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A soirée in Dafni
There are in fact plenty of nicer bits of Athens, all of them characterized by the fact that they are nowhere near the city center. My relatives and friends have taken me to several of them, including Kifisia and Palio Faliro and Glyfada.
And so it was that I ended up at Souare bar in Dafni, owned by relatives of my relatives. (To be precise: cousin’s godfather’s daughter.) Once again, a street between the band and the punters, but at least no cars crawling in between this time.
As the singer put it:
Music brings people together..
… Admittedly there is a street between us right now.
Balmy night, cool takes on the last 20 years’ pop (my cousin’s bf on drums).
And me feeling every one of my 51 years as I was standing up all night, and had been walking all day. Which is what a town with adequate public transport does to you.
The singer is under 30. OF COURSE her name is Iphigenia.
… This comment occasioned several queries among my Facebook followers, including Ed Conway’s inevitable:
Does she moonlight during the daytime in maritime logistical problem solving?
That aside:
Did Greece ever have the saints names law like France?
They had something better, the full moral force of the Orthodox Church.
Can you say a bit more about this change in Greek names, please?
Obviously not a follower on Quora as well:
- Nick Nicholas’ Answer to: Why do modern Greeks not have ancient Greek names?
- Nick Nicholas’ Answer to: Were ancient Greek names like Socrates, Ares, Athena, Aphroditi, etc. used by the Greeks during the Byzantine and Ottoman era?
Greek society is very traditional, and it was an inviolable law that kids are named after their grandparents, with saints’ names. A grandchild with the identical name as their grandfather (which was pretty inevitable for a first-born male son-of-son) would often be privileged in any inheritance; they were seen as perpetuating the grandfather’s name.
There was a slight violation of the dominion of saints’ names in the 19th century, with some names of Ancient Greek historical figures, in line with the project of reconnecting to the glorious Greek past; so Miltiades, Epaminondas, Leonidas, etc. Priests tended to put up with christening you with a pagan historical figure’s name instead of a saint, especially as you could usually find a minor saint with the same name anyway: such names were common enough in late antiquity.
Something quite different has happened in the last generation, with increased secularisation, and distancing from grandparents’ demands. Names of pagan deities and mythological figures, especially for women, and especially minor figures rather than deities: some Aphrodites and Athenas, but a lot more Iphigenias and Nepheles. But names of actual mythological figures were taboo for mortals in antiquity, and are just as taboo for the Church now, as they are outright favourable to paganism and not merely acknowledging Greece’s storied history. If you want your child to have a name like that, you either skip the christening and keep away from the Church, or you find a sufficiently accommodating priest.
A third cousin of mine is called Artemis, after her grandmother. But the corresponding saint is Artemisia (who was a historical figure), and the bishop christening her made sure that’s the name she got, not the goddess’s.
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