Proceedings of the 6th Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies, 2005

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https://hdl.handle.net/2328/1736
The sixth Biennial Conference of Greek Studies held at Flinders University from 23 to 26 June 2005 marked an important step forward: it became an international conference, thus attracting a considerable number of specialists from Europe as well as academics and post-graduate students from Australia. Fifty-five papers were published in these Proceedings after being assessed as significant contributions to knowledge by scholars of international repute.

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    Identity and Relations within Society: The Greek Experience in Australia.
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Riak, Patricia
    This paper is both introduction to and review of sociological insights that have contributed to understanding social dynamics that give definition to the social modelling of the Greek family in Australia. The paper concentrates on first generation Greek-born migrants and their children. It will explain the use of network analysis that has been researched for the Greek community in Australia. Network analysis will then be compared to systems theory. The comparison favours the relevance of network analysis in making social sense of migrant family structure in Australia.
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    Για τη “στιγμή” και την πολυφωνία στον Καβάφη με αφορμή το ποίημα “Εν Σπάρτη”
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Dracopoulos, Anthony
    Please note: this article is in Greek. This paper revisits the function of the “moment” in Cavafy’s poetry within the context of Bakhtin’s theoretical framework and Seferis’ views of the Cavafean use of history. By analysing the poem “In Sparta”, it demonstrates that the Cavafean “moment” is a complex point in time and space on which diverse voices and points of view meet and participate in a dialogue. None of these voices, however, is privileged in the articulation of a central theme or idea. Each brings to the moment its own world view, interests and experiences and as a result the moment, and by extension the poem itself, cannot be reduced to a single meaning...
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    Zeno's Paradoxes.
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Mortensen, Chris
    In this paper Mortensen describes seven paradoxes, due to Zeno of Elea. He shows that they contain subtle arguments, not easily brushed aside. Resolution of the paradoxes in several cases requires nineteenth-century mathematics, which neither Zeno nor his contemporaries could have contemplated. In two cases, Mortensen contends that the paradoxes are not solved even today.
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    Ancient Atomism and Cosmogony.
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Gregory, Andrew
    How 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.
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    Aspects of Interlanguage Contact: Greek and Australian English.
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Kanarakis, George
    Linguists accept that no languages, the users of which have come into contact with one another, are completely pure and free of transferred and borrowed language forms. Interlanguage transferences and borrowings, therefore, are considered a natural, universal phenomenon, and not accidental. This paper aims at providing a cohesive account of the linguistic situation which has resulted from the interlanguage contact between Greek and Australian English. It will focus on two essential aspects: the impact of Australian English upon Greek in the immigrant context of Australia, and the influence of Greek upon Australian English. To present a more comprehensive picture, it will examine both direct and indirect influences, as well as their impact on different levels of language analysis (mainly phonological, morphological, and lexical), illustrated by a variety of oral and written (including literary) examples.
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    Did Aristotle have a concept of 'intuition'? Some thoughts on translating 'nous'.
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Baltussen, Han
    In this paper Baltussen proposes to review existing translations of 'nous' in Aristotle in order to show that translating it as 'intuition' is problematic. A proposal to find a new direction for interpreting the term is given, based on a richer understanding of the modern notion of intuition in cognitive psychology. The paper ends by adding some passages to the usual set which deserve further investigation.
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    Darwinian Thought in Grigorios Xenopoulos' "Athenian Letters".
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Zaramis, Maria
    While literary writers have responded creatively to Darwinism since its beginnings with "The Origin of Species" (1859), literary scholarship has reacted accordingly — but not within Greece. Literary scholarship which takes a Darwinian approach to the various genres of modern Greek literature is scant in proportion to the plethora of scholarship on non-Greek Darwinian literature. This paper is derived from a section of my doctoral thesis which examines Darwinian and other evolutionary thought in the early twentieth-century writings of Grigorios Xenopoulos. The paper provides a synoptic view of the Darwinian thought in selected letters written by Xenopoulos in the children’s magazine Η Διάπλασις των Παίδων ('The Children’s Guidance'), which was published between 1879 and 1948. It focuses on the gender issue, the issue of religion versus science and in particular creationism versus evolution theory; and finally Xenopoulos’ use of Darwinian concepts, such as gradualism, in discussing human character. The paper not only provides some insight into Xenopoulos but also reflects the impact of evolutionary ideas in society at the time, at a local and international level.
