Palace of Minos Κνωσός
Restored North Entrance with charging bull fresco
Crete, showing Heraklion, location of ancient Knōsos
Alternate name	Cnossus
Location	Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Region	North central coast, 5 km (3.1 mi) southeast of Heraklion
Coordinates	35°17′52.66″N 25°9′47.36″E / 35.2979611°N 25.1631556°E / 35.2979611; 25.1631556Coordinates: 35°17′52.66″N 25°9′47.36″E / 35.2979611°N 25.1631556°E / 35.2979611; 25.1631556
Type	Palace complex, administrative center, capital of Crete and regions within its jurisdiction
Length	North-south length of inhabited area is 5 km (3.1 mi)[1]
Width	East-west width of inhabited area is 3 km (1.9 mi) max.
Area	Total inhabited area is 10 km2 (3.9 sq mi). The palace building itself is 14,000 m2 (150,000 sq ft)[2]
History
Builder	Unknown
Material	Ashlar blocks of limestone or gypsum, wood, mud-brick, rubble for fill, plaster
Founded	The first settlement dates to about 7000 BC. The first palace dates to 1900 BC.
Abandoned	At some time in Late Minoan IIIC, 1380 – 1100 BC
Periods	Neolithic to Late Bronze Age. The first palace was built in the Middle Minoan IA period.
Cultures	Minoan, Mycenaean
Associated with	In the Middle Minoan, people of unknown ethnicity termed Minoans; in the Late Minoan, by Mycenaean Greeks
Site notes
Excavation dates	1900 – 1931 1957 – 1960 1969 – 1970
Archaeologists	For the initial teams's work discovering the palace: Arthur Evans; David George Hogarth, Director of the British School of Archaeology at Athens; Duncan Mackenzie, superintendant of excavation; Theodore Fyfe, Architect; Christian Doll, Architect For the additional work on the Neolithic starting in 1957: John Davies Evans
Condition	Restored and maintained for visitation. Evans used mainly concrete. Modern interventions include open roofing of fragile areas, stabilized soil, paved walkways, non-slip wooden ramps, trash receptacles, perimeter barbed wire fence, security lighting, retail store and dining room[3]
Ownership	Originally owned by Cretans, then by Arthur Evans, followed by the British School at Athens, and finally by the current owner, the Republic of Greece.
Management	23rd Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities
Public access	Yes
Website	"Knossos". British School at Athens. http://www.bsa.ac.uk/pages/content.php?cat_id=22.  "Knossos". Odysseus. Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism. 2007. http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/3/eh351.jsp?obj_id=2369.
Current activity is preservational. Restoration is extensive. Painted concrete was used for wood in the pillars. The frecoes often were recreated from a few flakes of painted plaster.

Knossos (alternative spellings Knossus, Cnossus, Greek Κνωσός, pronounced [knoˈsos]), currently refers to the main Bronze Age archaeological site at Heraklion, a modern port city on the north central coast of Crete. Heraklion was formerly called Candia after the Saracen name for the place, Kandaiki, meaning the moat that was built around the then new settlement for defence.^[4] Kandaiki became Byzantine Chandax.

The name, Knossos, survives from ancient Greek references to the major city of Crete. The identification of Knossos with the Bronze Age site is supported by tradition and by the Roman coins that were scattered over the fields surrounding the pre-excavation site, then a large mound named Kephala Hill, elevation 85 m (279 ft) from current sea level. Many of them were inscribed with Knosion or Knos on the obverse and an image of a Minotaur or Labyrinth on the reverse, both symbols deriving from the myth of King Minos, supposed to have reigned from Knossos.^[5] The coins came from the Roman settlement of Colonia Julia Nobilis Cnossus, a Roman colony placed just to the north of, and politically including, Kephala. The Romans believed they had colonized Knossos.^[6] After excavation, the discovery of the Linear B tablets, and the decipherment of Linear B by Michael Ventris, the identification was confirmed by the reference to an administrative center, ko-no-so, Mycenaean Greek Knosos, undoubtedly the palace complex. The palace was built over a Neolithic town. During the Bronze Age, the town surrounded the hill on which the palace was built.

