13 July 2017

The Greeks have a word
for it: (16) architecture

A restored 17th century haman or Turkish bathhouse has become a boutique hotel in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford
Of course, the Greeks did not invent the concept of architecture. We have been building buildings since the dawn of time, and long before classical antiquity. But the word architecture, which comes the Latin architectura, is derived in turn from the Greek ἀρχιτέκτων (architékton), from ἀρχι- (arki-, chief) and τέκτων (tékton, builder).

Civilisations – and not just classical Greece – are often identified by their surviving architectural achievements. But one of the joys of Rethymnon is that it brings together so many of these architectural achievements of the cultures that have shaped this city, from the classical Greek and Roman, through the Byzantine and Venetian to the Ottoman and the modern.

Walking through the back streets of Rethymnon this week, I came across a 17th century haman or Turkish bathhouse that has been carefully restored and is now a modern hotel. Nearby, the door into a bakery preserves the Latin inscription on the Venetian portal.


The ancient Greek noun τέκτoν (tektōn) refers not just to an architect or builder, but is a common term for an artisan or craftsman, in particular a carpenter, woodworker or builder, in contrast to an iron-worker or smith (χαλκεύς, chalkeús) and the stoneworker or mason (λιθολόγος, lithológos).

The characteristic ancient Greek distinction between the general worker or woodworker and the stonemason and the metalworker occurs frequently in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

For example, the Prophet Isaiah says: ‘The artisan (tektōn) encourages the goldsmith, and the one who smooths with the hammer encourages the one who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good”; and they fasten it with nails so that it cannot be moved’ (Isaiah 41: 7).

The distinction occurs in lists of people working on building or repairs to the Temple in Jerusalem (see II Kings 12: 11-12). Greek word tekton is used again in the same context by the historian Josephus.

In the Septuagint, the Greek noun tektōn means is used for the generic Hebrew noun kharash (חרש), ‘craftsman’ (see Isaiah 41: 7) or τέκτων ξύλον (tekton xylon) as a word-for-word rendering of kharash-'etsim (חָרַשׁ עֵצִים) ‘craftsman of woods’ (see Isaiah 44: 13).

In the New Testament, Saint Joseph is described as tektōn and this is translated in almost all English-language Bibles as ‘carpenter’ (see Matthew 13: 55).

The same term occurs is used with the definite article in Saint Mark’s Gospel to describe Jesus: ‘Is not this the carpenter the son of Mary?’

In modern scholarship, the word tektōn is sometimes re-interpreted from the traditional meaning of carpenter to mean craftsman or builder. As an alternative to kharash, some writers speculate that the Greek term corresponds to the Aramaic term naggara (Hebrew |נגר nagger), ‘craftsman.’

In 1983, Geza Vermes pointed to way the word ‘carpenter’ can be used in the Talmud for a very learned man. He suggested the New Testament description of Joseph as a carpenter could indicate he was wise and literate in the Torah.

However, the Greek term tektōn does not carry this meaning. The nearest equivalent in the New Testament is the Apostle Paul’s comparison of Saint Timothy to a ‘workman’ (ἐργάτης, ergátes) rightly dividing the word of truth.

The majority of homes in northern Israel in Gospel times were built of stone. If tekton describes the family trade of Joseph and Jesus and Joseph, then nine out of ten building projects were in stone and building blocks.

If then instead Jesus was the son of a stonemason, it would explain his choice of words when he speaks of stones: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’ (Luke 20: 17).

The sun sets on another
holiday in Greece

Sunset on the beach at Platanias in Rethymnon last night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

The sun has set on another holiday in Greece.

It is late on Wednesday evening [12 July 2017], and I am at the airport in Chania, where I arrived two weeks ago, waiting to board a late-night flight to Dublin.

This has been the sixth consecutive year I have stayed in Rethymnon, and this is the third year in a row that I have stayed in Platanias, just 4.5 km east of Rethymnon on the long sandy beach that stretches for miles along on the coast.

Last night at sunset, two of us walked along the beach at Platanias watching the sun set in the Mediterranean beyond the Fortezza in Rethymnon to the west.

Because of the high tides churned up by the full moon, it has not been possible to swim in the sea some days. But there have been walks by the sea each day, mainly in Platanias, but also at the harbours in Rehtymnon and Iraklion, in Panormos and Georgioupoli, and there have been days by the pool too.

There have been visits to small vineyards and vast expanses of olive groups, trips into the mountains and along the Mediterranean coast with its bays, beaches and sandy coves, visits to the monastery in Arkadi, visits to friends in Piskopiano in the hills above Hersonissos, a stop-over in neighbouring Koutoulafari, and a journey to the waterfalls at Argyroupolis and the lake at Kournas.

Platanias is only a 10-minute, €8 taxi trip into the centre of Rethhymnon, and there have days strolling around the back streets and narrow alley ways, browsing in the book shops, visiting the studios of artists and icon writers and seeping in the architectural and archaeological legacy of this Venetian city.

As well as going to church in Platanias and Tsemes on Sunday mornings, I have visited cathedrals, churches, chapels and monasteries in Rethymnon, Iralklion, Piskopiano, Koutouloufari, Arkadi, Argyroupolis and Panormos and the tiny chapel of Aghios Nikoloas on a rocky islet off the coast at Georgioupoli, reached on foot along a long and narrow spit of an artificial causeway that is constantly washed over by the waves.

Perhaps the three cultural highlights of these two weeks have been my visits to the Museum of Christian Art, housed in the former church of Saint Catherine of Sinai in Iraklion, the new museum in the monastery of Arkadi, and the workshop of the iconographer Alexandra Kaouki, beneath the slops of the Fortezza in Rethymnon.

On most mornings, I have enjoyed breakfast on the terrace overlooking the gardens at Julia Apartments where I have been staying in Platanias. There was fresh bread from the bakers’ shop on the ground floor, and fresh fruit and orange juice from the supermarket a few doors away. But because of a late winter, there were no fresh figs for breakfast this year.

Although the temperatures have been in the high 30s in Crete for the past few weeks, the trees and the flowers are still in full bloom, so that the afternoon walks to and from the beach have been through beautiful arrays of hibiscus, bougainvillea and riots of purple, pink, white, yellow and red that paint a colourful scene against the bright blue of the sky and the sea.

My walking averages each day have been over 5 km, and with the healthy food I have been eating in the local restaurants each evening, it feels as though this has been a good holiday for my health. Once again, the warm hospitality and genuine welcome from Greeks has been overwhelming.

This afternoon, a chance encounter on the street with a former student and priest-colleague from the Church of Ireland led to five of us having a lengthy afternoon lunch in a shaded corner in Platanias before a final walk on the beach.

It is back to work tomorrow, refreshed spiritually, mentally and physically. The journey from Dublin to Askeaton tomorrow may take as long as the flight from Crete to Dublin tonight, and at times this week the day-time temperatures in Ireland have been half those in Crete. There is a diocesan meeting in Limerick later on Thursday, and I need to finalise my preparations and sermons for Sunday’s services.

Next week, I am back in England for three days for the annual residential conference of the Anglican mission agency, USPG. The conference was in Swanwick, Derbyshire, last year, but returns to High Leigh in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, this year. I am chairing one of the sessions on Wednesday morning, and hope to visit Cambridge too before I catch a late-night flight back on Wednesday.

I have known Rethymnon since the 1980s, I have stayed here perhaps a dozen times, and I have been to Greece almost 40 times. But I shall be back in Greece sooner than expected. A surprise present means two of us are going to visit Athens for two or three days next month [August 2017].

A colourful corner of Platanias in Rethymnon, walking back from the beach this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)