The Polish Archaeological Institute in Athens joined in the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the first edition of Mythology by Jan Parandowski. First published in 1924 by H. Altenberg Publishing House in Lviv, the book has long held a canonical place in Polish culture and education, becoming one of the most widely read and influential school texts. Through its lens, successive generations raised in the Polish educational system have come to understand and imagine antiquity.
To commemorate this important anniversary, we organized in Athens a collective reading of selected passages from Mythology, in both Polish and our own Greek translation. We invited the Polish School named after Zygmunt Mineyko at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Athens, as well as the Experimental School of the University of Athens (E.S.U.A.) to participate in the project. The recording of the reading, which brought together members of the Polish Archaeological Institute in Athens (PAIA), teachers, and students from both schools, took place at the E.S.U.A. building, with the generous support of its Director, Dr. Vassiliki Tsouni, and Dr. Giorgos Doulfis.
The video titled The Myth of Athena – A Collective Reading of Jan Parandowski’s “Mythology” in Athens was presented on 23 April during a symposium organized by the Centre for Studies on the Classical Tradition (OBTA) and The Cluster: The Past for the Present, at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales,” University of Warsaw. The symposium was part of the broader centennial celebrations coordinated by Professor Katarzyna Marciniak.
Simultaneously, an online link was established between Athens and Warsaw, during which the initiator of the Athens-based project and PAIA’s cultural programme coordinator, Beata Kukiel-Vraila, along with the director of the Polish School, Anna Sardis, spoke about the cultural significance and enduring impact of Parandowski’s myths on Polish culture, as well as the initiatives undertaken by both institutions to mark the occasion.
Participants in the collective reading included:
Polish Archaeological Institute in Athens:
Prof. Ewa Bugaj (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań),
Dr Eng. Arch. Aleksandra Brzozowska-Jawornicka (Wrocław University of Science and Technology),
Maciej Jawornicki,
Beata Kukiel-Vraila.
Polish School in Athens:
Anna Sardis,
Alicja Wawrzynowicz,
Students: Anna Gwóźdź, Kacper Wojtusik, Jakub Tworek.
Experimental School of the University of Athens (E.S.U.A.):
Dr Vassiliki Tsouni,
Dr Vaios Kaminiotis,
Sofia Mpekri, MPhil,
Dionysia Tzakosta, MEd,
Dr Giorgos Doulfis,
Students: Athina Arseni, Smaragda Pateli, Efthimis Papathanasiou, Fanis Athanasopoulos, Maximos Mpoutsioukos.
The final part of the film features a brief discussion about the historical context in which myths were created. The discussion is led by photographer Maciej Jawornicki, a friend of the writer’s son, Piotr Parandowski.
The video was made possible thanks to the contributions of Maciej Jawornicki (video recording) and Mirosław Kaźmierczak (editing). Backstage documentation of the reading was provided by Dr Giannis Michailides and the Photographic Group of the E.S.U.A. The project was initiated and coordinated by Beata Kukiel-Vraila.
The Myth of Athena – A Collective Reading of Jan Parandowski’s “Mythology” in Athens is available online on the Our Mythical Childhood YouTube Channel
