This book consists of 27 studies presented as papers at the international Symposium on Cavafy's poetry, which took place in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, from April 4 to April 16, 1997. The symposium was organized by the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies of the University of Cyprus, as part of the now-established institution "Seferia," which was initiated by the Municipality of Ayia Napa in memory of George Seferis.

The thematic coverage of the volume reflects the theme of the Symposium as defined in its title: “Waters of Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt, beloved waters of our homelands”: modernism, cosmopolitanism, and intercultural relations in Cavafy's poetry.

The main sections in which the essays of the volume are distinguished cover a wide range of approaches that, whether more specialized or combined, comment on themes and issues related to these three critical concepts in the work of the Alexandrian poet. These are concepts of existential and philosophical nature, political, social, and religious character, which Cavafy preemptively commented on with his dialectical poetry of “partly and partly,” analyzing poetically specific behaviors and collective inquiries that arise from ethnic, linguistic, and religious mixtures in transitional periods.

[Excerpt from the prologue text]