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Ancient Greece
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Adamantios Korais
Adamantios Korais or Coraïs () (27 April 1748 – 6 April 1833) was a humanist scholar credited with laying the foundations of Modern Greek literature and a major figure in the Greek Enlightenment. His activities paved the way for the Greek War of Independence and emergence of a purified form of the Greek language, known as Katharevousa. Encyclopaedia Britannica asserts that "his influence on the modern Greek language and culture has been compared to that of Dante on Italian and Martin Luther on German".
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Aeschylus
Aeschylus ( ; , Aiskhulos; c. 524/525 BC – c. 455/456 BC) was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, and is often recognized as the father of tragedy. His name derives from the Greek word aiskhos (αισχος), meaning "shame". According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in plays to allow for conflict among them; previously, characters interacted only with the chorus. Only seven of an estimated seventy to ninety plays by Aeschylus have survived into modern times; there is an ongoing debate about the authorship of one of these plays, Prometheus Bound.
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Albanians
Albanians () are a people from southeast Europe who live in Albania, Kosovo and neighboring countries. They speak the Albanian language. Roughly half of Albanians live in Albania, with other large groups residing in Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro. There are Albanian communities in a number of other countries, including Turkey, Greece, Serbia and Italy.
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Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon (20/21 July 356 – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great (, Mégas Aléxandros), was a Greek king of Macedon. He is the most celebrated member of the Argead Dynasty and the creator of one of the largest empires in ancient history.
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Andreas Embeirikos
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Andreas Papandreou
Andreas G. Papandreou (); February 5, 1919 - June 23, 1996) was a Greek economist, a socialist politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics. He served two terms as Prime Minister of Greece (21 October 1981, to 2 July 1989, and 13 October 1993, to 22 January 1996). In 1999, Papandreou was posthumously awarded the Swedish Order of the Polar Star.
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Angelos Sikelianos
Angelos Sikelianos (28 March 1884-19 June 1951) (Greek: Άγγελος Σικελιανός) was a modern Greek poet and playwright. One of Greece's most important 20th-century lyric poets, he emphasized national history, religious symbolism, and universal harmony in poems such as The Light-Shadowed, Prologue to Life, Mother of God, and Delphic Utterance. His plays include Sibylla, Daedalus in Crete, Christ in Rome, The Death of Digenis, and Asklepius. He was the first of the twentieth century Greek poets to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature
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Aristophanes
Aristophanes (, ca. 446 – ca. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a prolific and much acclaimed comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and they are in fact used to define the genre. Also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy, Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries - Plato singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as slander contributing to the trial and execution of Socrates although other satirical playwrights had caricatured the philosopher. His second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by the demagogue Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. It is possible that the case was argued in court but details of the trial are not recorded and Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights.
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Aristotle
Aristotle (, Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy. Aristotle's writings were the first to create a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality and aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics.
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Aristotle Onassis
Aristotle Sokratis Onassis (, Aristotelis Onasis; 15 January 1906 – 15 March 1975), commonly called Ari or Aristo Onassis, was a prominent Greek shipping magnate of the 20th century. Some sources claim he was born in 1900 but that he later changed his date of birth so as to avoid deportation from Turkey.
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Byzantine Greeks
Byzantine Greeks or Byzantines ()
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Charilaos Trikoupis
Charilaos Trikoupis () (July 11, 1832 (O.S.) – April 1896) was a Greek politician who served as a Prime Minister of Greece seven times from 1875 until 1895.
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Demetrius Vikelas
Demetrios Vikelas, or Bikelas (; February 15, 1835 – July 20, 1908) was a Greek businessman and writer; he was the first president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), from 1894 to 1896.
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Dimitrios Ioannidis
Dimitrios Ioannidis (, 13 March 1923 – 16 August 2010), also known as Dimitris Ioannidis, was a Greek military officer and one of the leading figures in the Greek military junta of 1967–1974.
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Dionysios Solomos
Dionysios Solomos (, 8 April 1798 - 9 February 1857) was a Greek poet from Zakynthos. He is best known for writing the Hymn to Liberty (lang-el|, Ýmnos eis tīn Eleutherían), of which the first two stanzas on music by Nikolaos Mantzaros became the Greek national anthem in 1865. He was the central figure of the Heptanese School of poetry, and is considered the national poet of Greece - not only because he wrote the national anthem, but also because he contributed to the preservation of earlier poetic tradition and highlighted its usefulness to modern literature. Other notable poems include Ο Κρητικός (Τhe Cretan), Ελεύθεροι Πολιορκημένοι (The Free Besieged) and others. A characteristic of his work is that no poem except the Hymn to Liberty was completed, and almost nothing was published during his lifetime.
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Emmanuel Rhoides
Emmanuel Rhoides (, 28 June 1836 – 7 January 1904) was a Greek writer and journalist. He is considered one of the most illustrious and reviving spirits of the Greek letters of his time.
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Euripides
Euripides (Ancient Greek: ) (ca. 480 BC – 406 BC) was the last
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Frederick Copleston
Frederick Charles Copleston, SJ, CBE (10 April 1907, Taunton, Somerset, England – 3 February 1994, London, England) was a Jesuit priest and historian of philosophy.
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George I of Greece
George I (, Geórgios Αʹ, Vasiléfs ton Ellínon; 24 December 1845 – 18 March 1913) was King of the Hellenes from 1863 to 1913. Originally a Danish prince, George was only 17 years old when he was elected King by the Greek National Assembly, which had deposed the former King Otto. His nomination was both suggested and supported by the Great Powers (the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Second French Empire and the Russian Empire).
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George Papandreou
Georgios A. Papandreou (, ; born 16 June, 1952), commonly anglicized to George and shortened to Γιώργος (Giórgos, ) in Greek, is the current Prime Minister of Greece following his party's victory in the 2009 legislative election. His family comes from a long standing political dynasty. He previously served as Minister for National Education and Religious Affairs (1988-1989 and 1994-1996) and was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1999 to 2004. Following his grandfather George Papandreou sr. and his father Andreas Papandreou, he is the third member of the Papandreou family to serve as the country's prime minister. Papandreou has been leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) party since February 2004. In 2006 he became President of the Socialist International. George Papandreou became the 182nd Prime Minister of Greece on October 6, 2009, inheriting a severe economic situation.
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George Seferis
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Greek American
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Greek Britons
Greek Americans (, Ellinoamerikani) are Americans of Greek descent. According to the 2007 U.S. Census Bureau estimation, there were 1,380,088 people of Greek ancestry in the United States, while the State Department mentions that around 3,000,000 Americans claim to be of Greek descent. In addition, the 2000 census revealed that Greek was spoken at home by 365,436 people older than five. Greek Americans have a heavy concentration in the New York City metropolitan area, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Baltimore, and Cleveland. Tarpon Springs, Florida is also home to a large Greek American community and the highest concentration of Greek-Americans in the country (11%). The United States is home to the largest overseas Greek community, ahead of Cyprus and the United Kingdom, which despite having a Greek population of less than 1 million has a larger percentage of Greeks than the U.S.
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Greeks
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Greeks in Germany
Ethnic group
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Gregorios Xenopoulos
The Greeks in Germany form a significant community with a population of 294,891 people according to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, in December 31, 2007.
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Herodotus
Gregorios Xenopoulos (, December 9, 1867 - 14 January 1951) was a novelist, journalist and writer of plays from Zakynthos. He was lead editor in the now-legendary magazine "The Education of Children" (Η Διάπλασις των Παίδων) during the period from 1896 to 1948, during which time he was also the magazine's main author. His was the trademark signature "Σας ασπάζομαι, Φαίδων" ("yours faithfully, Phaedon)", which he used in letters ostensibly addressed to the magazine. He was also the founder and editor of the Nea Estia magazine, which is still published. He became a member of the Academy of Athens in 1931, and founded the Society of Greek Writers together with Kostis Palamas, Angelos Sikelianos and Nikos Kazantzakis.
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Homer
Herodotus (Greek: Hēródotos) was an ancient Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC ( – ). He was born in Caria, Halicarnassus (modern day Bodrum, Turkey). He is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative. He is exclusively known for writing The Histories, a record of his "inquiry" (or historía, a word that passed into Latin and took on its modern meaning of history) into the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars which occurred in 490 and 480-479 BC—especially since he includes a narrative account of that period, which would otherwise be poorly documented; and many long digressions concerning the various places and people he encountered during wide-ranging travels around the lands of the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Although some of his stories were not completely accurate, he claimed that he was reporting only what had been told to him.
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Ioannis Kapodistrias
Homer (Ancient Greek: , Hómēros)
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Ioannis Metaxas
Count Ioannis Antonios Kapodistrias ( – Komis Ioannis Antonios Kapodistrias, in , Conte Capo d'Istria,John Capodistrias and the Greeks before 1821 C. W. Crawley Cambridge Historical Journal, Vol. 13, No. 2 (1957), pp. 162–182 Quote: ''John Capodistrias does not wholly fit into this picture. His ancestors' family, coming from Istria to Corfu in the fourteenth century.... [http://kapodistriako.uoa.gr/stories/001_ne_01/index.php?m=2 Slovenia Honours Kapodistria (In Greek)] From the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens website. Quote: Η Σλοβενία τιμά τον Καποδίστρια Tα αποκαλυπτήρια ανδριάντα, ύψους 1.76μ., του Ιωάννη Καποδίστρια έγιναν στις 8 Δεκεμβρίου 2001 στην κεντρική πλατεία της πόλης Capo d'Istria της Σλοβενίας. Η ελληνική κυβέρνηση εκπροσωπήθηκε από τον Πρέσβη κ. Χαράλαμπο Χριστόπουλο, ενώ την τελετή παρακολούθησε η καθηγήτρια του Πανεπιστημίου μας κ. Ελένη Κούκου, η οποία με σχετικές εργασίες της έχει φωτίσει άγνωστες πτυχές της ζωής του μεγάλου πολιτικού, αλλά και του ευαίσθητου ανθρώπου Καποδίστρια. Με την ανέγερση του ανδριάντα και με την αντίστοιχη μετονομασία της πλατείας, η γη των προγόνων του πρώτου Κυβερνήτη της σύγχρονης Ελλάδας θέλησε να τιμήσει τη μνήμη του. Το έργο είναι από χαλκό και το φιλοτέχνησε ο γνωστός γλύπτης Κ. Παλαιολόγος. Η μεταφορά του στο λιμάνι της πόλης Κόμμες, όπως σήμερα ονομάζεται το Capo d'Istria, έγινε με πλοίο του Eλληνικού Πολεμικού Ναυτικού.'' Translation: The unveiling of the statue of Ioannis Kapodistrias of height 1.76 m took place on 8 December 2001 in the central square of the city Capo d'Istria of Slovenia. The Greek government was represented by ambassador Charalambos Christopoulos, while the ceremony was observed by the professor of our university Mrs. Eleni Koukou, who through her relevant works has shed light on unknown areas of the life of the great politician but also the sensitive man, Kapodistrias. With the raising of the statue and the renaming of the square, the land of the ancestors of the first governor of Modern Greece wished to honour his memory. The statue is made of bronze and was created by famous sculptor K. Palaiologos. Its transportation to the port of the city Kommes, as is the present name of Capo d'Istria, was carried out by a ship of the Greek Navy. and in – Graf Ioann Kapodistriya) (February 11, 1776 October 9, 1831) was a Greek diplomat of the Russian Empire and later first head of state of independent Greece.
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Karolos Papoulias
Ioannis Metaxas () (April 12, 1871 – January 29, 1941) was a Greek General, appointed Prime Minister of Greece between April and August 1936, and dictator during the 4th of August Regime, from 1936 until his death in 1941.
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Kostas Karyotakis
Dr. Karolos Papoulias (, ; born June 4, 1929) is the seventh and current President of the Third Hellenic Republic.
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Mark Mazower
Kostas Karyotakis (, October 30, 1896 – July 20, 1928) is considered one of the most representative Greek poets of the 1920s and one of the first poets to use iconoclastic themes in Greece. His poetry conveys a great deal of nature, imagery and traces of expressionism and surrealism. The majority of Karyotakis' contemporaries viewed him in a dim light throughout his lifetime without a pragmatic accountability for their contemptuous views; for after his suicide,the majority began to revert to the view that he was indeed a great poet. He had a significant, almost disproportionately progressive influence on later Greek poets.
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Moses I. Finley
Mark A. Mazower (born 1958) is a British historian. His expertise is Greece, the Balkans and 20th century Europe. He is currently a professor of history at Columbia University in New York City.
