There were Mary Stewart books set in Greece that I loved as a teenager: This Rough Magic, The Moon-Spinners, and My Brother Michael.

In my area of Tidewater, VA, we have lots of folk of Greek descent. They hold a huge Greek festival of several days in June, here, with authentic dancing, marvelous foods, lamb roasted on a spit outdoors, and a bazaar with imported Greek goods and hand made crafts and art work.

I had always found the myth of Cupid and Psyche very beautiful and moving. C.S. Lewis wrote a novel taking off from this myth, called "Til We Have Faces."

I have long loved certain books by Mary Renault: "The King Must Die" (about ancient Crete) and "The Bull From the Sea", and "The Persian Boy" (about Alexander the Great).

I recommend the Durrell books about the Greek Islands. But, then, I think I am the only person on this forum who liked John Fowles' "The Magus", which is very evocative of parts of rural Greece.

Favorite films about Greece: the classic, "Never on a Sunday" and "Zorba the Greek."

Favorite Greek island? Santorini.

I am a true Grecophile, so don't even get me started.....

I love Greek festivals! We have a few here in Massachusetts, too.

I haven't read either Mary Stewart or Mary Renault. I'm adding them to my TBR list.

Of course, I forgot about the Durrells. I thought Masterpiece theater did a nice job with My Family and Other Animals.

But Woodnymph, the whole point of the thread is to get the Grecophiles started. :)

It's interesting that as Westerners when we think of Greece, we immediately think of the classical heritage, and yet one could argue that Byzantine history is as important and lasted far longer. I just saw a new history at the library Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire by Judith Herrin.

I'll go to Delphi and take the Mary Stewart books with me. Walking up the Sacred Way was awesome. The Parthenon wasn't bad, either.

My drink preference is caffe frappe. Yum!

Hope they can save the Parthenon from further erosion due to air pollution, in Athens. Ironically, the Elgin Marbles which were removed amidst controversey to England, now stored in museum basements, are far better preserved....

Merry, did you read "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" or "Birds Without Wings" by des Bernieres? I liked both of these, and the latter one deals with both Turkish and Greek cultures, and how the 2 are remarkably interlinked, despite having been at war many times.

Eleni by Nicholas Gage and Cavafy's wise poem
ITHAKA - my contributions
Despite being involved in a terrible tragedy there - I remember my days lived in Greece with some sweet longing

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that one on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfumes of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean

Constantine P. Cavafy

Jankin, that is a wonderful poem and it was one of the late Jacqueline Kennedy's favorites.

On a lighter note, I have to put in highest praise for Baklava and Spanokopitas!

merry, I've never been to Greece so have no first-hand knowledge of the country but you might enjoy the following: Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese and Roumeli:Travels in Northern Greece both by Patrick Leigh Fermor and maybe his Ill Met by Moonlight about Crete.
Lawrence Durell (older brother of Gerald) was a strange/troubled man and wrote about his not altogether happy time on Cyprus in Bitter Lemons.

Jankin,

That is one of my favorite poems. I copied it into my Common Book when I went off to Ithaca, NY for some "higher learnin'".

Woodnymph, Corelli's Mandolin is one of my favorite books of all time. Birds Without Wings is on my TBR. For some reason, I haven't picked it up yet. I also have excellent recipes for Baklava and Spanakopita.

Veer, I loved Fermor's Mani. Haven't read Roumeli nor the one about Crete.

By the way, Nicholas Gage's daughter wrote a book about going back to Greece and restoring her grandmother's house. It's an interesting book, in the same genre as the other more famous "renovate a house in a foreign country" books, but with a bit more serious side to it. Her name is Eleni Gage and the book is North of Ithaca.

R.I.P. Jules Dassin. This director just died at the age of 96 and his most famous film was "Never on a Sunday", starring actress Melina Mercouri, who was also his wife. This was a classic 60's B & W film, with a wonderful soundtrack of Greek bouzoukia music. I happen to love this sort of folk music and have also some of the works of Manos Hadjidakis, equally fine: "Lilacs from the Land of the Dead".