International Conference of Greek Studies
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These proceedings from the Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies in Australia offer readers a cross-disciplinary approach to research in Greek and Cypriot studies.
Contributions are offered in both English and Greek, and cover a range of topics including:
Literature and Language
Classical Studies
Philosophy
Society and Culture
History and Migration
Please visit the conference website to purchase hard copies of the proceedings archived in this collection.
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Item Acknowledgements(Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2009) AcknowledgementsItem Acknowledgements.(Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007)This item is the Acknowledgements page from the Proceedings of the Sixth Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies.Item Across Cultural Boundaries: Greek and Aboriginal Australians in Contact(Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2011) Kanarakis, GeorgeThe Greeks and the Indigenous people of Australia represent two cultures of ancient origins within the dominant Australian society. Opposing discrimination on the basis of ethnic and minority distinctions, both support the oneness of all people. This is the first paper, to my knowledge, which attempts to provide a comprehensive picture of the two cultures in contact. It examines both direct and indirect influences and the impact of Aboriginal Australian cultural aspects on a variety of first generation Greek Australians’ artistic expression, including literature (poetry, prose, drama), music and visual arts (painting and sculpture).Item Ageing and immigration in the Greek capital. Policy issues and developments since the early 1990s(Flinders University Department of Language Studies - Modern Greek, 2013-06) Maloutas, ThomasThe paper deals with socio-demographic change and spatial transformation in Athens during the post war period and, in particular, since the early 1990s. It focuses on the interaction of two parallel processes — the precipitated ageing of the native Greek population and the rapid increase of the city’s immigrant population — in terms of residential patterns that enable contact between the two groups, and of the poorly developed local welfare state, within which immigrants have been acting as a substitute for the underdeveloped services for the elderly. The paper draws attention to recent changes in immigrants’ profiles and especially to the decreasing inflow — and more recently the outflow (GSPSC, 2011) — from neighbouring Balkan countries and the parallel increase of asylum seeking migrants and refugees from war zones in the broader Middle-East, Afghanistan and the Indian peninsula. These changes have led to a potentially less beneficial co-existence between ageing and immigration for both sides in a period where public funds for social policies as well as private funds for substitute solutions become scarce.Item Alexandrian Identity and the Coinage Commemorating Nero's 'Liberation' of the Greeks.(Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Couvalis, Spyridon GeorgeThe emperor Nero visited Greece in 66–67 CE to compete in the prestigious festivals of old Greece. He declared the Greeks of Akhaea and the Peloponnese 'liberated' during his visit. Apart from the cities affected by his munificence or visited by him, only Alexandria clearly commemorated his visit on coins. It issued a prolific series of commemoratives celebrating the central festival deities of old Greece. Couvalis places Nero’s 'liberation' in the context of the activities of the Greek upper classes in the period 50–250 CE. He argues that the issue of the Alexandrian coins can be most plausibly explained by assuming that the governor of Egypt, a Hellenised lapsed Jew aptly named Tiberius Julius Alexander, was attempting to curry favour with the philhellenic Nero and the Alexandrian Greeks. The Alexandrian Greeks wanted to affirm that Alexandria was truly Greek as they felt threatened by Jewish claims to equal privileges.Item Alexandros Papadiamantis: From the ‘Vasiliki Dre’ to ‘Fonissa’.(Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 1997) Talingarou, AngelikiPlease note: this article is in Greek.Item ‘Ammochostos Vassilevousa’: Contemplating a Platonic Mystagogy(Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 1997) Tsianikas, MichaelPlease note: this article is in Greek.Item Anarchic Utopia in Aris Alexandrou's 'The Mission Box'(Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2009) Vardoulakis, DimitrisThis paper shows that there are two notions of utopia operating in Aris Alexandrou’s novel The Mission Box (Το κιβώτιο). The first is the autarchic utopia espoused by the Communist Party and represented in the novel by the rational, chronologically organised narrative. The second is the anarchic utopia that disrupts the certainty of the rational narrative as well as the belief in a teleology that will lead to the Party’s victory. I