Δοκίμιο & Πολιτισμός

Το βιβλίο "Η Ακρόπολη μέσα από το Μουσείο της" δεν είναι ένας απλός οδηγός μουσείου. Παρουσιάζοντας τα έργα τέχνης που εκτίθενται στο μουσείο, προσπαθεί να ανασυνθέσει την ιστορία του ιερού βράχου ως μέρος του πολιτιστικού και του ευρύτερου ιστορικού γίγνεσθαι της αρχαίας Αθήνας. Το βιβλίο ακολουθεί την πορεία του επισκέπτη στο μουσείο, ώστε να μπορεί κάποιος να μελετήσει και να διαβάσει για τα αρχαία που εκτίθενται μπροστά του. Είναι όμως έτσι γραμμένο ώστε και με αυτόνομη μελέτη να έχει τη δυνατότητα ο αναγνώστης να προσεγγίσει τα θέματα βαθύτερα και να κατανοήσει τις προϋποθέσεις - πολιτικές, κοινωνικές, οικονομικές, ιδεολογικές, καλλιτεχνικές και τεχνολογικές - που οδήγησαν στα μοναδικά έργα της Ακρόπολης. Το βιβλίο περιέχει πλουσιότατη εικονογράφηση με φωτογραφίες αλλά και πολλά σχέδια και αναπαραστάσεις, που δίνουν τη δυνατότητα να γίνουν κατανοητά τα αποσπασματικά σωζόμενα έργα το καθένα στο πλαίσιό του. Επίσης το βιβλίο απαντά σε πολλά από τα ερωτήματα που γεννιούνται στους αναγνώστες αλλά και σε όλους τους υποψιασμένους αρχαιόφιλους, όπως π.χ. πόσο ήταν το μέγεθος της αρχαίας Αθήνας και πόσος ο πληθυσμός της, τι σήμαιναν τα θηρία στα μεγάλα αρχαϊκά αετώματα, τι αντιπροσώπευαν τα αγάλματα των Κορών, γιατί το Ερεχθείο έγινε τόσο σύνθετο και ποιος ο ρόλος των Καρυατύδων, γιατί ο ναός της Αθηνάς Νίκης έγινε ιωνικός, τι οδήγησε τον Περικλή και τους συμβούλους του στην επιλογή του συγκεκριμένου οικοδομικού προγράμματος και πώς χρηματοδοτήθηκαν τα μεγάλα έργα, γιατί αποφάσισαν να τοποθετήσουν ιωνική ζωφόρο στον δωρικό Παρθενώνα, ποια πολιτικά μηνύματα έστελναν προς τη Σπάρτη μέσα από τον γλυπτό διάκοσμο του Παρθενώνα κ.ά.

Τhe Acropolis through its Museum is not simply a guidebook to the Acropolis Museum. By presenting the works of art exhibited in the museum, it endeavours to resynthesize the history of the Sacred Rock as part of the cultural and the wider historical process of Athens. The book follows the visitor’s tour of the museum, so that the reader can study and learn more about the antiquities he sees before him. However, it is written is such a way that through independent inquiry the reader is able to approach the subjects more deeply and to understand the preconditions – political, social, economic, ideological, artistic and technological – that led to the creation of the unique monuments on the Acropolis.

The book is lavishly illustrated with photographs, as well as numerous plans and reconstruction drawings, which enable the reader to understand each of the fragmentarily preserved works in its context. It also answers many of the questions raised in the discerning reader’s mind, such as what was the size and the population of ancient Athens, what is the meaning of the beasts represented on the large Archaic pediments, what do the Korai statues represent, why did the Erechtheion become so complex and what was the role of the Karyatids, why was the temple of Athena Nike built in the Ionic order, what led Pericles and his advisers to opt for the specific building programme and how were the major public works financed, why was it decided to place an Ionic frieze on the Doric Parthenon, what political messages were transmitted to Sparta through the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon, and so on.

