PALAIA PHOCAEA
The Greek refugees that came from Asia Minor and settled in Greece often named their new townships after their places of origin. This is the case of Palaia Phocaea, the ancient Greek city on the Aegean coast of today’s Turkey. They left their ancestral homes and sought refuge in Motherland Greece after the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, the end of World War I, and the rise of Kemal Atartouk, which led to the genocide of the Christian populations as well as the burning of Smyrna in September 1922.
Palaia Phocaea takes its name from Phocaea, an ancient Greek city of Ionia known today as Asia Minor. The Ionians (Greek: Ίωνες) who colonized the area were one of the four major tribes that the Greeks were divided into during the ancient period. The other three were the Dorians, the Aeolians and the Achaeans. Phocaea’s harbours allowed it to develop a thriving seafaring economy, which greatly influenced its culture.
Excavations indicate that the area had been settled from around 9th century BC when the first Phocaeans arrived there from Phocis, an ancient region in the central part of Greece, which included Delphi, the seat of the oracle Pythia. According to Herodotus (Greek: Ηρόδοτος), the ancient Greek historian and geographer, the Phocaeans were the first Greeks to make long sea-voyages. They discovered the coasts of the Adriatic Sea, the Tyrrhenian Sea (off the coast of Italy) and travelled as far as Spain. Although they travelled extensively throughout the Mediterranean Sea and up through the Dardanelles, the major colonies they founded were in the west. These included Alalia on the island of Corsica, Emporiae and Rhoda on the Catalonian coast of Spain, and Marseille (Greek: Μασσαλία) on the Mediterranean coast of France around 600 BC.
The history of Phocaea is a long and turbulent one, from the Greco-Persian conflict in 546 BC through to Roman and Byzantine rule when it was given to Benedetto Zaccaria, the Genoese ambassador to Byzantium as a hereditary lordship in 1275. It remained a Genoese colony until it was taken by the Turks in 1455. Constantinople fell to Sultan Mehmed II on May 29, 1453.
Phocaea was the location of the first massacre (Greek: Η Σφαγή της Φώκαιας) in June 1914 as part of the ethnic cleansing policies of the Ottoman Empire, which included exile, massacre, and deportations. It was carried out by irregular Turkish bands called ‘chettes’, who were responsible for the atrocities against Christian Orthodox Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians during the 1910s and 1920s.
The documentation and photographs of the French engineer and archaeologist Felix Sartiaux (1876-1944) have helped to bring these atrocities to light as they describe the sequence of events before and during the massacre. He and his three assistants took measures to help the Greek population by hoisting French flags on their homes and thus provided shelter for the refugees. Around 700-800 people were saved from the attacks and were later evacuated by boats to the island of Lesvos. There was sympathy throughout Europe for the victims of Phocaea, especially in France. The people of Marseille raised a sum of 20,000 French francs to support the refugees.
The refugees returned to Phocaea in 1919 when it appeared that the Greek Army and their allies were succeeding in reclaiming territories in Asia Minor. However, their return was short-lived because of the defeat of the Greeks in the Battle of Sakarya, just outside Ankara. This led to the second forced expulsion from their ancestral homelands and their permanent return to Greece as the Turks did not want any other nationalities living there although the Greek population was a majority in many areas.
Many settled in Piraeus and from there made their way to the salt pans of Anavissos in East Attica in search of work. Friction arose when more refugees arrived in the area in the summer of 1924 as the locals were afraid of losing their jobs and their rights to the farming land. Time and hard work were needed to reverse the situation before the relationship between the two communities improved.
Despite the attempts to be reimbursed by the Turkish government for the properties that had been left behind, this was not possible. The refugees had to put an end to their dreams of ever returning to their homeland and to concentrate on creating a future for their families in Greece. They therefore set about building their church and their school. The first church was founded in 1932 and was dedicated to Saint Irene, as was the church in Palaia (Old) Phocaea of Asia Minor. In June 1947, the official decision was taken by the government for the founding of the independent community of Old Phocaea.
The photographs, notes and correspondence of Felix Sartiaux were discovered in different archives and were published in 2008 and 2012 by the Greek photo historian Haris Yiakoumis. This information was used for the documentary ‘The Sacking of Phocaea’ by Agnes Sklavos and Stelios Tatakis.
DESPENA DALMARIS
In this context, we can speak of poetry, characterized by the close interaction of verbal and visual language, where the image accompanies the verse, while the visual discourse of the image interacts with the word to elaborate the poetic world. The visual appeals to emotion through action, while poetry, in turn, emphasizes the predominance of a verbal register, both fields focused on philosophical and intimate reflection, with a message that is wanted to be transmitted both with the word and with the visual. From this interaction of verbal and visual signs, a sense is born and develops that establishes a synergy and a relationship of interdependence, that is, constituting an indivisible and unalterable aesthetic and formal unit.