The palace was excavated and partially restored under the direction of Arthur Evans in the earliest years of the 20th century. Its size far exceeded his original expectations, as did the discovery of two ancient scripts, which he termed Linear A and Linear B, to distinguish their writing from the pictographs also present. From the layering of the palace Evans developed de novo an archaeological concept of the civilization that used it, which he called Minoan, following the pre-existing custom of labelling all objects from the location Minoan.

The palace complex is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete. It was undoubtedly the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. It appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and storerooms close to a central square. An approximate graphic view of some aspects of Cretan life in the Bronze Age is provided by restorations of the palace's indoor and outdoor murals, as it is also by the decorative motifs of the pottery and the insignia on the seals and sealings.

The palace was abandoned at some unknown time at the end of the Late Bronze Age, ca. 1380 – 1100 BC.^[7] The occasion is not known for certain, but one of the many disasters that befell the palace is generally put forward. The abandoning population were probably Mycenaean Greeks, who had earlier occupied the city-state, and were using Linear B as its administrative script, as opposed to Linear A, the previous administrative script. The hill was never again a settlement or civic site, although squatters may have used it for a time.

Except for periods of abandonment, other cities were founded in the immediate vicinity, such as the Roman colony, and a Hellenistic Greek precedent. The population shifted to the new town of Chandax (modern Heraklion) during the 9th century AD. By the 13th century, it was called Makruteikhos 'Long Wall'; the bishops of Gortyn continued to call themselves Bishops of Knossos until the 19th century.^[8] Today, the name is used only for the archaeological site now situated in the expanding suburbs of Heraklion.

Discovery and modern history of the antiquities[link]

In addition to having a history of some thousands of years in the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, and the Classical period, the ruins in the age of archaeology; that is, since the 19th century, have undergone a history of their own, from excavation by renowned archaeologists, education and tourism, to occupation as a headquarters by governments warring over the control of the eastern Mediterranean in two world wars. This site history is to be distinguished from the ancient.

The term Minoan[link]

"Prince of lilies" or "Priest-king Relief", plaster relief at the end of the Corridor of Processions, restored by Gilliéron, believed by Arthur Evans to be a priest-king, wearing a crown with peacock feathers and a necklace with lilies on it, leading an unseen animal to sacrifice.

In 1825, Karl Hoeck used the name Das Minoische Kretas for Volume II of his major work, Kreta. This is currently the first known use of the term Minoan to mean ancient Cretan. Arthur Evans read the book, continuing the use of the term for his own writings and findings, as it is the custom in archaeology always to respect the findings and terminology of predecessors. The term, however, is often erroneously attributed to Evans, sometimes by noted scholars.^[9] Evans said:^[10]

"To this early civilization of Crete as a whole I have proposed — and the suggestion has been generally adopted by the archaeologists of this and other countries — to apply the name 'Minoan.'"

As he claims to have applied it, but not to have devised it, no false claims on that score can justly be attributed to him. Hoeck had in mind the Crete of mythology. He had no idea that the archaeological Crete had existed. Similarly, "Minoan" had been in use since ancient times as an adjective meaning "associated with Minos." Evans' 1931 claim that the term was "unminted" before his use of it was not necessarily a "brazen suggestion," as Karadimas and Momigliano assert. He seems to have meant in archaeological contexts. Since he was the one who discovered the civilization, and the term could not have been in use to mean it previously, he did coin that specific meaning.

Legends of Knossos[link]

A labrys from Messara.

In Greek mythology, King Minos dwelled in a palace at Knossos. He had Daedalus construct a labyrinth in which to retain his son, the Minotaur. Daedalus also built a dancing floor for Queen Ariadne. The word labyrinth manifestly contains the word labrys, the double axe, at least in folk etymology. It was subsequently adopted by Arthur Evans because it seemed to fit the archaeology of Knossos. It has never been credibly questioned, mainly because of that archaeology.

Western civilization was thus predisposed by legend to associate whatever palace ruin should be found at Knossos with the legends of Minos and the labyrinth. The very first name of the first man to excavate at Knossos, Minos Kalokairinos, was taken from the legend. As far as is currently known, it was Stillman who, seeing the sign of the double axe on the massive walls partly uncovered by Kalokairinos, first associated the complex with the labyrinth of legend.^[11] Evans agreed with Stillman. The myth stirred his imagination to such a degree that he viewed the first room uncovered, the Throne Room, as the bathroom of Ariadne. Moreover, he named his newly constructed living quarters the Villa Ariade. As a professional archaeologist he knew that the likelihood of any feature of the palace being associated with any part of the legend was small. Like Schliemann, he was enough of an impressario to retain elements of the legend.

