Lost books perfected in the imaginaton

Stuart Kelly writes about lost books for The Australian. He asks: Is becoming lost the worst that can happen to a book? Not necessarily. The lost book, like the person you never dared ask to the dance, becomes infinitely more alluring simply because it can be perfect only in the imagination.

Some lost books he mentions:

Homer, Margites

IN the fourth chapter of his On the Art of Poetry, Aristotle wrote: "Homer was the supreme poet in the serious style ... the first to indicate forms that comedy was to assume, for his Margites has the same relationship to our comedies as his Iliad and Odyssey bear to our tragedies."

The Margites, it is claimed, was Homer's first work. The name of the hero, Margites, derives from the Greek margos, meaning madman. All that is left of Homer's comic epic are a few lines, pickled in other works. The Scholiast, writing on Aeschines, gives a thumbnail sketch that fits with his etymologically unfortunate name: "Margites ... a man who, though fully grown, did not know if his mother or father had given birth to him and who would not sleep with his wife, saying he was afraid she would give a bad account of him to his mother."

Plato and Aristotle each record a snippet of the poem. From Plato's fragmentary Alcibiades we learn that "he knew many things, but all badly". Aristotle, in Nicomachean Ethics, offers a different hint: "The gods taught him neither to dig nor to plough, nor any other skill; he failed in every craft."


Aeschylus, the lost plays

AESCHYLUS wrote more than 80 plays. Only seven have survived, although copious fragments persist on papyrus or in commentaries.

Much of the blame attaches to Ptolemy III (247-222BC), who ordered the systematic cataloguing of all 200,000 scrolls in the Library of Alexandria.

When this labour began in earnest, an anomaly of unthinkable proportions was discovered. The library lacked a complete text of Aeschylus. Given the reverence in which the Athenian dramatist was (and is) held, this seemed an unforgivable oversight.

There was, however, only one such text in existence. It belonged to the Athenians.

More here.

Lycanthrope!

Sarah Lewers of the Guymon Daily Herald writes that werewolf myths date back to ancient Greece.

Grecian myths hold the Arcadian king Lycaon served the god Zeus human flesh in an attempt to kill him. Zeus, the Greek's most powerful god, recognized the trick and condemned Lycaon to live the rest of his life as a wolf.

The term “lycanthrope,” used to describe werewolves, derives from the Greek “lykos”, meaning wolf, and “anthropos,” meaning man. Werewolves are literally “wolfmen.”

True?

A rare genetic disorder causes uncontrolled hair growth all over the body, even on the face. The disorder is called congenital hypertrichosis and is exceedingly rare.

It is caused by a recessive gene on the X chromosome and may present in either gender.

Congenital hypertrichosis may be accompanied by overgrowth of the gums, skeletal malformations and retinal disease. These aspects of the disorder may help explain the odd appearance of the so-called werewolves of medeival times. The strange stature, peculiar eyes, excessive hair growth and malformed dental characteristics of these “werewolves” could be attributed to the rare medical condition.

According to an article by Abby Van Voorhees, M.D., the first documented case was in 1648 and occurred in the family of Petrus Gonzales. The article says Gonzales, his two daughters, one son and a grandchild were afflicted. Since then, there have been more than 50 cases described, according to Voorhees.

There are modern sufferers of the affliction.

2005 Nobel Prize for Literature: Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter "who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms" wins the Nobel Lit 2005.

Everyone is happily surprised and I'm all teary eyed and suddenly nostalgic. So I thought I'd post an old article of mine, an article about the time I spent Searching for Harold Pinter in Athens.

Searching for Harold Pinter in Athens

KATHRYN KOROMILAS

Harold Pinter was in Athens to attend performances of two of his plays 'Ashes to Ashes' at the Nea Skini Theatre on Saturday and 'No Man's Land' at the Aplo Theatro on Sunday.

HAROLD Pinter was in town this weekend. A select group of Athenians - members of the press, academics, actors, socialites and fans - had the opportunity to meet the master of puzzles up close and personal hoping possibly to decipher the puzzle of the man himself. As Pinter fans we often search for clues about the man in his body of work, but how often do we get a chance to meet the mysterious pen behind the text? The Athens News spent the weekend in search of Harold Pinter.

Accepting an invitation by the culture ministry to attend performances of two of his plays, Ashes to Ashes and No Man's Land, as presented by the Nea Skini Theatre and the Aplo Theatro respectively, the now 70-year-old playwright (he celebrated his birthday on October 10) arrived in Athens at approximately three o'clock on Friday accompanied by his wife of 20 years, esteemed historian and author of the bestselling Mary Queen of Scots, Lady Antonia Fraser (the pair's affair back in the Seventies was described as "scandalous" by tabloids), and a BBC crew currently working on a two-hour special dedicated to the playwright.

