Athens Acropolis Museum - Dodona: The oracle of sounds exhibition

The Acropolis Museum started in 2015 a series of temporary exhibitions displaying important ancient artifacts, deriving from significant archaeological sites of the Greek periphery. The Museum’s goal is to present unusual subjects that will intrigue the current visitor and at the same time urge him to visit the places the exhibits originated from.

The second exhibition of the series concerns the Oracle of Dodona and it will open on 20 June 2016 and last until 10 January 2017. The exhibition aims at providing wider knowledge about the oldest Greek oracle, tracing the way it functioned, its role and importance in the ancient world, and at the same time showcasing the human need to predict the future.

The exhibit’s narration begins with Dodona during the late Bronze Age. Clay and bronze artifacts illuminate the identity of the first inhabitants, the primitive cult of Mother Earth (Earth Goddess) and the establishment of Zeus’ cult. The main interest in the exhibition lies in Zeus and his predominant presence in the sanctuary. The central theme is the prophetic oak tree that with the rustle of its leaves would answer the agonizing questions of people of what lies ahead. Prophecies were also given by priests who de-coded the sounds of bronze cauldrons and the cooing of pigeons. The excavations conducted in Dodona have brought to light some thousands of questions carved in metal sheets of lead, posed by visitors in the sanctuary. Some of these questions concern matters of trade, debts, assets, court decisions, health, fertility, upcoming marriage, dowries and widowhood and are presented in a separate unit of the exhibition. From the dedications in the sanctuary parts of bronze statues, parts of armory, swords and part of their suspensions, dedications from those who benefited from the gods or invoked their help are also displayed. Moreover, characteristic coins highlight the political aspect of the Oracle and its connection with Pyrros, the King of Epirus. Lastly, the relationship between the city of Athens and Dodona is presented by two exhibits from the Acropolis Museum.

The exhibition will be accompanied with a scientific catalogue of the items on display. On a big screen of the exhibition area a video presentation will provide information about the Oracle and the natural environment surrounding it.

During the exhibition, the Museum’s restaurant will offer treats from Ioannina.

The exhibition is conducted with the collaboration of the Acropolis Museum and the Ephorate of Antiquities of Ioannina. The exhibits are on a loan from the Ioannina Museum and the National Archaeological Museum, Carapanos Collection.

Source: http://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/en/content/dodona-oracle-sounds 

Qatar Airways: Special flight offers from Athens until today!!!!

Qatar Airways announces special offers that end today, 9th of May 2016, flying from Athens to many international destinations among them Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Beijing, Cape Town, Dubai, etc.

Travel duration: Form 9th of May 2016 - 5th of May 2017.

Prices starts from 360 Euro. More info here: http://www.qatarairways.com/gr/el/special-offers.page?

Two Athens eateries among 31 places to 'eat at before you die'

An Exarchia eatery where waiters invariably forget some part of an order and a restaurant in Metaxourgeio where no dish ever exceeds 7 euros are among “31 places around the world you should eat at before you die," according to BuzzFeed. The popular news and entertainment website recently asked a group of professional globetrotters to share their favorite culinary destinations around the world.

Jess Brammar, senior broadcast journalist on the BBC's “Newsnight” program, singled out Ama Laxei in Exarchia, central Athens, where, she writes, “the food is amazing – traditional Greek with a modern twist, lots of salads and plates to share.”

Although Brammar points out that the service leaves a lot to desire, she adds, “When you are sitting in an Athenian courtyard at midnight drinking wine and laughing with friends, who cares?"

When in Athens, Guardian feature writer Jon Henley visits Seychelles, a no-frills, price-is-right restaurant in Metaxourgeio. “The food is Greek with a slight but inventive and hugely satisfying twist, and its quality is astounding,” says Henley, who mentions juicy lamb cutlets with thyme and grilled vegetables with a “just-right” fig sauce among his favorite platters.

