Temperature rise together with resultant ice cover retreat in Svalbard, changes in hydrology and geomorphology of fjords and coastal waters is presented as forming force for the marine habitats. Satellite data show increase of habitat complexity following the tidal glaciers retreat and emergence of new (315 km) and complex shoreline. Most evident changes occur in the inner-fjord settings of the west coast of archipelago, while habitats of exposed marine shores and eastern sector of Svalbard remains little changed. It is hypothesized, that decrease in ice cover opens more space for life compared to the cold period.

An interview with professor Maciej Salamon, a historian, medievalist, and Byzantinist, renowned expert in numismatics, about his childhood home and studies in Cracow, academic career at the University of Silesia and Jagiellonian University, as well as study trips.

The essay describes the exhibition Chroma held at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (5th June 2022 – 26th March 2023) on the subject of polychromy in Ancient Greek sculpture. The author presents a short description of the history of research into the Greeks painting their sculptures as well as of the political context of this issue, in which the whiteness of the marble statues is intertwined with the idea of a white Western European civilization. Another important context is that of the American political landscape, in particular far-right, racist movements, which often appropriate symbols connected with what they see as “white” Greek civilization.

A response to the review of a new Polish translation of Aristophanes’ Clouds, which appeared in the previous issue of “Meander”.

A translation into Greek and Latin of four poems by Adam Mickiewicz, three from his Lausanne Cycle, composed in 1839–1840, and one slightly earlier (“Gęby za lud krzyczące…”).