The couple later checked into the prestigious Grande Bretagne Hotel and enjoyed a late lunch at the exquisite Dionysos restaurant boasting a idyllic view of the Acropolis, with hosts, Antonis Antypas (director of No Man's Land and known both as actor and director having worked with Karolos Koun), and Eleni Karaindrou (composer known for scoring Theo Angelopoulos' films).

Antypas told Greek daily Ta Nea that "they are a very warm couple. They create familiarity. I feel honoured that [Pinter] considers me a friend. He discusses everything - theatre, politics etc...". Later that night they were guided through the intimate streets of Plaka where they dined at the Taverna Tou Psarra.

Saturday saw the pair arrive at the Nea Skini Theatre on Cycladon St in Kypseli at around 9.30pm, for the production of Ashes to Ashes, where a jittery crowd - Yiorgos Patsas, Roula Pateraki, Yiorgos Veltsos, Stratos Tzortzoglou and many others - gathered to meet the British playwright.

This is Pinter's 1996 play that explores with disturbing accuracy a marriage in crisis between Rebecca (played by Reni Pittaki, the only Greek actor to have performed in five Pinter plays, something that certainly shows in her stage presence. She is the essence of Pinteresque.) and husband Devlin (Lefteris Voyatzis). Here Pinter's fascination with isolation and separateness is explored via a dysfunctional relationship, in which the husband prods - almost like a psychiatrist does to this patient - his wife to reveal the facts of an earlier abusive relationship - Pinter explores the link between sexual and political fascism.

After the lights dimmed, the pair - sunken in lounge chairs - appear on a revolving stage. They execute the dialogue complete with the typical Pinter silences, the sudden changes of conversation, the talking as if through the other and not with the other. The characters are both here and yet not here, at once focused on each other and in a world of their own characterised by an almost hypnotic stance where it seems they are experiencing a side show of their very own.

Following the production, director Voyatzis invited the playwright himself (who had sat through the performance clearly attentive and when audience members coughed and settled or fidgeted, he would turn his head sternly in their direction) to the stage to thank him, saying in a somewhat self-conscious state, "I'm not very good at this... Harold Pinter is who he is, not much else is needed."

Pinter took the stage, was offered a fresh bouquet of flowers and succinctly addressed the crowd: "I would like to thank these two actors for their performance of my play, I was very moved by it. It was a very beautiful production, I can't say anymore than that." With that, he stepped off the stage only to be met by his wife - described by Pittaki as "dynamic, intelligent, with a great persona - a truly aristocratic lady". The crowd followed the pair to the bar where they waited anxiously in line to grab at their opportunity to shake hands and congratulate the most important living British playwright.

On Saturday night, however, Pinter was not interested in talking politics (though later at a more relaxed gathering over dinner he was much more candid). One audience member asked, "What do you think of Kostunica?" He replied "What do you think?" and later "I'm not interested in having this conversation." He was very enthusiastic when a young thespian approached him to tell him that she'd directed The Caretaker and to give him a souvenir programme of her production.


Reni Pittaki and Lefteris Voyatzis star in 'Ashes to Ashes'.

Over a few glasses of wine, he was asked to elaborate on his thoughts on Ashes to Ashes (it was the first production of his plays that he had seen in Greece even though local troupes have been performing his work from the early Sixties, thanks to the innovative Karolos Koun, who initially imported Pinter).

"I think they are wonderful actors," he said of Pittaki and Voyatzis and added that the production was an intelligent one and the actors displayed much sensitivity in their roles."

Asked how he was able to follow the play in Greek - a language he doesn't know - he replied: "Well, easily, I know the play very well!"

The Athens News asked about translation. Can a play can be rendered accurately at an international level or can a true presentation of the work stand only in the original. He smiled and explained that "it certainly works in different languages, each time I see my plays in different languages, the laughs are always in the same place".

Is he familiar with contemporary Greek theatre? "No, not really." Could he make a comment on contemporary theatre trends? "I'm not a theorist," he replied. Does he feel that the image has taken over the text? "Everyone says that, but that is not the case, text will always be central to theatre," and with that he raised his glass of wine, "Here's to text." Indeed, Pinter has been hailed as "bringing poetry back to the theatre".

