Kyriakos D. Kassis

Kyriakos Kassis was born in the Palyro of Mani, and raised in the land of Laconia. He grew up speaking Laconian Greek|(a primordial survival of archaic Greek language. In 1958, at the age of twelve, he went to Athens in order to continue his education. There, coming in contact with the epic work of Homer, he realized that the language used by Homer, and the many usages and customs described, were very familiar to him from his local region.

In 1964, he joined the Legal Faculty of the University of Athens (Legal, Political and Economic Study). Between 1971 and 1973 he attended the Stavrakou Faculty for film making (studying Script and Directing), as well as concerning the art of Greek animation. He also attended in 1978 seminars concerning the preservation of fresco and wall paintings.

During the Greek military dictatorship (1968–1974) he became involved in the opposing student movement. He was heavily wounded at the occupation of the Law school in February 1973. A principal personality of the Athens Polytechnic uprising, Kassis sought change of the entire political system.

Kassis became adept in drawing by the age of 10. His work was displayed many times in the decade from 1968 to 1978, in Athens, Piraeus, Sparta, Gythion and other provincial cities. His work incorporated folkloric elements. He portrayed rural life, as he himself had experienced, such as the harvest, thresher work, the olive harvest, olive pressing, fishing, and hunting quails. He also frequently painted historical compositions in large format, employing a post-modern naïve style.

Kyriakos Kassis self-portrait

In 1970 he had a role in the editing of the historical dictionary of the Academy of Athens. Kassis donated a part of his linguistic research regarding the dialect of Mani to the linguistic arm of the Academy of Athens, earning his first award (1968–1971). Afterwards, he worked at the advertising company Aronis-Eythymiadis, illustrating animation. It was then that he began systematically compiling Greek comics and popular literature.

After the inauguration of the democratic regime, for a small interval time he worked at writing film reviews, until March 1975, using the pseudonym D. Pikasis. After military service, beginning in 1976 he dedicated a long portion of his time to working to preserve wall paintings and murals in the Byzantine Falcon of Mystra. Other preservation projects included the churches of the Peloponnese, Delos, Santorini, and Thebes.

From 1981 until today, Kassis has been a film maker. He has been behind more than 10 documentaries, such as The Other Greece (1981) by G. Sgoyraki. The first film in this series was Mani, with poetic speech and recitation by Kassis; the second, Monemvasia, with speech and recitation by Yannis Ritsos; the third, Mansions of Mitilini with speech and recitation of Odysseus Elytis; and the fourth, Pilion by Kitsos Makris. The triptych film Walking in Mani, shot in 1988, with Lefteri Haroniti and Kassis as speaker and scientific collaborator. Kassis was also sent as representative of the Greek production to the Canne Festival.

As of 2013, Kassis has made two discographic works: Maniatika, in 1980 for the Lyra company; and Doric Odes in 1999, in which Alkistis Protopsalti and Nikolas Mitsovoleas sang vocals. In these songs, the music and lyric frame Kassis' Mani municipal identity, some of the songs being entirely his own.

Starting in 1960, traveling to the settlements of Mani still exhibiting archaic traits, Kassis captured many memories from elders, creating a large repository of historical and linguistic documentation.

The records compare elegies and their histories, but also singular forms of speech such as songs, dirges, elegies, folklore, proverbs, fairy tales, ethos, customs and idioms. His research resulted in thousands of handwritten pages and 250 cassette-tapes. Much of the material was either unknown or neglected, providing a later source record for researchers.[1][2][3]

Kassis wrote some 25 volumes of Mani culture. Critics and researchers of his compilations included Helen Vlahou, Tasos Leivaditis, Tasos Vournas, Kostas Stamatiou, Fani Petralia, Dimitris Stamelos, Kostas Romaios, Samouel Beau Bovy, and Mixalis Meraklis.

