athens – Cultural Activities Policy<br />
Demetra – Book Fairs Policy<br />
Olympus – the Association as an Administrative<br />
Body<br />
47
48<br />
Ancient Cypriote Art in the<br />
National Archaeological Museum of Athens<br />
It is the first time that 237 representative<br />
objects of the Cypriote collection in the National<br />
Archaeological Museum of Athens have<br />
been displayed both to the scholarly world<br />
and to the general public. Very few people<br />
were previously aware of the existence of this<br />
collection and even among the scholarly world<br />
it was hardly known. Therefore the exhibition<br />
at the National Archaeological Museum<br />
of Athens is both an event of scientific value<br />
and a revelation.<br />
What is more, the publication of the Catalogue<br />
of the Ancient Cypriote Art by the<br />
National Archaeological Museum of Athens,<br />
written by Professor Vassos Karageorghis and<br />
funded by the A.G. Leventis Foundation is a<br />
praiseworthy enterprise. Through the works<br />
of art of the skilful coroplasts or expressive<br />
sculptors which are presented in the lavishly<br />
illustrated catalogue the reader will understand<br />
and conceive not only the peculiarities<br />
of Cypriote art but also its Hellenic identity.<br />
The director of the National Archaeological<br />
Animal shaped askos by white painted V Ware<br />
Middle Cypriote III.<br />
Female head. 5th cent. BC<br />
Museum of Athens, Nikolas Kaltsas, who signs<br />
the article on the History of the Cypriote Collection,<br />
underlines the fact that the Museum<br />
had always aspired to display Greek culture<br />
in its entirety, and Cypriote art is considered<br />
to be an integral part of that culture.<br />
"In the late Mycenaean period the island of<br />
Cyprus which dominates the eastern Mediterranean<br />
region at the crossroads between East<br />
and West, was inhabited by Achaean immigrants<br />
who fled from the Peloponnese at<br />
the end of the 13th century BC. From this<br />
period onwards the culture is Greek and the<br />
island finds itself under the protection of<br />
"Kypris"
–Aphrodite. The dynamic mixture and coexistence<br />
of Greek and Eastern elements is clearly<br />
mirrored in the various expressions of the<br />
Cypriote art".<br />
The collection consists of approximately 850<br />
objects, representing almost all the chronological<br />
periods of Cypriote art, from the Early<br />
Bronze Age to the Roman period. From<br />
this corpus, there are 160 small stone sculptures<br />
and approximately 55 bronze objects;<br />
pottery and some terracotta figurines comprise<br />
the remainder of the collection.<br />
In the Foreword to the catalogue, Dr. Karageorghis<br />
reveals: "I saw the Collection<br />
for the first time in 1974, while I was<br />
studying its corpus of Cypriote Iron<br />
Age vases of the pictorial style, and<br />
then again in 1989, when I studied<br />
a group of Cypriote terracotta figurines<br />
housed in the Museum. When<br />
the Leventis Foundation first conceived<br />
the ambitious project to publish<br />
and exhibit Cypriote collections<br />
in foreign museums, the collection<br />
Jug of red slip V Ware Cypro Classical II.<br />
of the National Archaeological Museum of<br />
Athens was one of the first museums approached;<br />
however, for various reasons, it has taken twelve<br />
years to gain access to study and photograph<br />
this particular group of<br />
antiquities."<br />
Red lustrous wheelmade ware<br />
Late Cypriote I-II<br />
49
50<br />
Female figurines. Late Cypriote II.<br />
The collection was compiled in various stages,<br />
with the acquisition of isolated objects or<br />
assembled groups, and from purchases, donations<br />
and confiscated material.<br />
The first vase was purchased from a private<br />
collector E.Angelopoulos on 17th February<br />
1879. In July 1980, the museum acquired<br />
67 Cypriote vases from the Archaeological<br />
Society of Athens. The Collection was further<br />
enriched with objects acquired from rich<br />
private collectors such as Zacharias Bakoulis,<br />
G.Philimon (consul in Larnaca from 1894-<br />
1897), Philios Zounetos, the Empedoklis col-<br />
lection, and others. The items, either purchased<br />
by the Archaeological Society of Athens<br />
or donated, were in turn handed over to<br />
the museum. A noteworthy donation was<br />
that of the Ethnarchy of Cyprus in 1960.<br />
In the last decades of the 20th century,<br />
with increased law enforcement, inspection<br />
of illegal possessions and curbing of trafficking<br />
of antiquities, 28 Cypriote antiquities<br />
were handed over by the Police Force.<br />
It is unfortunate that very little information<br />
could be retrieved with regard to the<br />
provenance of the various objects.