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names of the Greeks
Sir Moses I. Finley CBE, FBA (May 20, 1912–June 23, 1986) was an American and English classical scholar. His most notable work is The Ancient Economy (1973), where he argued that status and civic ideology governed the economy in antiquity rather than rational economic motivations.
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Nikos Kazantzakis
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Odysseas Elytis
Nikos Kazantzakis () (February 18, 1883, Heraklion, Crete, Ottoman Empire - October 26, 1957, Freiburg, Germany) was arguably the most important and most translated Greek writer and philosopher of the 20th century. Yet he did not become well known globally until the 1964 release of the Michael Cacoyannis film Zorba the Greek, based on Kazantzakis' novel whose English translation has the same title.
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Otto of Greece
Odysseas Elytis () (November 2, 1911—March 18, 1996) was a Greek poet regarded as a major exponent of romantic modernism in Greece and the world. In 1979, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
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Ottoman Empire
Otto, prince of Bavaria or Othon, king of Greece (, Óthon, Vasiléfs tis Elládos; 1 June 1815 – 26 July 1867) was made the first modern King of Greece in 1832 under the Convention of London, whereby Greece became a new independent kingdom under the protection of the Great Powers (the United Kingdom, France and the Russian Empire).
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Penelope Delta
The Sublime Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish, Persian: دَوْلَتِ عَلِيّهٔ عُثمَانِیّه Devlet-i ʿAliyye-yi ʿOsmâniyye, Modern Turkish: Yüce Osmanlı Devleti or Osmanlı İmparatorluğu) was an empire that lasted from 1299 to 1923.
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Pindar
Penelope Delta (, Alexandria, 1874 – Athens, 27 April 1941) was a Greek author of books for children. Practically the first Greek children's books writer, her historical novels have been widely read and influenced Greek popular perceptions on national identity and history. Through her long-time association with Ion Dragoumis, Delta was thrust in the middle of the turbulent early 20th-century Greek politics, from the Macedonian Struggle to the National Schism. She committed suicide on the day German troops entered Athens in World War II.
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Plato
Pindar (, Pindaros; Latin: Pindarus) (ca. 522–443 BC), was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, Pindar is the one whose work is best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich exuberance of his language and matter, and his rolling flood of eloquence".
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Pontic Greeks
:For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation) and Platon (disambiguation).
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R. J. Rummel
The Pontian Greeks (also called Pontic Greeks, Pontians or Greeks of Pontus; or , ) are an ethnic group consisting of Greeks from the shores of the Black Sea (or Pontos in Greek, also see:Pontus). They traditionally speak Pontic, a distinct form of the Greek language which, due to the remoteness of Pontus, has had a process of linguistic evolution different from that of the rest of the Greek world.
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Rigas Feraios
Rudolph Joseph Rummel (born October 21, 1932) is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii. He has spent his career assembling data on collective violence and war with a view toward helping their resolution or elimination. Rummel coined the term democide for murder by government, his research claiming that six times as many people died of democide during the 20th century than in all that century's wars combined. He concludes that democracy is the form of government least likely to kill its citizens and that democracies do not wage war against each other (see Democratic peace theory).
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Romani people
Rigas Feraios or Rigas Velestinlis (, born Αντώνιος Κυριαζής, Antonios Kyriazis; also known as Κωνσταντίνος Ρήγας, Konstantinos or Constantine Rhigas; Serbian: Рига од Фере, Riga od Fere; 1757—June 13, 1798) was a Greek writer and revolutionary, an eminent figure of the Greek Enlightenment, remembered as a Greek national hero, the first victim of the uprising against the Ottoman Empire and a forerunner of the Greek War of Independence.
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Sappho
The Romani (also Romany, Romanies, Romanis, Roma or Roms; exonym: Gypsy; Romani: Romane or Rromane, depending on the dialect) are an ethnic group living mostly in Europe, who trace their origins to mediaeval India.
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Sephardi Jews
Sappho ( in English; Attic Greek ' , Aeolic Greek ' ) was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life. The bulk of her poetry, which was well-known and greatly admired throughout antiquity, has been lost, but her immense reputation has endured through surviving fragments.
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Socrates
Sephardi Jews (, plural: ; Spanish '; Portuguese ', Greek Sefardoi, Bulgarian , Turkish , Judaeo-Spanish Sefardies, Arabic: سفارديون) are:
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Sophocles
Socrates (Greek: , , Sōkrátēs; c. 469 BC–399 BC, in English ) was a Classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes. Many would claim that Plato's dialogues are the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity.
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Theodoros Vryzakis
Sophocles ( Sophoklēs, his name was very likely pronounced ; (c. 497/6 BCE - winter 406/5 BCE) was the second of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides. According to the Suda, a 10th century encyclopedia, Sophocles wrote 123 plays during the course of his life, but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Trachinian Women, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. For almost 50 years, Sophocles was the most-feted playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens that took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. Sophocles competed in around 30 competitions; he won perhaps 24 and was never judged lower than second place; in comparison, Aeschylus won 14 competitions and was defeated by Sophocles at times, while Euripides won only 4 competitions.
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Thucydides
Theodoros Vryzakis (circa 1804-1868) was a major Greek painter of the 19th century.
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Vlachs
Thucydides (c. 460 BC – c. 395 BC) (Greek Θουκυδίδης, Thoukydídēs) was a Greek historian and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis in terms of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work.
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Yannis Ritsos
Vlach ( or ) or Wallachian is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. English variations on the name include: Walla, Vallachians, Walachians, Wlachs, Wallachs, Vlahs, Olahs or Ulahs; Groups that have historically been called Vlachs include: modern-day Romanians or Daco-Romanians, Aromanians or Macedo-Romanians, Morlachs, Megleno-Romanians and Istro-Romanians. Since the creation of the Romanian state, the term in English has mostly been used for those living outside Romania.
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Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire () (ca. 550–330 BCE), also known as the Persian Empire, was the successor state of the Median Empire, ruling over significant portions of what would become Greater Iran. The Persian and the Median Empire taken together are also known as the Medo-Persian Empire, which encompassed the combined territories of several earlier empires.
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Achaia
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Acropolis of Athens
The Acropolis of Athens or Citadel of Athens is the best known acropolis (Gr. akros, akron, edge, extremity + polis, city, pl. acropoleis) in the world. Although there are many other acropoleis in Greece, the significance of the Acropolis of Athens is such that it is commonly known as The Acropolis without qualification. The Acropolis was formally proclaimed as the pre-eminent monument on the European Cultural Heritage list of monuments on 26 March 2007. The Acropolis is a flat-topped rock that rises above sea level in the city of Athens, with a surface area of about 3 hectares. It was also known as Cecropia, after the legendary serpent-man, Cecrops, the first Athenian king.
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Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea (, Egeo Pelagos ; ) is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus. The Aegean Islands are within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The Aegean Region consists of nine provinces in southwestern Turkey, in part bordering on the Aegean sea.
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Albania
Albania ( , , Gheg Albanian: Shqipnia/Shqypnia), officially known as the Republic of Albania (, pronounced ), is a country in South Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the west, and on the Ionian Sea to the southwest. It is less than from Italy, across the Strait of Otranto which links the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea.
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Alexandria
Alexandria (Arabic: al-Iskandariyya; Coptic: ; ; ; Egyptian Arabic: اسكندريه ), with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypt's imports and exports. Alexandria is also an important tourist resort. Alexandria extends about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in north-central Egypt. It is home to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the new Library). It is an important industrial centre because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez, another city in Egypt.
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Anatolia
Anatolia (, from Greek '; also Asia Minor, from , ') is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, Georgia to the northeast, the Armenian Highland to the east, Mesopotamia to the southeast, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea to the west. Anatolia has been home to many civilizations throughout history, such as the Hittites, Phrygians, Lydians, Persians, Greeks, Assyrians, Armenians, Romans, Byzantines, Anatolian Seljuks and Ottomans. As a result, Anatolia is one of the archeologically richest areas in the world.
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Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes (; ; ; Arabic:انطاکیه, Antakya; also Great Antioch or Syrian Antioch) was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.
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Arcadia
Arcadia, Arkadía () is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas.
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Aristotle University
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Bulgaria
Bulgaria ( , Balgariya, ), officially the Republic of Bulgaria (, Republika Balgariya, ), is a country in Southern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north (mostly along the Danube), Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south. The Black Sea defines the extent of the country to the east.
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Classical Athens
The city of Athens during the classical period of Ancient Greece (508-322 BC) was a notable polis (city-state) of Attica, Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Hippias. This system remained remarkably stable, and with a few brief interruptions remained in place for 180 years, until 322 BC (aftermath of Lamian War) . The peak of Athenian hegemony was achieved in the 440s to 430s BC, known as the Age of Pericles.
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Constantinople
Constantinople (, , Turkish: Istanbul) was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire, the Latin Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.
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Crete
Crete (, Kriti or occasionally Krētē) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at . Crete is one of the 13 peripheries of Greece and covers the same area as the Greek region of Crete from before the 1987 administrative reform. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece; while it retains its own local cultural traits (such as its own music and dialect), Cretans identify themselves as Greeks. Heraklion is the largest city and capital of Crete.
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Cyclades
The Cyclades (, ) is a Greek island group in the Aegean Sea, south-east of the mainland of Greece; and an administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name refers to the islands around (κυκλάς) the sacred island of Delos. The Cyclades is where the native Greek breed of cat (the Aegean cat) first came from.
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Cyprus
Cyprus (; , Kýpros, ; ), – officially the Republic of Cyprus (, Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía, ; ) – is a Eurasian island country in the Eastern Mediterranean, south of Turkey and west of Syria and Lebanon. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of its most popular tourist destinations. An advanced, high-income economy with a very high Human Development Index, the Republic of Cyprus was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement until it joined the European Union on 1 May 2004.
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Dodecanese
The Dodecanese (, Dodekánisa, , literally "twelve islands") are a group of 12 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, off the southwest coast of Turkey, southward of the island of Samos and northeastward of the island of Crete. They have a rich history, and many of even the smallest inhabited islands boast dozens of Byzantine churches and medieval castles.
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Dubai
Dubai ( ; ) is one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the only two emirates to have veto power over critical matters of national importance in the country's legislature.
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Epirus (periphery)
Epirus (Greek: Ήπειρος, Ípiros), is a periphery in northwestern Greece. It borders the peripheries of West Macedonia and Thessaly to the east, West Greece to the south, the Ionian Sea and the Ionian Islands to the west and Albania to the north. The province has an area of about 9,200 km² (3,551 square miles). It is part of the wider historical region of Epirus, which overlaps modern Albania and Greece but mostly lies in modern Greek territory. The periphery covers the same area as the Greek region of Epirus from before the 1987 administrative reform
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Euboea
For the mythological figure, see Euboea (mythology)
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European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union.
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Evros Prefecture
The Evros Prefecture () is the northernmost of the prefectures of Greece. It is located in the eastern and northeastern part of the region of Thrace, and borders Turkey at the Evros river. Evros borders Bulgaria to the north and the northwest. The Rhodope prefecture borders it to the west. Evros is the northernmost prefecture in Greece. Its capital town is Alexandroupoli.
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Finland
Finland (pronounced ), officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden on the west, Norway on the north and Russia on the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.
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Greece
Greece (; , Elláda, ; , Hellás, ), also known as Hellas and officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Ellīnikī́ Dīmokratía, ), is a country in southeastern Europe. Situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula, Greece has land borders with Albania, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of mainland Greece, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the tenth longest coastline in the world at in length, featuring a vast number of islands (approximately 1400, of which 227 are inhabited), including Crete, the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, and the Ionian Islands among others. Eighty percent of Greece consists of mountains, of which Mount Olympus is the highest at .
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Hellenic Parliament
The Hellenic Parliament (; transliterated Vouli (also Boulē) tōn Hellēnōn, ) is the Parliament of Greece, located in the Parliament House (Old Royal Palace), overlooking Syntagma Square in Athens, Greece.
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Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2000 United States Census, the city's population was 38,577. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region. Hoboken is also the location of the first recorded baseball game in the United States, and of the Stevens Institute of Technology, one of the oldest technological universities in the United States.
