NEKYIA | Giannis Aggelakas & Christos Papadopoulos

A mystical and sonotropic descent into Hades unfolds through the 64 pages of the Onassis Foundation’s new collector's publication, with a peculiar prayer book guiding us into the abyss of the Homeric epic. It includes the text of the performance by Giannis Aggelakas and Theodora Kapralou, based on the 11th rhapsody of Homer's Odyssey, alongside rehearsal notes, photographs, scores, and annotations from the contributors of the performance. Available at the Onassis Shop, the physical store of Onassis Stegi, and at selected bookstores.

Giannis Aggelakas

Fifteen years ago, at the urging of Olia Lazaridou, I began reading the Homeric epics from the translations of Dimitris Maronitis, and I fell under their spell, realizing how innovative and ahead even of our times these superhuman texts are. One could say, “Did you have to wait until the age of 45 to discover America?” What was there to do? You see, my experience of school and “Greek” education have pulled me away, like most of us, from their pure gold. Even today, I can’t fathom how these first recorded literary works of our antiquity still appear unassailable and how truly haunting they were for Western civilization and art worldwide (literature, cinema, etc.). Olia again proposed that we turn Nekyia into a musical performance after she saw how fascinated I was by all these. I started ten years ago trying out atmospheres with the female members of the polyphonic ensemble “Dione,” with whom we previously collaborated for the soundtrack of Pantelis Voulgaris’ film “A Soul So Deep.” I had already imagined the way I wanted it to happen; alas I abandoned it since what I came up with was multifaceted, cost-prohibitive, and essentially unfeasible for the standards of our country. Encouraged this time by Pavlos Pavlidis, I visited the offices of Onassis Stegi in the fall of 2022 to pitch the old Nekyia plan again. There, I went through an alien, or rather unprecedented in Greece, experience, as I encountered three open-minded, warm, and kind people―Afroditi [Panagiotakou], Dimitris [Theodoropoulos], and Theodora [Kaparalou]―who listened and felt captivated and energized by my idea. Later, as we began searching for the director of “Nekyia,” Afroditi sent me the video of “LARSEN C,” a dance performance by Christos Papadopoulos, of whom I hadn’t heard or seen anything until then. When the video ended, feeling elated and without a second thought, I replied to Afroditi, “This is our man! I hope he accepts our proposal."

Odysseus (Ulysses) and his companions are leaving Circe’s palace for the Land of the Cimmerians, where the entrance to Hades is located. There, Odysseus hopes to receive an oracle from Tiresias so he can finally commence his return to Ithaca. Following libations and sacrifices, which he performs with ceremonial reverence at the behest of Circe, Odysseus reaches where no living man has ever set foot before. Tiresias assures him that he will die old in his homeland, provided that when he reaches the island where the Cattle of Helios are pastured, no one is to harm them, and, following his return to Ithaca, he is to travel to places where people are not aware what the sea is and teach them to praise it and offer sacrifices to Poseidon. Afterwards, Odysseus encounters the souls of the dead, those who are closely associated with him. And, although the inhabitants of the Underworld have by now lost their memory, they temporarily recover it as they drink the blood of animals that the resourceful and canny (“polymechanos”) hero has sacrificed, who finds again the most legendary heroes of the Trojan War now vanished: Agamemnon, Achilles, Ajax, mythical heroes, and his old companions. Deeply moved, they recount their lives together and ache to hear news from the Upper World. His meeting with his mother, Anticlea, is indeed monumental and heart-wrenching.

And yet, Odysseus is not the only one to have journeyed to Hades. Ordered by Eurystheus, Hercules descended first into Hades to bring Cerberus back to the Upper World, a seemingly unachievable feat that he yet accomplished with the help of Hermes and Athena. But Orpheus also reached Hades, albeit with a bitter ending: Eurydice vanished as soon as Orpheus turned to see her, neglecting Pluto’s order. Less well known is the katabasis of Theseus, accompanied by his best friend Pirithous. Instead of bringing Persephone back to the Upper World, the Athenian hero was trapped by Pluto and would have remained captive there forever had not Hercules set him free, which was not the case for Pirithous, who stayed forever in Hades.