A small, sun-drenched plain with a precipitous rock at its centre, a broad platform at its peak and valuable springs with drinking waters at its foot. The people of the prehistoric era could not have ignored such an advantageous site. And indeed, excavations at the top and the slopes of the Acropolis have revealed traces of settlement dating from the late Neolithic period (ca 3500-3200 BC).This habitation continued over the following periods, the Early Bronze Age (3200/3000-2200/2000 BC) and the Middle Bronze Age (2200/2000-1600 BC). In the second millennium BC the population of Attica was reinforced. A new tribe, the lonians, arrived from the north and merged with the indigenous population, which tradition holds were the Pelasgians. From around the middle of the same millennium a brilliant prehistoric civilisation started to flourish on mainland Greece, the Mycenaean civilisation which took its name from its most important centre, the town of Mycenae. During the Mycenaean period (1600-1100 BC) the inhabitants of the Acropolis lived in groups on the slopes and at the peak of the rock. They worshipped their ancient goddess Athena here, on the top of the Acropolis hill, where the palace of the local king also stood. (...)

An argument that love requires the courage to accept self-negation for the sake of discovering the Other. Byung-Chul Han is one of the most widely read philosophers in Europe today, a member of the new generation of German thinkers that includes Markus Gabriel and Armen Avanessian. In The Agony of Eros, a bestseller in Germany, Han considers the threat to love and desire in today's society. For Han, love requires the courage to accept self-negation for the sake of discovering the Other. In a world of fetishized individualism and technologically mediated social interaction, it is the Other that is eradicated, not the self. In today's increasingly narcissistic society, we have come to look for love and desire within the "inferno of the same." Han offers a survey of the threats to Eros, drawing on a wide range of sources-Lars von Trier's film Melancholia, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde,Fifty Shades of Grey, Michel Foucault (providing a scathing critique of Foucault's valorization of power), Martin Buber, Hegel, Baudrillard, Flaubert, Barthes, Plato, and others. Han considers the "pornographication" of society, and shows how pornography profanes eros; addresses capitalism's leveling of essential differences; and discusses the politics of eros in today's "burnout society." To be dead to love, Han argues, is to be dead to thought itself. Concise in its expression but unsparing in its insight, The Agony of Eros is an important and provocative entry in Han's ongoing analysis of contemporary society. This remarkable essay, an intellectual experience of the first order, affords one of the best ways to gain full awareness of and join in one of the most pressing struggles of the day: the defense, that is to say-as Rimbaud desired it-the "reinvention" of love. -from the foreword by Alain Badiou

In a world in which violence in every form seems to be increasing, Erich Fromm has treated this problem with deep perception in the most original and far-reaching work of his brilliant career. Fromm asks: what is there in the conditions of human existence to lead man to the orgies of destruction and violence in which he has indulged? By drawing on the findings of anthropology, palaeontogy, psychology and history; and including striking character analyses of Stalin, Hitler and Himmler, he shows how the failure to use our capacity for love and reason results in the development of the reverse: we wish to control life absolutely, or to destroy it.

It's time for us to re-examine the past. Our lives are infinitely richer if we take the time to look at what the Greeks and Romans have given us in politics and law, religion and philosophy and education, and to learn how people really lived in Athens, Rome, Sparta and Alexandria. This is a book with a serious point to make but the author isn't simply a classicist but a comedian and broadcaster who has made television and radio documentaries about humour, education and Dorothy Parker. This is a book for us all.

In The Art and Craft of Chocolate, world-renowned chocolate maker Nathan Hodge takes you on a grand tour of chocolate—from its processing, history, and trade to how it's made, bean to bar. The book includes the basic principles of chocolate-making at home and  recipes for traditional moles, drinks, baked goods, rubs, and more.

Η παραδοσιακή ελληνική γαστρονομία σε 65 συνταγές στην αγγλική γλώσσα.