Phoebe Giannisi "Kernos: A Plate For All" [02 Olive Oil and The House]

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Olive Oil and The House

*EVENING. IN THE KITCHEN. VOLOS. DECEMBER 2011.

Die Kr端ge

The Jars

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Moreover Polemon, in the treatise On the Sacred Fleece, says: “After these preliminaries (the priest) proceeds to the celebration of the mystic rites; he takes out the contents of the shrine and distributes them to all who have brought round their tray (kernos).

The latter is an earthenware vessel, holding within it a large number of small cups cemented together. And in them are sage, white poppy-seeds, grains of wheat and barley, peas, vetches, okra-seeds, lentils, beans, ricewheat, oats, compressed fruit, honey, oil, wine, milk, and sheep’s wool unwashed.

The man who carries it, resembling the bearer of the sacred winnowing-fan, tastes these articles.”

Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists XI, 478d

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περὶ δὲ τῆς ἐλαίας οὐδὲν ἔχουσιν ἄλλο εἰπεῖν ἢ τῇ θεῷ μαρτύριον γενέσθαι τοῦτο ἐς τὸν ἀγῶνα τὸν ἐπὶ τῇ χώρᾳ: λέγουσι δὲ καὶ τάδε, κατακαυθῆναι μὲν τὴν ἐλαίαν, ἡνίκα ὁ Μῆδος τὴν πόλιν ἐνέπρησεν Ἀθηναίοις, κατακαυθεῖσαν δὲ αὐθημερὸν ὅσον τε ἐπὶ δύο βλαστῆσαι πήχεις.

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 27. 2

[Near the temple of Athena Polias on the Akropolis of Athens] About the olive tree they have nothing to say except that it was testimony the goddess produced when she contended for their land. Legend also says that when the Persians fired Athens the olive was burnt down, but on the very day it was burnt it grew again to the height of two cubits.

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 27. 2: Translated by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A.

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The terrible winter of 1941-1942 through its humanitarian crisis mainly decimated large urban centers. The starvation, caused by the German occupation, spread devastation.

Νά! ή φ’στάναις!

Alexandros Papadiamandis

On one hand, the Nazis pillaged agricultural production and on the other, they closed their eyes to the crimes of their predatory partners, who would trade a can of olive oil for expensive houses in the center of Athens.

μας ήρθαν πάλι ή φ’στάναις!

Alexandros Papadiamandis, The wheat chaff gatherer

It is estimated that under this scheme of unbearable oppression, 400 000 citizens sold some or all of their property and nearly half a million died of hunger.

There’s the skirts!

Alexandros Papadiamandis

The skirts’ with us again!

Alexandros Papadiamandis, The wheat chaff gatherer:Translated

by Konstantinos Matsoukas

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Τί νὰ κάμῃ, ἔβαλε τὰ δυνατά της, κ᾽ ἐπροσπαθοῦσε ὅπως-ὅπως νὰ ζήσῃ τὰ δύο ὀρφανά. Τί ἀξιολύπητα, τὰ καημένα! Κατὰ τὰς διαφόρους ὥρας τοῦ ἔτους, ἐβοτάνιζε, ἀργολογοῦσε, ἐμάζωνε ἐλιές, ἐξενοδούλευε. Ἐμάζωνε κούμαρα καὶ τὰ ἔβγαζε ρακί. Μερικὰ στέμφυλα ἀπ᾽ ἐδῶ, καμπόσα βότσια ἀραβοσίτου ἀπ᾽ ἐκεῖ, ὅλα τὰ ἐχρησιμοποίει. Εἶτα κατὰ Ὀκτώβριον, ἅμα ἤνοιγαν τὰ ἐλαιοτριβεῖα, ἔπαιρνεν ἕνα εἶδος πῆχυν, ἓν πενηντάρι ἐκ λευκοσιδήρου, μίαν στάμναν μικράν, κ᾽ ἐγύριζεν εἰς τὰ ποτόκια, ὅπου κατεστάλαζαν αἱ ὑποστάθμαι τοῦ ἐλαίου, κ᾽ ἐμάζωνε τὴν μούργα. Διὰ τῆς μεθόδου ταύτης ᾠκονόμει ὅλον τὸ ἐνιαύσιον ἔλαιον τοῦ λυχναρίου της. Ἀλλὰ τὸ πρώτιστον εἰσόδημα τῆς θεια-Ἀχτίτσας προήρχετο ἐκ τοῦ σταχομαζώματος.

Alexandros Papadiamandis, The wheat chaff gatherer

What choice was there, she did her best and tried by hook and by crook, to keep the two orphans. How pitiful, the poor souls! In the year’s different seasons she weeded, gathered olives, went for chores at people’s homes. She collected wild berries and brewed raki. Some left over grapes here, some corn cobs there, she left nothing go to waste. And then, as October came round, once the olive oil press mills opened, she would take a kind of measure, a tinplate vessel of fifty grams, a small container and would do the rounds of the pits where the oil slowly collected, gathering the solid yield at the bottom. By these means she secured her yearly supply – for her oil lamp.

But the main income of aunt Achtitsa originated from the wheat chaff gathering.

Alexandros Papadiamandis, The wheat chaff gatherer: Translated

by Konstantinos Matsoukas

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Olive Oil and The House

*EVENING. IN THE KITCHEN. VOLOS. DECEMBER 2011.