The Homeric Nekyia exerted an influence on many writers. Lucian of Samosata composed the dialogue “Necyomantia” (“Menippus or The Descent into Hades”), which describes the descent of the Cynical philosopher of the same name into the Underworld in order to ask Tiresias on the right way of life that every virtuous man should follow. The sixth book of Virgil’s “Aeneid” recounts the Trojan hero’s descent into Hades under the urging of Cumaean Sibyl. Aeneas’ purpose is to meet the shadow of his father, Anchises, in order to learn about both his future and that of the uprooted descendants of Troy.

“Apokopos” by Bergadis, one of the most remarkable literary works of the Cretan Renaissance, is said to have been written either at the beginning or end of the 15th century and outlines one of his descents “into Hades.” The hero dreamt of climbing a tree (the tree of life) to reap the honey from a hanging beehive. But the branch breaks and the poet disappears into the gaping void below and the open mouth of a dragon. He thus finds himself alive in the Underworld.

In 1944, Takis Sinopoulos publishes the poem “Elpenor,” a figure that will permeate his poetic work in the years to come, within a “never-ending nekyia of the unsung,” as noted by G. P. Savvidis.

In 1947, George Seferis shall follow in his footsteps with the poem “Sensual Elpenor” from the “Thrush II” collection.

Finally, Yiannis Ritsos writes eleven short poems with Odyssey as his starting point, which he will later include in the second volume of “Repetitions, Testimonies, Parentheses” (1966). Of these, the first three—“Eurylochus,” “Forgiveness,” and “Non-hero”—refer to Odysseus and Elpenor.

Iannis Xenakis composed in 1981 the work “Nekyia” for choir, percussion, and orchestra.

In 2002, the Liki Vithou Theater in Thessaloniki presented the play “Νekyia (Odyssey’s Book 11)—Homer” at the State Theater of Northern Greece.
In the same year, Chronis Botsoglou presents the exhibition “Personal Nekyia” at the Benaki Museum in Athens, with 26 works that crystallize his creative impulse during that period.

In 2015, Michail Marmarinos directs “ΝΟH—NEKYIA, rhapsody λ’, Homer’s Odyssey” in the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus, as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival and in collaboration with Japanese Gensho Umewaka, who reimagines the katabasis of Odysseus to Hades through the lens of Noh theater.

The English poetess Alice Oswald attempts in her collection “Memorial” (2011) an excavation of the Iliad and forges an “oral cemetery,” a grand poem as tribute to the deceased from both camps of the Trojan War, reminding us that one of the main servings of the epic is to sustain memory.

1985

Two years after the band’s formation, and while Babis Papadopoulos has replaced the original guitarist Michalis Kanatidis who passed away prematurely, Trypes record their first, self-titled album within just two days at the studio “Agrotikon” run by the great Nikos Papazoglou, who works with them as a sound technician. The debut album is released a few months later by the—then newly founded—Ano Kato Records. Nothing would ever be the same again.

1987

Giannis Aggelakas, Giorgos Karras, Babis Papadopoulos, and Giorgos Tolios (who replaced Kostas Floroskoufis at the drums) find themselves again at “Agrotikon” to record their next album. Their working relationship with Ano Kato Records started to go sour, yet the perceptive Yannis Petridis, then director of Virgin Records, welcomes them to the big label. They release “To Party ston 13o orofo” (Party on the 13th floor), which immediately earns a place among the best albums in the history of Greek rock.

1988

Giannis Aggelakas’ first collection of poems and lyrics, “Salia, misologa kai trypioi stihoi” (Saliva, half-words, and empty verses), is published.

1990

During the last two months of the year, the band records the album “Trypes ston Paradeiso” (Holes in Paradise), again at Nikos Papazoglou’s “Agrotikon” studio—their third album and, by all accounts, their best up to that point. In the same year, the guitarist of the legendary band Mushrooms, Asklipios Zabetas, officially joins the band, while the keyboardist Giorgos Christianakis, another great figure of the notorious “Thessaloniki scene,” gets more involved with Trypes.

1991

The band plays live for the first time at the open-air theater of Lycabettus. With more than three thousand people in the audience, this was their biggest concert to date.

