“Without doubt, our schemes are proceeding admirably.”

– C.P. Cavafy, “Exiles”, translated by John Ash.

#poetry #cavafy

Cavafy's poetry
in whispers
and roars
all month long
ONASSIS USA

📖 | ow.ly/NlzM50RcCZ2

And I thought how I’d lost forever
his beauty, lost forever
the young man I’d worshipped so passionately.

✍️ The poetry of C.P. Cavafy is more than a century old, but there's a good reason his work continues to resonate in contemporary culture. #PoetryMonth allarts.org/2024/04/who-wa… with @onassisusa

Gm. Try to live in such a way that you get buried by a castle with an epitaph from a Greek poet (Cavafy) describing you as “that best of all things, Hellenic.”

The huge Hadrianic bronze of the Apis bull, found beneath Alexandria’s Serapeum, is also on display.

Serapis, a syncretic god combining Osiris-Apis (Userhapi, whence Serapis) with the Greek image of underworld god Hades, was patronised and encouraged by the Ptolemaic court /5

Capping our visit to Alexandria at the phenomenal (and newly opened) Graeco-Roman museum - home to one of the best collections in Egypt, and (in my mind, at least) best collection of Hellenistic artefacts in the world /1

Majestic icon of Archangels Michael and Gabriel, from 14th century Constantinople.

The sign of 'ΑΓΙΟC ΑΓΙΟC ΑΓΙΟC', with the meaning of Holy or Saint, was also used in actual war campaigns at least from the middle Byzantine era.

When Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453 the ancient statue of Justinian still stood watching over the City on its lofty column, Pierre Gilles saw the shattered fragments of it a century later:

“For the barbarians despoiled the column of Justinian of all its bronze…

وسط البلد، الإسكندرية ٢٠٢٤

Remembering visiting C.P. Cavafy's house with rehhevel

“For they remembered that they too were Greeks.”

– C.P. Cavafy, “Inhabitants of Paestum”, translated by Rae Dalven.

#poetry #cavafy

According to Plutarch, on 7 April c.331 BC, Alexander the Great founded the Egyptian city of Alexandria, which ultimately became home to his own tomb, the Ptolemaic dynasty, the famed Library, and the Pharos lighthouse; a bustling metropolis of high culture and higher drama.

I’m broke and practically homeless.
This fatal city, Antioch,
has devoured all my money.

One of the greatest features of the Hagia Sophia are the marble revetment panels which gloriously adorn its walls.

Here are 7 pictures showcasing their splendor:

One of the more remarkable sites preserved deep under modern Alexandria is the complex of catacombs at Kom el Shoqafa - a Roman burial necropolis snaking under the modern streets, with striking examples of late Egyptian art as it transformed into its latest iteration /1

I find
nothing humiliating or undignified
in those little pieces of colored glass.

— Cavafy, Of Colored Glass

tr. Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard

There aren’t a lot of Byzantine items at the Louvre Museum, sadly. But here are a few items I found. They are lovely!

A long walk around the bay, once the harbour of Alexandria now sunk beneath the Mediterranean, brings us to a giant mole, which runs out from where once stood the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

A Mamluk fort, built by Sultan Qa’it Bay in the 15th century, sits atop its stump 1/3

Yesterday afternoon, I had the pleasure of going to the Cavafy Archive’s (relatively) new mini-museum. Among seeing many possessions of the poet and autograph manuscripts of his poems, my favourite was seeing Κρυμμένα (‘Hidden Things’) in the flesh!