On the Unhappiness of Being Greek (4 page)

1.
Emmanuel Roides (1836–1904). Greek author, literary critic and essayist. Best known for his satirical novel
Pope Joan.

2.
Quoted from Dionysios Solomos (1798–1857), who is regarded as the national poet of Modern Greece.

3.
Theodoros Kolokotronis (1770–1843). Hero of the Greek War of Independence.

4.
Karaghiozis. Comic puppet character from the Greek popular shadow theater. Embodiment of all the virtues and failings of the modern Greek. By extension someone who provokes ridicule.

5.
Edmond About (1828–1885). Author of
Le Roi des Montagnes.

6.
Lit. ‘love of honor’. A strong (often excessive) sense of personal honor and self-respect.

7.
No exact equivalent term in English. A person exhibiting dash, valor, uprightness, pride, etc.

8.
Grumbling, but also constant complaining, griping, moaning, negativity, etc.

9.
Another character from the Greek popular shadow theater. He forever plays the poor and suffering wretch, but is only ever interested in personal gain.

10.
From the poem entitled ‘Mycenae’ by the Greek poet George Seferis (1900–1971). Nobel Prize for Literature 1963.

11.
General Makriyannis (1797–1864). Hero of the Greek War of Independence. Unlettered, he taught
himself to write in order to record his memoirs of the War.

12.
Theophilos Hadjimichail (1870–1934). Naïf painter from Lesbos.

13.
Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer (1790–1861). German historian who claimed that the Slavs who overran Greece in the 6th and 7th centuries so changed the ethnic character of the country that not a drop of pure Hellenic blood was left.

14.
Oscar Wilde, Preface to
The Picture of Dorian Gray.

15.
The quotation is from Emmanuel Roides.

16.
Count Ioannis Antonios Capodistrias (1776–1832). First president of Greece. He was assassinated.

17.
In 1833, Otto of Bavaria became the first King of Greece following the War of Independence.

18.
Indigenous and Orthodox Albanian-speaking communities.

19.
From a well-known verse by the poet Andreas Kalvos (1792–1869).

20.
Traditional and patriotic saying.

21.
Well-known story involving Karaghiozis. The dragon plaguing the town is killed by Alexander the Great. Finding the dragon slain and in order to claim the reward, Karaghiozis pretends that it was he who slew it.

22.
Namely:
malakas
(wanker) and
poustis
(poofter).

23.
Variation on the well-known aphorism of the Austrian Carl Krauss.

24.
As was the case when the book was first published in 1975.

25.
Andreas Laskaratos (1811–1901). Excommunicated after publishing the prose satire
The Mysteries of Cephallonia
(1856).

26.
See the poem ‘In the Manner of G. S.’.

27.
Greek
parea.
No exact cultural equivalent in English in the sense used here. A group of close friends who spend their time together. People bonded by companionship.

28.
Patriotic Greek march.

29.
George Seferis. See the poem ‘In the Manner of G. S.’.

30.
Variation on a well-known phrase from Dionyios Solomos: ‘Put Greece in your heart and you’ll feel every kind of greatness.’

31.
Michalis Katsaros (1919–1998). Greek poet. Reference to his well-known poem entitled ‘Resist’.

32.
Reference to a line by the poet Angelos Sikelianos (1884–1951).

33.
The author notes that this was the only question left unanswered by André Malraux at a pre-War conference of the French Communist Party.

34.
Odysseus Elytis (1911–1996). Greek poet. Nobel Prize for Literature 1979.

35.
Formula found often in Homer’s
Iliad
to characterize someone living.

36.
Dionysios Solomos. ‘The Free Besieged’, Draft III.

37.
Reference to a line by George Seferis.

38.
Homer,
Iliad
, Rhapsody R, 647.

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