The Ionian Islands and Epirus : a cultural history

273 Pages·2013·1.011 MB·English

by  Potts, Jim

Contents
Front Matter ......................................................i
Title Page ......................................................i
Publisher Information ...................................ii
Preface & Acknowledgements ........................iii
A note on the spelling of names ......................v
Dedication ..................................................vi
Introduction ...............................................vii
The Ionian Islands .............................................1
Chapter 1 .....................................................1
Chapter 2 ...................................................41
Chapter 3 ...................................................60
Chapter 4 .................................................137
Chapter 5 .................................................163
Chapter 6 .................................................194
Chapter 7 .................................................225
Back Matter ..................................................259
Also Available ...........................................259
THE IONIAN ISLANDS AND
EPIRUS
A Cultural History
by
Jim Potts
Publisher Information
First published in 2010 by
Signal Books Limited
36 Minster Road
Oxford OX4 1LY
www.signalbooks.co.uk
This digital edition converted and distributed in 2013 by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
© Jim Potts, 2010, 2013
The right of Jim Potts to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Design
and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. The whole of this work, including all text and
illustrations, is protected by copyright. No parts of this work may
be loaded, stored, manipulated, reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying and recording, or by any information, storage
and retrieval system without prior written permission from the
publisher, on behalf of the copyright owner.
Cover Design: Devdan Sen
Cover images: © Maytree/dreamstime.com; Netfalls/shutterstock.
com; Netfalls/dreamstime.com (flaps).
Illustrations: (c) Jim Potts pp. 4, 12, 29, 78, 83, 103, 116, 159,
165, 166, 171, 183, 192, 234; dreamstime.com pp. 1, 26, 41, 55,
177; istockphoto.com pp. i, 43, 91, 125, 128, 139, 144, 207, 210;
Preface & Acknowledgements
I first came to Corfu in the summer of 1967, as I had been offered
a teaching position on the island. In December 1967 I received a
letter from Sir Maurice Bowra, Warden of Wadham College Oxford,
my old college, saying “Nobody could blame you for teaching at a
school in Greece. What I rather dislike is people going there for a
holiday and saying how splendid it all is” (29 December 1967). His
comments had a bigger influence on me than I realized in that first
year of the Military Dictatorship. I lived and worked in Northern
Greece for five years, from 1980 to 1985. I’ve been resident in Greece
again (in Corfu and Zagori) since the end of 2004. When not living
in the country, I’ve been coming almost every year since 1967, so I’ve
seen many changes. My wife is a Corfiot and a true Ionian Islander.
Her mother came from Paxos, her father from Zakynthos, but she
was born in Corfu. She has written two inspiring and challenging
books about Corfu, one in English, one in Greek.
There are in fact 32 Ionian Islands, large and small, of which
13 are inhabited: Othoni, Erikousa, Mathraki, Corfu, Paxos,
Antipaxos, Lefkas, Meganisi, Kastos, Kalamos, Ithaca, Kefalonia
and Zakynthos. Kythira, although once considered part of the Seven
Islands or Eptanisos, is no longer treated as one of the Ionian Islands
administratively or geographically.
This book is aimed primarily at a British, North American and
Australian readership. I hope it will offer visitors, English-speaking
residents and interested tourists from other countries new insights
into many aspects of the cultural histories of the Ionian Islands and
Epirus. I have tried to adopt an international approach.
The combined populations of the regions of the Ionian Islands
and Epirus may only represent just over 5% of the total population
of Greece (NSSG, 2008 figures: 580,358 inhabitants out of
11,213,785) but what an impact that 5% has had!
The publication of this book nearly coincides with the 200th
anniversary of Byron’s visit to Epirus (Prevesa, Nicopolis, Ioannina
and Zitsa, 29 September3 November 1809) and of the British
capture of Zakynthos, Kefalonia, Ithaca and Kythira, which
occurred between 2 and 9 October 1809. To adapt the words of
Horace, the captive Ionian Islands eventually made their uncouth
victors captive. The Ionian Islands became part of the Greek State in
1864, Ioannina and most of Epirus in 1913 (the Arta district, with
hessaly, had been ceded to Greece in 1881, as a result of the decision
of the Great Powers and of the Treaty of Berlin).
***
I wish to express my special thanks to the following, amongst many
others, who have provided information, insights and inspiration:
Maria StraniPotts, Dr. Kostas Kardamis, John Gill, Brenda Stones,
hemis and June Marinos, Demetrius Toteras, Komninos Zervos, Frixos