argue that the anarchic interruption avoids a politics of oppression by extrapolating a notion of freedom whose definition does not rely on a negation of imprisonment.Item Anaxagoras and Athenian Politics: Towards a Chronology(Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2001) O'Grady, Patricia FrancesAnaxagoras was associated with a number of the giants of philosophy, men who were of influence or dependence in the development of philosophy, so it is important towards the understanding of the history of science and philosophy that a chronology of Anaxagoras be established.Item Anaxagoras and the Size of the Sun(Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2009) Couprie, Dirk L.Plutarch and others report that Anaxagoras compared the size of the sun with the Peloponnesus. It is the aim of this paper to show that this was a fair estimate, from his point of view, which is that of a flat earth. More precisely, I will show that, with the instruments and the geometrical knowledge available, Anaxagoras must have been able to use the procedures and perform the calculations needed to reach approximately his result.Item Anaximander’s Zoogony(Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2011) Gregory, AndrewAetius v, 19, 4 gives the following account of Anaximander’s zoogony: Ἀναξίμανδρος ἐν ὑγρῷ γεννησθῆναι τὰ πρῶτα ζῷα φλοιοῖς περιεχόμενα ἀκανθώδεσι, προβαινούσης δὲ τῆς ἡλικίας ἀποβαίνειν ἐπὶ τὸ ζηρότερον καὶ περιρρηγνυμένου τοῦ φλοιοῦ ἐπ’ ὀλίγον χρόνον μεταβιῶναι. I argue that we should translate this as: Anaximander said that the first animals were generated in moisture and enclosing themselves in spine like barks, as they advanced in age they moved onto the drier and shedding their bark for a short time they survived in a different form. I argue that Anaximander’s hypothesis on the origins of life is based on the life cycle of the Caddis fly. If so, his account of zoogony is neither myth nor outright speculation, but is based on observational knowledge. This has significant implications for the nature of Anaximander’s zoogony and its relation to his cosmogony and cosmology.Item Ancient Atomism and Cosmogony.(Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Gregory, AndrewHow should we treat the cosmogonies of the early ancient Greek philosophers? Much work has been done in showing how these cosmogonies differ from creation myths and how they relate to philosophical issues such as change, persistence through change and matter theory. Here, using Leucippus and Democritus as examples, Gregory tries to show that interesting light can be shed on these cosmogonies by looking at them in relation to perennial problems in cosmogony and perennial types of solutions to these problems. Ancients and moderns have formulated both in different ways, but there are significant structural similarities. To understand ancient cosmogonies, we need to understand how these perennial problems were perceived, and what types of solutions were available. We then need to analyse how the basic ontological and aetiological principles of their systems lead them to choose certain types of solution over others.Item Ancient Greece and the Origins of Science.(Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Gregory, AndrewThis paper was given as a public lecture to open the 2005 Conference of Greek Studies. It presents a case for locating the origins of science with the ancient Greeks. Although this was once a common view, it has come under fire in the latter part of the twentieth century. The main case is presented briefly, along with some new considerations in favour of the Greeks as the originators of science. There is then a discussion of some of the strategies that might be employed to counter some of the objections that have been raised, either relating to some of the weaknesses of Greek science or to some of the methodological issues involved in approaching ancient Greek science.Item Ancient Greek Cosmogony(Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2009) Gregory, AndrewThis paper was given as a public lecture to open the 2007 Conference of Greek Studies. It discusses some themes in ancient Greek thought concerning the origins of the cosmos, and differentiates Greek philosophical cosmogony from the creation tales that preceded it, in other contemporary cultures and in Greek religion and literature. It discusses some of the principal problems formulated by Greek cosmogonists and the types of solution they suggested, and draws some parallels with similar problems in the origins of life and the elements for the Greeks, and compares some ancient and modern formulations of these problems and their solutions. This paper also draws some contrasts between Greek philosophical cosmogony and early Christian thinking about the origins of the world.Item The Anglo-Australian Sweet Company: A Sweet Cypriot-Australian Success Story(Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2005) Ganzis, NicholasThe society from which Greek and Cypriot migrants came to Australia was not as homogeneous as might appear