Greek island's gift to Cornell has romantic roots

Gerasimos Fortes, left, the mayor of Argostoli on the Greek island of Cephalonia near Ithaka, and President Hunter Rawlings look at a book on the Cephalonia region in Rawlings' Day Hall office, Feb. 3. The mayor and a delegation of Cephalonians were visiting campus to make a donation for the teaching of modern Greek at Cornell. Robert Barker/University Photography

By Linda Myers

It's a story that has everything -- poetry, music, food, the Greek island paradise featured in the romantic film "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" and, naturally, love.

But although it arises from human passions, this particular love is of a language -- modern Greek. Still, it begins with a woman.

Gail Holst-Warhaft, a scholar who is now the interim co-director of Cornell's Institute for European Studies, began visiting Greece as a young woman in the 1970s after completing studies in musicology in her native Australia. Fascinated by the language and music, she studied both and soon began performing as a harpsichordist with Greece's most-celebrated musician, Mikis Theodorakis, who wrote the scores for the films "Zorba the Greek" and "Z."

Somewhere along the way she fell in love, married and moved to Ithaca with her husband, Zellman Warhaft, a professor of engineering at Cornell. Greece remained in her heart, though. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in comparative literature at Cornell in 1990, focusing on modern Greek poetry, taught courses as an adjunct professor at Cornell, Columbia and Princeton and published books and articles on Greek language and literature.

She also translated into English the works
of contemporary Greek poets, among them Nikos Kavadias (her translation of his collected works was published by Hakkert in 1987).

About five years ago she attended a concert in New York City of Greek poetry set to music. It was hosted by a community of Greeks originally from the island of Cephalonia. Kavadias was, it turns out, a beloved native son of the island. When the group learned she was his translator, they peppered her with questions, including whether modern Greek was being taught at Cornell?

"I told them as diplomatically as I could that budget cuts had forced the university to abandon the teaching of the language in the early 1990s," said Holst-Warhaft.

Holst-Warhaft

For the Cephalonians, the news was tragic. "But perhaps we can do something about it," one of them offered. "That would be lovely," she replied, smiling politely.

Over the next few years, the New York Cephalonians called her from time to time with news on the campaign. "They would say things like, 'It's not going so well' or 'There's been a setback,'" Holst-Warhaft said.

Then four weeks ago, she got a phone call in the middle of the night.

"The mayor is here with a check for you," said a voice with a thick Greek accent.

"Who? What?"

"The mayor of Argostoli is here in New York with a check for $10,000 for the teaching of modern Greek at Cornell, which we hope to match with another check. But first you have to come down and talk to us about the poems of Nikos Kavadias."

Argostoli is the largest city on Cephalonia. Its mayor, Gerasimos Fortes, is also the president of the mayoral council of the municipalities of the island and neighboring Ithaka (for which the city of Ithaca is named). He was indeed in New York with a check for the university. And that is how the Cornell scholar of modern Greek poetry found herself in a car with a delegation of four Greeks -- the mayor and three New York Cephalonians -- heading toward Cornell on the morning of Feb. 3.

"We stopped at the Roscoe Diner on the way, and it turned out the owner was from Cephalonia too," related Holst-Warhaft. "The mayor said he could hear the mountains in his accent." The discovery precipitated so much talk that the
entourage was nearly late for their meeting with Philip Lewis, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Paulette Manos, deputy mayor of the City of Ithaca, who is of Greek, although not Cephalonian,
descent.

"Over lunch there was an excited discussion on whether some sister relationship between the two cities might be established," Holst-Warhaft said.

The delegation also made its way to Day Hall, where Fortes met with Cornell President Hunter Rawlings and, on learning that he was a classicist and expert on Thucydides, presented him with four coins stamped with the names of the cities of antiquity written about by the ancient
Greek historian.

"Hunter also told the mayor of his love for 'loukoumades,'" said Holst-Warhaft. The fried honeyed donut is sold in stands all across Greece, but when the president mentioned the spot in Athens where he always buys his, the mayor's eyes lit up. ''I buy my 'loukoumades there too,' said Fortes. 'How did you know that's the best place for them in the entire country?'"

The happy ending? The gift from Cephalonia, along with anticipated matching foundation funds, may support the teaching of a course in modern Greek at Cornell as early as next fall, said Ross Brann, chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies, where the course will be housed.