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Ionian Islands
The Ionian Islands (Modern Greek: Ιόνια νησιά, Ionia nisia; Ancient Greek, Katharevousa: , Ionioi Nēsoi; ) are a group of islands in Greece. They are traditionally called the Heptanese, i.e. "the Seven Islands" ({{lang-el|, Heptanēsa, or , Heptanēsos; ), but the group includes many smaller islands as well as the seven principal ones. The seven are, from north to south:
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Ionian Sea
The Ionian Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula to the west, and by southwestern Albania, including Saranda and Himara, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante, Kephalonia, Ithaka, and Lefkas to the east. The islands are collectively referred to as the Ionian Islands, and other islands include the Strophades, Sphagia, Schiza, Sapientza and Kythira. The sea is one of the most seismic areas in the world.
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Istanbul
Istanbul (), historically known as Constantinople(See Names of Istanbul for further information) is the largest city in Turkey and 5th largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.8 million, also making it the second largest metropolitan area in Europe by population, and the largest metropolitan city proper. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural, economic, and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province. It is located on the Bosphorus Strait and encompasses the natural harbour known as the Golden Horn, in the northwest of the country. It extends both on the European (Thrace) and on the Asian (Anatolia) sides of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world that is situated on two continents. Istanbul is a designated alpha world city.
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Italy
Italy (; ), officially the Italian Republic (), is a country located in south-central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia — the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea — and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, whilst Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.4 million inhabitants, it is the sixth most populous country in Europe, and the twenty-third most populous in the world.
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Karyes (Athos)
Karyes is a settlement in Mount Athos. It is the seat of the clerical and secular administration of the Athonite monastic state. The 2001 Greek census reported a population of 233 inhabitants. It is the largest settlement in Mount Athos.
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Kefalonia
The island of Kefalonia, also known as Cephallenia, Cephallonia, Kefallinia, or Kefallonia (Ancient Greek: Κεφαλληνία; Modern Greek: Κεφαλονιά or Κεφαλλονιά; ), is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece, with an area of 350 sq. miles. It is also the larger of the two islands forming the Kefalonia and Ithaka Prefecture, and contains eight of the prefecture's nine municipalities or communities. (Ithaca is on a separate island.)
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Kiato
Kiato (Greek, Modern: Κιάτο, Ancient/Katharevousa: Κιάτον) is a coastal town in Greece that is agricultural-based. The town is located in the northern part of the prefecture of Corinthia in the Peloponnese, Greece. Kiato is located in a sandy area which features lemon trees, orange trees, and other fruit-bearing trees. It has a lot of touristic activity mainly in the summer. The ancient name of Kiato was Sikyon and the municipality of Sikyona is named after this place. In the antiquity it had a great prosperity, especially from the middle of the 2nd century BC. Kiato is linked with GR-8 and the Elissos river flows near the centre of Kiato. It also serves a junction on a road linking to Stymfalia and Levidi to the southwest. On the same road 2 km south is GR-8A/E55 (Athens - Patras), E94 eastbound with its exit at the 109th km. Kiato is located almost halfway between Patras and Athens. It is located approximately 30 km (old distance, 25 km) NW of Corinth, about 111 km W of Athens, about 110 km E of Patras, 98 km E of the Rio-Antirio bridge and about 40 km NE of Stymfalia. Groves surround Kiato while fruit and vegetable farming areas lie to the southeast and parts near Kiato. Forests lie within the shorelines to the east and west and some to the south and along the hills. The hills lie to the south.
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Laconia
:For the ancient region, see Laconia (ancient region) and Sparta
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Lesbos
Lesbos ( also transliterated Lesvos; sometimes the island is also referred to as Mytilini after its major city) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of 1632 km² (630 square miles) with 320 kilometres (almost 200 miles) of coastline, making it the third largest Greek island and the largest of the numerous Greek islands scattered in the Aegean. It is separated from Turkey by the narrow Mytilini Strait. Administratively, it forms part of the Lesbos Prefecture. Its population is approximately 90,000, a third of which lives in its capital, Mytilene, in the southeastern part of the island. The remaining population is distributed in small towns and villages. The largest are Kalloni, the Gera Villages, Plomari, Agiassos, Eresos, and Molyvos (the ancient Mythymna). Mytilene was founded in the 11th century BC by the family Penthilidae, who arrived from Thessaly, and ruled the city-state until a popular revolt (590–580 BC) led by Pittacus of Mytilene ended their rule.
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Lesbos Island
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Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and number of books. The head of the Library is the Librarian of Congress, currently James H. Billington.
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Macedonia (Greece)
Macedonia (; , Makedonía, ) is a geographical and historical region of Greece in southeastern Europe. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region. The region and that of Thrace are often together referred to informally as northern Greece.
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Meteora
The Metéora (, "suspended rocks", "suspended in the air" or "in the heavens above") is one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece, second only to Mount Athos. The six monasteries are built on natural sandstone rock pillars, at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Pineios river and Pindus Mountains, in central Greece. The nearest town is Kalambaka. The Metéora is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List under criteria I, II, IV, V and VII.
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Montreal
Montreal (; pronounced in French, in English) is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the city is located, or Mont Réal as it was spelled in Middle French, (Mont Royal in present French).
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MV Panagiotis
The Panagiotis () is a picturesque shipwreck lying in the white sands of an exposed cove on the coast of Zakynthos (Zante), which is among the southern-most of the Ionian Islands of Greece. Navagio ("Shipwreck"), the spot where she lies, is a valued tourist attraction on the north-western side of the island, accommodating thousands of visitors each year.
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Mykonos
Mykonos () is a Greek island and a top tourist destination, renowned for its cosmopolitan character which attract large numbers of tourists. The island is part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos. It spans an area of and rises at an elevation of at its highest point. The island is composed primarily of granite. It has little natural fresh water and relies on the desalination of sea water in order to meet its needs. There are 9,320 inhabitants (2001) most of whom live in the largest town, Mykonos, also known as Chora (i.e. the Town in Greek, a common denomination in Greece when the name of the island itself is the same as the name of the principal town), which lies on the west coast.
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Myrtoan Sea
The Myrtoan (Mirtoan) Sea (, Myrtöo Pelagos) is a subdivision of the Mediterranean Sea that lies between the Cyclades and the Peloponnesos. It is described as the part of the Aegean Sea south of Euboea, Attica, and Argolis.[http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/hofmann/m/books/m_5301.html]
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National Geographic
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NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO ( ; ), also called the "(North) Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The NATO headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium, and the organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.
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Naxos Island
Naxos (in Greek, Νάξος) is a Greek island, the largest island () in the Cyclades island group in the Aegean. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture.
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Oxford
Oxford () is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre. For a distance of some along the river, in the vicinity of Oxford, the Thames is known as The Isis.
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Panathinaiko Stadium
The Panathinaiko or Panathenaic Stadium (), also known as the Kallimarmaro (Καλλιμάρμαρο, i.e. the "beautifully marbled") in Athens, is the only major stadium in the world built entirely of white marble (from Mount Penteli).
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Peloponnese
The Peloponnese, Peloponnesos or Peloponnesus (; see also List of Greek place names) is a large peninsula (technically an island since the 1893 construction of the Corinth Canal) and region in southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth. During the late Middle Ages and the Ottoman era, the peninsula was known as the Morea (, colloq. Μωριάς), a name still in colloquial use.
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Pindus
:This article is about the mountain range called Pindus; for other uses of these names; see Pindus (disambiguation)
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Poland
Poland (), officially the Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska), is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of Poland is , making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. Poland has a population of over 38 million people, which makes it the 34th most populous country in the world and the sixth most populous member of the European Union, being its most populous Slavic member.
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Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution.
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Rio–Antirrio bridge
The Rion-Antirion bridge (), officially the Charilaos Trikoupis bridge after the statesman who first envisioned it, is the World's longest multi-span cable-stayed bridge. It crosses the Gulf of Corinth near Patras, linking the town of Rion on the Peloponnese to Antirion on mainland Greece.
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Samos Island
Samos () is a Greek island in the North Aegean sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of Asia Minor, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait.
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Sea of Crete
The Sea of Crete (, Kritiko Pelagos) is the sea south of the Aegean Sea, north of the island Crete, and south of the Cyclades. The sea also stretches from Kythera east to the Dodecanese islands of Karpathos and Kassos. The bounding seas to the west are the Ionian Sea as well as the rest of the Mediterranean Sea. Ferry routes to and from Piraeus, as well as the southern islands of the Aegean and the Dodecanese, run in this area.
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South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK, , ) and sometimes referred to simply as Korea, is a state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. Its capital is Seoul. South Korea lies in a temperate climate region with a predominantly mountainous terrain. Its territory covers a total area of 99,392 square kilometers and has a population of .
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Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, , abbreviated СССР, SSSR), informally known as the Soviet Union () or Soviet Russia, was a constitutionally socialist state that existed on the territory of most of the former Russian Empire in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.
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Sparta
Sparta (Doric Σπάρτα; Attic Spartē) or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c. 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece.
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Sporades
The (Northern) Sporades () are an archipelago along the east coast of Greece, northeast of the island of Euboea, in the Aegean Sea. It consists of 24 islands, of which five are inhabited: Alonissos, Skiathos, Skopelos, Peristera and Skyros.
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Stagira
Stagira is a Greek village lying on a picturesque plateau on the Chalcidice peninsula, and standing at the foot of the Argirolofos hill. The village stands a few kilometers south from the ancient Stageira, the birthplace of Aristotle, and a statue of him stands in it. In Byzantine times, Stagira was called Siderokafsia (which means blast furnace). The sultan's mint was located here in the 16th century and many ruins of furnaces can be found close to the village. The present-day village has approximately 500 inhabitants, but including the neighbouring village of Stratoniki, with which Stagira virtually merges, the population increases to around 1500. The central church was built in 1814.
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Syros
Syros (), or Siros or Syra is a Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is located south-east of Athens. The island is home to the municipalities of Ermoupoli, Ano Syros, and Poseidonia. Ermoupoli is the capital of the island and the Cyclades. It has always been a significant port town, and during the 19th century it was even more significant than Piraeus.
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Thasos
Thasos or Thassos () is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea, close to the coast of Thrace and the plain of the river Nestos but geographically part of Macedonia. It is the northernmost Greek island. Thasos is also the name of the largest town of the island (also known as Limenas Thasou, "Harbour of Thasos"), situated at the northern side, opposite the mainland and about from Keramoti.
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Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (, ), Thessalonica, or Salonica is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Macedonia. Its honorific title is Συμпρωτεύουσα (Symprotévousa), literally "co-capital", a reference to its historical status as the Συμβασιλεύουσα (Symvasilévousa) or "co-reigning" city of the Byzantine Empire, alongside Constantinople. According to the 2001 census, the municipality of Thessaloniki had a population of 363,987, its Urban Area 800,764 and the Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) of Thessaloniki has an estimated 995,766 residents (2004).
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Tinos
Tinos (; ) is a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. It is located in the Cyclades archipelago. In ancient times, Tinos was also known as Ophiussa (from ophis, Greek for snake) and Hydroessa (from hydor, Greek for water). The closest islands are Andros, Delos, and Mykonos. It has a land area of approximately 194 square kilometres and a 2001 census population of 8,574 inhabitants. It is composed of the municipalities of Tinos (town) (pop. 5,203) and Exomvourgo (2,692) plus the community of Panormos (679).
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Turkey
Turkey (), known officially as the Republic of Turkey (), is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. Turkey is one of the six independent Turkic states. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between Eastern Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.
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Vikos Gorge
The Vikos Gorge () is a gorge in the Pindus Mountains of northern Greece. It lies on the southern slopes of Mount Tymfi, with a length of about 20 km, an altitude that ranges from 450 m to 1.600 m and a width from 400 m to some meters at its narrowest part.
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Zakynthos
Zakynthos (), also Zante, the other form often used in English and in Italian (; Venetian: Zacinto), is the third largest of the Ionian Islands. It covers an area of and its coastline is roughly in length. The island is named after Zakynthos, the son of a legendary Arcadian chief Dardanus. The name, like all similar names ending in -nthos, is pre-Mycenaean or Pelasgian in origin. Zakynthos has a thriving tourism industry.
