Hundreds wait to pay respects to Greek composer Theodorakis

Hundreds of people have gathered outside Athens Cathedral, waiting for the arrival of the body of Greek composer and politician Mikis Theodorakis, who is to lie in state in a chapel of the cathedral for three days ahead of his burial on the southern island of Crete

Greece Obit Theodorakis (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Hundreds of people gathered Monday outside Athens Cathedral, waiting for the arrival of the body of Greek composer and politician Mikis Theodorakis, who is to lie in state in a cathedral chapel for three days ahead of his burial on the southern island of Crete

But a dispute over burial details, including which undertakers' office is to handle the procedure, led to delays. The lying in state was to have begun at 3 p.m., but more than an hour later, the body had still not left the Athens cemetery where it was taken to after his death Thursday.

About 500 people gathered outside the cathedral in central Athens, some holding flowers, waiting to pay their final respects to a composer who was an integral part of the Greek political and musical scene for decades.

A dispute over where he will be buried appeared to be resolved over the weekend. His family reportedly lifted objections to him being buried on Crete in accordance with his last wishes.

A court temporarily halted burial plans pending resolution of the dispute. Greece’s national broadcaster said a final decision on details of the burial is expected Tuesday.

Theodorakis died Thursday at 96. His daughter had said he would be buried near Corinth in the village of Vrahati, where he maintained a holiday home.

But a letter Theodorakis had written to the mayor of the town of Chania in Crete in 2013 was made public, in which the composer said he wanted to be buried in the nearby cemetery of Galatas, despite his family’s disagreement.

Theodorakis was as well-known in Greece for his political activism as for his musical career. He penned a wide range of work, from somber symphonies to popular television and film scores, including for “Serpico” and “Zorba the Greek.”

He is also remembered for his opposition to the military junta that ruled Greece from 1967-1974, a time during which he was persecuted and jailed, and his music outlawed.

Greece’s Communist Party said over the weekend that Theodorakis’ body will lie in state beginning Monday, and a “farewell ceremony” will be held Wednesday, before the late composer is flown to Crete. The church service and burial will be on Thursday.

Theodorakis had a tumultuous relationship with the Communist Party, known by its Greek accronym KKE, leaving it in the late 1960s, rejoining in the late 1970s and getting elected as a lawmaker with the conservative New Democracy party in 1990.

But he wrote a letter in October to Communist Party Secretary-General Dimitris Koutsoumbas, essentially entrusting him with the funeral arrangements.

“Now, at the end of my life, at the time of taking stock, details are erased from my mind and the ‘Big Things’ remain. So, I see that I spent my most crucial, forceful and mature years under KKE’s banner. For this reason, I want to depart this world as a communist,” Theodorakis wrote.