May 10th, Athens

Published in the The Greek and Cypriot Notebook

Note Slipped Under Layne Redmond’s Door, 8:45 a.m.

Mz.Layne:

Wake up! Wake up!

Dionysus is gathering with the students in Syntagma Square, singing “Give Peace a Chance” and shouting ”America out!”

Aphrodite’s daughters are handing out leaflets written in the ancient language of Sappho and Euripides, singing,

What’s that happening on the street?
Gotta revolution. Got to revolution.
Hey, I’m dancing down the street.
Gotta revolution. Got to revolution.
Ain’t it amazing, all the people I meet?
Pick up the cry!

Ivoe!

So much has happened already. Last night black-shirted teenagers demanded anarchy outside our hotel. Later, they took 150 people and two socialist politicians hostage at the university and one of them was shot!

I’ve already been out and am now going out again, to eat pastries at an open air cafe blasting techno, and stare at 18th-century etchings of the Parthenon in shopwindows, and to deeply digest all of those marvelous lingerie displays. Don’t worry about reports of a transit strike¬—cabs fill the streets.

Mz. Layne, Mz. Layne,

Wake up!