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Zeus
In Greek mythology Zeus ( or ; Ancient Greek: Ζεύς; Modern Greek: Δίας, Dias) is the "Father of Gods and men", according to Hesiod's Theogony, who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family; he was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. As Walter Burkert points out in his book, Greek Religion, "Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence."(Iliad, book 1.503;533) For the Greeks, he was the King of the Gods, who oversaw the universe. As Pausanias observed, "That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men". In Hesiod's Theogony, Zeus assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is referred to as the chieftain of the gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty.
http://wn.com/Zeus
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Ancient Greece Video
I made this as extra credit for my History class. Yes. I am THAT MUCH of a nerd. Edit- This video gave me just enough extra points to be exempt from the big, horrible, end of unit test! Yes! And people told me video skills would never help me in the real world! Ha ha! Update- I love the fact that teachers are showing this to their classes. I've gotten a good number of messages about that kind of thing. Although... I'm not entirely certain what educational value this video has... it is an interesting thought to me that students in random parts of the country are watching this in school. It makes me feel special; like... an anonymous lesson-plan contributor to curriculums everywhere! (My god, I'm such a nerd....)
http://wn.com/Ancient_Greece_Video
Olympian Gods of Ancient Greek Mythology
A video I really like explaining about the Olympian GODS in Greek Mythology. I did not make the video, but I DID create and embed the subtitles for your convenience. Enjoy.
http://wn.com/Olympian_Gods_of_Ancient_Greek_Mythology
Seven Wonders Of Ancient Greece (part1/5)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:01
- Published: 18 Nov 2009
- Uploaded: 18 Jan 2012
- Author: 1andonlyhistorylover
Documentary which explores the Seven Ancient Wonders of Greece: the Theatre of Epidaurus, Olympia, Delphi, the Colossus of Rhodes, Santorini, The Palace of Knossos and the Parthenon.
http://wn.com/Seven_Wonders_Of_Ancient_Greece_part1/5
Athens vs Sparta, Sokratis and ancient Greece part 1 HQ
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:54
- Published: 02 Oct 2008
- Uploaded: 21 Jan 2012
- Author: documentariess
Ελληνικοί υπότιτλοι ancient civilization ATHENS and Sparta were both Greek cities and their people spoke a common language. In every other respect they were different. Athens rose high from the plain. It was a city exposed to the fresh breezes from the sea, willing to look at the world with the eyes of a happy child. Sparta, on the other hand, was built at the bottom of a deep valley, and used the surrounding mountains as a barrier against foreign thought. Athens was a city of busy trade. Sparta was an armed camp where people were soldiers for the sake of being soldiers. The people of Athens loved to sit in the sun and discuss poetry or listen to the wise words of a philosopher. The Spartans, on the other hand, never wrote a single line that was considered literature, but they knew how to fight, they liked to fight, and they sacrificed all human emotions to their ideal of military preparedness.
http://wn.com/Athens_vs_Sparta,_Sokratis_and_ancient_Greece_part_1_HQ
Cradles of Civilization - Ancient Greece
www.tmwmedia.com Considered by many to be the birthplace of Western thought, ancient Greece was home to many of the world's great minds. The complex and intriguing philosophies of Aristotle, Socrates, Plato and Pythagoras are analyzed in a simple, yet comprehensive fashion suitable for both student and scholar. With stunning graphics set against the beautiful backdrops of the Acropolis in Athens and the Oracle at Delphi, this video traces the evolution of these influential thinkers.
http://wn.com/Cradles_of_Civilization__Ancient_Greece
Ancient Greece - Grèce antique - Αρχαία Ελλάδα
Photos of various archeological sites in Greece, from every part of the country. From 5500 BC, to 1st century AD. 1. Abdera, Thrace (4th century BC) 2. Acrocorinth, Corinth, Peloponnese (6th-3th century BC) 3. Acropolis of Athens aerial view 4. Acropolis of Athens, Erechthion detail with Caryatis (5th century BC) 5. Aegina island, temple of Afea (6th century BC) 6. Egosthena, classical fort, Attica (4th century BC) 7. Akrotiri at Santorini island, (destruction 1600BC) 8. Amphipolis wall, Macedonia (5th century BC) 9. Antikythira island mechanism (around 100BC) 10. Apollo temple at Vassai in Elis, Peloponnese (5th c.BC) 11. Argos, "Larissa" Acropolis in Argolid Peloponnese (from 6th c.BC) 12. Chaeronia Lion at Boeotia (4th c.BC) 13. Corinth, Temple of Apollo (7th c.BC) 14. Delos island, Cyclades General view 15. Delos Lions (5th c.BC) 16. Delphi, Tholos, Phocis (4th c.BC) 17. Delos island stoa (3rd c.BC) 18. Dimini Neolithic Citadel, Magnesia, Thessaly (6th Millennium BC) 19. Dion, Pieria, Macedonia mount Olympus visible (3rd-1st c.BC) 20. Dodoni Theater, Epirus (4th c.BC) 21. Dodona, Epirus, The Oracle 22. Drakospita of Karystos interior, Evia (Euboea) island, (6th c.BC) 23. Karystos Drakospito (Dragon House) exterior 24. Samos island, the Efpalinos tunnel (6th c.BC) 25. Eleusis,(ELEFSINA) Attica, The Telesterion (5th c.BC) 26. Epidaurus, Argolid, Peloponnese. Theatre (4th c.BC) 27. Erechthion, Acropolis of Athens (5th c.BC) 28. Faestos (Festos) Crete, Palace (1800 BC) 29 <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Ancient_Greece__Grèce_antique__Αρχαία_Ελλάδα
The Greeks -- Introduction of the PBS series
The first few moments of the PPS series "The Greeks -- Crucible of civilization"
http://wn.com/The_Greeks_-_Introduction_of_the_PBS_series
Ancient Greece Interesting Facts Part 1, Hot Facts Teacher Jessica
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:53
- Published: 14 May 2010
- Uploaded: 22 Jan 2012
- Author: psychetruth
Ancient Greece Interesting Facts Part 1, Hot Facts Teacher Jessica Join Jessica for some interesting facts about ancient Greece civilization. Did the Greeks invent the first computer? What was life like in ancient Greece? Did the Greeks figure out that the world was actually round? And who discovered that dolphins are actual mammals? This video was produced by Psychetruth www.youtube.com www.myspace.com Music By Jimmy Gelhaar www.jimmyg.us http youtube.com Copyright 2010 Target Public Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
http://wn.com/Ancient_Greece_Interesting_Facts_Part_1,_Hot_Facts_Teacher_Jessica
Sex in Ancient Greece
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:44
- Published: 23 Sep 2008
- Uploaded: 18 Jan 2012
- Author: PetrosStavrou
The History Channel is surprisingly accurate about Ancient Greek Sexuality
http://wn.com/Sex_in_Ancient_Greece
Ancient Greece - democracy in ancient Athens
No other city has contributed more to the civilization of mankind than Athens. It is the place where Socrates was born, Plato, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and many others. It is the place that humanism and democracy were born. The intellectual light that Athens created will always be alive.
http://wn.com/Ancient_Greece__democracy_in_ancient_Athens
Greek Sculpture (BBC: How Art Made The World)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:01
- Published: 27 May 2008
- Uploaded: 23 Jan 2012
- Author: babylonianman
How greek art created something more human than human. Excerpt from the BBC documentary "How Art Made The World" concerning greek sculpture. Presented by Dr Nigel Spivey (University of Cambridge). Music: "Enfer (La Double Vie De Veronique)" by Zbigniew Preisner.
http://wn.com/Greek_Sculpture_BBC_How_Art_Made_The_World
Ancient Greece: Minoan Crete
Minoan Crete: a short introduction
http://wn.com/Ancient_Greece_Minoan_Crete
History of Ancient Greece 1500 BC
History of Ancient Greece 1500 BC
http://wn.com/History_of_Ancient_Greece_1500_BC
ANCIENT GREEK INNOVATIONS
The Ancient Greek civilization flourished 2500 years ago on the shores of the Ionian and Aegean Sea. Although its population never exceeded 2 million, ancient Greece made great innovations in philosophy, politics, science, architecture, and the arts, and Greek culture forms the basis of western civilization to this day. Small samples of those are presented in this slide show.
http://wn.com/ANCIENT_GREEK_INNOVATIONS
1. Introduction
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 33:03
- Published: 20 Nov 2008
- Uploaded: 20 Jan 2012
- Author: YaleCourses
Introduction to Ancient Greek History (CLCV 205) Professor Donald Kagan explains why people should study the ancient Greeks. He argues that the Greeks are worthy of our study not only because of their vast achievements and contributions to Western civilization (such as in the fields of science, law, and politics) but also because they offer a unique perspective on humanity. To the Greeks, man was both simultaneously capable of the greatest achievements and the worst crimes; he was both great and important, but also mortal and fallible. He was a tragic figure, powerful but limited. Therefore, by studying the Greeks, one gains insight into a tension that has gripped and shaped the West and the rest of the world through its influence. In short, to study the Greeks is to study the nature of human experience. 00:00 - Chapter 1. Ancient Greece as the Foundation of Western Civilization 13:06 - Chapter 2. The Judeo Christian Tradition 24:50 - Chapter 3. Problems Posed by the Western Tradition Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: open.yale.edu This course was recorded in Fall 2007.
http://wn.com/1_Introduction
Olympian Goddesses of Ancient Greek Mythology
A video I really like explaining about the Olympian GODDESSES in Greek Mythology. I did not make the video, but I DID create and embed the subtitles for your convenience. Enjoy.
http://wn.com/Olympian_Goddesses_of_Ancient_Greek_Mythology
![Homosexuality in Ancient Greece - The Myth is Collapsing [Audio Edited]](http://web.archive.org./web/20120208170444im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/aHk9JoXoBMY/0.jpg "Homosexuality in Ancient Greece - The Myth is Collapsing [Audio Edited]")
Homosexuality in Ancient Greece - The Myth is Collapsing [Audio Edited]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:34
- Published: 16 Apr 2007
- Uploaded: 19 Jan 2012
- Author: HELLENICBLOOD
Debunking the Myth of Homosexuality in ancient Greece
http://wn.com/Homosexuality_in_Ancient_Greece__The_Myth_is_Collapsing_ Audio_Edited
Ancient Greece: Song of Seikilos
This song is one of the earliest examples yet found of a complete musical composition from the ancient world. Although other songs have been found that pre-date 'The Song of Seikilos' by many centuries, they only survive in fragments. Seikilos carved the song on a grave pillar in dedication to his wife. The Grave was discovered in 1883, near Aydin in Turkey. Archaeologists believe it dates between 200 BC and AD 100. Seikilos also inscribed a poem on the gravestone, it reads: "Hoson zēs, phainou Mēden holōs sy lypou; Pros oligon esti to zēn To telos ho chronos apaitei." In English: "As long as you live, shine, Let nothing grieve you beyond measure. For your life is short, and time will claim its toll." From the Atrium Musicae de Madrid directed by Gregorio Paniagua, recorded in 1979.
http://wn.com/Ancient_Greece_Song_of_Seikilos
Ancient Greek Swastika symbols
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:51
- Published: 08 Apr 2010
- Uploaded: 16 Jan 2012
- Author: Zorro11144
The Swastika symbol was used in ancient Greece. It was the sign of Zeus and a symbol of peace.The Nazis desacreded the swastika symbol and transfomed it into a symbol of hatred and racism . The gammadion, or rather the tetra-gammadion, is an ancient symbol also known as swastika. The name gammadion comes from the fact that it can be seen as being made up of four Greek gamma (Γ) letters. Ancient Greek priestesses would tattoo the symbol, along with the tetraskelion, on their bodies. Ancient Greek architectural designs are replete with the interlinking symbol. Artemis as Mistress of Animals, about 680 BCE 0:11 Greek vase from the 7th century BC 0:16 Greek vase 0:19 Theseus slaying Minotaur Greek pottery arount 5th Century BC 0:24 Geometric Greek pottery from Eleusis 0:30 Pyxis with horses on lid 750BC 0:35 Greek vase displayed in the national museum of Athens 0:40 Decorations from Heraclea Lynkestis 0:46 1:14 Ancient Greek phrygian helmet with swastika marks, 350-325 BCE, found at Herculanum, Taranto. 0:55 Boeotian idol 700 BC 1:00 Decorations from Heliopolis (Baalbek) 1:06 Gold disc from Skyros island 1:18 Greek pottery 1:26 Greek Column from Didyma temple of Apollo 1:31 Shield of king Philip II of Macedon 1:38 Maeander decorations from the palace of Pella 1:42 1:48 Byzantine Church of Christ Pantocrator in Bulgaria 2:05 Byzantine church in Greece 13th century 2:12 Hinduistic Swastikas with Ganesh 2:23 Buddhist swastika on a statue of Buddha 2:29
http://wn.com/Ancient_Greek_Swastika_symbols
Ancient Greek Architecture
The Ancient Greek Architecture is the most beautiful human creations. The most beautiful and impressive buildings in the world are built by taking elements from ancient Greek architecture.
