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Ας μιλήσουμε στους αγγλόφωνους αλλά και σε όλους τους επισκέπτες της χώρας μας για το σπουδαίο ρεμπέτικο τραγούδι και για την παρακαταθήκη του στην ελληνική κοινωνία και στο σύγχρονο πολιτισμό μας. Μόλις κυκλοφόρησε από τις Εκδόσεις Αιώρα το βιβλίο Ρεμπέτικα: Τραγούδια του παλιού ελληνικού υποκόσμου. Το βιβλίο –το πρώτο που κυκλοφόρησε στα αγγλικά, λίγο μετά την πτώση της δικτατορίας και τώρα επανεκδίδεται– περιλαμβάνει κείμενα κορυφαίων προσωπικοτήτων και μελετητών: ο Ηλίας Πετρόπουλος, ο Μάρκος Δραγούμης, ο Τεντ Πετρίδης και ο Σάκης Παπαδημητρίου. Καλύπτει μια ποικιλία θεμάτων γύρω από τα ρεμπέτικα: την προέλευσή τους και την ιστορική εξέλιξη, τα κοινωνικά χαρακτηριστικά των τραγουδιών και των δημιουργών, την ιδιαίτερη μουσική, τους χορούς –το ζεϊμπέκικο, το χασάπικο κ.ά.–, και τέλος τα συγκρίνει με τα αμερικανικά μπλουζ. Συμπεριλαμβάνονται επιπλέον οι στίχοι 54 τραγουδιών, στα ελληνικά και στα αγγλικά, 8 μουσικές παρτιτούρες και γλωσσάρι, ενώ τα συνοδευτικά σχέδια είναι του Χρόνη Μπότσογλου. Η μουσική, οι στίχοι και ο χορός που συναπαρτίζουν το Ρεμπέτικο Τραγούδι είναι ο δυνατός κρίκος στην αλυσίδα του πολιτισμού μας: συνέχισε τη βυζαντινή και δημοτική παράδοση, ανέδειξε τον Ζορμπά, καθιέρωσε το μπουζούκι, αποκάλυψε άγνωστες πτυχές της νεότερης δημιουργίας, ταυτίστηκε με τις περιπέτειες του ελληνισμού στον πολυτάραχο 20ό αιώνα, εξαπλώθηκε και αγαπήθηκε από το μεγαλύτερο κομμάτι της κοινωνίας.

Andreas Laskaratos (1811-1901), a prominent figure in modern Greek letters, was a writer and poet, a social thinker and, in many ways, a controversialist. A life-long enemy of hypocrisy wherever he found it, on many occasions he turned against politicians, while he ceaselessly fought against corruption and religious prejudice and fanaticism. Much of his writing is savagely satirical, but his Reflections set out calmly, clearly and wittily his uncompromising and finely reasoned beliefs. As the essence of his thought they could be read with profit by present-day politicians and teachers of any nationality, and indeed by everybody with an interest in social and moral questions.

A bold reconception of ancient Greek drama by one of the most brilliant and original classical scholars of his generationWhen John Winkler died in 1990, he left an unpublished manuscript containing a highly original interpretation of the development and meaning of ancient Greek drama. Rehearsals of Manhood makes this groundbreaking work available for the first time, presenting an entirely novel picture of Greek tragedy and a vivid portrait of the cultural poetics of Athenian manhood. Ancient Athens was a military conclave as well as an urban capital, and male citizens were expected to embody the ideal of the Athenian citizen-soldier. Winkler understands Attic drama as a secular manhood ritual, a collaborative aesthetic and civic enterprise focused on the initiation of boys into manhood and the training, testing, and representation of young male warriors. Past efforts to discover the origins and development of Greek tragedy have largely treated drama as a literary genre, isolating it from other Athenian social practices. Winkler returns Greek tragedy to its social context, showing how it was one among many forms of display and performance cultivated by elite males in ancient Greece. The final work of a celebrated classical scholar, Rehearsals of Manhood highlights the civic function of the dramatic festivals at classical Athens as occasions for the examination and representation of boys on the verge of manhood, and offers a fresh explanation of how dramatic performance fit into the social life and gender politics of the Athenian state.

Translated by John Llewelyn Davies and David James Vaughan. With an Introduction by Stephen Watt. The ideas of Plato (c429-347BC) have influenced Western philosophers for over two thousand years. Such is his importance that the twentieth-century philosopher A.N. Whitehead described all subsequent developments within the subject as foot-notes to Plato's work. Beyond philosophy, he has exerted a major influence on the development of Western literature, politics and theology. The Republic deals with the great range of Plato's thought, but is particularly concerned with what makes a well-balanced society and individual. It combines argument and myth to advocate a life organized by reason rather than dominated by desires and appetites. Regarded by some as the foundation document of totalitarianism, by others as a call to develop the full potential of humanity, the Republic remains a challenging and intensely exciting work.

