CULTURE

Jacques Lacarriere’s Greek passion

Jacques Lacarriere, a great philhellene, presented a special dictionary at the French Institute in Athens last Wednesday. His «Dictionnaire Amoureux de la Grece» (A Dictionary for Those Who Love Greece) was published in Greek recently by Hadzinikolis Editions. Among his many friends attending the event were film director Theo Angelopoulos, artist Alekos Fasianos and poet Titos Patrikios. At the French Institute, the author talked about all the «friends» who transcend time and generations: There are those who belong to the «day before yesterday,» such as Herodotus, Antigone, Aphrodite, Protagoras and Sappho, among others; those of «yesterday,» including Athos, Axion Esti, Alexandria, Byzantium, Digenis Akritas, Makriyiannis and Romanos the Melodos; as well as those of «today,» such as Santorini, George Seferis, Angelos Sikelianos, Costas Tachtsis, Alekos Fasianos, Giorgos Heimonas and Aris Alexandrou, among many more. As far as Lacarriere is concerned, all those referred to in the dictionary seem to have co-authored the book with him: «I feel that I’m in each word printed in the dictionary. Generally in dictionaries, the author keeps a distance from each word,» said Lacarriere. «But here, words seem to have a voice, they sound like music.» During the presentation, Lefki Molfessi and Despina Tomazani read in Greek and French from the dictionary. What did Lacarriere choose to start with? The komboloi and glyko tou koutaliou sweet. This old friend of Greece keeps the romance of the first encounter intact. Turnover was 78.66 million euros on 14.6 million shares traded. Losers beat winners 200 to 99, while 60 shares were unchanged on 359 traded. (Reuters)

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