Ancient Greece, Modern Greece

I was asked by "Democracy Street" yesterday an exam-type question (which I have asked for again in writing, to make sure I've got it right):

What objects would you choose if asked to try and demonstrate the continuity between Ancient and Modern Greece?

I answered off the top of my head:

The Penguin Book of Modern Greek Verse (1971), ed. Constantine Trypanis.

As Trypanis says in the Preface:

In this anthology I have tried to show the uninterrupted development of Greek poetry from the Homeric epic to the present day.

In the Introduction, he writes:

Poetry written in Greek constitutes the longest uninterrupted tradition in the Western world.


Of course the anthology has omissions (no Ritsos, for example), and it stops with Elytis, but it is still invaluable for the inclusion of so many Greek poems from different periods, beginning with Homer. It prints all the original Greek texts and provides a helpful literal translation in English at the bottom of each page.

Another object I would choose to answer the question, at least in part, would be a threshing-floor (aloni), both as an objective, physical structure and space, but also as a potent literary, cultural and folkloric symbol throughout Greek history, literature and folk-song, from ancient times, until the present day.

It's sad to see many threshing floors abandoned nowadays, their surrounding walls crumbling, their beauty and function almost forgotten. As people start to go back to the land, maybe some, at least, will be restored. Will the circle be unbroken?

My third object would have been a bottle of retsina, resinated wine, but I couldn't remember exactly where I'd read (was it in Homer?) that the Ancient Greeks used to seal their wine-jugs with tree-resin, or used the resin as a preservative.

Simon has now kindly posted his two questions on Democracy Street:

1. Is the architectural, environmental and spiritual desecration of Corfu offset by the alleviation of the material and mental poverty of its population? 

2. What cultural objects could you present – texts, sculpture, music – as evidence of the continuity of classical and modern Greece.