Following the concert dedicated to the music of Mikis Theodorakis which took place last Monday at the new harbour in Kolymbari, the composer’s connection with the area was noted at the launch of a new book, Kolymbari – socioeconomic history and folklore, by Haris Naxakis which took place at the Orthodox Academy of Crete on Wednesday evening (9th August). A substantial audience had gathered in the courtyard in front of the Academy’s auditorium building to hear tributes from local authority figures, an address by the author, extracts from the book and a concluding programme of Cretan music.
The event was coordinated by Matthaios Frantzeskakis, representing the publisher Pyxida, and after a brief introduction by him there followed addresses from the Deputy Regional Governor for Chania Nikos Kalogeris and the mayor of Platanias Giannis Malandrakis, who both contributed forewords to the book. There were statements from Ioannis Thomadakis, a former president of the community of Kolymbari, and Manolis Rosmaris, a former mayor, and from the Protosynkellos of the Metropolis of Kissamos and Selino, representing the Academy’s President, Metropolitan Amphilochios.
The Director of the Academy, Dr Kostas Zorbas, then gave an address in which he warned of the dangers of “hypertourism”, and the need for Kolymbari to avoid the fate of over-developed tourist destinations in both Greece and abroad. Decrying the continual acceleration of economic development, he suggested Kolymbari needs what he described as “dynamic stabilisation”, avoiding the move towards ever more massive hotel complexes and aiming to create a community which is adapted to the needs of its inhabitants, and not just those of tourists. Development, he suggested, should be the result of collaboration between all parties; it is communities which have made Crete and the nation great.
As a prelude to an address by the author himself, an extract was read from the book’s introduction which quotes Mikis Theodorakis, in his autobiography The Roads of the Archangel, describing his first encounter with Cretan music at a wedding in Kolymbari:
“My contact with the history, the myths and the music of Crete now yielded its first musical fruit. I was electrified by the Haniotic syrtos, especially that which Therianos danced under the great fir tree. I was to hear the same tune at the wedding of a relative, a reserve officer in Kolymbari, where I was taken by my cousin Giorgios Antonioudakis. After the religious ceremony at the church and lunch at the bridegroom’s house, the guests and their fellow villagers transferred to a large kafenion beside the sea. That rhythmic bastinado took root in me, combined with the black and white hieratic movement of the male and the multicoloured paganistic undulation of the female. Notes and people became one within me. Sounds and myths became entangled in the mind…
“I believe that those hours of the day and night at Kolymbari were very important for me. Because I acquired a new musical foundation, upon which I was to build my new music.”
“Author’s note: The event described by M. Theodorakis took place in 1950 in what was then the Kafenion of M. Christodoulakis, and is now the Argentina fish restaurant.”
The author Haris Naxakis then took the podium and first thanked the Regional Unit of Chania and the Municipality of Platanias for their support in producing the book. He noted that further funding was needed for a projected bilingual edition in Greek and English, which he hoped would be funded by the tourist companies. He then proceeded to give an outline of the contents of the book, which he said presents the social and economic history and folklore of the community of Kolymbari from antiquity to the present day.
Beginning with the neolithic cave settlement of Ellinospilio, on the coast just north of Afrata, where traces of early human occupation were found in 1905, the story continues through the religious settlement of Roman times at Diktina on the Spatha peninsula, the Venetian and Ottoman periods and the German occupation during the 2nd World War.
The main part of the book concerns the modern period from 1900, when Kolymbari first appeared in an official census. It covers the foundation and development of the community, population growth, agricultural production and the development of tourism.
The folklore section includes information on place names, a short vocabulary of the Cretan dialect, notes on local foods, wild greens and herbs, local customs such as the kleidonas ritual, and the traditional distillation of raki or tsikoudia. The final chapter covers education and local institutions such as the Gonia Monastery and the Orthodox Academy of Crete.
Concluding his address, the author echoed Mr Zorbas’s plea for a brake on tourism and greater exploitation of local resources, noting that in Greece as a whole, local products only account for 13 per cent of tourist consumption. He also identified three priorities for local development – the rehabilitation of abandoned public buildings such as the Fishing Museum to be used for public services, the creation of a World War II museum using the many relics of the German occupation in the area, and avoidance of further erosion of Kolymbari Beach with the construction of the remaining four breakwaters already planned.
The event concluded with a programme of Cretan music played by Stavros Psaroudakis, lyra and voice; Giorgos Psaroudakis, lute and voice; and Giannis Kochler, guitar and voice. Free copies of the book were distributed to those present.
A full video of the event can be seen on the Orthodox Academy’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbWRBNGptpk