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E.O.E Newsletter | www.huanet.gr
an airport lounge. I have loved Greece since I went there for the first time at the age of 16. I will tell you a little story. I did Latin and Greek at school. I hated it, absolutely hated it. But I can still remember, for example, "Εν αρχή ην ο Λόγος, και ο Λόγος ην προς τον Θεόν, και Θεός ην ο Λόγος. Ούτος ην εν αρχή προς τον Θεόν. Πάντα δι αυτού εγένετο, και χωρίς αυτού εγένετο ουδέ εν ο γέγονεν." You will recognize that of course because you are Greek. It means, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God, and the Word was with God." It is the first two verses of the Gospel according to St. John. I could quote you a number of lengths of Latin and Greek texts. Nevertheless, I hated it. But when I was 16 and I left school. I couldn't get into medical school till I was 18. So, I went abroad and traveled around, at a time when you could do things you can't do now. I could walk from Egypt into Israel. Then, I walked across the Jordan River, into Syria, into Damascus, and then up to Nineveh and down through Baghdad and Babylon. I have been to the Wailing Wall and I saw the Jews and the Muslims together, praying to their Gods. On one occasion I was travelling with a friend of mind in the university summer vacation and we were on our way back from the Middle East through Turkey. We were doing quite well for a time so we decided to divert, to go down to Athens to fill that time. We arrived in the area of the Acropolis and we slept by the side of the road. The next day, we went up the Acropolis. There were no formal surroundings. It was just there and you walked up onto it, you went around all over it, and do whatever you like. It was all a very pleasant experience. I climbed up through the Propylaea with my friend and he walked straight on and up to the Parthenon. Then, he realized after a while that I wasn't there with him. He turned around and shouted back: "Tony, what are you doing?". I was standing there, looking at this stone. There was a stone just to the left, before you turned into the Propylea, with some writing on it. He came up and he pushed me, saying: "What are you doing?". I said: "I can read that.". He said: "What are you talking about?". I pointed to this small stone on the ground with the writing on it and I was getting more and more excited and said: "I can read that. I can really read that.". All of a sudden, my classical education at school all made sense. I subsequently went back home from Athens via Rome
and I had the same experience going to the Roman Forum there. All of a sudden, when you are there and you can touch things, it means something. I fell in love with the place then. The same happened with one or two other ancient places. In a sense, it's like when you have read the Bible and you have been to a European-style school and then you go to Nazareth and Bethlehem. You actually see these things, that people have been talking to you about when you were eight or nine years old and suddenly it means something. What I did subsequently was based on coming across a fantastic book, which was written by two people, Michael Ventris and John Chadwick, in the 1950’s called "Documents in Mycenaean Greek", about how they translated Linear B. They could read the tablets that had been found in Mycenaean Tiryns, Pylos, and other cities. For me, because I am even more romantic than some, the history of the Trojan War, the Mycenaean Greek activities, and all of the legendary names associated with it, that were found out from these documents and from the excavations at Troy and at Mycenae, are unbelievable. I am lost for words. Mycenaean Greece is my favorite part and I have to confess that Athens comes second, rather than first up the list. The history of Mycenaean Greece and the early history of the whole of that part of the world is very interesting. As for being a Professor of Medicine at the University of Crete, it was because of my constant visits to places in Crete. As you are aware, there is a number of spectacular Linear B-type excavations in Crete, as well as in Mainland Greece and this had come to my attention.
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