Greek Goddesses: 4.Irene Papas

Irene Papas is like the Doric* ideal incarnate: solid, austere lines, drama in attitude, fortitude in distress. Beauty in the face of tragedy. And in tragedies she played indeed, with great aplomb.

Irene Papas in Antigone, 1961

[*of the Dorians, but also of the doric column style aesthetics]

She has said: "I never wanted to play sensational parts, or those of desirable women. I wanted to play me... the independent fighter...".


Zorba the Greek, 1964, by Michael Cacoyannis. Based on a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. Shot on the island of Crete, Greece.

Scenes from The Trojan Women in which Irene Papas plays Helen of Troy. Song Asma Asmaton/ Song of Songs lyrics set to music by Vangelis. 

Irene Papas in A ciascuno il suo

Irene Papas in Z by Kostas Gavras

Born as Irene Lelekou in 1926. She looks amazing for her age, with absolutely no "work" done.

photo taken a few years ago

photos via mlahanas.de, hotinsights.blogspot.com, icollector.com, thegoldenyears.org

"Study of the Classics is the Foundation of Our Culture"

Clip from the 1994 film The Browning Version, a remake directed by Mike Figgis, starring Albert Finney as Andrew Crocker-Harris, an embittered and disliked teacher of Greek and Latin at a British public school, forced to retire on pretext of his health and unhappily married to a wife who is unfaithful to him and wounds him constantly.
In his despair he finds parallels between his plight and Agamemnon, the Greek king coming back from the Trojan War only to be murdered savagely by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, as told in the tragic play Agamemnon by Aeschylus.

Sappho's Epithalamion (wedding hymn)

Recreated Greek music made by Petros Tabouris: "Melos Arheon"- Vol.1 Secular Music of Greek Antiquity.

You're an Hellene...Rise!

"Εἶσ' Ἕλληνας; Τί προσκυνᾶς; Σηκώσου ἀπάνω! Ἐμεῖς καὶ στοὺς θεοὺς ὀρθοὶ μιλοῦμε..."
Translation:
You're an Hellene [i.e.a Greek]. Why are you bowing down? Rise! We even talk to the Gods standing up...
The quote is attributed to Alexander the Great of Greek Macedon, talking to his soldiers, but also to Greek National Revolution hero Theodoros Kolokotronis. Showing a continuation of the same spirit.

Somehow subservience is the least Greek trait of them all. Even if it means there are consequences. Especially when there are consequences.

Bust of Alexander the Great from the British Museum, via wikimedia commons

Mary Katrantzou: Greek Designer in the London scene

The Greek designer works in London. Her latest collection is for Top Shop (hence the pic).

Raining Pleasure: Greek Pop

Pop hit "Fake", popularised by a telecommunications company TV commercial.


Cover of Abba's classic Dancing Queen, scenes from 2004 Greek film "Hardcore" directed by Dennis Iliadis.


"Nostalgia" from the homonymous 1998 album.

Greek Goddesses: 3.Sofia Vempo

"The singer of victory" she was nicknamed, for her patriotic and satirical songs that inspirited a whole nation during the Italo-Greek War, just before the plunderous Nazi occupation winter of 1941-1942. But Sofia Vempo (1910-1978) was so much more. "The voice of Greece", some said after the War.
A wonderful, memorable mezzo voice at any rate and a spirited actress retaining her integrity till the end.

Her debut? Anecdotal, as were many things in those old singers' lives. Living (after involuntary extritation of her family from Constaninople/Istanbul in 1914) in Volos and homesick of her brother Georgie who was studying in Salonica and hadn't written in a long time, in September 1933 she boarded the passengers' ship Cephallonia with her guitar and started singing to pass the time en route. Within minutes, the whole ship was around her, clapping and urging on, delighted in her voice.

She looked rather plain, compared to other beauties of the time, but her very feminine wiles, her generosity of spirit and her "brio" made her a very attractive woman.


"If only for a little while", 1943 slow foxtrot
Music by L.Rapitis, lyrics by M.Traiforos



Mysirlou (original version, sung by Sofia Vempo)
Music & Lyrics by Nick Rubanis


"It's the 13th of the month (accursed day)" a Zeibek dance
(Music by Manos Hadjidakis, from the 1955 film Stella by Michalis Cacoyiannis)
"They think I'm superstitious,
but fate wanted it that way,
that I'd remain an orphan on the 13th,
on the 13th to remain a widow as well..."

Her husband (and longtime musical partner) Mimis Traiforos wrote on her tombstone:
"My unbreakable Sofia, your glory is such that it cannot go any further.
And your soul has levered itself so high off your body, that you're sky, of earth made no longer."