http://wn.com/Ancient_Greek_Architecture
Ancient Greek Music, Macedonia is Greek
Greek ancient song, and images from Greece. Subscribe me:)
http://wn.com/Ancient_Greek_Music,_Macedonia_is_Greek
HORRIBLE HISTORIES - Wife Swap: Spartans and Athenians
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:25
- Published: 30 Jun 2009
- Uploaded: 23 Jan 2012
- Author: horriblehistoriesBBC
GREAT NEWS! A brand new series of Horrible Histories starts on CBBC on 31st May 2010!! In the meantime... Another Horrible Histories gem: an ancient Athenian and an ancient Spartan swap lives... an experience no-one enjoys.
http://wn.com/HORRIBLE_HISTORIES__Wife_Swap_Spartans_and_Athenians
Ancient Greek Theatre.flv
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:32
- Published: 17 Jul 2010
- Uploaded: 22 Jan 2012
- Author: chartersms
A segment from the Discovery Channel's Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece.
http://wn.com/Ancient_Greek_Theatreflv
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The New York Times
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| Native name | Ελληνική Δημοκρατία''Ellīnikī́ Dīmokratía'' |
|---|---|
| Conventional long name | Hellenic Republic |
| Common name | Greece |
| Image coat | Coat of arms of Greece.svg |
| Symbol type | National emblem |
| Image coat caption | National emblem |
| Map caption | |
| National anthem | "''Ýmnos is tin Eleftherían''Hymn to Liberty" |
| National motto | Eleftheria i Thanatos, (Greek: "Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος", ''"Laziness or Death"'') (traditional) |
| Official languages | Greek |
| Demonym | Greek (Officially: Hellenic) |
| Capital | Athens |
| Largest city | Athens |
| Government type | Unitary parliamentary republic |
| Leader title1 | President |
| Leader name1 | Karolos Papoulias |
| Leader title2 | Prime Minister |
| Leader name2 | George Papandreou MP |
| Legislature | Parliament |
| Sovereignty type | Independence |
| Established event1 | Declared |
| Established date1 | 1 January 1822, at the First National Assembly |
| Established event2 | Recognized |
| Established date2 | 3 February 1830, in the London Protocol |
| Established event3 | Current constitution |
| Established date3 | 11 June 1975,Third Hellenic Republic |
| Accessioneudate | 1 January 1981 |
| Euseats | 24 |
| Area rank | 96th |
| Area magnitude | 1 E11 |
| Area km2 | 131,990 |
| Area sq mi | 50,944 |
| Percent water | 0.8669 |
| Population estimate | 11,305,118 |
| Population estimate rank | 74th |
| Population estimate year | 2010 |
| Population census | 10,787,690 |
| Population census year | 2011 (preliminary data) |
| Population density km2 | 85.3 |
| Population density sq mi | 221.0 |
| Population density rank | 88th |
| gdp ppp | $318.082 billion |
| Gdp ppp rank | 37th |
| Gdp ppp year | 2010 |
| Gdp ppp per capita | $28,434 |
| Gdp ppp per capita rank | 29th |
| Gdp nominal | $305.415 billion |
| Gdp nominal rank | 32nd |
| Gdp nominal year | 2010 |
| Gdp nominal per capita | $27,302 |
| Gdp nominal per capita rank | 29th |
| Hdi | 0.855 |
| Hdi rank | 22nd |
| Hdi year | 2010|HDI_category very high |
| Gini | 33 |
| Gini year | 2005 |
| Currency | Euro (€)2 |
| Currency code | EUR |
| Time zone | EET |
| Utc offset | +2 |
| Time zone dst | EEST |
| Utc offset dst | +3 |
| Ethnic groups | 94% Greek,4% Albanian,2% others |
| Drives on | right |
| Cctld | .gr3 |
| Calling code | 30 |
| Footnote1 | Also the national anthem of Cyprus. |
| Footnote2 | Before 2001, the Greek drachma. |
| Footnote3 | The .eu domain is also used, as in other European Union member states. }} |
Greece (, ''Elláda'', ), also known as Hellas (, ''Hellás'', ) and officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, ''Ellīnikī́ Dīmokratía'', ), is a country in southeastern Europe.
Greece has land borders with Albania, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of mainland Greece, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the twelfth longest coastline in the world at in length, featuring a vast number of islands (approximately 1,400, of which 227 are inhabited), including Crete, the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, and the Ionian Islands among others. Eighty percent of Greece consists of mountains, of which Mount Olympus is the highest at .
Modern Greece traces its roots to the civilization of ancient Greece, generally considered the cradle of Western civilization. As such, it is the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, the Olympic Games, Western literature and historiography, political science, major scientific and mathematical principles, university education, coinage, and Western drama, including both tragedy and comedy. This legacy is partly reflected in the seventeen UNESCO World Heritage Sites located in Greece, ranking Greece 7th in Europe and 13th in the world. The modern Greek state was established in 1830, following the Greek War of Independence.
A developed country with an advanced, high-income economy and very high standards of living (including the 22nd highest Human Development Index in the world ), Greece has been a member of what is now the European Union since 1981 and the eurozone since 2001, NATO since 1952, and the European Space Agency since 2005. It is also a founding member of the United Nations, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation.
Athens is the capital and the largest city in the country (its urban area also including Piraeus, Greece's most significant port).
Name
The name of Greece differs in Greece in comparison with the names used for the country in other languages and cultures, just like the names of the Greeks. Although the Greeks call the country ''Hellas'' or ''Ellada'' () and its official name is Hellenic Republic, in English the country is called Greece, which comes from Latin ''Graecia'' as used by the Romans and literally means 'the land of the Greeks'; however, the name ''Hellas'' is sometimes used in English too.
History
While the area around Attica was inhabited during the Upper Paleolithic period (30000 –10000 BCE), archaeological evidence suggests that the small caves around the Acropolis rock and the Klepsythra spring were in use during the Neolithic Period (3000–2800 BCE). Greece was the first area in Europe where advanced early civilizations emerged, beginning with the Cycladic civilization of the Aegean Sea, the Minoan civilization in Crete and then the Mycenaean civilization on the mainland. Later, various Greek kingdoms and city-states emerged across the Greek peninsula and spread to the shores of the Black Sea, South Italy and Asia Minor, reaching great levels of prosperity that resulted in an unprecedented cultural boom, that of classical Greece, expressed in architecture, drama, science and philosophy, and nurtured in Athens under a democratic environment.
Athens and Sparta led the way in repelling the Persian Empire in a series of battles. Both were later overshadowed by Thebes and eventually Macedonia, with the latter under the guidance of Alexander the Great uniting and leading the Greek world to victory over the Persians.
The Hellenistic period was brought only partially to a close two centuries later with the establishment of Roman rule over Greek lands in 146 BC. Many Greeks migrated to Alexandria, Antioch, Seleucia and the many other new Hellenistic cities in Asia and Africa founded in Alexander's wake.
The subsequent mixture of Roman and Hellenic cultures took form in the establishment of the Byzantine Empire in 330 AD around Constantinople. Byzantium remained a major cultural and military power for the next 1,123 years, until the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. On the eve of the Ottoman conquest, much of the Greek intelligentsia migrated to Italy and other parts of Europe not under Ottoman rule, playing a significant role in the Renaissance through the transmission of ancient Greek works to Western Europe. Nevertheless, the Ottoman millet system contributed to the cohesion of the Orthodox Greeks by segregating the various peoples within the empire based on religion, as the latter played an integral role in the formation of modern Greek identity.
After the Greek War of Independence, successfully waged against the Ottoman Empire from 1821 to 1829, the nascent Greek state was finally recognized under the London Protocol in 1830. In 1827, Ioannis Kapodistrias, from Corfu, was chosen as the first governor of the new Republic. However, following his assassination in 1831, the Great Powers installed a monarchy under Otto, of the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach. In 1843, an uprising forced the king to grant a constitution and a representative assembly.
Due to his unimpaired authoritarian rule, he was eventually dethroned in 1863 and replaced by Prince Wilhelm (William) of Denmark, who took the name George I and brought with him the Ionian Islands as a coronation gift from Britain. In 1877, Charilaos Trikoupis, who is credited with significant improvement of the country's infrastructure, curbed the power of the monarchy to interfere in the assembly by issuing the rule of vote of confidence to any potential prime minister.
20th century onwards
As a result of the Balkan Wars, Greece increased the extent of its territory and population. In the following years, the struggle between King Constantine I and charismatic Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos over the country's foreign policy on the eve of World War I dominated the country's political scene, and divided the country into two opposing groups.In the aftermath of WWI, Greece fought against Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal, a war which resulted in a massive population exchange between the two countries under the Treaty of Lausanne. According to various sources, several hundred thousand Pontic Greeks died during this period. Instability and successive ''coups d'état'' marked the following era, which was overshadowed by the massive task of incorporating 1.5 million Greek refugees from Turkey into Greek society. The Greek population in Istanbul dropped from 300,000 at the turn of the century to around 3,000 in the city today.
On 28 October 1940, Fascist Italy demanded the surrender of Greece, but Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas refused and in the following Greco-Italian War, Greece repelled Italian forces into Albania, giving the Allies their first victory over Axis forces on land. The country would eventually fall to urgently dispatched German forces during the Battle of Greece. The German occupiers nevertheless met serious challenges from the Greek Resistance. Over 100,000 civilians died from starvation during the winter of 1941–42, and the great majority of Greek Jews were deported to Nazi extermination camps.
After liberation, Greece experienced a bitter civil war between communist and anticommunist forces, which led to economic devastation and severe social tensions between rightists and largely communist leftists for the next thirty years. The next twenty years were characterized by marginalisation of the left in the political and social spheres but also by rapid economic growth, propelled in part by the Marshall Plan.
King Constantine's dismissal of George Papandreou's centrist government in July 1965 prompted a prolonged period of political turbulence which culminated in a ''coup d'état'' on 21 April 1967 by the United States-backed Regime of the Colonels. The brutal suppression of the Athens Polytechnic uprising on 17 November 1973 sent shockwaves through the regime, and a counter-coup established Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis as dictator. On 20 July 1974, as Turkey invaded the island of Cyprus, the regime collapsed.
Former premier Konstantinos Karamanlis was invited back from Paris where he had lived in self-exile since 1963, marking the beginning of the Metapolitefsi era. On 14 August 1974, Greek forces withdrew from the integrated military structure of NATO in protest at the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus. The first multiparty elections since 1964 were held on the first anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising. A democratic and republican constitution was promulgated on 11 June 1975 following a referendum which abolished the monarchy.
Meanwhile, Andreas Papandreou founded the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) in response to Karamanlis's conservative New Democracy party, with the two political formations alternating in government ever since. Greece rejoined NATO in 1980. Traditionally strained relations with neighbouring Turkey improved when successive earthquakes hit both nations in 1999, leading to the lifting of the Greek veto against Turkey's bid for EU membership.
Greece became the tenth member of the European Communities (subsequently subsumed by the European Union) on 1 January 1981, ushering in a period of remarkable and sustained economic growth. Widespread investments in industrial enterprises and heavy infrastructure, as well as funds from the European Union and growing revenues from tourism, shipping and a fast-growing service sector have raised the country's standard of living to unprecedented levels. The country adopted the euro in 2001 and successfully hosted the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens. More recently, it has been hit hard by the late-2000s recession and central to the related European sovereign debt crisis. The Greek economic crisis and resultant, sometimes violent protests have roiled domestic politics and regularly threatened European and world financial-market stability in 2010-11.
Geography
{| style="float:right; margin:10px" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="1" |- | |}Greece consists of a mountainous, peninsular mainland jutting out into the sea at the southern end of the Balkans, ending at the Peloponnese peninsula (separated from the mainland by the canal of the Isthmus of Corinth). Due to its highly indented coastline and numerous islands, Greece has the twelfth-longest coastline in the world with; its land boundary is . The country lies approximately between latitudes 34° and 42° N, and longitudes 19° and 30° E.
Greece features a vast number of islands, between 1,200 and 6,000, depending on the definition, 227 of which are inhabited. Crete is the largest and most populous island; Euboea, separated from the mainland by the 60m-wide Euripus Strait, is the second largest, followed by Rhodes and Lesbos.
The Greek islands are traditionally grouped into the following clusters: The Argo-Saronic Islands in the Saronic gulf near Athens, the Cyclades, a large but dense collection occupying the central part of the Aegean Sea, the North Aegean islands, a loose grouping off the west coast of Turkey, the Dodecanese, another loose collection in the southeast between Crete and Turkey, the Sporades, a small tight group off the coast of Euboea, and the Ionian Islands, located to the west of the mainland in the Ionian Sea.
