‘In any creative work, be it the artist or the artisan, the creatve person unites with the material they are working with, which symbolises the world outside him/herself. The worker and the artefact become one. The human being becomes one with his creation. ‘ Erich Fromm
The word Poiein in Ancient Greek (ποιεῖν) means making. It is where the word Poetry comes from. Plato had pointed at the connection between craft-making and poetry, calling us to gaze at the rich worlds of form and meaning that come to life when we take raw material from our landscape and create with it. It is possible, when we look at a handcrafted object, to appreciate the emotion and soul life that the maker had infused in it.
Sefrou is located in the heart of the middle Atlas. Traditionally, a market town located amidst fertile farming lands, it is known for its fruit orchards, cherry festival and the large Jewish community that lived there up until the last century. Sefrou is still home to a large community of local artisans, metal smiths, woodworkers, weavers and button makers. Though the community is still thriving, few are the ones of the young generation who wish to learn these skills.
Visiting local crafts people in their workshops, we will learn about their work and daily lives as a way to get a sense of the place through the people and their working spaces. An orientation of the city from the inside out hosted by Culture Vultures, will lead us into a deeper relationship with Amazigh women who spin and weave and we will participate in a hands own textile workshop.
We will be introduced to ‘The Loom in Local Rituals’ and how women used the loom as a sacred medium for protection. On Sunday we will make a day trip to a mountain market town in the Middle Atlas where the wool comes from, to meet women who practice unbroken textile traditions in the region.
Alongside these visits our work will consist of listening to the stories that emerge from our activities, as well as engage with traditional stories from around the world to bring into clearer focus the role of craft-making in the life of the Soul. On our last day we will share these stories in a storytelling evening (no previous experience necessary). Daily shamanic practices will help us access ancestral knowledge and seek healing for modern day’s rupture between skill and community, craft and Time.
1st Mythopoetic Festival
Chrisso Delphi
23-25 May 2025
Welcome to the first mythopoetic festival in Chrisso Delphi.
I was inspired to create this Festival from the idea that tourism, rather than being just another product of our consumerist, profit-oriented system, could become a way to connect—an opportunity to acknowledge and honor the Indigenous cultures we encounter, and in doing so, begin to shift the way we see and engage with tourism itself.
Even the word tourism, derived from tour, feels inadequate. What if instead, it became a means of deeply understanding the lands we walk on, the nature we witness, and the people we meet—those who have lived there for generations, their concerns, and the transformations they’ve undergone, such as shifting from agriculture to tourism in pursuit of fast profit?
Having worked on these lands for several years now, guiding groups through them, I’ve noticed a troubling pattern: the youth of Chrisso—the village where the Festival takes place—are leaving for nearby towns like Delphi and Arahova, where tourism has created jobs (hotels, restaurants, etc.). In our current society, such work is more valued—and better paid—than cultivating and working the land. The once-vibrant school in Chrisso has long closed, and in the kafenio (coffee shop), only the elderly and seasonal migrant workers remain. (There is, of course, nothing wrong with that—it’s part of life.)
With this Festival, my intention was to create a thread connecting the myths of the distant past (the Earth’s temple) to the present (modern religious traditions rooted in those same myths), and to the in-between—namely, the inherited stories of classical Greece (Apollo’s temple).
This project was developped thanks to the generosity of our contributors, who donated their time, and the local guesthouse, which offers us hospitality. Whatever the outcome of the Festival, it stands as proof that collective effort and shared vision can bring to life a project that views the world as a place of meeting, learning, and mutual enrichment.
I hope to see some of you there,
Elena Kazantzidi
Storyteller, performer, and organizer of the 1st Mythopoetic Festival of Chrisso-Delphi
Program
We are deeply grateful to the guest house “Xenonas Chrisso” and especially to Zafeira Braousou-Mouka for hosting us and helping us throughout the whole process. We also thank the Cultural Association, the Ethnological Museum. the restaurant Basanos and the Community of Chrisso.
Friday 23/5
20:00
Opening event
Welcoming, presentation of the artists/facilitators
Ceremony
Square of Saint Vassilios
Saturday 24/5
10:30
Story Walk to San George / Atalanta myth by Elena Kazantzidi
( walking distance ½ hour one way)
Elena Kazantzidi is a storyteller. During the last four years, she has walked the ancient path from Chrisso to the sea many times with different groups of people, reciting parts of Odyssey and creating a coexistence between the stories of nature and thοse of the myths.
Meeting point: Central square springs
18:00
Kyriakos Hatzimichailidis reads parts of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, reads a song dedicated to San George and a poem of K. Kavafi.
Ethnological Museum of Chrisso
19:00
5 Video art poems by Kyriakos Hatzimichailidis project “Breaths”Discussion after the event about life and death.
Kyriakos Hatzimichailidis is a film director and producer, born in Thessaloniki in 1963.He has produced over sixty film productions. As a director he had a remarkable career and his project “Breaths”, had succeeded to give an image to contamporary Greek poetry.
More on: www.t-short.gr
Cultural association of Chrisso
Prophet Women - Storytelling with music
Step into the sacred lineage of the Pythia, the prophet women of Delphi, as Karmit EvenZur reimagines the ancient practice of oracular divination through a contemporary, shamanic lens. Giving council on matters of the state and matters of the heart, these prophet women practiced a ‘Politics of the Otherwise’.
This storytelling performance tells the story of the animacy of the land. It gives us a glimpse into the teachings of Gaia, Nyx and the Python - sacred allies of the unseen.
Karmit EvenZur (UK, Spain) is an artist whose practice revolves around the dynamic interactions between humans and the non-human world. With deep attentiveness to subtle narratives of people and land, she invites us to renew our connection to the places we dwell in.
This event will be accompanied by the musician Elli Giannaki
Drawing musical inspiration from around the world and using her oud, flute and voice, Elli Giannaki explores mystical routes of stories, opening a crack in the window of thought for imagination to sneak in.
Museum/Cultural Association Garden
20:00
Dramatherapy. Based on the myth of Python and using experiential and expressive tools, we will explore how the archetypes of Apollo and Python relate with the roles that we play in our lives, as well as how we are called to cultivate a wider emotional, ecological and social intelligence in order to be active citizens of a complex world in crisis.
Alexis Ioannou is a dramatherapist and body/relational psychotherapist, with a focus on cultural and intergenerational aspects of trauma. He has an MA in dramatherapy from the University of Roehampton, UK, he is trained in Ancestral Healing from the Ancestral Medicine organisation in the US, and is a registered traumatherapist with the NARM approach. He practice sits at the crossroads of animist/relational values, somatic trauma therapy, creative arts psychotherapy and mindfulness/contemplative practice. For more information see his website www.rodihealing.com
Cultural Association of Chrisso
Sunday 25/5
10:30
Lecture on the Python myth of the oracle temple in Delphi. The Python myth and the Dilion myth (Python and Apollo). The virtue of wisdom and the virtue of boldness. On the chthonic (earthy) and the celestial mixture of the human constitution.
Giannis Ditsas is an architect, a writer and a researcher. He studied deeply the profile of Archaic Greece and researched the relation between mythical logos of the oracle Temple and utilitarian logos of the marketplace.
Cultural Association of Chrisso
12:30
Closing ceremony at the central square