Poetry is characterized by its internal cohesion, its rhythmic and sound qualities, the predominance of poetic connotation, a meaning, freedom, expressive and linguistic creativity, linking with the artistic dimension characterized by its interpretive qualities, emotion and sensitivity. , expressive creativity and the aesthetic part of art. In this way, both expressive elements (verbal and visual) form an aesthetic unit and converge in the construction of meaning, resulting in a work made of words and images.
Analysing the various aspects of poetic language and visual art, we can see that there is an innovative journey that goes from poetry to image and performance, or on the contrary, from visual art to poetic language. The two have always had a very close relationship. In this way, we can say that “art is silent poetry and poetry is speaking art”, as Simónides of Ceos (VI-V BC) already expressed and later Horace placing poetry dependent on the image.
Anika Gupta is 8 Years old, in 2nd grade. She lives in USA. She is a brilliant student (throughout A+). She loves art, reading, and is very curious to know and learn about new things. She has participated in many countries- Azerbaijan, Brazil, Dominican Republic, India, USA, Iran, Ecuador, Egypt, Mexico, Peru, Tunisia, Turkey, UK, Ukraine etc. Recently she participated in many international online art events/ exhibitions like Guinness Book of World record event.
Records, Extraordinaire World Record Holder, Marvelous Book of Records Holder, India Records Holder, a freelance artist, curator is originally from India, now based in Florida, USA for almost 2 decades. She has a Ph.D. in Drawing & Painting from the University of Rajasthan. Jaipur, India. Her topic for Dissertation was, “Leisure in the Arts through the Ages: A comparative study of the themes on Leisure in Indian and European Painting with special reference to 16-19th century” (2006). She did her M.A. in Drawing & Painting, where she was the University Topper and Gold Medalist, with First Division & First Position (1997-1999). She also holds a degree in B.F.A. (Painting), from Rajasthan School of Arts, Jaipur, India (1993-1997). Mahima was a proud recipient of the prestigious University Grants Commission of India (UGC) Junior & Senior Fellowship for Doctoral work (2000-2005). She was also awarded the Rajasthan Lalit Kala Akademi Student Scholarship (1998-1999). Mahima was awarded at the 10th Kala Mela organized by the Rajasthan Lalit Kala Akademi, Jaipur, India (2002). Also awarded at the All India Exhibition of Arts, by Indian Academy of Fine Arts, Amritsar, India (2001). Mahima is a proud recipient of the Bhoor Singh Shekhawat Memorial Padamshree Kripal Singh Shekhawat Award (1998).
The month of May is named after the ancient Greek goddess Maia, the goddess of fertility and re-birth. Maia was the daughter of Atlas (the Titan condemned to hold up the celestial heavens for eternity after the Titanomachy) and Pleione, the Oceanid nymph. She lived by herself in a cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. She was the eldest of the seven Pleiades that make up the Pleiades star cluster in the constellation of Taurus. Zeus secretly slept with Maia and she gave birth to Hermes, the god of trade, merchants, commerce, roads, thieves, etc. Hesiod, in his Theogony, refers to this: And Maia, the daughter of Atlas, bore to Zeus glorious Hermes, the herald of the deathless gods, for she went up into his holy bed. Besides giving birth to Hermes, Maia raised the infant Arcas, son of Zeus and the nymph Callisto. The Prefecture of Arcadia in the Peloponnese is named after him. In Greek, Maia means midwife. Aeschylus, the ancient Greek tragedian, identifies Maia the nursing mother with Gaia, the Earth.
The photograph of the mother of Tasos Tousis, one of the strikers, lamenting over the body of her dead child as it lay on a makeshift stretcher that his co-workers had put together, inspired the poet Yiannis Ritsos to write the poem Epitaphios. The scene brought to mind the lament of Virgin Mary over the body of Christ when he was brought down from the Cross. Yiannis Ritsos wrote Epitaphios in ten days. He sent it to Mikis Theodorakis in 1958 who put it to music. The songs were first sung by Grigoris Bithikotsis. The work Epitaphios was basically banned from being performed publicly until 1974 when Democracy was reinstated in Greece after the fall of the Junta and the imprisonment of Colonel Papadopoulos and the other army offices involved in the enforcing of the dictatorship between 21 April 1967 and July 1974.
I grew up in Sydney Australia and as a teacher of English, writing has always been a part of my life. I have always been interested in the history, culture, and traditions of my country of origin, Greece. After my marriage I had the opportunity to return to Greece and settle in Athens. This enabled me to travel around Greece and gave me the incentive to write short articles about the different places I visited, trying to highlight the history as well as the traditions and the mythology that relates to them. I began my blog: Greece through Despena’s Eyes so that my articles could be read by those who had an interest in Greece. 
