|
|
Newsletter 57September 2006Mark your Calendar:
Prometheas is currently finalizing a number of events for upcoming season 2006/07. Dates for the following events have been set as follows:
Other News
The Society for the Preservation of the Greek Heritage
Invites you to participate in a discussion on:
APOLLO & Dionysus
Thursday, September 21, 2006 at 7:15 p.m.
“Nietzsche on Tragedy: The Birth & Long-lived Influence of New Ideas ” by Professor Frank Romer (East Carolina University)
The most familiar idea from Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy has long been the opposition between the Apollonian and Dionysian impulses. According to Nietzsche, this opposition is embodied in the creation and development of Greek tragedy. Do these impulses give us the keenest insight and help us to capture the essence of Greek tragedy or even of Nietzsche’s theory about it? Only Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides can help us answer these questions.
“Nietzsche and the Rebirth of Tragedy in Greece: The Delphic Festivals of Angelos and Eva Sikelianos” by Professor Gonda Van Steen (University of Arizona)
Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy was tremendously influential, but little is known about the work’s impact in Greece. Nietzsche’s thinking about the Apollonian and Dionysian elements has often been questioned, but it was, nonetheless, a creative force in Greece in the 1920s. To comprehend the significance of Nietzsche’s thinking for Greek culture and for theater, in particular, we will look at the work of Angelos and Eva Sikelianos.. Their productions of Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound in 1927 and 1930 may be read as a concrete application of Nietzsche’s ideas in ways these have seldom been applied. The preserved photographic evidence shows that the Sikelianos’s philosophical conception of the “sacred” space of the ancient theater at Delphi—i.e., its near-circular orchestra and its open-view setting—inspired their directorial choices, which themselves shaped Greek outdoor theater for decades to come.
The program will be held at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1779 Massachusetts Ave. NW Washington, DC)
Reservations Required (Please RSVP by Sept. 20th)
SPGH Members: $12 - Guests: $15 - Students: FREE
Mail checks to SPGH at 5125 MacArthur Blvd. NW, Washington, DC 20016. Visa & MasterCard are accepted for payment prior to the program. Call 202.363.4337 to leave the necessary information.
The Dupont Circle Metro station is one block away from the Carnegie. Parking is available for free on the street after 6:30; in the PNC Bank parking lot at Dupont Circle for $5; or in the parking garage at 18th and N Streets for $10.
Misc News
THE WASHINGTON POST Sunday, August 6, 2006 Mt. Athos, Greece: Of Monks and Men
Visitors to the Holy Community of Mount Athos, on a hilly, heavily forested peninsula in northeast Greece, will have to do without radio, television or newspapers. Nor are they likely to see paved roads, private cars or neon lights. Some places do not have electricity. Hot showers are uncommon.
And, most notably, there are no children and no women. Women have been barred from the mountain for a thousand years.
Mount Athos is an Eastern Orthodox "monastic republic" and a surviving fragment of the Byzantine Empire -- a fully functioning mini-state with roads, settlements and a capital city, all operating under a charter granted by the Emperor at Constantinople in 972. It's a time-warped place. Clocks are set on Byzantine time, which starts at sunset; dates are calculated by the Julian calendar of the Roman Empire, 13 days different from the modern Gregorian calendar; some settlements are supplied solely by mule teams; and the flag of Byzantium still flies. It's also a World Heritage Site, containing what is arguably the world's greatest concentration of Byzantine religious art and architecture.
Legally speaking, Mount Athos is an autonomous region in Greece with many characteristics of an independent state. Visitors must show passports or national ID cards on the way in and undergo customs inspections on the way out.
Psychologically and geographically speaking, it's a world apart. The peninsula on which it sits -- six miles wide and extending 35 miles into the Aegean -- terminates in the peak of Mount Athos itself, sharply pointed, bare rock, 6,600 feet high and dropping steeply into the sea. No road connects the peninsula with the mainland -- access is solely by boat. Scattered over this rugged landscape are 20 large monasteries, a dozen smaller communities, innumerable hermitages and about 2,500 monks.
This exotic little state, sometimes described as a Christian Tibet, has many features making for a truly great travel destination: grand architecture, hiking trails along cliff tops or through virgin forests, guest rooms in monasteries, meals of fresh natural foods, and a chance to talk with wise and thoughtful men about the nature of the good life and the state of your soul. And no one can complain about the price: In the tradition of monastic hospitality, each monastery offers two meals and a night's lodging for free, then sends you on your way. You can spend a week on Mount Athos, as I recently did, without spending a dime.
That is, if they'll admit you in the first place. * * * Mount Athos guards its isolation and discourages casual visitors. To be admitted, I had to prepare a letter for the central Pilgrims' Bureau explaining why I wanted to visit.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/04/AR2006080400655.html
Greek AmericanFrom: www.phantis.com A Greek American is a citizen of the United States who has significant Greek heritage. Greek Americans have a heavy concentration in New York City (most notably in Astoria) and Chicago. Smaller communities exist in the greater Detroit, Cleveland, Boston and Baltimore areas. Tarpon Springs, Florida is also home to a large Greek-American community. According to the 2000 U.S. Census Report, there were 1,153,295 people of Greek heritage living in the United States that year. 365,435 Americans spoke Greek at home. The first Greek known to have arrived on U.S. soil was a man named Don Theodoro, who landed on Florida with the Narváez expedition in 1528. He died during the expedition, as did most of his companions. In 1768, about 500 Greeks from Smyrna, Crete and Mani settled in New Smyrna, Florida (near present-day New Smyrna Beach). The colony was unsuccessful, and the settlers moved to St. Augustine, Florida in 1776, where their traces were lost to history though every indication is that they were absorbed into the local Spanish population. The first significant Greek community to develop was in New Orleans during the 1850s. By 1866 the community was numerous and prosperous enough to have a Greek consulate and the first Greek Orthodox church in the United States. During that period, most Greek immigrants to the New World came from Asia Minor, and those Aegean islands still under Ottoman rule. By 1890, there were almost 15,000 Greeks living in the U.S. Immigration picked up in the 1890s, mostly because of the displacement caused by the hardships of Ottoman rule, the Balkan Wars and World War I. 450,000 Greeks arrived to the States between 1890 and 1917, many as hired labor for the railroads and mines of the American West; another 70,000 arrived between 1918 and 1924. Changes in immigration laws after 1924 significantly reduced the immigration rate; less than 30,000 arrived between 1925 and 1945, many of whom were "picture brides" for single Greek men. Greeks again began to arrive in large numbers after 1945, fleeing the economic devastation caused by World War II and the Greek Civil War. From 1946 until 1982, approximately 211,000 Greeks emigrated to the United States. After the 1981 admission of Greece to the European Union, numbers fell to an average of less than 2,000 annually. In recent years, Greek immigration to the United States has been minimal; in fact net migration has been towards Greece. Over 72,000 U.S. citizens currently live in Greece (1999); most of them are Greek Americans.
|
|
|