As it turns out, there probably was an association of the word, whatever its etymology, with ancient Crete. The sign was used throughout the Mycenaean world as an apotropaic symbol: its presence on an object would prevent it from being "killed". Axes were scratched on many of the stones of the palace. It appears in pottery decoration and is a motif of the Shrine of the Double Axes at the palace, as well as of many shrines throughout Crete and the Aegean. And finally, it appears in Linear B on Knossos Tablet Gg702 as da-pu₂-ri-to-jo po-ti-ni-ja, which probably writes Mycenaean Greek Daburinthoio potniai, "to the mistress of the Labyrinth," recording the distribution of one jar of honey.^[12] A credible theory uniting all the evidence has yet to be formulated.

Site history[link]

Arthur Evans developed his concept of Minoan civilization primarily from the excavations at Knossos. His periodization and general styles and other characteristics have wider application throughout the Aegean.

Neolithic[link]

Neolithic remains are prolific in Crete. They are found in caves, rock shelters, houses and settlements. Knossos has a thick Neolithic layer indicating the site was a sequence of settlements before the Palace Period. The earliest was placed on bedrock. A. Evans estimates its age by calculating a multiplier of 1800 years per 2.82 metres from the start of Early Minoan at 3400 BC to the end of Middle Minoan at 1600 BC. The 8 metres of the Neolithic is then equivalent 5100 years, except that Evans takes off 10% to allow for a possible increased deposition rate of mud materials. Adding the 4600 of the Neolithic to 3400 gives about 8000 BC for the start of the Neolithic at Knossos. The Proto-Neolithic is missing. From the pottery fragments Evans distinguishes Early, Middle and Late Neolithic.^[13]

Evans observes that about about 8000 BC a Neolithic people arrived at the hill from elsewhere, probably from overseas by boat, and placed the first of a succession of wattle and daub villages. Large numbers of clay and stone incised spools and whorls attest to a home industry of cloth-making. There are fine ground axe and mace heads of colored stone: greenstone, serpentine, diorite and jadeite, as well as obsidian knives and arrowheads along with the cores from which they were flaked. Most significant among the other small items were a large number of of animal and human figurines, including nude sitting or standing females with exaggerated breasts and buttocks. Evans attributes them to the worship of the Neolithic mother goddess and figurines in general to religion.^[14]

Arthur did not have carbon dating at his command. He would perhaps have been the first to admit that his 8 meters and 10% were nearly completely judgement calls, and that slight variations in either direction would change the overall date significantly. Currently a number of radiocarbon dates have raised the estimate to 7000 – 6500 BC; furthermore, "Knossos Neolithic remains without parallels elsewhere on Crete."^[15] At some time in that range a people possessing sheep, pigs, cattle, and growing grains and pulses took up residence on the elevation. The Neolithic was not general over the Aegean until 6500 BC; however, the Neolithic of Cyprus dates to the 9th millenium. If the Knossians were from Cyprus, accessible from anywhere in the Middle East or to any possible maritime peoples from anywhere in the Mediterranean, their ultimate origin might very well never be discovered.

Considering that Evans was necessarily not very clear on the Neolithic, being primarily interested in the palace, John Davies Evans (no relation), whose specialty was the Neolithic of the Aegean, undertook further excavations in pits and trenches over the palace, elucidating the Neolithic. These findings are summarized by McEnroe.^[16] In the Aceramic Neolithic (without pottery), 7000 – 6000, a hamlet of 25 - 50 persons existed at the location of the Central Court. They lived in wattle and daub huts, kept animals, grew crops, and, in the event of tragedy, buried their children under the floor. In such circumstances as they are still seen today, a hamlet consisted of several families, necessarily interrelated, practicing some form of exogamy, living in close quarters, with little or no privacy and a high degree of intimacy, spending most of their time in the outdoors, sheltering only for the night or in inclement weather, and to a large degree nomadic or semi-nomadic. Sufficient numbers of tribesmen still live in this way to reconstruct a fairly clear picture of life from the remains.