During the 1990 presentation of Kassis' book of Flowers of the Stone, in the municipal theatre of Piraeus, Nikiforos Vrettakos said: "I have watched the polymorphic activity of Mr. Kassis that extends in a lot of creative fields. Poet – Historian – Folklore researcher – Teacher. A teacher that teaches the love for the homeland and the respect for its history. Him I greet with particular love". After Kassis read his poetic collection Ivasmata, a reviewer wrote on 15 November 1990: "Each intellectual person is a guide that proposes a movement in the game of our social and aesthetic life and this movement or happening or not, winning or losing, is played in the same game. Kyriakos Kassis suggests in his entire creative course ANOTHER game with its base at the sense and the experiences of centuries, the life and the mind of centuries. He suggests an opinion purified, that has its starting line before the beginning of the current culture, before its decay. This concealed meaning is diffusive in all his work…".

Kassis has written and published over 63 volumes of poetry, drama, history, folklore, essays, and research. Three of his poetical works were epic and lyrical compositions, at times employing archaic and obscure language and imagery.

In 1982 he published in theatrical form the plays Hipparchus, the Cynic Philosopher, and Sappho. In 1986 he wrote a study Theatre in the Mountain, in 2006, twenty four essays of historical theatre, and in 2008, the comedy Othello.

Other publications in the folkloric domain encompass Greek Popular Novels 1840 -1940 (1981/1983), Sotiris Hristidis, Great Popular Painter (1983), The Alter-Literature in Greece (1985), and The Written Karagkiozis (1985). In 1998 Kassis published Greek Alter-Literature and Comic Books 1598–1998, a compendium of Greek alternative literative such as folklore and comics.

Some books he edited books for the Ministry of Culture include Mayakovsky, Varnalis, Simone Bolivar, Hungarian painters, Kostis Palamas, Greece-Venezuela- Approximations and Figurative Testimonies from the National Resistance.

Among his history works are: The True and Inside History of Hellenism (two volumes 1998, 2000); Atlantis, Ancient Populations and Hellenism, the Prehistory of the Mediterranean (2000); Anti-authoritarians and Thieves in the Mountains of Greece 1821–1871 (2000); Forgotten or Unknown Heroes and Heroines of the Greek Revolution 1821–1827 (2003); The Conquest of Rhodes from Ottomans in 1523 (2005); Jesus was Greek (2007); and the Greek-Bible (2010).

Speculative works and theories encompass the fusion of glaciers in Northern Europe; the erosion of the Bosphorus, with the discharge of waters in the Mediterranean; the activation of volcanoes in Aigiida, and therefore the activity of her tectonic plates; the sinking of Atlantis, which Kassis places in Western Africa; the conjunction of parts of areas of Africa with the mud that in the end became the sand of Sahara, linking Ethiopia, the Tritonida, Kyrini and Atlantis, condensing into so-called "Afrika". His output also includes the genealogy and dissemination of peoples Kassis identifies as Greeks: (Minion, Leleges, Havana, Myrmidons, Minoans, and Arkadians.

Poetry – Theatre

1. (1968). "Liokaris". p80. Publications: Ihoe (reprints: 1974, 1980, 1986, 1990, 1996)
2. (1975). "Poems A". p80.
3. (1975). "Poetry 7". Publications: Kastanioti
4. (1985). "Am'agalmata". p64.
5. (1986). "The theatre in the Mountain" – Unknown Comedies. p160.
6. (1983). "Sappho'". p56.
7. (1983). "Hipparchus, the cynic philosopher". p56.
8. (1992). "Iva'smata". p48.
9. (1999). "Orfalwn". p142.
10. (1999). "Kyrikos". p50.
11. (2000). "The Big Greek Erotologion". p312.
12. (2004). "Forgotten or Unknown genuine heroes and heroines of the Greek revolution 1821–1827". Twenty four theatrical plays of argued history. p320.
13. (2005). "The Conquest of Rhodes from the Ottomans in 1522"
14. (2007). "Othellos apologizes". Comedy in 1.100 verses.
15. (2007). "Jesus".
16. (2010). "GREEK-BIBLE". p688. Publisher: A.P.E.L.L.A of Greeks.