Covering the globe, the BuzzFeed list also showcases Umm Hagar in central Cairo, where the lucky diners to get the one single table at the restaurant get to savor whatever the cook feels like preparing on the day, Armand's, a small bistro on a Phnom Penh side street, where dishes include a tenderloin Rossini with foie gras, south Indian cuisine at Vijay's, northwest London, where platters include green mango prawn curry, as well as the two-Michelin-starred Don Alfonso 1890, an Italian restaurant overlooking the stunning Amalfi and Sorrento coasts where beef fillet in puff pastry with buffalo mozzarella is among the favorites.

Source: Kathimerini Newspaper

Direct Delta Airlines flight linking Athens with NYC

Delta Air Lines will inaugurate a direct flight linking Athens International Airport with JFK Airport in New York City, beginning on Tuesday, April 5.

Delta is celebrating its 25-year presence in Greece this year, having transported some 1.5 million passengers between Athens and the United States since November 1991.

One flight per day is scheduled until June 17, followed by two flights per day during the peak summer season until the end of September 2016.

A permanent direct air link between the Greece and the United States has been a standing desire of tourism professionals in the east Mediterranean country as well as the significant Greek expatriate communities of North America.  

Source: Naftemporiki Newspaper

'Worshipping Women: Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens' in National Archaeological Museum of Athens

An impressive exhibition titled "Worshipping Women: Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens" was inaugurated at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens by President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias on Monday night, in a ceremony also attended by culture minister Antonis Samaras.

The exhibition, through the 172 rare and extraordinary archaeological artefacts on display that are divided into five sections, explores the manifold ways in which women’s religious worship contributed not only to personal fulfillment, but also to the civic identity of the leading city of the Classical Greek world.

The first section of the exhibition introduces the principal of "Female Deities" of Athens and Attika, in whose cults and festivals women were most actively engaged: Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite, Demeter and her daughter Persephone. In between goddesses and mortals was a small group of heroines -explored in the next section-, women who were believed to have lived in the distant past and after their deaths became figures of cult worship.

The exhibition then enters the world of "Priestesses", historical and mythological, and looks at their visual iconography focusing on their principal attribute, the large temple key.

The several kinds of "Ritual Acts", some that apply universally to all cults and others that were specific to the worship of a particular divinity, are presented in the third section.

The fourth section deals with the participation of women in major religious "Feasts", such as the Panathenaia, or in strictly women’s feasts, such as Adonia or Thesmoforia.

The fifth and final section focuses on the "Life-Cycle" of Athenian women, from birth to death, highlighting certain key moments of transition and the role of ritual in each of these.

The exhibition, through the study of religion seeks to correct the unremittingly bleak picture that the lives of Athenian women were highly restricted when it came to public sphere and participation in the political process.

Women’s involvement in cults and festivals, whether alongside men or separate from them, was as essential for the successful functioning of the "polis" as that of any member of society.

The exhibition which will be on display through November 30, is part of a series of celebrations planned for the 180th anniversary since the Museum's founding and the 120th anniversary of its inauguration at its current premises on Patission street.

It is organised in collaboration with the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, and had previously been on display at the Foundation's Onassis Cultural Center in New York from December 2008 to May 2009.

Taking tango further, deeper ...in Athens

Bandoneonist Dino Saluzzi and cellist Anja Lechner bring lauded collaboration to Athens.

Anja Lechner (l) and Dino Saluzzi perform tomorrow at the three-day ECM Festival at the capital’s Vrachon Theater. It opens today with a concert by Greek pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos. Jazz-rock drummer Manu Katche ends the event on Wednesday.


Two virtuoso musicians, Argentinean bandoneonist and composer Dino Saluzzi and German cellist Anja Lechner, will pool their talents for one show at the ECM Festival, being staged in Athens for a second time, at the Vrachon Theater tomorrow.

