Today’s Greece: Fascinating and Multi-Dimensional

By Vicki James Yiannias
Culture and Customs of Greece (Greenwood Press) a new book by Artemis Leontis, gives a lively overview of contemporary Greek culture. It refers to the development of Greek culture over the past two hundred years, but focuses on the contemporary scene, with an eye fixed on the wonders and quirks of the present day. Vignettes and controversies from the present day frame each chapter and introduce readers to Greece as people experience it now.

Culture and Customs of Greece, (part of the series Culture and Customs of Europe), a one-stop reference packed with illustrative descriptions of daily life in Greece in the 21st century, is the only book that explores religion, society, literature, language, music, dance, architecture, art, food, sports, holidays, and the rhythms of daily life in Greece through its sources in its many dimensions.

Dr. Leontis, who is Associate Professor and Coordinator of Modern Greek in the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan and a third-generation Greek American, told the GreekNews that Culture and Customs of Greece is for a general educated readership, from students to Greek Americans and non Greeks for whom Greece’s present-day reality “holds many unanswered mysteries”.

GN: What are some of the “mysteries”?

AL: There are many, but here are some: how does Athens manage to clear its congested streets in its many neighborhoods for weekly farmers’ markets? Why do newspapers hang like laundry on “periptera” (kiosks)! What are rebetika? Why do so many Greeks write poetry….and why do Greeks seem to argue all the time! How religious are Greeks, and what is holding Greek society together in the present world, when so many forces are conspiring to pull people apart?

GN: What do you hope readers will gain from the book?

AL: I hope readers will take a closer look at Greece; I mean, really study it carefully, including the things people tend to overlook–such as the wonderful, busy chaos of Athens, and the messiness of Greek politics, because Greece is a country of incredible cultural wealth and paradox. It’s too easy to form a beautiful picture of Greece with little knowledge, and to overlook all the complexity and wealth. I want readers to take time to study what they do not know or understand and then to ask questions of their own.

GN: What motivated you to write this book?

AL: When the editor of the series Culture and Customs of Europe contacted me, I just couldnʼt say no, even though I knew that this would be a difficult book to write.

There is no current book in English exploring contemporary Greek culture in its many dimensions.

GN: What textbooks have you been using?

AL: For years I havenʼt had a textbook for my course on modern Greek culture and I have not had a book to recommend for the educated reader. In the past Iʼve referred people to some older books, Modern Greece by John Campbell and Philip Sherrard is my favorite, or to books with a historical or political science angle such as Greece The Modern Sequel by John Koliopoulos and Thanos Veremis, or good travel guides or books on cultural behavior like Greece–Culture Smart by Constantine Buhayer, which really is a smart book.

GN: How did you research Culture and Customs of Greece, and how long did it take to write it?

AL: I signed a contract with Greenwood Press late in 2006 and turned in the copy-edited and proofed manuscript in Feburary 2009…..that was the period of my work for Greenwood. Add to that the thirty some years I’ve been studying Greek and Greece and visiting. I drew scenes and vignettes from my readings, experiences in Greece, and conversations with many people, and I dug deeper into those scenes by reading through archive of articles and newspaper clippings and books that has been growing in my house since the mid 1980s. And the Internet has so many things available at a click of a mouse, from Greek newspapers to poetry and essays to films to artists’ and festivals’ websites and schedules to old and new songs. Much of this material is broadly available to anyone with a home computer; so, besides giving my perspective of the material, I tried to provide a path of exploration for readers to follow and draw their own conclusions.

GN: You are a third-generation Greek American. Where were your grandparents born?

AL: My father’s parents were refugees, in the first decade of the 1900s, from Ganohora in Eastern Thrace, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. My mother’s parents were from Kefalonia.

GN: Where were you born, and what was one of your early experiences with Greek culture?

AL: I was born in Midland, Michigan. Father Gregory Economou of the St. Demetrios Church in Saginaw, Michigan was my Greek teacher. He traveled from Saginaw to Midland — 25 miles — to give my brother and me weekly lessons.

GN: What are you working on now?

AL: I’m writing an intellectual biography of Eva Palmer Sikelianos, the American actor, composer, choreographer, director, and weaver who worked briefly on the stage in the U.S. and France before marrying Angelos Sikelianos and producing and directing with him two festivals at Delphi, in 1927 and 1930. In the early 1900s,

GN: Talk a little about the beautiful Eva Palmer, whose great granddaughter, Eleni Siikelianos, is a respected poet.

AL: Palmer’s floor-length auburn hair inspired the great actor Sarah Bernhardt to invite Palmer to perform Maurice Maeterlink’s Pelléas and Mélisande with her, though the very famous Bernhardt cancelled the performance at the last minute because she feared Palmer would steal the limelight. In Greece, as Sikelianos’s wife, she studied and taught Byzantine chanting and learned to weave like a master.

GN: Did she also direct ancient Greek plays?

AL: Yes. Her greatest work was the direction she gave to performances of Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound and the Suppliants at Delphi at the Delphic Festivals, on which she spent her entire fortune. She then returned to the U.S. impoverished and directed plays at American colleges and for the WPA Federal Theater Project to make a living. Her story has many unbelievable twists and turns. I believe she is the most important visitor to Greece after Lord Byron, and that her work in Greece had long-term effects.

Artemis Leontis is married to Vassilis Lambropoulos, C.P. Cavafy Professor of Modem Greek at the University of Michigan. They have a 20-year-old daughter, Daphne, who is currently studying Biology and Anthropology at the University of Michigan.