Tziovas, Yannis Pieris, Alexandros Papadatos, Nikos Grigoropoulos,
Lena Koronaki, Stephanos Rizikaris, Ian Chessell, Peter Prineas,
Paul Cummings, Zoe Kominatos, Raul Scacchi, Gioia Maestro,
Pinelopi Mitsi, Demetrios Dallas, the Staff of the Mitchell Library,
Sydney, and the Staff of the British Library, London. I also wish to
thank all those writers from whose works I have quoted.
A note on the spelling of names
Readers will come across many variant spellings and some
inconsistencies in this book. When giving direct quotations,
I have retained the spellings used by the writers cited. I have
not been systematic in my own usage, preferring Kefalonia to
Cephal(l)onia, Ithaca to Ithaki, Cavafy to Kavafy, Capodistrias to
Kapodistrias, Nicopolis to Nikopolis, but Komnena to Comnena,
Corfu to Kerkyra, Kythira to Kythera or Cyther(e)a, Lefkas to
Levkas, Lefkada or Leucadia,Vido to Vidho, Ioannina to Yannina,
Janina or Giannena, Prevesa to Preveza, Metsovo to Metzovo,
Pasha to Pacha, Epirus to Ipirus or Epiros, Pindus to Pindos, but
Dramisios to Dhramisius, Corfiot to Corfiote, Suliot to Souliote,
Epirot to Epirote, Chimariot to Chimeriote (but Gardikiote rather
than Gardikiot, Parghiote or Parginote rather than Parghiot),
Chams to Tsams, Hormovo to Khormova(o), Nekromanteion to
Necromanteion, Frosini to Phrosini or Phrosyne, kleft to klepht,
Palaiokastritsa to Paleokastritza, Serafis to Seraphis, Aghios to Agios
or Ayios.
At times I use alternative or older forms of names for islands
(Zante as well as Zakynthos, but not Zacynthus, Cerigo as well
as Kythira, Santa Mavra/Maura, as well as Lefkas, Leucas and
Lefkada, Corcyra as well as Corfu). Zakynthians are also referred to,
interchangeably, as Zakynthiots and Zantiots. It is my hope that the
patient reader will not find the many transliteration permutations
too confusing or irritating!
This book is dedicated to Jack, Ella and héo, in the hope that it
will help them to appreciate an important part of their cultural
inheritance.
Introduction
For 42 years I have been trying to develop a deeper understanding
of Greek culture. Almost every day I have discovered something
new or astonishing.
Greece remains a source of endless fascination. What makes a
Western Greek, or an Ionian Islander, different from a Greek from
the mainland? What distinguishes a Corfiot from a Kefalonian?
With so many Epirots living in Corfu (including the descendants
of those who had to flee from Parga and Suli in the nineteenth
century), with so many Kythirans living in Australia, it is not even
clear what we mean by a Corfiot, a Kythiran or an Epirot. The sea-
channel between Corfu and the coast of Epirus is not wide. Lefkas
is attached to the mainland. Culturally the islands could have been
worlds apart.
To the Corfiot critic and poet Erotokritos Moraitis (in “Solomos”),
the identity of the gigenis Dhitikos Ellinas (native Western Greek)
is self-evident and significant, an identity largely unrecognized
in Modern Greece, which has given much greater emphasis to
the Anatolian, Oriental, cultural influences. For the Zakynthos-
born poet Dionysios Solomos (1798-1857), the National Poet
and author of the anthem “Hymn to Liberty”, as for many other
educated Ionians, Italian was as much a mother-tongue as Greek.
Bilingualism, education and music were just some of the elements
that seemed to separate the islanders from Turkey-in-Europe, and
Greek Epirus, until recent times. For the Ionian Islands belonged,
culturally, to Western Europe. Even if Epirus seemed like a foreign
country to a Corfiot like Moraitis when he first visited Igoumenitsa,
who can deny that Ioannina was also a great centre of education
and learning, and that the people of the Zagori villages in Epirus,
for instance, enjoyed a high standard of living and a great deal of
independence, and that the menfolk, who usually went off to make
their living in other parts of Europe or even further afield, brought
back with them refined architectural tastes, and that many became
enlightened and generous benefactors of their communities?
Erotokritos expressed great sympathy for a poem I had written
after attending a conference about rebetika music in London, which
perhaps sums up this vexed question about Greek identity:
Greek Identity
It was a Conference on Rebetology:
Much talk of Turkish influence, Oriental modes
And Vamvakaris.
I asked about Kantades,
The Ionian Islands, Italian links.
Were they any less Hellenic?
-It wasn’t all monophony
And Turkish “Aman” wails.
Why had they been privileged,
In the histories of the nation?
The Greeks knew how to harmonise,
To use well-tempered scales.
Polyphonic harmonies
Mandolins, guitars,
Preceded bouzouki, baglama
In Modern Greece, it seems:
So why were they any “less Greek”?
The question was “too big”.
(From Corfu Blues, 2006)
I love the old rebetika songs and Epirot klarino improvisations
as much as the traditional kantades of the Ionian Islands. At the
time of writing, I have just spent three days and nights at the Vitsa
Panigyri, where the eighty-year-old klarino-player Grigoris Kapsalis
from Elafotopos (Tservari) gave his all, and more.