The CHARIOTEER A review of Modern Greek Culture NUMBER 5 196 3 GEORGE THEOTOKAS Excerpts from ARGO, LEONIS, and ALCIDIADIS, two novels and a play GREEK CASTLES: Variations on a theme by PHOTIS KONTOGLOU, ELIAS VENEZIS, and ANGHELOS TERZAKIS CAPTAIN IKON-PAINTER A Story by PHOTIS KoNTOGLOU TO AN ANGRY YOUNG MAN An Answer to Kenneth Tynan by ANGHELOS TERZAKIS GREEK DEMOTIC LOVE SONGS and THE ALPHABET OF LOVE FOUR PAINTINGS by PHons KoNTOGLOU REVIEW OF BOOKS Published by Parnassos Greek Cultural Society ofNew York $1.75 PARNASSOS EXECUTIVE COUNCIL Board ofDirectors NICHOLAS GEORGE KATHERINE HaRTIS V ASILI KLIMI President ANDONIS DECAVALLES Vice-President LEE CAKIADES Secretary MARm N oussEE Treasurer SAM EMANUEL Cultural Committee Chairmen CoNSTANTINE KoLLITUS NIKE KRALIDES Social Committee Chairmen ANTHONY GoUNARIS ANGELICA MANTAS Library Chairman HELENE PANDELAKIS Membership Chairman CLEO VLAHOS BENEFACTOR Mr. Phrixos B. Papachristidis {Montreal) PATRONS Mr. Manuel Kulukundis Mr. John L. Manta Mr. Anthony J. Vassilaros Mr. Sophocles N. Zoulas SPONSORS Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Mr. Dimitri George Dimas Mr. T. Teryazos (Montreal) The staff of The Charioteer are members of Parnassos who donate their services. Support is earnestly requested from all who are interested in the aims of this publication. Your contribution will include the following: Sustaining Subscriber $25 4-Issue Subscription 4-Issue Gift Subscription Supporting Subscriber $50 4-Issue Subscription 2 4-Issue Gift Subscriptions Sponsor $roo 4-Issue Subscription 4-Issue Gift Subscription I-Year Special Membership in Pamassos* Patron $250 8-Issue Subscription 4-Issue Gift Subscription r-Year Special Membership in Parnassos* Benefactor $500 8-Issue Subscription 2 4-Issue Gift Subscriptions 2-Year Special Membership in Parnassos* Your contribution is tax-deductible. *As per provision in the Constitution of the Society, Article III, Section 4· THE CHARIOTEER A REVIEW OF MODERN GREEK CULTURE Published by Parnassos, Greek Cultural Society of New York VOLUME II NUMBER I EDITORIAL STAFF Executive Editors ANDONIS DECAVALLES BEBE SPANOS Art Editor MILTON MARx Copy Editors LEE HATFIELD AucE-MARY MAFFRY Business Manager KATHERINE HaRTIS Parnassos Representative in Greece DIMITRI S. GEORGEOPOULOS Pattission 236, Athens, Greece. Telephone: 876-494 and 870-633 HONORARY BOARD C. MAURICE BowRA Warden of Wadham College, Oxford LAWRENCE DuRRELL poet, author ofThe Alexandria Quartet MOSES HADAS Jay Professor of Greek, Columbia University RICHARD LATTIMORE Professor of Classics, Bryn Mawr College JoHN MAVROGORDATO Professor ofByzantine and Modern Greek, Exeter College, Oxford, Retired THE CHARIOTEER is published by PARNASSOS, GREEK CULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YoRK, a non-profit organization under the laws ofthe State of New York, Box 2928, Grand Central Station, New York 17, N.Y. 4-Number Subscription $6.oo; 8-Number Subscription $11.50; Foreign countries, including Canada: 4-Number Subscription $7.00; 8-Number Subscription $13.50, U.S. currency. Distributor: H. DeBoer, 102 Beverly Road, Bloomfield, New Jersey. Copyright© 1963, by Pamassos. All rights reserved. Printed at The Thistle Press, New York. TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITORIAL BEBE SPANOS 4 THE ISLANDS: Poem H. D. 8 T A NH~ I A translated by Andonis Decavalles 9 GEORGE THEOTOKAS: Excerpts from Two Novels and a Play from Argo translated by E. Margaret Brooke and Ares Tsatsopoulos Sergeant Pikios and the Fair Vision r6 Meeting Under the Pepper-Trees 24 from Alcibiades 34 from Leonis translated by Dina Kyriazi and Alice-Mary Ma.ffry 52 GEORGE THEOTOKAS: A Critical Mosaic 60 I. M. PANAYOTOPOULOS, ANDREAS KARANDONIS, APOSTOLOS SAHINIS translated by Andonis Decavalles and Lee Hatfield GREEK DEMOTIC LOVE SONGS and THE ALPHABET OF LOVE translated by Theodore Stephanides 65 THE DEMOTIC SONGS OF GREECE: An Essay 73 ANDONIS DECAVALLES from WRITERS AND TEXTS I. M. PANAYOTOPOULOS So translated by the Staff FOUR PAINTINGS PHOTIS KONTOGLOU facing page So GREEK CASTLES: Variations on a Theme from Journeys PHOTIS KONTOGLOU Preface translated by JoAnne Cacoullos 86 Palamidi translated by Katherine Hartis 88 Mystra translated by JoAnne Cacoullos 99 from Winds ELIAS VENEZIS The Final Hour translated by Alice-Mary Ma.ffry 104 Mystra translated by Alice-Mary Ma.ffry III from April ANGHELOS TERZAKIS Palamidi translated by JoAnne Cacoullos II5 CAPTAIN IKON-PAINTER: A Story PHOTIS KONTOGLOU II9 translated by Fotine Nicholas ILLUSTRATIONS from journeys PHOTIS KONTOGLOU 7, 14, 15, 51, 72, 79, 85, 89, 93, 98, 103, II4, 122 REVIEW OF BOOKS LEE HATFIELD 123 LETTER FROM ATHENS: "To an Angry Young Man" 125 ANGHELOS TERZAKIS translated by Byron Raizis and Catherine Sempepos THE CONTRIBUTORS 128 EDITORIAL THE GREEKS have a saying that he who tries to hide behind his fmger makes himself all the more conspicuous. For many months we have tried to hide behind ambiguous replies when readers anxiously, sometimes indignantly, ask why their copy of