Whispered Past

DAYS’s Thaao Penghlis (Andre) explored his Greek and Australian roots on a recent trip home

In 1453, The Byzantine–Ottoman Wars resulted in the fall of Constantinople. After the Ottoman conquest of Greece, many of its inhabitants fled the region to Venice and Florence, Italy. Those who survived that war brought their ancient culture with them and influenced the Renaissance world. The exodus of Greeks continued into the 20th century to the United States, Canada and Australia. But for those who remained, 350 years of Turkish occupation forever changed the Greek character. Its true identity became hidden, camouflaged in order to survive a brutal regime. They kept their passions alive, their rage to themselves, but most importantly, their Christian faith was never denied. Their prayers became their survival. They went underground, into caves and shadowy spaces to preserve their history by secretly having priests school the young. They taught to save their language, music, their Byzantine existence and their ancient culture. “It was all done by candlelight, it was all done in a whisper.”

Waged by Greek revolutionaries, the great struggle against the Ottoman Empire ended in 1832. It was called the “War of Independence”. Greece was finally free. Well, for a while. My family left Greece in the 1930s from Kastellorizo, an island in the Dodecanese, two miles west from the Turkish mainland. Those character traits that evolved out of the struggle migrated to Australia, as well.

I had not been home to Australia in five years. My first jolt into the past was to visit the cemetery where my parentsand relatives were buried. I couldn’t believe how many Greeks had died since I was last there. So many tomb stones in different sizes, all according to those guilty memories. I glossed over new designs of symbolic tombstones, like looking through a forest of black granite.