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    Migration to Greece: A New Type and Emerging Problems.
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Alipranti-Maratou, Laura
    Greece is a country with an age-long tradition in emigration and population movements due to specific historical factors. In the twentieth century certain political, economic and family reasons caused a large outflow of Greeks and nearly one million emigrated to western Europe (mostly Germany) and overseas countries (USA, Canada, Australia etc). However, in recent years Greece has witnessed a major reversal of historical patterns and become the hosting country of a large number of immigrants. Since the early 1980s, immigration has increased considerably and Greece has become an immigration country and an attractive destination or transit point for illegal migration. Contemporary migrations are more likely to be of a transnational nature. Given that context, this study presents recent movements of foreign population in Greece which are though to have induced a 'new' type of migration. It will also refer to emerging problems.
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    Προς μια φιλοσοφική θεμελίωση της φιλολογίας: Η περίπτωση του Ιωάννη Συκουτρή
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Niftanidou, Th.
    Please note: this article is in Greek. This article focuses on the work of Ioannis Sikoutris (1901–1937), a significant scholar of Modern Greek literary studies, and its dialogue with the field of philosophy. In this context, the study presents and discusses Sikoutris’ principal works conversant with philosophy and analyses the theoretical context of two of his texts, chiefly contiguous to Modern Greek literary studies, namely “Literary Studies” (“Γραμματολογία”, 1929) and “Philology and Life” (“Φιλολογία και ζωή”, 1931). Special emphasis has been placed on the relationship of Sikoutris’ work with Hermeneutics, a paradigm of great importance in European philosophy and literary theory.
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    The Greek-Australian Unemployed Movement and the Construction of the Migrants' Rights Discourse.
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Nicolacopoulos, Toula ; Vassilacopoulos, George
    This paper will present a brief history of the organised attempts within the Greek-Australian communities to address the problem of high unemployment in the 1950s. Focusing on the formation and work of the Greek Migrants’ Unemployed Committee in Melbourne, we will argue that the Committee’s appeal to migrants’ right to work initiated the social processes that were to draw the Greek-Australian communities into the emerging rights discourse of the times. The political campaigns for the rights of the unemployed consequently paved the way for migrant workers’ formulation of their future demands to the Australian state for equal rights and social justice.
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    'In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians' National Project Past, Present and Potential Future.
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Janiszewski, Leonard ; Alexakis, Effy
    Since 1982 the 'In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians' National Project has been researching the historical and contemporary Greek-Australian presence in both Australia and overseas. It has gathered a considerable oral, literary and visual archive, produced various publications, created major socio-cultural history exhibitions that have toured nationally and internationally, undertaken film documentaries and multimedia presentations, and assisted in nourishing the next generation of Australian historians and sociologists by providing resources for both university teaching and research.
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    The Stoics on Identity.
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Djukic, George
    A useful corrective to the increasingly ahistorical approach in much contemporary philosophy is an appreciation of the fact, often neglected these days, that many of the themes currently at the centre-stage of philosophical discussion were not merely raised by the Greeks but dealt with along lines that ring familiar to modern ears. A case in point is the issue of individuation in contemporary analytic metaphysics, in particular as it arises in connection with the problem of change. It will emerge that various moves in the recent literature have affinities with and indeed were anticipated by the Stoics in their treatment of puzzles of mereological change.
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    The Cannon of the Medieval City of Rhodes, based on the Manuscript and Illustrations of Johannes Hedenborg (1854).
