Melina Mercuri, the Greek goddess who changed the 20th Century
The recent death of Camilo Sesto has brought back his musical legacy and these days we have been able to enjoy some of his greatest hits, including ‘Melina’. Almost everyone can hum the song, but not everyone knows that it is dedicated to a woman whom a whole country dismissed as the goddess of beauty and freedom.
Actress, singer, politician and convinced Europeanist, Maria Amalia Merkouri was born in Athens in 1920, according to some biographies, and five years later according to others (she never wanted to clear up any doubts). She was born into an aristocratic and politically involved family. Her grandfather was mayor of Athens and her father and uncle were members of parliament.
Melina Mercuri spent her childhood surrounded by politicians and artists, so it comes as no surprise that these were her two vital vocations.
From an early age she imitated the performances of silent film actors and repeated the songs she heard at her grandfather’s house. He, her grandfather, was the only member of her family who supported her artistic aspirations.
When she was still a teenager she met her first husband, Panos Jarokopos, whom she married at the age of 17. He, at all times, supported her passion for theatre and facilitated her studies at the Drama School of the National Theatre. She worked hard, performing in plays such as ‘Mourning suits Elektra’ and ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’.
In 1952 she moved to Paris and made the leap to the big screen. It was there that she met the film director Jules Dassin, who would later become her husband. She began to make an international name for herself with the films ‘It’s Never Sunday’, ‘Phaedra’ and ‘He Who Must Die’.
Melina Mércuri comes to Spain and shoots, ‘Los pianos mecánicos a la orden de Juan Antonio Bardem’.
Of her musical career, her performance in ‘Illya Darling’, one of the most remembered Broadway musicals, stands out. And it was there, in Manhattan, that she learned of the coup d’état of The Colonels that ended constitutional rights in Greece and filled the streets with tanks… It was April 1967 and Melina, who had publicly expressed her rejection of the coup, had to go into exile, which lasted until 1974.
Her stance cost her Greek nationality, the confiscation of her property and three assassination attempts. It was then that she began a tireless political activity throughout Europe, denouncing the fascist regime in Greece, taking part in demonstrations, hunger strikes…
The Dictatorship of the Colonels ended on 24 July 1974 and two days later she returned to Greece… Thousands of people were waiting for her at the airport. Her image of her getting off the plane in tears and showing the sign of victory with her hands is striking. Without completely giving up her artistic activities, the political struggle became her priority.
In 1981, during the Papandreou government, she became Minister of Culture. She organised exhibitions on Greek themes in museums all over the world and met with the highest personalities of the time. But Melina’s main concern was to restore Greece’s classical heritage.
Melina Mercuri tries to bring home the ‘Elgin Marbles’, a large collection of sculptures that the British Lord Elgin took back to England in the early 19th century after ordering their removal from the Parthenon. Despite his efforts, the marbles did not return and those who want to see them have to go to the British Museum.
She works for and on behalf of Greece, but also strives to create common strategies among European countries. It was also her idea to create the European Cultural Capitals, with Athens being proclaimed the first of them.
A heavy smoker, she suffered from lung cancer and while undergoing treatment in New York, she suffered heart failure, which ended her life on 6 March 1994.
Melina Mercuri’s body is brought to Athens and more than 1.5 million people take to the streets to bid farewell to their goddess.
Along with rose petals and bouquets of flowers, anonymous citizens lay numerous cigarette packets in front of her coffin. She was buried in the Athens cemetery, but first her widower, Jules Dassin, ordered the coffin to be opened. He kissed his wife’s face and took out a red velvet dress from a bag and placed it in the coffin. Dassin was fulfilling one of his wife’s last wishes.
In her honour, UNESCO created a prize in her name to recognise the most outstanding initiatives that seek to recover the most emblematic landscapes around the world. In addition, her widower created the Melina Mercuri Foundation to keep her legacy alive. One of the Foundation’s main objectives remains the return of the Parthenon marbles to Greece.
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