Whether forced by politics, war or circumstance, exile has remained one of the defining themes of Greek life, producing stories of displacement, reinvention and homecoming

Melina Mercouri defined the perfect encapsulation of a well-lived "Second Act" late in life here with Santiago Carrillo, and Jules Dassin, 1977. Photo: AAP

To make matters somewhat complex, one can have a few too many unrequited infatuations.

An infatuation of mine, for so long now, has been that of the notion and theme of ” exile”.

Of course, one can carve retrospectively through the scriptural narrations of the like of Esther, Joseph or King David or, alternatively, as an adjunct companion piece, explore the Homeric story of Odysseus.

It is with some felicity and dexterity that, in his historical fiction work, ‘Odyssey”, British writer, Stephen Fry posited the tantalising question, ” Can the hero find his way home?”.

Putting aside the well-worn Anglo Celtic discourse of the likes of Samuel Beckett and James Joyce ensconced in fraught exile in Paris, the City of Lights has been the “go to” home of an eclectic group of individuals spanning the likes of Ayatollah Khomeini, Czech literary master Milan Kundera , as well as the likes of enduring Greek political titans such as Konstantinos Karamanlis, the first post – coup Greek prime minister, as well as the sublime Melina Mercouri, actress, thespian and the Minister for Arts and Culture under the socialist Pasok administration of Andreas Papandreou.

Melina Mercouri defined the perfect encapsulation of a well lived “Second Act” late in life. In consort with French film auteur husband, Jules Dassin, Mercouri navigated a space between private life, fame and public purpose that few have managed without diminishing or blemishing the achievement and legacy that came before.

In myriad media platforms, Melina Mercouri lived a life of warm transparency and candour, in somewhat similar fashion to that of another political and personal refugee, the equally talented and marvellous Nana Mouskouri.

Engaging nuggets of the lives lived by the likes of Mercouri and Mouskouri are found in their various autobiographical accounts, as indeed are the quixotic heroics of Andreas Papandreou in “Democracy At Gunpoint”, and in a constricted, opaque fashion, in the economic treatise ” The Myth Of Market Capitalism”.