Tuesday 30 August 2011

Santorini

Kokkoretsi. The insides of the sheep-heart ,liver,lungs,kidneys,brains, sweetbreads, everything- are cut into small pieces, heavily seasoned with mountain herbs and lemons and threaded on to skewers. The intestines of the animal are cleaned and wound round and round the skewers, which are then grilled very slowly on a spit.

(Elizabeth David. Mediterranean Food)












One thing I know,that I know nothing. That is the source of my wisdom.

(Socrates)

Saturday 20 August 2011

Santorini

Nobody can say a word against Greek: it stamps a man at once as an educated gentleman.

(George Bernard Shaw)












'the highest point a man can attain is not knowledge, or virtue, or goodness, or victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: sacred awe!"

(Nikos Kazantzakis. Zorba the Greek)

Thursday 11 August 2011

Santorini

The wine urges me on, the bewitching wine, which sets even a wise man to singing and to laughing gently and rouses him up to dance and brings forth words which were better unspoken.

(Homer. The Odyssey)












Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.

(Senator Robert F Kennedy)



Tuesday 2 August 2011

Santorini

At first was the name! We have already said that this yellow plaything is called a "komboloi". Now listen carefully to the meaning of that word. It is a compound word. The main part is "kombo" and the suffix is "oi". Kombo is a knot, but according to an ancient Greek interpretation "kombo" means a knock, a sound heard when two hard objects of the same material clash. The suffix "oi" means a  line of similar objects. So a line of knots or beads strung on a thread that move and knock against one another give us the picture of a "komboloi"

(Aris Evangelinos) The Komboloi and its history.













You should see the landscape of Greece. It would break your heart.

(Lawrence Durrell)