Eighty percent of Greece consists of mountains or hills, making the country one of the most mountainous in Europe. Mount Olympus, the mythical abode of the Greek Gods, culminates at Mytikas peak , the highest in the country. Western Greece contains a number of lakes and wetlands and is dominated by the Pindus mountain range. The Pindus, a continuation of the Dinaric Alps, reaches a maximum elevation of at Mt. Smolikas (the second-highest in Greece) and historically has been a significant barrier to east-west travel.
The Pindus range continues through the central Peloponnese, crosses the islands of Kythera and Antikythera and find its way into southwestern Aegean, in the island of Crete where it eventually ends. The islands of the Aegean are peaks of underwater mountains that once constituted an extension of the mainland. Pindus is characterized by its high, steep peaks, often dissected by numerous canyons and a variety of other karstic landscapes. The spectacular Vikos Gorge, part of the Vikos-Aoos National Park in the Pindus range, is listed by the Guinness book of World Records as the deepest gorge in the world. Another notable formation are the Meteora rock pillars, atop which have been built medieval Greek Orthodox monasteries.
Northeastern Greece features another high-altitude mountain range, the Rhodope range, spreading across the periphery of East Macedonia and Thrace; this area is covered with vast, thick, ancient forests, including the famous Dadia forest in the Evros Prefecture, in the far northeast of the country.
Expansive plains are primarily located in the prefectures of Thessaly, Central Macedonia and Thrace. They constitute key economic regions as they are among the few arable places in the country. Rare marine species such as the Pinniped Seals and the Loggerhead Sea Turtle live in the seas surrounding mainland Greece, while its dense forests are home to the endangered brown bear, the lynx, the Roe Deer and the Wild Goat.
Phytogeographically, Greece belongs to the Boreal Kingdom and is shared between the East Mediterranean province of the Mediterranean Region and the Illyrian province of the Circumboreal Region. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature and the European Environment Agency, the territory of Greece can be subdivided into six ecoregions: the Illyrian deciduous forests, Pindus Mountains mixed forests, Balkan mixed forests, Rhodope montane mixed forests, Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests and Crete Mediterranean forests.
Climate
Greece primarily has a Mediterranean climate, featuring mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers. This climate occurs at all coastal locations, including Athens, the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, Crete, the Peloponnese and parts of the Sterea Ellada (Central Continental Grece) region. The Pindus mountain range strongly affects the climate of the country, as areas to the west of the range are considerably wetter on average (due to greater exposure to south-westerly systems bringing in moisture) than the areas lying to the east of the range (due to a rain shadow effect).The mountainous areas of Northwestern Greece (parts of Epirus, Central Greece, Thessaly, Western Macedonia) as well as in the mountainous central parts of Peloponnese – including parts of the prefectures of Achaia, Arcadia and Laconia – feature an Alpine climate with heavy snowfalls. The inland parts of northern Greece, in Central Macedonia and East Macedonia and Thrace feature a temperate climate with cold, damp winters and hot, dry summers with frequent thunderstorms. Snowfalls occur every year in the mountains and northern areas, and brief snowfalls are not unknown even in low-lying southern areas, such as Athens.
Politics
Greece is a parliamentary republic. The nominal head of state is the President of the Republic, who is elected by the Parliament for a five-year term. Women's suffrage was guaranteed with a 1952 Constitutional amendment.According to the Constitution, executive power is exercised by the President of the Republic and the Government. The position of Prime Minister, Greece's head of government, belongs to the current leader of the political party that can obtain a vote of confidence by the Parliament. The President of the Republic formally appoints the Prime Minister and, on his recommendation, appoints and dismisses the other members of the Cabinet. Other significant parties include the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) and the Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS). In 2010, two new parties split off from ND and SYRIZA, the centrist-liberal Democratic Alliance (DS) and the moderate leftist Democratic Left (DA). The current prime minister is George Papandreou, president of PASOK, who on 4 October 2009, won with a majority in the Parliament of 160 out of 300 seats. A new government was sworn in on 20 June 2011, and received a marginal vote of confidence on 22 June, with 155 votes for, 143 against, and two MPs absent. , PASOK holds a majority of 153 seats in parliament, following a series of resignations by party members over austerity plans.
Since the 2010 economic crisis, the two major parties, New Democracy and PASOK, have seen a sharp decline in the share of votes in polls conducted, with predictions allocating just over 60% of eligible votes to them. Additionally, only 11% of the population agree with the policies of the governing party, PASOK, while only 6% with the main opposition, New Democracy.
Administrative divisions
Since the Kallikratis programme reform entered into effect on 1 January 2011, Greece consists of thirteen peripheries subdivided into a total of 325municipalities. The 54 old prefectures and prefecture-level administrations have been largely retained as ''sub-units'' of the peripheries. Seven decentralized administrations group one to three peripheries for administrative purposes on a regional basis. There is also one autonomous area, Mount Athos (, "Holy Mountain"), which borders the periphery of Central Macedonia.{| |- |valign="middle"| ||
| Peripheries of Greece | Peripheries!! Capital!! Area (km²)!! Area (sq. mi.)!!Population | ||||
| 1 | Attica Periphery>Attica | Athens| | 3,808 | 1,470 | 3,812,330 |
| 2 | Central Greece (periphery)Central Greece || | Lamia (city)>Lamia | 15,549 | 6,004 | 546,870 |
| 3 | Central Macedonia| | Thessaloniki | 18,811 | 7,263 | 1,874,590 |
| 4 | Crete| | Heraklion | 8,259 | 3,189 | 621,340 |
| 5 | East Macedonia and Thrace| | Komotini | 14,157 | 5,466 | 606,170 |
| 6 | Epirus (periphery)Epirus || | Ioannina | 9,203 | 3,553 | 336,650 |
| 7 | Ionian Islands PeripheryIonian Islands || | Corfu (city)>Corfu | 2,307 | 891 | 206,470 |
| 8 | North Aegean| | Mytilene | 3,836 | 1,481 | 197,810 |
| 9 | Peloponnese (periphery)Peloponnese || | Tripoli, Greece>Tripoli | 15,490 | 5,981 | 581,980 |
| 10 | South Aegean| | Ermoupoli | 5,286 | 2,041 | 308,610 |
| 11 | Thessaly| | Larissa | 14,037 | 5,420 | 730,730 |
| 12 | West Greece| | Patras | 11,350 | 4,382 | 680,190 |
| 13 | West Macedonia| | Kozani | 9,451 | 3,649 | 282,120 |
| Autonomous state !! Capital !! Area (km²)!! Area (sq. mi.)!!Population | |||||
| (14) | Mount Athos | Karyes (Athos)Karyes || | 390 | 151 | 1,830 |
Foreign relations
Prominent issues in Greek foreign policy include the enduring Cyprus dispute, the Aegean dispute with Turkey over the Aegean Sea and the Macedonia naming dispute with the Republic of Macedonia, which Greece refers to internationally by the provisional reference "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". Also the British government in 1816 purchased the Parthenon Marbles, forming a part of the collection known as the Elgin Marbles and placed on display in the British Museum, where they stand now on view in the purpose-built Duveen Gallery. The debate continues as to whether the Marbles should remain in the British Museum or be returned to Athens.
Military
{| class="toccolours" style="float:right; margin:0 0 1em 1em;" | style="background:#ddd; text-align:center;"| |- | |} The Hellenic Armed Forces are overseen by the Hellenic National Defense General Staff(Γενικό Επιτελείο Εθνικής Άμυνας – ΓΕΕΘΑ) and consists of three branches:The civilian authority for the Greek military is the Ministry of National Defence. Furthermore, Greece maintains the Hellenic Coast Guard for law enforcement in the sea and for search and rescue.
Greece has universal compulsory military service for males, while females (who may serve in the military) are exempted from conscription. , Greece has mandatory military service of nine months for male citizens between the ages of 19 and 45. However, as the armed forces had been gearing towards a complete professional army system, the government had promised that the mandatory military service would be cut or even abolished completely.
Greek males between the age of 18 and 60 who live in strategically sensitive areas may be required to serve part-time in the National Guard. Service in the Guard is paid. As a member of NATO, the Greek military participates in exercises and deployments under the auspices of the alliance.
Economy
The Greek economy (that is gross domestic product, GDP) expanded at an average annual rate of 4% from 2004– 2007 and 2% during 2008 (at constant prices of 2000), one of the highest rates in the Eurozone. However, in 2009 GDP decreased by −1.9%. In 2010, a decrease of GDP by −2.5% to −4% is estimated, due to the current economic crisis.The tourism industry is a major source of foreign exchange earnings and revenue accounting for 15% of Greece's total GDP and employing, directly or indirectly, 16.5% of the total workforce.
The Greek labour force totals 4.9 million, and it is the second-most-industrious among OECD countries, after South Korea. The Groningen Growth & Development Centre published a poll revealing that between 1995 and 2005, Greece ranked third in the "working hours per year ranking" among European nations; Greeks worked an average of 1,811 hours per year. In 2007, the average worker produced around 20 dollars per hour, similar to Spain and slightly more than half of average U.S. worker's hourly output. Immigrants make up nearly one-fifth of the work force, occupied in mainly agricultural and construction work.
Greece's purchasing power-adjusted GDP per capita is the world's 25th highest. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it had an estimated average per capita income of $29,882 for the year 2009, a figure slightly higher than that of Italy and Spain. According to Eurostat data, Greek PPS GDP per capita stood at 95 per cent of the EU average in 2009. According to a survey by ''The Economist'', the cost of living in Athens is close to 90% of the costs in New York City; in rural regions it is lower.
In Greece, the euro was introduced in 2002. As a preparation for this date, the minting of the new euro coins started as early as 2001, however all Greek euro coins introduced in 2002 have this year on it; unlike some other countries of the Eurozone where mint year is minted in the coin. Eight different designs, one per face value, were selected for the Greek coins. In 2007, in order to adopt the new common map like the rest of the Eurozone countries, Greece changed the common side of their coins. Before adopting the euro in 2002, Greece had maintained use of the Greek drachma from 1832.
In 2009, Greece had the EU's second-lowest Index of Economic Freedom (after Poland), ranking 81st in the world. The country suffers from high levels of political and economic corruption and low global competitiveness relative to its EU partners. The Greek economy faces significant problems, including rising unemployment levels and an inefficient government bureaucracy.
Although remaining above the euro area average, economic growth turned negative in 2009 for the first time since 1993. An indication of the trend of over-lending in recent years is the fact that the ratio of loans to savings exceeded 100% during the first half of the year.
2010–2011 economic crisis
By the end of 2009, as a result of a combination of international and local factors (respectively, the world financial crisis and uncontrolled government spending), the Greek economy faced its most-severe crisis since the restoration of democracy in 1974 as the Greek government revised its deficit from an estimated 6% to 12.7% of gross domestic product (GDP).In early 2010, it was revealed that successive Greek governments had been found to have consistently and deliberately misreported the country's official economic statistics to keep within the monetary union guidelines. This had enabled Greek governments to spend beyond their means, while hiding the actual deficit from the EU overseers. In May 2010, the Greek government deficit was again revised and estimated to be 13.6% which was one of the highest in the world relative to GDP and public debt was forecast, according to some estimates, to hit 120% of GDP during 2010, one of the highest rates in the world.
As a consequence, there was a crisis in international confidence in Greece's ability to repay its sovereign debt. In order to avert such a default, in May 2010 the other Eurozone countries, and the IMF, agreed to a rescue package which involved giving Greece an immediate € in bail-out loans, with more funds to follow, totaling €. In order to secure the funding, Greece was required to adopt harsh austerity measures to bring its deficit under control. Their implementation will be monitored and evaluated by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF.
On 15 November 2010, the EU's statistics body Eurostat revised the public finance and debt figure for Greece following an excessive deficit procedure methodological mission in Athens, and put Greece's 2009 government deficit at 15.4% of GDP and public debt at 126.8% of GDP making it the biggest deficit (as a percentage of GDP) amongst the EU member nations (although some have speculated that Ireland's in 2010 may prove to be worse).
The financial crisis – particularly the austerity package put forth by the EU and the IMF – has been met with anger by the Greek public, leading to riots and social unrest.
Maritime industry
The shipping industry is a key element of Greek economic activity dating back to ancient times. Today, shipping is one of the country's most important industries. It accounts for 4.5% of GDP, employs about 160,000 people (4% of the workforce), and represents 1/3 of the country's trade deficit.