«This musical dialogue is as close to perfection as any music I can recall,» music critic Richard Cook had noted in the Jazz Review, after hearing the pair perform. «Very few musicians are able to maintain their identity so strongly within the whirlpool of multicultural influences,» he continued.

A pivotal figure in Argentinean music, Saluzzi has contributed like few others to the development of the tango tradition. His compositions, uncontrived and innovative, often draw upon the musician's past as a child growing up in Argentina's north, the musicians he has encountered over the years and the early 20th-century vinyl records he has listened to. He speaks enthusiastically about older-generation bandoneonists, who each had «an individual perception on musical phrases and the intensity of melody.»

Born in 1935 in the provincial city of Salta, northwest Argentina, Saluzzi began playing bandoneon as a child with his father, a bandoneonist and a composer of Italian heritage. The young musician's fame did not take long to spread beyond his homeland. Invitations for performances at festivals abroad were extended early in Saluzzi's career. His inclusion on the roster of artists at the high-caliber German label ECM in the early 80s provided Salucci with the opportunity to reach a wider international audience.

«Saluzzi is a composer of contemporary music with the heart of a tanguero,» the Los Angeles Times wrote of Saluzzi. «His compositions highlight the melancholy element that is unique to tango. Nobody else has stretched the boundaries of this musical style to such an extent while also managing to maintain its character's purity.» Saluzzi's stage and recording collaborations have included work with American and European jazz musicians such as Charlie Haden, Pierre Favre and Al Di Meola. The bandoneonist's association with Lechner, a classically trained musician with a love of Argentina's common-folk tango style, has proven exceptional. Offering his views on the growing number of classical music artists who have occasionally chosen to include tango songs in their repertoires in more recent years, Saluzzi notes that «they're interpreted as if they're doing Mozart.»

Lechner's association with the song form began in 1980 when, along with pianist Peter Ludwig, they began to play «German tango in an Argentinean style,» as she notes. «At the time, all I knew was that I really loved this music.»

Not long afterward, Lechner attended a performance by Saluzzi in Munich. «I immediately realized that what he was doing was considerably deeper than simple tango,» says Lechner. «When we began playing together, I felt that I had entered a new world.»

A co-founder of the strings quartet Rosamunde, Lechner began exploring improvisation within traditional music. Lechner's collaborations include work with Greek pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos, which produced their recent «Melos» album. The German cellist's interest in improvisation was a key factor that led to her collaboration with Saluzzi. They began performing together in 2002 and, five years later, released «Ojos Negros» on the ECM label. The album was hailed by critics. «Anja united with the music, without losing her identity,» says Saluzzi. «She has her own sound and character and this culturally enriches our collaboration.»

By Aggeliki Stoupaki - Kathimerini

Free Internet in Gazi - Athens

Athens citizens and visitors will have access to free high-speed wireless internet in the Gazi area, within the framework of the Information Society Operational Programme, according to an announcement by the Athens Municipality.

The project, which began on July 1, is incorporated in the Information Society SA Digital Strategy and was completed with the support of the City of Athens IT Company (DAEM) and the Municipality's Information Technology Department, which coordinated all participating bodies to ensure its effective and rapid delivery.

The installation of state-of-the-art equipment in a central building at the City of Athens Technopolis ensures coverage of all of the complex's outdoor areas as well as Kerameikos Square and former Korean Market Square. The specific area is one of the largest in Greece in terms of provision of free wireless internet access by a state body.

Visitors to Technopolis and the surrounding area can access the internet with the use of the necessary equipment, such as a laptop computer, PDA or mobile phone, as well as wireless WiFi networks.

A similar network has already been installed in three public areas within the City of Athens, via the Operational Programme, namely Syntagma Square, Kotzia Square and Thissio.

The wireless network was created in order for citizens and visitors to familiarize themselves with high-speed internet and promote the numerous capabilities and services it can offer us in our day-to-day life and work.

