Rinio Chiriasi from Lesvos. Her grandmother’s name was Sappho. Her father was a physicist, he loved the starry sky and fragments of the ancient lyrical lesbian poetess. Therefore, for Rinio, it was something of a fate – a kind of musical and poetic performance, which will premiere on Monday not in the theater, but on the Hill of the Nymphs and in the Athens Observatory. Her title is “Robbed Sappho”. A Musical Astrophysical Journey to the Athens Observatory.

“The beautiful title belongs to Pantelis Boukalas,” Reniou tells me over the phone, “who translated the entire Sappho for the show.” “The truth is, they found me halfway,” Pantelis tells me, also by phone, during a break from his presentation at the Mykonos Reading Club. “I translated several of her poems. So I took it with pity and went all the way.”

Every show is special. It certainly won’t be something static. “It will not only be a tour, but also stargazing,” says Pantelis.

It all started a year ago when Rinio Chiriasi met Fiori-Anastasia Metallinou from the Observatory. “We took a walk in space and remembered Sappho’s poem about the Pleiades” (one of the few cases where a literary text can be reliable evidence of astronomical phenomena). “Sappho,” says Renio, “passionately loved the moon and the stars. And the place, with its nature, the fact that it is the Hill of the Nymphs (Sappho spoke of nymphs and graces), the fact that this place has been a place for observing the stars since ancient times, the fact that Sappho was also a musician, all this was brought from here. We trusted Pantelis in translating the texts, and he gave us a wonderful title: “Sappho Castrated”. The idea that the poetess is now traveling to the stars, that every being that might suffer on Earth has been placed by the gods in the stars. We will have composer Thodoris Oikonomou on piano, me on vocals, and Nicholas Kazazis, the sound engineer, who will electronically edit the music, giving it a more universal, I would say, feel. And, of course, astronomers will be engaged in off-dome oranography and observation of celestial objects through a telescope.”

“Dedyke man selanna and / Pleiades; in the middle / of the night, except for the coming hour, / I do not go alone. A date on the hill of nymphs…

“Robbed Sappho”, Hill of the Nymphs, Theseus.

Translation: Pantelis Bukalas. Directing – dramatic editing – interpretation: Rinio Chiriasi. Musical composition – piano: Todoris Oikonomou. Sound Design: Nicholas Kazazis. Set Designer: Angelos Mentis. Motion editor: Alcistis Polychroni. Lighting: Stevie Kutsotanasis.

From Monday 6 March to Sunday 26 March. Days and times of performances: every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday at 21:00. and Sunday at 6 and 8 pm.