During the 1960s, the size of the Greek fleet nearly doubled, primarily through the investment undertaken by the shipping magnates, Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos. The basis of the modern Greek maritime industry was formed after World War II when Greek shipping businessmen were able to amass surplus ships sold to them by the U.S. government through the Ship Sales Act of the 1940s.
According to a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report in 2010, the Greek merchant navy is the largest in the world at 15.96% of the world's total capacity. This is a drop from the equivalent number in 2006, which was 18.2%. The total tonnage of the country's merchant fleet is 186 million dwt, ranked 1st in the world. In terms of total number of ships, the Greek Merchant Navy stands at 4th worldwide, with 3,150 ships (741 of which are registered in Greece whereas the rest 2,409 in other ports). In terms of ship categories, Greece ranks first in both tankers and dry bulk carriers, fourth in the number of containers, and fourth in other ships. However, today's fleet roster is smaller than an all-time high of 5,000 ships in the late 1970s. Additionally, the total number of ships flying a Greek flag (includes non-Greek fleets) is 1,517, or 5.3% of the world's dwt (ranked 5th).
Tourism
An important percentage of Greece's national income comes from tourism. According to Eurostat statistics, Greece welcomed over 19.5 million tourists in 2009, which is an increase from the 17.7 million tourists it welcomed in 2007. The vast majority of visitors in Greece in 2007 came from the European continent, numbering 12.7 million, while the most visitors from a single nationality were those from the United Kingdom, (2.6 million), followed closely by those from Germany (2.3 million). In 2010, the most visited periphery of Greece was that of Central Macedonia, with 18% of the country's total tourist flow (amounting to 3.6 million tourists), followed by Attica with 2.6 million and the Peloponnese with 1.8 million.Northern Greece is the country's most-visited geographical region, with 6.5 million tourists, while Central Greece is second with 6.3 million.In 2010, Lonely Planet ranked Greece's northern and second-largest city of Thessaloniki as the world's fifth-best party town worldwide, comparable to other cities such as Dubai and Montreal. In 2011, Santorini was voted as "The World's Best Island" in ''Travel + Leisure''. Its neighboring island Mykonos, came in fifth in the European category.
Transport
Since the 1980s, the road and rail network of Greece has been significantly modernized. Important works include the Egnatia Odos that connects northwestern Greece (Igoumenitsa) with northern and northeastern Greece (Kipoi). The Rio–Antirrio bridge, the longest suspension cable bridge in Europe, (2250 m or 7382 ft long) connects the western Peloponnese from Rio(7 km or 4 mi from Patras) with Antirrio in Central Greece.An expansion of the Patras-Athens motorway towards Pyrgos in the western Peloponnese is scheduled to be completed by 2014. Most of the motorway connection from Athens to Thessaloniki has also been upgraded.
The Athens Metropolitan Area includes state of the art infrastructure such as the Athens International Airport, the privately run motorway Attiki Odos and the expanded Athens Metro system. Most of the Greek islands and many main cities of Greece are connected by air mainly from the two major Greek airlines, Olympic Air and Aegean Airlines. Maritime connections have been improved with modern high-speed craft, including hydrofoils and catamarans.
Railway connections play a somewhat lesser role than in many other European countries, but they too have also been expanded, with new suburban/commuter rail connections, serviced by Proastiakos around Athens, towards its airport, Kiato and Chalkida; and around Thessaloniki, towards the cities of Larissa and Edessa. A modern intercity rail connection between Athens and Thessaloniki has also been established, while an upgrade to double lines in many parts of the network is underway. International railway lines connect Greek cities with the rest of Europe, the Balkans and Turkey, although they have been suspended, due to the financial crisis.
Communications
Broadband internet availability is widespread in Greece; there were a total of 2,252,653 broadband connections . This translates to 20% broadband penetrationInternet cafés that provide net access, office applications and multiplayer gaming are also a common sight in the country, while mobile internet on 3G cellphone networks and Wi-Fi connections can be found almost everywhere.
Science and technology
The General Secretariat for Research and Technology of the Ministry of Development is responsible for designing, implementing and supervising national research and technological policy. In 2003, public spending on research and development (R&D;) was 456.37 million euros (12.6% increase from 2002). Total R&D; spending (both public and private) as a percentage of GDP had increased considerably since the beginning of the past decade, from 0.38% in 1989, to 0.65% in 2001. R&D; spending in Greece remained lower than the EU average of 1.93%, but, according to Research DC, based on OECD and Eurostat data, between 1990 and 1998, total R&D; expenditure in Greece enjoyed the third-highest increase in Europe, after Finland and Ireland. Because of its strategic location, qualified workforce and political and economic stability, many multinational companies such as Ericsson, Siemens, Motorola and Coca-Cola have their regional research and development headquarters in Greece.Greece's technology parks with incubator facilities include the Science and Technology Park of Crete (Heraklion), the Thessaloniki Technology Park, the Lavrio Technology Park and the Patras Science Park.Greece has been a member of the European Space Agency (ESA) since 2005. Cooperation between ESA and the Hellenic National Space Committee began in the early 1990s. In 1994, Greece and ESA signed their first cooperation agreement. Having formally applied for full membership in 2003, Greece became the ESA's sixteenth member on 16 March 2005. As member of the ESA, Greece participates in the agency's telecommunication and technology activities, and the Global Monitoring for Environment and SecurityInitiative.
Demographics
The official statistical body of Greece is the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT). According to the ELSTAT, Greece's total population in 2001 was 10,964,020. That figure is divided into 5,427,682 males and 5,536,338 females. The preliminary results of the 2011 census show a decrease in the country's population to 10,787,690, a drop of 1.6%. As statistics from 1971, 1981, and 2001 show, the Greek population has been aging the past several decades.The birth rate in 2003 stood 9.5 per 1,000 inhabitants (14.5 per 1,000 in 1981). At the same time the mortality rate increased slightly from 8.9 per 1,000 inhabitants in 1981 to 9.6 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2003. In 2001, 16.71% of the population were 65 years old and older, 68.12% between the ages of 15 and 64 years old, and 15.18% were 14 years old and younger.
Greek society has also rapidly changed with the passage of time. Marriage rates kept falling from almost 71 per 1,000 inhabitants in 1981 until 2002, only to increase slightly in 2003 to 61 per 1,000 and then fall again to 51 in 2004. Divorce rates on the other hand, have seen an increase – from 191.2 per 1,000 marriages in 1991 to 239.5 per 1,000 marriages in 2004.
Cities
Almost two-thirds of the Greek people live in urban areas. Greece's largest metropolitan centres and most influential urban areas, are those of Athens and Thessaloniki, with metropolitan populations of approximately 4 million and 1 million inhabitants respectively. A number of cities that also form influential urban centres around the country include those of Patras, Heraklion, Larissa, Volos, Rhodes, Ioannina, Chania and Chalcis with urban populations above 100,000 inhabitants.The table below lists the largest cities in Greece, by population contained in their respective contiguous built up urban areas; which are either made up of many municipalities, evident in the cases of Athens and Thessaloniki, or are contained within a larger single municipality, case evident in most of the smaller cities of the country. The results come from the population census that took place in Greece in May 2011.
Migration
Throughout the 20th century, millions of Greeks migrated to the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Germany, creating a thriving Greek diaspora. Net migration started to show positive numbers from the 1970s but until the beginning of the 1990s the main influx was that of return migrants.In 1986, legal and unauthorized immigrants totaled approximately 90,000. A study from the mmo.gr Mediterranean Migration Observatory maintains that the 2001 census recorded 762,191 persons residing in Greece without Greek citizenship, constituting around 7% of total population. Of the non-citizen residents, 48,560 were EU or European Free Trade Association nationals and 17,426 were Cypriots with privileged status. The majority come from Eastern European countries: Albania (56%), Bulgaria (5%) and Romania (3%), while migrants from the former Soviet Union (Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, etc.) comprise 10% of the total. The greatest cluster of non-EU immigrant population are the urban centers, especially the Municipality of Athens with 132,000 immigrants, at 17% of the local population and then Thessaloniki, with 27,000, reaching 7% of the local population. There is also a considerable number of co-ethnics that came from the Greek communities of Albania and the former Soviet Union.
Greece, together with Italy and Spain, faces a flood of illegal immigrants trying to enter the EU. The Cabinet has approved a draft law that would allow children born in Greece to parents who are immigrants, one of whom must have been living in the country legally for at least five consecutive years to apply for Greek citizenship. The government, despite strong objections from oppositions, is determined to pass the bill. The main objective is to facilitate the smooth integration of legal immigrants and their children in the Greek social reality. The basic criteria remain the legality of residence and children's participation in Greek culture. For the same reason, moreover, long-term residents, political refugees and expatriates will be allowed to participate in local elections.
Religion
The Greek Constitution recognizes the Orthodox faith as the "prevailing" faith of the country, while guaranteeing freedom of religious belief for all. In a Eurostat – Eurobarometer 2005 poll, 81% of Greek citizens responded that they "believe there is a God", which was the third highest percentage among EU members behind only Malta and Cyprus. According to other sources, 15.8% of Greeks describe themselves as "very religious", which is the highest among all European countries. The survey also found that just 3.5% never attend a church, compared to 4.9% in Poland and 59.1% in the Czech Republic.Estimates of the recognized Greek Muslim minority, which is mostly located in Thrace, range from 98,000 to 140,000, (between 0.9% and 1.2%) while the immigrant Muslim community numbers between 200,000 and 300,000. Albanian immigrants to Greece are usually associated with the Muslim religion, although most are secular in orientation. Following the 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish War and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, Greece and Turkey agreed to a population transfer based on cultural and religious identity. About 500,000 Muslims from Greece, predominantly Turks, but also other Muslims, were exchanged with approximately 1,500,000 Greeks from Asia Minor (now Turkey).
Athens is the only EU capital without a purpose-built place of worship for its Muslim population.
Judaism has existed in Greece for more than 2,000 years. Sephardi Jews used to have a large presence in the city of Thessaloniki (by 1900, some 80,000, or more than half of the population, were Jews), but nowadays the Greek-Jewish community who survived German occupation and the Holocaust, during World War II, is estimated to number around 5,500 people.
Greek members of Roman Catholic faith are estimated at 50,000 with the Roman Catholic immigrant community approximating 200,000. Old Calendarists account for 500,000 followers. Protestants, including Greek Evangelical Church and Free Evangelical Churches, stand at about 30,000. Assemblies of God, International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and other Pentecostal churches of the Greek Synod of Apostolic Church has 12,000 members. Independent Free Apostolic Church of Pentecost is the biggest Protestant denomination in Greece with 120 churches. There are not official statistics about Free Apostolic Church of Pentecost, but the Orthodox Church estimates the followers as 20,000. The Jehovah's Witnesses report having 28,859 active members.
Languages
The first concrete evidence of the Greek language dates back to 15th century BC and the Linear B script which is associated with the Mycenaean Civilization. Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and beyond during Classical Antiquity, and would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire. During the 19th and 20th centuries there was a major dispute known as Greek language question, on whether the official language of Greece should be the archaic Katharevousa, created in the 19th century and used as the state and scholarly language, or the Dimotiki, the form of the Greek language which evolved naturally from Byzantine Greek and was the language of the people. The dispute was finally resolved in 1976, when Dimotiki was made the only official variation of the Greek language, and Katharevousa fell to disuse.
Greece is today relatively homogeneous in linguistic terms, with a large majority of the native population using Greek as their first or only language. Among the Greek-speaking population, speakers of the distinctive Pontic dialect came to Greece from Asia Minor after the Greek genocide and constitute a sizable group.
The Muslim minority in Thrace, which amounts to approximately 0.95% of the total population, consists of speakers of Turkish, Bulgarian (Pomaks) and Romani. Romani is also spoken by Christian Roma in other parts of the country. Further minority languages have traditionally been spoken by regional population groups in various parts of the country. Their use has decreased radically in the course of the 20th century through assimilation with the Greek-speaking majority. Today they are only maintained by the older generations and are on the verge of extinction. This goes for the Arvanites, an Albanian-speaking group mostly located in the rural areas around the capital Athens, and for the Aromanians and Moglenites, also known as Vlachs, whose language is closely related to Romanian and who used to live scattered across several areas of mountaneous central Greece. Members of these groups ethnically identify as Greeks and are today all at least bilingual in Greek.