New Acropolis Museum visitors

The New Acropolis Museum received 90,000 visitors in the first seven days since its official inauguration on June 20, Culture Minister Antonis Samaras disclosed on Monday.

Speaking during a press conference, the minister said that the cost of the inauguration events, which were attended by several foreign heads of state and government, did not exceed the anticipated sum of 3 million euros, adding that the targets his ministry had set regarding the ceremony were met, especially the coverage from international mass media.

Four hundred and forty journalists representing 167 international mass media organisations were hosted for the three-day inauguration events, while the cost of the ceremony itself amounted to 1,860,090 euros plus VAT, Samaras explained.

The average number of tickets for the e-ticketing section for the first five days reached 11,000, while visits to the new museum's website exceeded 260,000 from the Americas to Nepal and Mongolia.

The culture minister also announced that the museum will be open from 8 am to 8 pm all year round.



Caption: Some 90,000 visitors swarmed to the New Acropolis Museum in the first week since its official inauguration on June 20. (ANA-MPA/K. Mavrona)

Source: Athens News Agency

Athens Transportation: New 'tourist ticket' for Athens

The Athens public transport organisation OASA on Monday unveiled a new three-day ticket costing 15 euros that will be valid for travel on all means of public transport in and around the city, that will begin to be offered from Wednesday.

The new "tourist ticket" has been designed to act as a travel card for those visiting Athens for short stays. It gives unlimited travel for three full days after it is first used, including journeys to and from the airport and the 400 OASA Athens sight-seeing bus.

The new ticket will be on sale at the ETHEL buses at the airport, the Proastiakos suburban railway stations at the airport, Larissis and Piraeus, Syntagma metro station and the ISAP electric railway stations at Piraeus and Omonia.

Source: Athens News Agency

Athens: 10 years European Music Day!! 18-23 June 2009

European Music Day events will take place between 18-23 June 2009!

The European Music Day is gladly entering its 10 year of existence in Greece. Only in Athens, more than 800 music acts or 6.000 artists have shared the experience with 500.000 attendants… so far!

Development in the field of artistic exchanges and expansion of collaborations has set the basis for renewal towards our 10 year celebrations and give us inspiration to plan new activities and more challenging artistic events.M.E.S.O., founder and coordinator of the European Music Day Network in Greece keeps the sight to the future and takes up the initiative to host the first International European Music Day Meeting in Athens on Monday, 6 October 2008.

Leading members from the international network (Belgium, England, Greece, Italy, Spain, Switzerland), members of the Hellenic network and cooperators from allover Greece will come together with potential collaborators, cultural organizations or potential supporters in order to exchange experience, solutions and share projects.

Held at the Nomiki Bibliothiki Conference Hall(s) (Law’s Library) in the centre of Athens (Mavromichali 23), workshops are carefully structured so as to cover aspects of the European Music Day activities. In addition, the agenda will address issues regarding further network functions, communication, common future projects, artistic exchanges and collaborations for this milestone year and ahead. One of the primary targets of this meeting is to establish and expand the existing network through motivation for collaborations on all levels.

Holding a firmly innovative position, M.E.S.O. looks forward to the fruitful outcome of this unique meeting that shall reveal existing potentials and new channels.

European Music Day 2008 - 14 Locations in Athens!

• Asomaton square 19-21/6
• Syntamga square 20/6
• Klauthmonos square 19-20/6
• Kotzia Square 19-21/6
• Koumoundourou square 19-21/6
• Kerameikos square 19-21/6
• Mavilli square 21/6
• Riga Pallamidou St./ Yoga Bala 20/6
• Panormou St./ Santa Boteila / 20-21/6
• Avramiotou St. / Kinky Kong / 20/6
• Peiraous St. / Bios 19 -21 / 6
• National Garden 20/6
• Technopoli 19 - 20 / 6
• S. Karagiorga & Lazaraki St. Fnac store Glyfada 21/6

source: http://www.musicday.gr/home.php?lang=2