86 Blue Fairy: there was a fairy character in Carlo Collodi’s 1883 book The Adventures of Pinocchio but the reference here is to the Blue Fairy of the Disney film Pinocchio (1940). The Blue Fairy, who magically bestows life to the wooden puppet, appears as ideally beautiful, in a gossamer, pale-blue gown, with the demeanor of a perfect, loving mother-figure.
87 natural man … is mean: West, Rebecca. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007 [1941], p. 172.
88 Italo Svevo: the 1930 Beryl de Zoete translation of the 1923 novel Confessions of Zeno is quoted here. The book was newly translated in 2001 by William Weaver and published as Zeno’s Conscience (New York: Vintage International).
89 in childhood or adolescence: Rank, Otto. Art and Artist: Creative Urge and Personality Development. Foreword by Anaïs Nin. Trans. Charles Francis Atkinson. New York: W.W. Norton, 1989 [1932].
90 never evolved here: while visiting her friend Alice Boehm in Yugoslavia a few months earlier, she wrote in her diary: “Going around with Alice on various errands. Saw her knocked about in a huge milling crowd at the bakery when the bread was ready. She was pushed and crushed and finally gave up, saying she didn’t feel like being bruised today. The idea of a line does not exist here. You go in and push your way as far as you can go. No matter if people had been waiting half an hour before you came. One wonders if the idea of a line is very simple or very complex.”
91 dear to us ever … and sleep: Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by S.H. Butcher and A. Lang. London: Macmillian & Co. Ltd., 1912 [1879]; p. 123.
92 if only to die by it: a reference to Ajax’ prayer to Zeus at the battle of Troy. It is a rough paraphrase of Edith Hamilton in her book The Greek Way (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1993 [1930], p. 33): “Homer’s hero who cried for more light even if it were but light to die in, was a true Greek.”
Chapter 7: Return
93 the Alhambra…the castles of Wales: The Alhambra: Moorish medieval palace and fortress, famed for its romantic and exotic fountains, courtyards, gardens, arches, and mosaics. Flamenco dancing: a vigorous, passionate, highly stylized dance. Carcassonne: French medieval walled town and fortress, among the best-preserved in Europe. Castles of Wales: the country has long been known as “the land of castles.”
94 Athena’s temple: the reference is to the Parthenon, rather than to the older, smaller Temple to Athena Nike. The Parthenon stands on the highest part of the Acropolis and is the largest surviving structure, celebrated as the greatest example of Doric architecture. Some of the Parthenon’s marble blocks exceed ten tons.
95 carytid: a column in the form of a draped, standing female figure which supports the entablature of a Greek-style building. The famed “porch of the carytids,” or “Porch of the Maidens,” is on the south side of the Erechtheion, a temple honoring legendary Greek king Erechtheus. The porch has six larger-than-life carytids.
96 the museum: the old Acropolis Museum, located on the Acropolis itself until 2007.
97 poliza!: not quite a word, but similar to “police” in many European languages (e.g., Spanish: policía; Italian: polizia). The Greek word for police is astynomía.
98 a new breed: a remark contrasting the Hebrew-speaking, Israeli Jews of the airplane crew with Yiddish-speaking, pre-war European Jews (“Yiddela”). He is affirming the truth of the postwar image of Israelis as a tough, young people determined to build a strong nation, while repudiating (“never again”) the past. A typical description of the Israelis during the period appeared in Life magazine: “A whole new society is being created in an atmosphere charged with vigor, pride, and optimism.” (Coughlan, Robert. “Modern Prophet of Israel: After a decade Ben-Gurion still leads his people through a wilderness of constant crisis.” Life magazine, Nov. 18, 1957, p. 154.)
99 briss (or bris): the circumcision ceremony for Jewish boys is first mentioned in Genesis 17, when God ordered Abraham to circumcise his descendants as part of the covenant with the Jewish people. The ceremony occurs on the eighth day after birth and is a festive occasion, when infant boys are given their Hebrew names.
100 mohel (Yiddish: moyl): a person who performs circumcision, usually with a ceremonial, double-edged knife. Since ancient times, it has been a tradition for the mohel to cut the foreskin of a baby’s penis and then suck the first drops of blood from the wound, for hygienic reasons.
101 the relationship between those objects: “That is the great distinction between the sexes. Men see objects, women see relationship between objects. Whether the objects love each other, need each other, match each other. It is an extra dimension of feeling we men are without.” The Magus. Boston: Little, Brown, 1965, p. 356.
Postscript
102 “A stubborn Little Hold on Life” originally appeared, in slightly different form, in On the Issues magazine, in February 2013.
About the author
Frances Karlen Santamaria (1937–2013) was born in Cleveland, Ohio, attended Antioch College, and lived in New York City. A fiction writer and diarist, she was debilitated by multiple sclerosis in her early forties. A Room in Athens was her only published work before her illness. She was married twice and had five children.
Josh Karlen is a journalist and the author of Lost Lustre: A New York Memoir. He lives with his wife, Lorraine, and their two children in New York City.
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