The Naval Battle of Dragamesto took place on November 21, 1825, in the present-day Bay of Astakos in the Ionian Sea, during the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829). The Greek fleet, consisting of 33 ships led by Admiral Miaoulis, sought to defend the supply line to the city of Missolonghi, which at that time was besieged by the Ottomans. Meanwhile, about 120 Egyptian ships under Ibrahim Pasha arrived to tighten the siege. The two fleets clashed, and the Greeks successfully repelled their opponents. This article examines the events of the battle mainly through primary sources, such as the ship logs of Captains Sachtouris, Sachinis (both eyewitnesses), and Tsamados, as well as other supplementary historical evidence. The Naval Battle of Dragamesto was the only naval engagement of the Greek War of Independence that took place along the Ionian coast, between the shores of Acarnania, Lefkada, and Ithaca. To date, no synthesis of the primary sources concerning this event has been attempted. Thus, this article constitutes the first comprehensive study of the battle, including an examination of a relevant aquarelle as a potential historical source. A comparison between the aquarelle depicting the battle and the primary written sources reveals a remarkable level of accuracy in the geographical representation, fleet formations, and key figures. However, certain discrepancies, such as the omission of specific captains and the possibility of subjective artistic interpretation of the events, highlight the need for a cautious approach when using the painting as historical evidence.
Recensione di Guido Fabrizio MILANESE, Filologia, letteratura, computer. Idee e strumenti per l’informatica umanistica, Vita e Pensiero, Milano 2020, 344 pp., ISBN 978-88-343-3751-6.
Philology. Linguistics, Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
In this contribution, we analyze various factors which could affect the situation either directly or indirectly. These are a very popular belief in unique antiquity and archaic nature of the dialect, tourist attraction of the region, national and global policies aimed at support of the minority languages and cultures, activities of local amateurs, educational programs for children and adults, expeditions and scholarly interest in the local community, etc. The importance of the aforementioned factors cannot be disputed, since they really provoke interest to traditional culture and language, but they are unable to become a real basis for the identity or to ensure long-term vitality of Tsakonian dialect. The latter fully depends on the communicative potential and the ability to transmit information. The presence of other alternative language (Standard Modern Greek) which is more appropriate for these functions inevitably leads to decline of the dialect. However, Tsakonian has a remarkable symbolic value — its hypothetical direct links with Ancient Greek. Unfortunately, it also cannot result in pragmatic need of Tsakonian. We believe that relatively recent involvement of Tsakonian in social and ritual practices which constitute collective memory and modern local identity (like the celebration of Easter) are much more important for the preservation and the status of the dialect.
The paper analyzes the semantics of prepositions that syntactically correspond to the accusative case in the Modern Greek language and that are also used with genitive and nominative cases. Prepositions, as indeclinable words, have limited lexical meaning and cannot stand alone, but they may govern one or more cases. Since Modern Greek language has four cases (nominative, genitive, accusative and vocative), the focus of this paper will be on the analysis of prepositions used with the accusative case and that at the same time can be also used with both nominative and genitive case. Finally, by analyzing examples from the grammar handbooks and textbooks for learning Modern Greek as a foreign language used at the Department of Modern Greek studies at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, we try to point out the basic characteristics of certain propositions and their significance in the Modern Greek language.
Abstract This essay examines a handwritten refugee ballad in a handmade codex, using both to illuminate some of the lingering blind spots in national philology and world literature. The ballad, printed in full after the essay, belongs to the Karamanli Christians of Anatolia, who spoke Turkish but wrote it in the Greek alphabet. Uprooted from Turkey by the Greco-Turkish Population Exchange of 1923, Karamanli refugees were scattered across Greece and North America, where they were often excluded from publishing. Poets like the author of the present ballad, Agathangelos, turned instead to more accessible manuscript formats. I interpret Agathangelos's ballad and codex as a catalog, documenting and preserving his lost homeland, where multiple scriptworlds, languages, and confessions coexisted. I conclude by calling for a people’s history of the book to decentralize and democratize world literature’s political economy (tacitly accepted as print capitalism), foregrounding textual networks that have remained illegible to our discipline.