The rembetika, songs that were sung in the poor quarters of Smryna, Istanbul and the ports of Greece in the late nineteenth century, and became the popular bouzouki music of the 1930s to 1950s, have many parallels with American blues. Like the blues, the rembeika were the music of outsiders, who developed their own slang and their own forms of expression. Road to Rembetika was the first book in English to attempt a general survey of the world of the rembetes who smoked hashish and danced the passionate, introspective zembekiko to release their emotions. An enthusiastic introduction to the subject, it was written by an Australian musician and writer who first came to Greece in 1965 and who has continued to perform and write about Greek music ever since. Gail Holst describes her own initiation into the rembetika, outlines its historical and sociological background, its musical characteristics and instrumentation. The second part of the book is a collection of rembetika songs in Greek with an English translation en face. The text is illustrated with photographs of the period, musical examples and some original manuscripts of the songs. This fourth edition has been retypeset and amended, and has a new introduction and further song lyrics, and the bibliography and discography have been updated.

In the late 3rd century BC, while Rome struggled for her very survival against the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War, Philip V of Macedon allied with Hannibal in pursuit of his dream for a new Macedonian empire. Once Carthage was defeated, however, the Roman army for the first time turned its full attention to the Greek world. The stage was set for the clash of two of the most successful military systems of the ancient world, the Roman legions versus the Macedonian phalanx. Though sorely tested, the legions emerged victorious fromthe epic battles of Cynoscephalae and Pydna. The home of Alexander the Great fell under the power of Rome, along with the rest of Greece, the cradle of Western Civilization, which had a profound effect on Roman culture and society. Philip Matyszak gives a clear narrative of the course of these wars, explaining how the Roman war machine coped with formidable new foes and the challenges of unfamiliar terrain. Specially-commissioned colour plates bring the main troop types vividly to life in meticulously-researched detail.

The history of a bewilderingly exotic city, rarely written about: five hundred years of clashing cultures and peoples, from the glories of Suleiman the Magnificent to its nadir under Nazi occupation. Salonica is the point where the wonders and horrors of the Orient and Europe have met over the centuries. Written with a Pepysian sense of the texture of daily life in the city through the ages, and with breathtakingly detailed historical research, Salonica evokes the sights, smells, habits, songs and responses of a unique city and its inhabitants. The history of Salonica is one of forgotten alternatives and wrong choices, of identities assumed and discarded. For centuries Jews, Christians and Muslims have succeeded each other in ascendancy, each people intent on erasing the presence of their predecessors, and the result is a city of extraordinarily rich cultural traditions and memories of extreme violence and genocide, one that sits on the overlapping hinterlands of both Europe and the East. Mark Mazower has written a work of astonishing depth and originality about this remarkable city. Magnificently researched and beautifully written, it is more than a book about a place; it studies in detail the way in which three great faiths and peoples have inhabited the same territory, and how smooth transitions and adaptations have been interwoven with violent endings and new beginnings.

'many men compete in digging and kicking but no one at all in the pursuit of human excellence.'Diogenes the Cynic is best remembered today for having lived in a storage-jar, and walking the streets with a lamp in daylight, looking for an honest man. Such stories formed part of a rich tradition of sayings and anecdotes; his biting wit and eccentric behaviour were legendary, and it was by means of these oft-repeated and embellished aphorisms that his moral teachings were transmitted. He scorned the conventions of civilized life, and his ascetic lifestyle and caustic opinions gave expression to the Cynic philosophy that in turn influenced Stoicism. This unique edition also covers Diogenes' immediate successors, such as Crates, his wife Hipparchia, and the witty moral preacher Bion. The contrasting teachings of the Cyrenaic school, founded by Aristippos, a pleasure-loving friend of Socrates, complete the volume, together with a selection of apocryphal letters. An ideal compendium of Socratic moral philosophy, this entertaining volume opens a window on to some surprisingly modern attitudes. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

The discovery of the site of the Mycenean Palace of Odysseus, with dating evidence and photos.

The photographs of the series ‘Secrets & Crises’ portray buildings in the centre of Athens which accommodate public institutions. In each diptych, the photograph of the building is juxtaposed with an enlarged detail derived from the same photograph. These blurred and secretive images seem to imply what is happening inside those buildings in an attempt to identify possible incriminating evidence hidden behind their straightforward facades. However, nothing is disclosed and only vagueness remains.The book Secrets and Crises by Zoe Hatziyannaki was published on the occasion of her exhibition at the Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center in May 2013.