A handful of Greek cities and five urban mythologies
Volos, Patras, Thessaloniki, Ioannina and Iraklion; five Greek cities, five urban mythologies. In a new series, «A City in Literature,» published by Metaichmio Publishers, these cities are the protagonists, subjects and objects of their own mythologies, which have their own personae in contemporary urban life. Each volume in the series, edited by Costas Akrivos, is dedicated to one city, with someone who knows the city well as a guide: Akrivos for Volos, Costas Logaras for Patras, Takis Serefas for Thessaloniki, Christoforos Milionis for Ioannina and Christoforos Leontakis for Iraklion. Logaras bases his introduction on the geography of his city, setting up an internal dialogue among excerpts from texts written about Patras, juxtaposing, for instance, pieces by Dimitris Vikelas and Rea Galanaki. Akrivos presents Volos as a notional intersection on a Greek cross, between north and south, with mythology, geography and history radiating out from it. The series also uses black-and-white photographs, many of them by Kamilo Nollas, which help recreate the urban environment, sometimes in charmingly unfamiliar aspects. The culture of the Ionian Islands, Italian theatrical tradition, romantic novels from the West, together with the life and variety of Constantinople and the intellectual and literary vibrancy of Athens at that time are all reflected in his work. Xenopoulos made contributions to a wide range of literary fields, writing short stories, novels, plays, serialized fiction, criticism and adaptations.
