1 Mermigki, D., Tsakiri, E. Diacosmos: Ornament as a medium to describe City Identity in Literature. The case of N. Kazantzakis ‘Travels’ A. Gospodini (ed.), Proceedings of the International Conference on Changing Cities ΙΙ: Spatial, Design, Landscape & Socio-economic Dimensions, pp. 1659-69. Thessaloniki: Grafima publications (ISBN 978-960-6865-88-6) 2015 Diacosmos: Ornament as a medium to describe City Identity in Literature. The case of N. Kazantzakis ‘Travels’ D. Mermigki 1 , E. Tsakiri 2* 1 SEMFE, N.T.U. of Athens, 15780, Zografou, Athens, Greece 2 Department of Urban and Regional Planning, N.T.U. of Athens, 10682, Athens, Greece *Corresponding author: E-mail: eftsakiri@gmail.com, Tel +30 2106466466, Mob: +306944673323 Abstract One way of reading City Identity arises from ornaments. City ornament is an organic whole that reflects various cultural constructs. The presence of ornament in the built environment varies. We encounter it in building facades as stable –architectural or sculptural, in various events as mobile or ephemeral decoration, or, beyond architecture and other spatial phenomena, we encounter it in the visual and performing arts, folklore, tradition, language, myth, where ornament is interwoven with science and philosophy. Thereby ornament gives meaning and symbolizes codes, acts, practices and aesthetic principles of our civilization. In the paper we conduct a narrative analysis of N. Kazantzaki’s Travels. Using Diacosmos as a medium, we attempt to describe the various cosmos that the writer discovers and intertwines, in order to present his dedication to the universal, humanistic values and the inter- and multiculturalism that forms and improves the city. Keywords: City Identity, Ornament, Culture, Literature, Semiology “Let it be blessed the luxury, what we call extravagance, excess, feather! Culture means: to feel the luxury as necessity, to surpass the animal, unable longer to fit in the food, the drink, the sleep, the woman. The moment that the ‘wingless biped’ starts to crave like bread the unnecessary, it begins to become a human. Whatever good has this world, whatever is saved from the anthropomermigies [human-ant-hill or people-swarm] is luxury: a painting, a carved flower, a song, an idea beyond the common sense. Luxury is the greatest necessity of the superior human. The excess of heart, this is his real heart” [1]. 1. DIACOSMOS Ornament is a natural and cultural phenomenon. As a cultural phenomenon is mimetic or representational construct (or artifact) [2]. Arises from myth, theogonies, cosmogonies and cooperates with historical event and worldviews. Ornament is found already in Homer [3] in the description of Achilles shield, where it is commended with aesthetic criteria as beautiful, peculiar, interesting, wonderful, like a work of art. At the same time however is defined as a utilitarian and valuable object and as a medium to describe the constitution of the world. Ornament works as a social practice in communication, in the preservation of collective memory, in learning, in entertainment, in decoration. In a wider sense ornament signifies the description, the understanding, and the production of the world’ systems that surround us. The Greek word dia-cosmos [4] comes from the word cosmos that meant order. “The word ‘cosmos’, diacosmos, […] indicate that notions of human everyday life are transferred or at least used for the description and explanation of the universe” states K. Popper commending on the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus [5]. Consequently the determination of the cosmos as a finite and hierarchically arranged, deterministic