History

1. (1982). "The thieves – Ntavelis".
2. (1998). "The genuine and inside history of Hellenism", volume 1. p372.
3. (2000). " The genuine and inside history of Hellenism", volume 2. p304.
4. (2000). "Antiauthoritarians and Thieves in the mountains of Greece", volume 1. p368.
5. (2000). "Atlantis: The truth for the lost Continent". p288.
6. (2000). "Prehistory of Mediterranean: Ancient Populations and Hellenism". p288.
7. (2000). "Sparta – Athens, Truths and Lies". p288
8. (2007). "Jesus was Greek"
9. (1981) "The Greek Folklore Fiction". Volume 1. p118.
10. (1983) "The Greek Folklore Fiction". Volume 2. p210.
11. (1983). "Sotiris Christidis, the great folklore painter". p32.
12. (1985). "The Written Karagkiozis". p48.
13. (1985). "The Alter-Literature in Greece". p186.
14. (1998). "Greek Alter-Literature and Comicbooks". p208.

For the Folklore Culture – History – Language etc. of Mani

1. (1977). "History of Mani". p180. (reprints 1978, 1980, 1983, 1990)
2. (1978/1979). "Genealogies or Clans In Mani". p68.
3. (1979). "Berlina of Maniaton"
4. (1979). "Funeral Songs of Mani". Volume 1. p512.
5. (1980). "Funeral Songs of Mani". Volume 2. p416.
6. (1981). "Funeral Songs of Mani of the 20th century – Interwar – Axis Occupation – Civil War and recent history" Volume 3. p368.
7. (1980). "Folklore of Inside Mani – Material life". Volume 1. p304.
8. (1981). “Folklore of Inside Mani – Intellectual Life". Volume 2. p224.
9. (1981). "Folklore speech in Mani, Proverbs – Figures of Speech – Καταφωνήσεις". Volume 3. p280.
10. (1982). "The linguistic idiom of Mani – Study". p80.
11. (1982). " The linguistic idiom of Mani – the Dictionary". p408.
12. (1982). "The forgotten and unknown old-maniatic dance (hellenic), ancestor of Syrtou". p32.
13. (1983). "Folklore Speech in Mani, Magarotragouda – Ksesteroglossimata – Conundrums, etc". Volume 2. p36.
14. (1983). "Satires of Mani". p372.
15. (1983). "125 Fairy Tales of Mani". p340.
16. (1983). "Folklore Sculpture in Mani". p140.
17. (1984). "Satiric Logos in the Mani". p192.
18. (1985). "Depictions and Paintings'". p64.
19. (1985). "The songs and elegies of Southern Peloponnese (Mani – Taygetos – Parnonas)". Volume 1. p436.
20. (1985). "Anecdotes of real persons". p414.
21. (1988). "Flowers of Stone". p254.
22. (1990). "Flowers of Stone-the pre-medieval, medieval and more recent families and churches in Mani". p550.
23. (1993). "64 Fairy Tales of Mani". p168.
24. (1993). "Weaponry and fighting condition of people of Mani during the Ottoman domination". p10
25. (1993). "Supernatural Phenomena: Pretexts, Ghosts etc ". (Authentic Narrations). p48
26. (1997). "The cultural presence of Lakonia in the human culture"
27. (1998). "Exploits and lousier"
28. (1998). "Two hundred Logografoi from Mani". p192.
29. (2000). "Legends of Tainarou". p352.
30. (2006). "The Ancient-Greek ancestry of Koulourianoi". p192.
31. (2007). "The Family Tagarouljas – Krialakos of Mani". p80.
32. (2008). "Fairy Tales of Mani", Volume 3. p580.
33. (2008). "My Own Fairy tales". p112.

• Listing of some books of the writer
• Talk between Kyriakos Kassis and Christos Goudis about Mani
• Ta Nea Okt 1990