from a superficial consideration of their common heritage of faith, language and culture, and the multifaceted nature of Greek society was to manifest itself in Australia when conditions here enabled these differences to surface. Many pre-World War II migrants became involved in business activities, some of which developed into substantial commercial and industrial concerns. Communities were formed around these successful families, strengthened by regional organisations and the Greek Orthodox Community. One such family was the Loizou-Petrou family: George Loizou (later Lewis), who arrived in Adelaide in 1927, founded his own chocolate manufacturing and retailing company, which was to become the Anglo-Australian Sweet Company. He was joined by his nephew Harry Petrou (later Peters) in 1936, then by other members of their immediate family in 1948. The present paper studies the part played in South Australian business and social life by this extended Cypriot family in the context of Greek community formation, maintenance and fragmentation.Item Are Greeks Really the Poor Relations of the European Union? Evidence of the Standard of Living(Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2005) Close, David HenryGreek governments frequently emphasise that their goal is convergence in standard of living with the European Union average, and assume that they have far to go. This paper discuses the methods available to compare standards of living between the 15 member countries. They are: estimates of Gross Domestic Product at Purchasing Power Parity; average incomes in relation to average prices of everyday necessities; estimates of income inequality; subjective expressions of satisfaction with living conditions, and subjective assessments of improvement or deterioration in them; and ownership of certain goods, and of homes. Each measure is open to objection; but on most, Greece comes near the bottom of the EU scale. According to the other criteria of Human Development adopted by the United Nations, Greece rates high in health but low in educational level.Item Aristotle and the Eternal Caterpillar.(Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Couvalis, Spyridon George; Roux, Suzanne RaymondeDesign arguments are arguments from apparent purposiveness to the conclusion that there is an intelligent deliberating being who planned the order in the world. Socrates and Plato put such arguments. Empedocles, Democritus and Epicurus argue that all such purposiveness, except for the action of intelligent beings like humans or gods, is only apparent. We point out that both camps share the common assumption that all cases of working for the sake of something involve intelligent deliberation. Using Aristotle, we argue that this assumption is false. Unintelligent creatures can act for the sake of something. We use this argument and Aristotle’s further remarks to also argue that this shows that if there were a designer of the universe which acted for the sake of producing living things, it might well be an unintelligent designer, like an eternal caterpillar.Item Aristotle and the intuitionists(Flinders University Department of Language Studies - Modern Greek, 2013-06) Mortensen, ChrisIntuitionist mathematics has claimed a philosophy deriving from Kant. This paper aims to draw attention to significant similarities with a much older source, Aristotle. At the same time, the connection should not be over-stretched, given two millennia between them.Item Aristotle on Atomism(Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2009) Chalmers, Alan FTwo kinds of atomism emerged in the philosophy off the Presocratics. One kind was devised as a response to Parmenides and involved indivisible physical atoms. The other kind emerged in response to Zeno’s paradoxes and involved indivisible magnitudes that served as a barrier to the infinite division that led to those paradoxes. I argue, contrary to a range of positions to be found in the literature that Aristotle was aware of the distinction between the two kinds of atomism, did not attribute an atomism involving indivisible magnitudes to Democritus, and countered the two kinds of atomism with distinct kinds of arguments.Item Aristotle on Homoeomerous Substances(Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2011) Chalmers, Alan FAristotle’s characterisation of homoeomerous substances in Generation and Corruption is typically interpreted as involving the idea that such substances retain their identity as such however far they are divided. Yet, in Meteorology 4 Aristotle attributes properties of homoeomerous substances to a structure of corpuscles separated by pores. I suggest the clash between these two views is removed once it is appreciated that the position in Generation and Corruption does not involve indefinite division, as is typically supposed. Aristotle’s construal of homoeomerous substances, on my interpretation, is an important part of his attempt to make conceptual sense of the notion that all terrestrial substances are combinations of air, earth, fire and water.