Dr. Karageorghis was moved to find a letter<br />
from a Police Inspector from Pendayia,<br />
Skouriotisa to the Curator of the Cyprus<br />
Museum, Menelaos Skartides, dated 22nd<br />
April, 1920 describing the discovery of "some<br />
ancient vases" and their transfer to Nicosia.<br />
This piece of paper was tucked into the neck<br />
of a jug of Red Polished Ware. It is not known<br />
how this group of artefacts reached Athens.<br />
It is obvious that further information regarding<br />
the provenance of the artefacts could come<br />
to light after a thorough search through the<br />
archives of the Archaeological Society found<br />
in the National Archaeological Museum.<br />
This rich and representative collection of<br />
Cypriote antiquities displayed in the National<br />
Museum will highlight the development<br />
of the island’s art and culture, in parallel with<br />
other centres in the area of mainland Greece<br />
and its islands.<br />
Animal shaped askos. Middle<br />
Cypriote III.<br />
White slip II wares. Late Cypriote II<br />
Large jug of Bichrome III-IV Ware<br />
Early Cypro Archaic I<br />
51
52<br />
The A.G. Leventis Foundation within the<br />
framework of its major programme of presenting<br />
and publishing Cypriote antiquities<br />
now kept in the principal museums of Europe<br />
and North America, has decided to endow<br />
the creation of a Cypriote Gallery in the Royal<br />
Ontario Museum, Canada. Although the<br />
museum is currently undergoing a major refurbishment<br />
and the A.G. Leventis Gallery is<br />
scheduled to open in December 2005, the catalogue<br />
presenting two hundred of the finest<br />
antiquities from the R.O.M.’s rich collection<br />
of Cypriote artifacts has already been published.<br />
The driving force behind this project<br />
has been Dr. Vassos Karageorghis,<br />
Director of the A.G. Leventis Foundation,<br />
whose knowledge and passion for Cypriote<br />
antiquities are evident in this handbook.<br />
Head of male figure from Tamassos<br />
5th century BC.<br />
Cypriote Antiquities<br />
in the Royal Ontario Museum<br />
All the elements of the collection – the<br />
limestone sculptures, terracotta, bronzes, jewellery<br />
and coins from the Bronze Age to the<br />
Roman Era are only partially known from various<br />
scattered publications issued earlier in<br />
the 20th century. Now that the knowledge<br />
of Cypriote art has been greatly enriched, Dr<br />
Karageorghis considered that the time is ripe<br />
for a new updated publication which would<br />
revise serious discrepancies. Moreover, the<br />
new photographs in colour can only enhance<br />
our appreciation of the intrinsic artistic merit<br />
of the Cypriote artifacts themselves.<br />
The Catalogue published by the A.G. Leventis<br />
Foundation and the Royal Ontario Museum<br />
and prefaced by William Thorsell, R.O.M.<br />
Director, is divided into seven sections:<br />
Pottery, Bronzes, Limestone Sculpture and<br />
Red polished ware. Early Cypriote III.
Terracottas, all signed by Vassos Karageorghis,<br />
Jewellery by Paul Denis, the Museum Curator,<br />
Coins by Alisson Harle Easson and Medieval<br />
Glazed Pottery by Demetra Papanicola Bakirtzi.<br />
Each of the 200 objects in the collection is<br />
Male Statuette from Tamassos<br />
Early 6th century BC.<br />
given a meticulous description followed by<br />
the provenance (if known), the inventory number,<br />
dimensions, date, description, bibliography<br />
and comparanda.<br />
The Collection<br />
The Cypriote collection, comprising<br />
some 800 objects which entered<br />
the Royal Ontario Museum at<br />
different stages, is one of the<br />
most important in North America.<br />
The earliest acquisitions came<br />
from Dr. Allen Sturge, a knowledgeable collector<br />
of antiquities from Suffolk, England<br />
and took place mainly during the first two<br />
decades of the twentieth century. They<br />
were examples of prehistoric Cypriote pottery<br />
of all styles, the most noteworthy being the<br />
Early Bronze Age examples of Red Polished<br />
Ware.<br />
In 1958, the collection of Colonel Falkland<br />
Warren from the National Gallery in Ottawa<br />
Terracotte horses 7th century BC.<br />
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54<br />
Bowls of Brown and Green Sgraffito Ware, 14th century.<br />
was transferred to the R.O.M. This collection,<br />
consisting of 300 pieces of pottery, stone<br />
sculptures, terracotta figurines had been<br />
acquired by Colonel Warren while he was stationed<br />
in Cyprus as an English official, and<br />
occupied himself as an amateur archaeologist,<br />
as was customary around 1870-1880.<br />
The main location of his efforts was the area<br />
of Tamassos which yielded much archaeological<br />
material.<br />
In 1962 the R.O.M. received a fine gift of<br />
seven pieces of Bronze Age and Geometric<br />
pottery from the members of the Lions Club<br />
of Famagusta, Cyprus. This was followed in<br />
1965 by a large donation of about 300 pieces<br />
including pottery of all periods, terracotta<br />
figurines, some glass vessels of the Roman<br />
period and a number of fine gold jewellery<br />
pieces. This was the collection of the Dowager<br />
Lady Loch from London who, with her<br />
husband, had resided most of her life in<br />
Cyprus.<br />
The most recent acquisition, the signature<br />
artifact dating from the Late Bronze Age of<br />
about 1200 BC was donated by R. Hindley<br />
from Toronto. It is a small bronze relief,
worked in the ajouré technique, depicting a<br />
man from the waist up, carrying a copper<br />
ingot in the shape of an ox hide. It is a piece<br />
of rare workmanship in excellent condition.<br />
Moreover it reflects the significance of<br />
copper in Cypriote culture as mining and<br />
smelting of copper was the chief industry<br />
of the island and historically the island’s principal<br />
export.<br />
Museums are living organisms and not merely<br />
repositories of artifacts. People come here<br />
to pay homage to art and get acquainted with<br />
the elevated expression of the human spirit.<br />
The vibrant Cypriot community of Canada<br />
will take pride in their own cultural heritage<br />
exhibited among the other international collections<br />
of the R.O.M., which reflect the cultural<br />
diversity of contemporary Canada<br />
and appreciate the strength of<br />
ancient Cypriote culture.<br />
Large amphora of Bichrome IV-V Ware. Late Cypro Archaic I.<br />
55