A simple but touching event was held on Wednesday, May 31, as part of the presentation of the bilingual collector’s editionThey Wrote For Her at the Historical Library of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation. An anthology about Elefsina from the 2023 Eleusis Europena Capital of Culture exclusive sponsored by the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation and printed in a limited run by Menandros Publications.
The Director of the Aikaterinis Laskaridis Foundation, Kali Pagoulatou – Kyparissi, prefaced the event, characterizing the collaboration with 2023 Eleusis as a new, welcome partnership. Afterwards, after thanking the contributors to the publication, Michail Marmarinos, Olia Panidou, Ioanna Romiou, Dio Kangelari, Isabella Karouti, Menandros Publications with Panagiotis Kayali, Menelaos Kyparissis, Martha Frintzila, Yiannis Karachalios, George Talia, as well as Dimitris Maggina for the treat of the evening, asked the CEO of the 2023 Eleisis, Nana Spyropoulou, to take the floor.
Nana Spyropoulou, after referring to the happy juncture of the collaboration with the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, characteristically said that the publication is at the same time a station, which on the one hand transmits the global message of the Cultural Capital and on the other hand fully explains the reasons why this small but historical city was chosen to host the institution. In addition, he conveyed the greeting of the Mayor of Elefsina and President of ECOC, referring to his and the municipal authority’s support for the institution. Finally, he mentioned the loss of Despina Geroulanou, former President of the ECOC, and her valuable contribution both to this publication and to the work of the institution in general.
Dio Kagelari, in a brief presentation of the publication, referred to the emblematic foreign and Greek poets, writers and people of the theater, historians, orators and philosophers, epigram writers and clerics who wrote over the centuries about the holy city-palimpsest, carving on its body sequential layers of memory.
Michail Marmarinos was mentioned in the anthology as an eulogy, a prayer/invocation to memory. And that its goal is to reveal itself, so that at last that unimaginable, bright piece of mythology that belongs to the city, which the city was deprived of for a long time, can be returned to Elefsina.
Martha Frintzila referred to the song “Koimisou Persephone” by Gatsos and Hatzidakis as a song that haunted the children of Elefsina, to which she also belonged. She said that it upset them that the song was talking about the city in this way, but as they grew up they understood that it was a lullaby with the message that everything can change. And in an emotionally charged moment of the evening, she invited the audience to sing along with her.
During the event, Martha Frintzila, Michail Marmarinos and Menelaos Kyparissis recited texts by Lacarriere, Pound, Flaubert, Woolf, Lord Byron, Hegel, Seferi, Dostoyevsky, Shakespeare, Miller, etc.
The evening ended with the words of Seneca through the mouth of Michail Marmarinos: “Some mysteries are not revealed all at once. Elefsina always keeps something hidden for those who will visit the city again.”
Concept – Selection of Texts: Michail Marmarinos
Research – Selection of Texts: Olia Panidou
Editor: Ioanna Romiou
Consulting Editor: Dio Kagelari
Translations: Theodoros K. Stephanopoulos, Angeliki Ghika, Chrysanthi Partsanaki, Sofia Simoni, Anna-Maria Hatzistylianou
Publisher: MENANDROS
