Informative Magazine or Propagandist’s Tool?

Generally, when one receives a magazine that purports to be about products or services from a particular region or country, it is assumed that said magazine is merely a giant piece of advertising – a propagandist’s tool. Perhaps the magazine has been commissioned at the behest of a government agency or created by a trade group. Needless to say, the information contained within in it is taken with a grain – or a whole dishful – of salt.

It is with this in mind that I would like to welcome you to the inaugural edition of Epikouria™.

Epikouria™, as hard as it might be to believe, is the product of an independent publishing company called Triaina. Triaina, which has been in business for over 30 years, publishes a variety of largely trade magazines for the Greek market on food and drink related subjects. None of these magazines, including Epikouria™, receive any sort of government or trade group subsidies or sponsorships aside from the occasional advertisement.

This is not to say that there is no propaganda contained within these pages. Certainly the aim of the magazine is to promote the wide and wonderful range of products available from this unique country. That we think such products are wonderful indicates, it is true, a certain level of bias. However, you will find if you peruse these pages that we neither think that all Greek products are wonderful, nor that some of the companies producing them are not without their problems.

That said, a note about our name: in Greek, ‘Epikouria™’ means, roughly, ‘a celebration of good things’. Epikouria™, like epicure and many other related words, is derived from the name of a philosopher named Epicurus who founded a school called "The Garden" near the city-state of Athens in 306 BC. The inscription on the gate to the school was said to read as follows: "Stranger, here you will do well to tarry; here our highest good is pleasure. The caretaker of that abode, a kindly host, will be ready for you; he will welcome you with bread, and serve you water also in abundance, with these words: ‘Have you not been well entertained? This garden does not whet your appetite; but quenches it.’"

Perhaps because of this inscription, some equate the philosophical system based on his teachings – Epicureanism – with hedonism, but this is incorrect. Epicurus did seek pleasure, but did not endorse overindulgence. He believed in modest pleasures derived from small things; from learning and from friendship. He said that people who want more than they need are making a fundamental mistake – a mistake that would limit their pleasure rather than enhance it. In his words: "Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance." It is our hope that you will find such abundance in Epikouria™.