Michael Kokkinaris

Aspasia” or “Dialectics of Love and Beauty” Text: Michael Kokkinaris

Theatrical performance of four acts, about the life of Aspasia of Miletus, a woman with a unique personality, whose dialectal thought not only redefined the goals of Pericles, the great Athenian politician, by giving his political thought a new perspective, but also combined the Ionian philosophy and the political pragmatism of democratic Athens, thus contributing to the birth of Immortality through the Parthenon Marbles. The spectator, with the aid of theatrical narration, will understand how this exquisite woman’s philosophical ideas of love and beauty, in a world absolutely ruled by men, are going to form the theoretical setting that gave rise to a worldwide monument of beauty, the temple of Athena on the Acropolis of Athens, a monument that represents a conscious attempt of approaching Immortality, with was knowingly the objective of Pericles, the man who envisioned this monument and of Phidias, its creator.

During the four acts of this play, the spectator relives the presence of this fascinating woman and is initiated in her life, while on the same time he or she interprets the origin of the unique feelings he or she is experiencing when visiting the Parthenon or the new Acropolis Museum. However, at the end of the play the spectator realizes that the dismemberment of the monument is inconceivable and the effort of retaining its architectural parts, made by those trying to borrow some of this monument’s immortality, is meaningless. After stating all these facts we ask you to actually contribute to making the message of this play widely known to the international public, whose sensitization on the subject of returning the Parthenon Marbles might reduce the resistance of the British Museum, which no longer has valid arguments for denying the return of the architectural parts of a monument of World Heritage, vandalized by a smuggler of antiquities!