We get a little more background info on Cal before he tells us the history of his grandmother, Desdemona Stephanides. What a name! With a name like that, you know this is going to be a good tale.
She lives on Mount Olympus. Yes, that Mount Olympus. We're not sure if Aphrodite lives next door, but she may as well.
Desdemona is a silk worker and has her own menagerie of silkworms.
Meanwhile her brother Eleutherios (we'll just call him Lefty, like Cal does) has a fantasy of being a gangster type. He hangs out at hookah bars and gambles the day away.
Desdemona wants her brother to find a nice gal, so she tries to hook him up with some of the girls in the village.
Those girls just don't do it for him, though. Lefty jokes that he should just marry Desdemona. "You're my third cousin, too. Third cousins can marry" (1.1.101).
Matchmaking has to be put on hold, however, as Turkey is invaded by Greece and a war breaks out.