In the Early Neolithic, 6000 – 5000, a village of 200 - 600 persons occupied most of the area of the palace and the slopes to the north and west. They lived in one- or-two-room square houses of mud-brick walls set on socles of stone, either field stone or recycled stone artifacts. The inner walls were lined with mud-plaster. The roofs were flat, composed of mud over branches. The residents dug hearths at various locations in the center of the main room. This village had an unusual feature: one house under the West Court contained eight rooms and covered 50 m² (540 sq ft). The walls were at right angles. The door was centered. Large stones were used for support under points of greater stress. The fact that distinct sleeping cubicles for individuals was not the custom suggests storage units of some sort.

The settlement of the Middle Neolithic, 5000 – 4000, housed 500 - 1000 people in more substantial and presumably more family-private homes. Construction was the same, except the windows and doors were timbered, a fixed, raised hearth occupied the center of the main room, and pilasters and other raised features (cabinets, beds) occupied the perimeter. Under the palace was the Great House, a 100 m² (1,100 sq ft) area stone house divided into 5 rooms with meter-thick walls suggesting a second story was present. The presence of the house, which is unlikely to have been a private residence like the others, suggests a communal or public use, although the socio-political alpha male may well have lived there; i.e., it may have been the predecessor of a palace. In the Late or Final Neolithic (two different but overlapping classification systems), 4000 – 3000, population increased dramatically, suggesting an immigration (which was Arthur Evans' view also).

Art and architecture of the palace[link]

General features[link]

Magazine 4 with giant pithoi. The compartments in the floor were for grain and produce. An alternate explanation for these compartments is that they were catch basins for the contents of the pithoi if one should break or leak. It would be very hazardous to store grain or produce in the floor of a magazine, the main purpose of which was to hold giant containers that held liquids.

The great palace was gradually built between 1700 and 1400 BC, with periodic rebuildings after destruction. Structures preceded it on Kephala hill. The features currently most visible date mainly to the last period of habitation, which Evans termed Late Minoan. The palace has an interesting layout^[17] – the original plan can no longer be seen due to the subsequent modifications. The 1,300 rooms are connected with corridors of varying sizes and direction, which differ from other contemporaneous palaces that connected the rooms via several main hallways. The 6 acres (24,000 m²) of the palace included a theater, a main entrance on each of its four cardinal faces, and extensive storerooms (also called magazines). Within the storerooms were large clay containers (pithoi) that held oil, grains, dried fish, beans, and olives. Many of the items were processed at the palace, which had grain mills, oil presses, and wine presses. Beneath the pithoi were stone holes that were used to store more valuable objects, such as gold. The palace used advanced architectural techniques: for example, part of it was built up to five storeys high.

Water management[link]

The palace had at least three separate water-management systems: one for supply, one for drainage of runoff, and one for drainage of waste water.

Aqueducts brought fresh water to Kephala hill from springs at Archanes, about 10 km away. Springs there are the source of the Kairatos river, in the valley in which Kephala is located. The aqueduct branched to the palace and to the town. Water was distributed at the palace by gravity feed through terracotta pipes to fountains and spigots. The pipes were tapered at one end to make a pressure fit, with rope for sealing. The water- supply system would have been manifestly easy to attack.^{[citation needed]} No hidden springs have been discovered as at Mycenae.

Sanitation drainage was through a closed system leading to a sewer apart from the hill. The queen's megaron contained an example of the first water-flushing system toilet adjoining the bathroom. This toilet was a seat over a drain that was flushed by pouring water from a jug. The bathtub located in the adjoining bathroom similarly had to be filled by someone heating, carrying, and pouring water, and must have been drained by overturning into a floor drain or by bailing. This toilet and bathtub were exceptional structures within the 1,300-room complex.

As the hill was periodically drenched by torrential rains, a runoff system was a necessity. It began with channels in the flat surfaces, which were zigzag and contained catchment basins to control the water velocity. Probably the upper system was open. Manholes provided access to parts that were covered.

Some links to photographs of parts of the water-collection-management system follow.

• Runoff system.^[18] Sloped channels lead from a catchment basin.
• Runoff system.^[19] Note the zig-zags and the catchment basin.

Ventilation[link]

Due to its placement on the hill, the palace received sea breezes during the summer. It had porticoes and air shafts.