"Another question I'd like to ask you Mr Pinter," I hesitated, "Another question!" he exclaimed and we laughed, "Look, I don't know if I can answer it." "Well, I'll just ask it and we'll see... I'd like to ask you a question that Nikos Kazantzakis, on his travels, would ask those of highly intellectual and spiritual calibre. 'What do you think is the duty that men of culture and letters have towards society?'"

He took a step toward me to answer, "I don't think I have a duty to society as a writer, but rather as a man. And I don't mean, I have a duty to society as it is, but rather as it should be. As a writer, I have a duty to write well, and accurately." I sought clarification, "Accurately?" "By that I mean precisely," he offered, "I mean to accurately present the truth of the characters and not something false."

This is interesting considering that his friends use words like "exactness" and "precision" to describe him. But on the other hand, Pinter according to his friends, (as Kate Kellaway writes in The Observer on Sunday, 24 September, 2000) "claims not to know how he writes. While there are authors who claim to have been taken over by their characters in a way that seems whimsical, in Pinter's case, it would appear to be true... 'You always wonder,' says Christopher Hampton, 'whether Harold is a miraculous vessel through which something pours.'"

Later Saturday, Pinter dined in the Thission neighbourhood with a small group including Voyatzis who described him as an "incredibly warm person, sincere, with a great sense of humour, even black humour, who once he trusts you opens himself up to you".

On Sunday, Pinter arrived at Kallithea's Aplo Theatro to take his seat for the production of No Man's Land - his 1975 comedy of menace that exudes a nauseating uneasiness where communication breaks down and one is afflicted by memories of the past that linger like a haunting and yet at times humorous nightmare.

Brilliant in his role of Spooner, Ilias Logothetis later spoke to the Athens News about performing for the playwright himself. Was he extra nervous? "No, I have known Pinter for years, he is a friend of mine, I've performed in a number of his plays. Of course, it's quite significant to have him here tonight, not just for us on stage but for everyone, especially on an emotional level." Asked if he was concerned whether the playwright would like his performance, "I have been working for too many years to be concerned about whether my performance is liked or not."

Well, not that he needed to worry anyway, Pinter later congratulated director and cast for the "magnificent production of my play" and later commented positively on the actors' balanced performance and movement. Director Antypas also offered a comment to the Athens News, "It's very important for us to have Pinter here in the audience, quite an honour, and of course it's natural to feel somewhat nervous, not about the interpretation of the play itself, the play is complete and I am confident with it, but rather a slight sense of nerves about something going wrong etc."

When Pinter comments on his plays, he doesn't just comment as a playwright, after all he's taken the stage himself to perform as well as placed himself in the director's chair.

Most recently Pinter has been busy travelling to different countries either to see his plays performed or to direct them himself. "I directed Ashes to Ashes," he told daily Eleftherotypia, "in Italy and France. In Palermo, though I didn't know any Italian, the actors spoke English and I also used an interpreter." The Observer says that Pinter "emerges as a director who makes life fun for actors and an actor who is willing".

Pinter departed for London yesterday. We are left with more pieces of the puzzle, no nearer to putting them all together. Visit the Harold Pinter website for more at http://www.haroldpinter.org.

The real Helen?

Jonathan Thompson for the Independent refers to a new book that claims that "the real Helen was a powerful Bronze Age princess, living in the Greek city-state of Sparta around 1250BC" and not the "beautiful, dewy-eyed blonde princess from pre-Raphaelite paintings" we've come to know and love. The book is Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore and the author is Bettany Hughes.

Helen: A Real Person or a Myth?
The book - Hughes's first - is likely to renew debate in the historical community, where opinion remains divided over whether a "real" Helen existed.

Ken Wardle of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity at Birmingham University and one of the world's leading experts on the period, voiced support for Hughes's work.

"Bettany is the first person to push Helen as a major Bronze Age figure, rather than as a shadowy myth, and to a large extent she's succeeded," said Dr Wardle. "Why should we think all the people Homer mentions were fictitious?

"I see every reason to believe that the Helen of legend, like Agamemnon or Menelaus, may have been a real character with a real background whose actions have been modified, embellished and distorted over the centuries."

Hughes makes her claims against a background of archaeological discoveries in the region relating to this period. As well as the dig at Sparta, other major finds have been made on Crete and across mainland Greece.

Lesley Fitton, curator of Greek and Bronze Age antiquities at the British Museum, said: "It's hard to keep pace with excavations in the Aegean at the moment. A couple of palaces have come up during recent years in Crete alone. It's a vibrant field of archaeology, and it gives a context and a series of possibilities for Helen."