{"id":7,"date":"2011-03-12T18:46:24","date_gmt":"2011-03-12T18:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.onliners.eu\/?page_id=7"},"modified":"2022-01-23T11:27:31","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T11:27:31","slug":"myrtis-0","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.onliners.eu\/?page_id=7","title":{"rendered":"Myrtis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

di L. Seizani<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

by L. Seizani<\/p>\n

A daughter of Athens<\/p>\n

I originally wrote this poem during my student days at the University of Thessaloniki. Perhaps because I am a daughter of Athens, I was always very fond of it; and in 1990 I decided to include it in my second collection of poems, entitled “Cortes and Pizarro”, a slender volume published by “Domos” mainly for my friends.
\nThe poem echoes my impressions – then very fresh – from a visit, probably my first, to the Ceramicus, the cemetery of ancient Athens.<\/p>\n

MYRTI
\nYour face much pleases me
\nAs you look at me from the mirror
\nYour hair of another epoch
\nYour writings
\nYour mind
\nForgotten in the mist, in your past
\nYou leant forwards to look at yourself in the water
\nWhat did you see, Narcissus?
\nYou didn’t fall in love with yourself
\nYou were so pale and so tired
\nSo forlorn
\nOn the avenue of the tombs in Ceramicus
\nYou saw a fine representation of Hegeso
\nAnd of wealthy knight Dexileos, cut off in his prime
\nA majestic bull cast its shadow
\nAnd you walked towards Eridanus
\nWhich flows from Lycabettus
\nBut now only a swamp
\nThe mist from the past took you
\nWrapped you in its veils
\nNames mentioned by Xenophon
\nAnd the sun beating down, pitiless
\nOn the living and the dead alike
\nYour face much pleases me
\nLost now into the dusts of the Milky Way
\nDon’t, don’t clean the dust away
\nThere will be for you also
\nA stele in the Ceramicus
\nFor your life of another epoch
\nThessaloniki, 8th of March 1983
\n(translated by Dr Lionel Scott)<\/p>\n

It is now April 2010; 27 years have gone by. Some days ago, the newspapers in Greece announced the reconstruction of Myrtis’ face. She was a girl who died in the plague of 430 B.C.
\nDr.Manolis I.Papagrigorakis of the Orthodontics Department at the Univeristy of Athens led this difficult work. Along with his team, he “resurrected” Myrtis without knowing of my existence or of the “Myrti” of my poem. My dear friend and classmate from school, Dina Tiniakos, a pathologist and Associate Professor at the University of Athens, kindly sent my poem to Dr.Papagrigorakis, and he used it for his introduction when he presented the face of Myrtis to an Athenian public. I’d like to thank them both for giving such unexpected publicity to my old poem. I’m often impressed by the way in which poetry connects with science. Yet, as Mr. Papagrigorakis wrote in an e-mail he sent me, “the idea of a poet comes first”.<\/p>\n

L. Seizani
\nFirst published on 19.07.10<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.myrtis.gr<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

di L. Seizani<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":9,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.onliners.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.onliners.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.onliners.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.onliners.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.onliners.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.onliners.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.onliners.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.onliners.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}