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Stefanidou, Alexandra
    Johannes Hedenborg (1800–1870), a doctor and historian, after extensive travel in Europe, Asia and Africa chose to settle on the island of Rhodes. He tirelessly collected material for a five-volume work in German entitled "History of the Island of Rhodes, from antiquity until today, with a historical review of the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Franks and Turks who ruled the island, with a collection of many inscriptions and illustrations especially of medieval monuments (1854)". In the fifth volume of the work of Hedenborg we can find the illustrations of cannon which were in use during the period of the Knights of St John, in certain positions in the walls of the medieval city of Rhodes. Through the combination of the manuscript and these illustrations we can learn about their positions and what they looked like.
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    Title Page.
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007)
    This item is the title page of the Sixth Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies Proceedings, June 2005.
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    List of Authors.
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Authors
    This item is the list of contributing authors to the Proceedings of the Sixth Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies.
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    Greek Travellers and Travel Literature from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century.
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Minaoglou, Charalambos
    Although the western travellers who travelled in the territories of the Ottoman Empire between the fifteenth and the eighteenth century have been studied extensively, the opposite happens as far as concerns the peregrinations of Greek travellers, which are almost unknown and difficult to find. They have not enjoyed the attention of the neohellenists — philologists and historians — and most of them are found only in rare publications of the nineteenth century. We can separate them in two main categories, those which describe the East and those which refer to the West. In this paper we deal only with the second group of texts, because they constitute one of the sources of knowledge about the relations of Greeks with the west, relations that constitute the central problem of Modern Greek studies.
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    Simitis's Unsuccessful Struggle for Economic and Governmental Modernisation: A Case of Irresolution or Impotence?
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Close, David Henry
    Modernisation, meaning the attainment of best governmental practice in the European Union, was the mission of Kostas Simitis while prime minister in 1996–2004. In the goals which mattered most to himself and to voters — improving governmental efficiency so as to promote economic development and citizens’ welfare — his record was disappointing. Various international measures of Greece’s governmental and economic efficiency, and assessments of citizens’ satisfaction and government finances, indicate regression rather than progress. The basic cause of failure is argued to be the prevalence of traditional clientelist attitudes, which made the state very influential over society and the economy, while condemning it to inefficiency. Government influence over the economy and labour force burdened them with restrictive practices. Yet few if any members of the major political parties accepted the full implications of modernisation. While meriting some blame, Simitis failed mainly because of factors beyond his control.
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    Military Recruitment and Selection in a British Colony: The Cyprus Regiment 1939-1944.
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Kazamias, Georgios
    Between 1939 and 1945, several thousand Greek and Turkish Cypriots enlisted and served in the Cyprus Regiment, a colonial regiment of the British Army. Using archival material, this paper aims to examine the parameters set by the colonial authorities for the recruitment and selection of the personnel (Cypriot and other). Seen in this context, the selection of personnel for the regiment offers us an interesting vantage point from which to explore the relationship between the British authorities and their Cypriot subjects during the watershed years of the Second World War.
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    Hippias of Elis and his Pursuit of Justice.
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) O'Grady, Patricia Frances
    Hippias’ involvement in the conception of justice forms the philosophical topic of this paper. Hippias did not, of course, invent justice. In order to understand the transition of Justice to justice, we need to go back to the great god, Zeus, to meet his daughter, Δίκη (Dike), who is the personification of Justice. We will relate the notion of Justice as Homer and Hesiod expressed it, and trace its evolution by referring to a number of significant Greeks up to the time of Hippias in about 450 BC. Attention will be given to Hippias’ association with Socrates, to his (Hippias’) conception of justice, and the dichotomy between natural law and man-made law.
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    Aristotle and the Eternal Caterpillar.
    (Department of Languages - Modern Greek, 2007) Couvalis, Spyridon George ; Roux, Suzanne Raymonde
    Design 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.