1993

The year of the big bang for Greek rock, as Trypes release the album “Ennia pliromena tragoudia” (Nine filled songs). Giannis Aggelakas describes this critical moment: “Trypes more aligned than ever. We were all fully present there, from the first to the last moment of recording, united mentally, spiritually, and creatively [...] ready to leave the fate of the marginal rock band in Greece behind us and, without compromising, to open ourselves to large audiences. We felt that better days were waiting for us, creatively and concert-wise.”

In the same year, Aggelakas and Karras release “Yperocho tipota” (Beautiful nothing) on 12” vinyl, a sensational electro-acoustic album. The subsequent CD release will also include the songs written by Giannis Aggelakas for the soundtrack of Nikos Grammatikos’ film “I epochi ton dolofonon” (The age of killers).

1994

On February 25, 26, 27, and 28, Trypes play live at Rodon club, and a few months later the highlights of these concerts are captured in the album “Krata to soou maimou” (Keep up the show, monkey). Among them, of course, is the legendary song “Asfaleia” (Security).

In the same year, however, Trypes experience one of the most difficult moments of their career. On September 30, while they are performing at the open-air theater of Lycabettus, a bunch of mindless people attack the venue with stones and iron bars and injure members of the audience. The following day, the front page of the newspaper Eleftherotypia bears the populist title “Rock Blood.”

1996

The majority of their fans consider “Kefali gemato chrysafi” (Head full of gold) to be the best album of the band. Giannis Aggelakas agrees: “The album was recorded at Giorgos Pentzikis’ Magnanimus studio, in February and March 1996. Titos Kargiotakis and Christos Harbilas did the recording, mixing, and production. It is my favorite album from Trypes, in terms of music and lyrics.”

1998

In the summer, they play at the Rockwave festival and take the stage before Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

1999

Trypes release their sixth album, which will prove to be their last. “Christianakis added the sound a movie projection machine makes when the ribbon of the film ends and the one reel keeps spinning on its own, at the end of the song ‘Ola einai dromos’ (It’s a long way). We all knew it. The film was over,” Giannis Aggelakas has said. In the same year, his second collection of texts and lyrics, “Pos tolmas kai nostalgeis, tsoglane?” (How dare you be nostalgic, jerk?) is published.

2002

Giannis Aggelakas stars in the film “O hamenos ta pairnei ola” (Loser takes all), the seventh feature film by the great Nikos Nikolaidis, while he also composes the soundtrack. The song of the same name is one of his most popular to this day.

2005

Having founded his own independent record label (All Together Now), he releases two brilliant and diverse albums: “Oi anases ton lykon” (The breaths of the wolves) with cellist Nikos Veliotis and “Apo do kai pano” (From here up) with Episkeptes, his first band after Trypes—multi-member and therefore short-lived. The song “Siga min klapso” (I’m not going to cry) moves crowds.

2009

He composes the soundtrack for the film “Psychi vathia” (Deep soul) by Pantelis Voulgaris and wins the Best Original Music award at the Hellenic Film Academy Awards.

2010

Angeliki Aristomenopoulou’s documentary “Taksidiara psychi” (Traveling soul), a chronicle of Giannis Aggelakas’ musical journey from Trypes to his ethnic experiments, is screened and awarded at the 12th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.

2016

The first album with his new band. Giannis Aggelakas & 100°C release “Isiha tragoudia gia anemela livadia” (Quiet songs for carefree meadows).

2019

In November, his book “O megalos mathitis kai o mikros daskalos” (The great student and the little teacher) is published and another experimental album with Nikos Veliotis is released, entitled

“Lykoi sti hora ton thaumaton” (Wolves in wonderland), in which they cover everything from Markos Vamvakaris to Rotting Christ. They present their work live in the first summer of the pandemic at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.

2022

“Akoma perpatao” (Still walking) is the opening track of his second album with the 100ºC, “Eho kefia” (In the mood). The music video for the song brings to mind the one for Trypes’ “Edo” (Here).

2023

With his band 100°C, Dioni polyphonic vocal ensemble, and a string trio by his side, Giannis Aggelakas presents “Electric Chair at the Herodion,” a sold-out retrospective of his career.

Next stop was the Onassis Stegi Main Stage. With Olia Lazaridou and Giannis Aggelakas narrating, two musicians, four female voices, and the sound design of Coti K., Homer’s “Nekyia” premiered on December 21. Because Giannis Aggelakas dreamed of “a captivating recounting of Odyssey”.