The paper aims to reveal cognitive-cultural characteristics of the concept LABOUR ACTIVITY by the material of the Greek paroemias. The article analyses representation of knowledge on labour in paroemiological units of the Greek language. Scientific originality of the study lies in the fact that the authors provide a comprehensive multi-aspect analysis of the mentioned concept in the Greek paroemias, identify its cultural and linguistic characteristics. As a result of the cognitive-culturological analysis, the researchers determine cultural value of the concept under study, reveal specificity of the traditional Greek worldview.
Paracomedy: Appropriations of Comedy in Greek Tragedy is the first book that examines how ancient Greek tragedy engages with the genre of comedy. While scholars frequently study paratragedy (how Greek comedians satirize tragedy), this book investigates the previously overlooked practice of paracomedy: how Greek tragedians regularly appropriate elements from comedy such as costumes, scenes, language, characters, or plots. Drawing upon a wide variety of complete and fragmentary tragedies and comedies (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Rhinthon), this monograph demonstrates that paracomedy was a prominent feature of Greek tragedy. Blending a variety of interdisciplinary approaches, including traditional philology, literary criticism, genre theory, and performance studies, this book offers innovative close readings and incisive interpretations of individual plays. The author presents paracomedy as a multivalent authorial strategy: some instances impart a sense of ugliness or discomfort; others provide a sense of lightheartedness or humor. While the book traces the development of paracomedy over several hundred years, it focuses on a handful of Euripidean tragedies at the end of the fifth century BCE. The author argues that Euripides was participating in a rivalry with the comedian Aristophanes and often used paracomedy to demonstrate the poetic supremacy of tragedy; indeed, some of Euripides’s most complex uses of paracomedy attempt to reappropriate Aristophanes’s mockery of his theatrical techniques. The book theorizes a new, groundbreaking relationship between Greek tragedy and comedy that not only redefines our understanding of the genre of tragedy but also reveals a dynamic theatrical world filled with mutual cross-generic influence.
These short notes discuss the specific names of the disguise and mask rituals of the Greek folk calendar cycle, their probable etymology, and theories elaborated thus far on their origin. In particular, they discuss the dodola/perperuna-ritual, the rite of kalojan/scalojan, both proclaiming the onset of rain, the rituals linked to rosalia (rosaliile, rusalki, neraides), the quête procession on Lazarus day, carnival masks and midwinter disguise rituals such as the rugatsia and kalikantzaroi.
Through a linguistic analysis of the Hebrew Lord's Prayer, this article endeavors to reach a new understanding of the function of this text in the lives of its users, concluding that the ninth-century Carolingian writer/translator meant for this text to be sung aloud. This article goes back to the basics of textual research—philology and language study—in order to determine the correct historical framework through which to understand this much-debated text, thus adding to our understanding of the religious life and practice of the nuns of Essen at the polyglottic crossroads of Latin and German, Hebrew and Greek. This paper is also an invitation for future studies to continue its effort to rewrite the history of Hebrew in the church, for historians to broaden their toolbox, and for linguists and philologists to contribute their insights to other fields.
The Centre for the Greek Language, with the support of the Institute for Modern Greek Studies of the Aristotle University, has brought to completion its largest enterprise yet. The History of the Greek Language from the Origins to Late Antiquity, edited by Anastasios Christidis, is an extremely substantial multiauthored collection of articles; most (if not all) of these appear to have been written especially for this volume, and they therefore form an organic and coherent whole with a logical sequence. Forty-five Greek and thirty non-Greek (mainly British and French) scholars have contributed a total of 123 articles, grouped into nine parts, with three appendices. Most names are very familiar to anyone working in Classical or Modern Greek philology (to name just a few, without meaning to undervalue the others: Brixhe, Brock, Bubenik, Chadwick, Duhoux, Horrocks, Joseph, Malikouti-Drachman, Maronitis, Panagiotou, Philippaki-Warburton, Setatos, West). Contrary to what the title of the book may lead one to suppose, the subject areas of the book are not just the language of the period in question and the history behind it: an admirable array of related topics is also included. Given the size of the volume, it is convenient to give here a synopsis of its main sections (listed by content, not title):