Near the northern Greek borders there are also some Slavic or locally known as ''Slavomacedonian''-speaking groups, whose members identify ethnically as Greeks in their majority. Their dialects can be linguistically classified as forms of eitherMacedonian Slavic or Bulgarian. It is estimated that in the aftermath of the population exchanges of 1923 there were somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000 Slavic speakers in Greek Macedonia. The Jewish community in Greece traditionally spoke Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), today maintained only by a small group of a few thousand speakers.
Education
Compulsory education in Greece comprises primary schools (Δημοτικό Σχολείο, ''Dimotikó Scholeio'') and gymnasium (Γυμνάσιο). Nursery schools (Παιδικός σταθμός, ''Paidikós Stathmós'') are popular but not compulsory. Kindergartens (Νηπιαγωγείο, ''Nipiagogeío'') are now compulsory for any child above 4 years of age. Children start primary school aged 6 and remain there for six years. Attendance at gymnasia starts at age 12 and last for three years.Greece's post-compulsory secondary education consists of two school types: unified upper secondary schools (Ενιαίο Λύκειο, ''Eniaia Lykeia'') and technical–vocational educational schools (Τεχνικά και Επαγγελματικά Εκπαιδευτήρια, "TEE"). Post-compulsory secondary education also includes vocational training institutes (Ινστιτούτα Επαγγελματικής Κατάρτισης, "IEK") which provide a formal but unclassified level of education. As they can accept both ''Gymnasio'' (lower secondary school) and ''Lykeio'' (upper secondary school) graduates, these institutes are not classified as offering a particular level of education.
Public higher education is divided into universities, "Highest Educational Institutions" (Ανώτατα Εκπαιδευτικά Ιδρύματα, ''Anótata Ekpaideytiká Idrýmata'', "ΑΕΙ") and "Highest Technological Educational Institutions" (Ανώτατα Τεχνολογικά Εκπαιδευτικά Ιδρύματα,''Anótata Technologiká Ekpaideytiká Idrýmata'', "ATEI"). Students are admitted to these Institutes according to their performance at national level examinations taking place after completion of the third grade of ''Lykeio''. Additionally, students over twenty-two years old may be admitted to the Hellenic Open University through a form of lottery. The Capodistrian university of Athens is the oldest university in the eastern Mediterranean.
The Greek education system also provides special kindergartens, primary and secondary schools for people with special needs or difficulties in learning. Specialist gymnasia and high schools offering musical, theological and physical education also exist.
Health
The Greek healthcare system is universal and is ranked as one of the best in the world. In a 2000 World Health Organization report it was ranked 14th in the overall assessment and 11th at quality of service, surpassing countries such as the United Kingdom (18th) and Germany (25th). In 2010, there were 138 hospitals with 31,000 beds in the country, but on 1 July 2011, the Ministry for Health and Social Solidarity announced its plans to shorten the number to 77 hospitals with 36,035 beds, as a necessary reform to reduce expenses and further enchance healthacare standards. Greece's healthcare expenditures as a percentage of GDP were 9.6% in 2007 according to a 2011 OECD report, just above the OECD average of 9.5%. The country has the largest number of doctors-to-population ratio of any OECD country.Life expectancy in Greece is 80.3 years, above the OECD average of 79.5. and among the highest in the world. The same OECD report showed that Greece had the largest percentage of adult daily smokers of any of the 34 OECD members. The country's obesity rate is 18.1%, which is above the OECD average of 15.1% but considerably below the American rate of 27.7%. In 2008, Greece had the highest rate of perceived good health in the OECD, at 98.5%. Infant mortality is one of the lowest in the developed world with a rate of 3.1 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Culture
The culture of Greece has evolved over thousands of years, with its beginnings in the Mycenaean and Minoan Civilizations, continuing most notably into Classical Greece, the Hellenistic Period, through the influence of the Roman Empire and its Greek Eastern successor the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman Empire too had a significant influence on Greek culture, but the Greek War of Independence is credited with revitalizing Greece and giving birth to a single entity of its multi-faceted culture throughout the ages.
Philosophy
Most western philosophical traditions began in ancient Greece in the 6th century BC.The first philosophers are called "Presocratics" which designates that they came before Socrates. The Presocratics were from the western or the eastern colonies of Greece and only fragments of the original writings of the presocratics survive, in some cases merely a single sentence.A new period of philosophy started with Socrates. Like the Sophists, he rejected entirely the physical speculations in which his predecessors had indulged, and made the thoughts and opinions of people his starting-point. Aspects of Socrates were first united from Plato, who also combined with them many of the principles established by earlier philosophers, and developed the whole of this material into the unity of a comprehensive system.
Aristotle of Stagira, the most important disciple of Plato, shared with his teacher the title of the greatest philosopher of antiquity but while Plato had sought to elucidate and explain things from the supra-sensual standpoint of the forms, his pupil preferred to start from the facts given us by experience. Except from these three most significant Greek philosophers other known schools of Greek philosophy from other founders during ancient times were Stoicism, epicureanism, Skepticism and Neoplatonism.
Literature
The timeline of the Greek literature can be separated into three big periods: the ancient, the Byzantine and the modern Greek literature.
At the beginning of Greek literature stand the two monumental works of Homer: the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey''. Though dates of composition vary, these works were fixed around 800 BC or after. In the classical period many of the genres of western literature became more prominent. Lyrical poetry, odes, pastorals, elegies, epigrams; dramatic presentations of comedy and tragedy;historiography, rhetorical treatises, philosophical dialectics, and philosophical treatises all arose in this period.The two major lyrical poets were Sappho and Pindar. The Classical era also saw the dawn of drama.
Of the hundreds of tragedies written and performed during the classical age, only a limited number of plays by three authors have survived: those of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The surviving plays by Aristophanes are also a treasure trove of comic presentation, while Herodotus and Thucydides are two of the most influential historians in this period. The greatest prose achievement of the 4th century was in philosophy with the works of the three great philosophers.
Byzantine literature refers to literature of the Byzantine Empire written in Atticizing, Medieval and early Modern Greek, and it is the expression of the intellectual life of the Byzantine Greeks during the Christian Middle Ages.
Modern Greek literature refers to literature written in common Modern Greek, emerging from late Byzantine times in the 11th century AD. The Cretan Renaissance poem''Erotokritos'' is undoubtedly the masterpiece of this period of Greek literature. It is a verse romance written around 1600 by Vitsentzos Kornaros(1553–1613). Later, during the period of Greek enlightenment (Diafotismos), writers such as Adamantios Korais and Rigas Feraios will prepare with their works the Greek Revolution (1821–1830).
Contemporary Greek literature is representated by many writers, poets and novelists:Dionysios Solomos, Andreas Kalvos, Angelos Sikelianos, Emmanuel Rhoides, Kostis Palamas, Penelope Delta, Yannis Ritsos, Alexandros Papadiamantis, Nikos Kazantzakis, Andreas Embeirikos, Kostas Karyotakis, Gregorios Xenopoulos, Constantine P. Cavafy, Demetrius Vikelas, while George Seferis and Odysseas Elytis have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Cuisine
Greek cuisine is as an example of the healthy Mediterranean diet (Cretan diet). Greek cuisine incorporates fresh ingredients into a variety of local dishes such as moussaka, stifado, Greek Salad, spanakopita and the world famous Souvlaki. Some dishes can be traced back to ancient Greece likeskordalia (a thick purée of potatoes, walnuts, almonds, crushed garlic and olive oil), lentil soup, retsina (white or rosé wine sealed with pine resin) and pasteli (candy bar with sesame seeds baked with honey). Throughout Greece people often enjoy eating from small dishes such as meze with various dips such as tzatziki, grilled octopus and small fish, feta cheese, dolmades(rice, currants and pine kernels wrapped in vine leaves), various pulses, olives and cheese. Olive oil is added to almost every dish.Sweet desserts such as galaktoboureko, and drinks such as ouzo, metaxa and a variety of wines including retsina. Greek cuisine differs widely from different parts of the mainland and from island to island. It uses some flavorings more often than other Mediterranean cuisines: oregano, mint, garlic, onion, dill and bay laurel leaves. Other common herbs and spices include basil, thyme and fennelseed. Many Greek recipes, especially in the northern parts of the country, use "sweet" spices in combination with meat, for example cinnamon and cloves in stews.
Music
Greek vocal music extends far back into Ancient times where mixed-gender choruses performed for entertainment, celebration and spiritual reasons. Instruments during that period included the double-reed aulos and the plucked string instrument, the lyre, especially the special kind called a kithara. Music played an important role in the education system during ancient times. Boys were taught music from the age of six. Later influences from the Roman Empire, Eastern Europe, and the Byzantine Empire changed Greek music.
While the new technique of polyphony was developing in the West, the Eastern Orthodox Church resisted any type of change. Therefore, Byzantine music remained monophonic and without any form of instrumental accompaniment. As a result, and despite certain attempts by certain Greek chanters (such as Manouel Gazis, Ioannis Plousiadinos or the Cypriot Ieronimos o Tragodistis) Byzantine music was deprived of elements of which in the West encouraged an unimpeded development of art. However, the isolation of Byzantium after 1453, which kept music away from polyphony, along with centuries of continuous culture, enabled monophonic music to develop to the greatest heights of perfection. Byzantium presented the monophonic Byzantine chant; a melodic treasury of inestimable value for its rhythmical variety and expressive power.
Along with the Byzantine chant, the Greek people also cultivated the Greek folk song which is divided into two cycles, the akritic and klephtic. The akritic was created between the 9th and 10th centuries A.D. and expressed the life and struggles of the akrites (frontier guards) of the Byzantine empire, the most well known being the stories associated with Digenes Akritas. The klephtic cycle came into being between the late Byzantine period and the start of the Greek War of Independence struggle in 1821. The klephtic cycle, together with historical songs, ''paraloghes'' (narrative song or ballad), love songs, wedding songs, songs of exile and dirges express the life of the Greeks. There is a unity between the Greek people's struggles for freedom, their joys and sorrow and attitudes towards love and death.
The Second World War, German occupation of Greece and the Greek Civil War decisively influenced the Greek folk song. After the first World War and the 1922 débâcle, the trend towards urban living focused on Athens where popular musicians congregated and, in 1928, founded their own professional society: the Athens and Piraeus Musicians Society. Until the early years of this century, musical tradition was preserved in the villages where there was little contact with the outside world. The events and social changes of the 20th century changed Greek folk song. Once the seat of folk song was the village, now the reverse applies. The commercialised folk song spreads in all directions to the remotest villages. The authentic songs and dances have been replaced by the stylised modern "folk songs" written by contemporary musicians which they write new lyrics to authentic folk tunes, changing them enough to ensure copyright protection.
Sports
Greece is the birth place of the Olympic Games. The Panathenian stadium in Athens hosted the Olympic Games in 1896. It had also hosted Olympic Games in 1870 and 1875 (see Evangelis Zappas). The Panathenian stadium also hosted the Games in 1906 and was used to host events at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
The Greek national football team, ranked 12th in the world in 2009, won the UEFA Euro 2004 in one of the biggest surprises in the history of the sport. The Greek Super League is the highest professional football league in the country comprising sixteen teams. The most successful are Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Aris, PAOK and AEK Athens.
The Greek national basketball team has a decades-long tradition of excellence in the sport. In August 2008, it ranked 4th in the world. They have won the European Championship twice in 1987 and 2005, and have reached the final four in three of the last four FIBA World Championships, taking second place in 2006. In 2009, Greece beat France in the under-20 European Basketball championship. The domestic top basketball league, A1 Ethniki, is composed of fourteen teams. The most successful Greek teams are Panathinaikos, Olympiacos, Aris Thessaloniki and PAOK. Water polo and volleyball are also practiced widely in Greece whilecricket and handball are relatively popular in Corfu and Veroia respectively.
Mythology
The numerous gods of the ancient Greek religion as well as the mythical heroes and events of the ancient Greek epics (''The Odyssey'' and ''The Iliad'') and other pieces of art and literature from the time make up what is nowadays colloquially referred to as Greek mythology. Apart from serving a religious function, the mythology of the ancient Greek world also served a cosmological role as it was meant to try to explain how the world was formed and operated.The principal gods of the ancient Greek religion were the Dodekatheon, or the ''Twelve Gods'', who lived on the top of Mount Olympus. The most important of all ancient Greek gods was Zeus, the king of the gods, who was married to Hera, who was also Zeus' sister. The other Greek gods that made up the Twelve Olympians were Demeter, Hades, Ares, Poseidon, Athena, Dionysus, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hephaestus and Hermes. Apart from these twelve gods, Greeks also had a variety of other mystical beliefs, such as nymphs and other magical creatures.
See also
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References
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