The Charioteer fails to arrive on time. We have tried to conceal an obvious truth that has marked the destiny of The Charioteer from the day it first ventured into the crowded magazine world. During the recent, unavoidable delay between the last issue, Number 4 ofVolume I and this, the first ofVolume II, we realized that we must tell our readers the awkward actualities ofour case. The Charioteer is like most little magazines; it lacks funds. We have been fighting our Waterloo with the money question for a long time. We cannot anticipate victory by hoping, as Wellington did, that a Blucher or night may come. An expedient rush ofreinforcements cannot sweep our enemy once and for all from the field ofour endeavors; nor can a night ofprotracted silence give us respite. The sudden, opportune help that we have sometimes received spurs our expectations ofa sustained force that will endure through many campaigns. Meantime, whether or not such a force materializes, Parnassos and the Staff of The Charioteer are determined to continue to work against difficult odds. We beg our readers to be forgiving if the arrival of The Charioteer is sometimes tardy. We ask, too, their kind understanding for the necessary increase in the subscription price. Although all the Staff donate their services, the old price did not cover the cost even of printing and mailing. The Charioteer lives precariously because its very nature limits the scope ofits appeal. We hope that our readers may thereby recognize one of the most significant reasons why The Charioteer should stay alive. Not everyone loves literature; and if comparatively few people care about literature, still fewer care about the literature of modern Greece. Yet we cannot imagine that anyone could care about modern Greek literature who does not care as much, ifnot more, for literature at large. The circle of our readers is limited but it reaches around the world, and we like to think that they belong to those generations of readers whose discriminating taste has kept alive the arts, especially literature, when earth and air have seemed to conspire for their destruction. So, too, we like to think that our readers cherish each issue of The Charioteer as a worthy addition to their permanent library. In short, we like to think that The Charioteer deserves to survive Bebe Spanos: Editorial 5 because it addresses a select, happy few, the discerning lovers of literature who are not only of today but also of decades to come. We quickly add that no one is more aware than we are ofthe impossibil­ ities such fond thoughts involve. Our readers, fortunately, keep giving us comforting proof that our attempts, so far at least, have not been in vain. The letters of praise, from all parts of the world, from distinguished professors, writers and editors, from librarians, translators and students, for the fourth as for the previous three issues, are deeply rewarding. What most touches the editorial heart, though, are letters like one that came, just as this fifth issue was going to press, from an unknown reader, R. van K., in Holland: "Since I have read and re-read the four editions of 'The Charioteer' I feel not capable of saying how pleasantly they have told me ofyour culture and how much unexpected treasures I did fmd between the two white covers.... So the numbers of your periodical have really overwhelmed me ... and make me wish my people to know more, and still more, of your culture. This vivid culture, full of life and beauty, this amazing literature-blessed the day I left Asia to find this in Europe." This issue, we trust, reveals more "unexpected treasures" in the range of talents that characterize Greek literature today. No two temperaments are, perhaps, further apart than those of George Theotokas and Photis Kontoglou. Theotokas, who moves easily with the stream of modern European literature, easily lends himself to English translation. Kontoglou is a lion in the path of the translator and is, we admit, essentially untrans­ latable, but we could not resist the challenge of his remarkably individual prose, the rough charm of his substance and manner. The one man, a vigorous intellectual leader, suggests the tradition that we in America call "genteel," the noble tradition of the man of letters. Theotokas, though, seems to live as freely in the world beyond his windows as in his book-lined study. Kontoglou is far more personal and is withdrawn among craggy distances of the mind where temperament is often cultivated for its own sake. Each man speaks with a voice ofhis own-the one, of the West, the other, of the East. Each at the same time attracts the antithesis of the other. Together they illustrate some of the varieties of Greek experience during the times and places of their lives. What we most wish to convey in this issue is the strong sense ofhuman history that pervades the Greek mind. The Greek impulse to journey back into human time is as old as Odysseus's voyage to Hades, so we are not surprised that all the writers presented here readily appropriate the past.