Exploring Oases in the City
Mainly a child-and-parent’s guide to the parks of Athens not only for the young and the young at heart, but for grown-ups interested in some unfrequented corners in this city’s inexhaustible history.
Anne Peters
Standing Up with the Bears
A recently completed WWF project finds local populations supportive, but disturbances of all kinds need to be reduced to keep the Brown Bear from extinction.
An Imperious Call
Summer sets in, tables are brought out, all thought of work is banished. Tavli reigns everywhere.
The Goatmen (and Women) of Skyros
Away from the mainland compulsion to change and conform, some special customs have been preserved on Skyros. Goat dancing or Dionysiac cult?
Leaden Faces, Seaweeded Lips, Sooty Eyebrows
In ancient Greece, a woman’s major domestic responsibility, the production of cloth, gave birth to cottage industries, the forebears of today’s fashion houses.
A Very Grand Hotel
Once a centre of intrigue and espionage, the Grande Bretagne has held a distinctive prestige throughout the years, and, while maintaining an old world atmosphere, provides ultra-modern comforts to an elite clientele.
Taking Refuge in Athens
A charming but I backward Balkan capital was transformed in the 1920s into a modern, forward-looking metropolis by the enterprise and talents of those who fled from Asia Minor Catastrophe
Ancient Eleusis
Once the centre of the sacred cult of Demeter and Persephone, Eleusis now lies uncomfortably among
factories, a sacrifice to modern gods of technology.
Surviving Street Traditions
Amid the hotchpotch of seething pavements and angry rush hour traffic, one can still stumble in Athens on a time warp: the shoe-shiner with his decorated box, the knife-grinder with his whetstone, the organ-grinder, and the salepdzis with his handsome brass urn.
Music for the Gods
Perhaps the most tantalizing aspect of ancient Greek culture is the loss of its music-a vital feature of their religion, drama, comedy, private entertainment and even athletics. The complexity and variety of the instruments depicted on vases hint at the sophistication and pervasiveness of music in ancient Greece.