Minoan Columns[link]

The palace also includes the Minoan column, a structure notably different from other Greek columns. Unlike the stone columns that are characteristic of other Greek architecture, the Minoan column was constructed from the trunk of a cypress tree, common to the Mediterranean. While most Greek columns are smaller at the top and wider at the bottom to create the illusion of greater height (entasis), the Minoan columns are smaller at the bottom and wider at the top, a result of inverting the cypress trunk to prevent sprouting once in place.^[20] The columns at the Palace of Minos were painted red and mounted on stone bases with round, pillow-like capitals.

Pottery[link]

Pithoi, or storage jars, at Knossos

Pottery at Knossos is prolific, heavily decorated and uniquely styled by period. It is used as a layer diagnostic. Comparing it to similar pottery elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean, Evans established a wider chronology, which, on that account, is difficult to question successfully.

Frescoes[link]

The palace at Knossos was a place of high color, as were Greek buildings in the classical period, and as are Greek buildings today. In the EM Period, the walls and pavements were coated with a pale red derived from red ochre. In addition to the background coloring, the walls displayed fresco panel murals, entirely of red. In the subsequent MM Period, with the development of the art, white and black were added, and then blue, green and yellow. The pigments were derived from natural materials, such as ground hematite. Outdoor panels were painted on fresh stucco with the motif in relief; indoor, on fresh, pure plaster, softer than the plaster with additives ordinarily used on walls.^[21]

The decorative motifs were generaly bordered scenes: people, mythological creatures, real animals, rocks, vegetation, and marine life. The earliest imitated pottery motifs. Most have been reconstructed from various numbers of flakes fallen to the floor. Evans had various technicians and artists work on the project, some artists, some chemists and restorers. The symmetry and use of templates made possible a degree of reconstruction beyond what was warranted by only the flakes. For example, if evidence of the use of a certain template existed scantily in one place, the motif could be supplied from the template found somewhere else. Like the contemporary murals in the funerary art of the Egyptians, certain conventions were utilized that also assisted prediction. For example, male figures are shown with darker or redder skin than female figures.

Some archaeological authors have objected that Arthur and his restorers were not discovering the palace and civilization as it was, but were creating a modern artefact based on contemporary art and architecture.^[22] The approach is often that of a witch-hunt, supposing that the gullible Evans was duped by unscrupulous art dealers or that the reconstruction was a publicity stunt concocted by Evans. The larger team of scientists as well as the professionalism of Arthur and his father, who also worked on it, makes the view less likely. Enough of some frescos existed to insure that the reconstructions were reasonable facsimilies of what had been, some more, some less so.

Many of these reconstructions are now works of art in their own right. Most have been assigned contemplative names that do not necessarily have anything to do with the theme of the missing original.

Bull-leaping fresco[link]

Bull-leaping Fresco now in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. The duplicate shown here is fixed to the wall of the upper throne room.

The Bull-Leaping, or Taureador, Fresco is the only completely restored relief panel in stucco of several on the southeast wall of the palace overlooking a ceremonial bull-ring in the stream valley below. All were designated as "the Taureador Frescos" by Arthur Evans. They date to some time in the window MMIIIB – LMI. They are described in Palace of Minos, Volume III. Evans did not say who restored them, but his artists at the time were the Gilliérons. The scene is typically interpreted as depicting a male somersaulting over a bull being held by the horns by one female and about to be assisted by another. The male is presumed to have gripped the bull by the horns and to have used the toss of the head to gain momentum for the somersault. As such a vault is not possible, Evans believed a heroic, supernatural act was being symbolized. There is no possibility of fraud or artistic license: the scene is depicted on numerous sealings and other artefacts at Knossos and elsewhere.

Prince of the lilies[link]

La Parisienne[link]

Throne Room[link]

Throne from which the Throne Room was named, not the only throne at Knossos

The centerpiece of the "Minoan" palace was the so-called Throne Room or Little Throne Room,^[23] dated to LM II. This chamber has an alabaster seat identified by Evans as a "throne" built into the north wall. On three sides of the room are gypsum benches. A sort of tub area is opposite the throne, behind the benches, termed a lustral basin, which means that Evans and his team saw it as a place for ceremonial purification.

The room was accessed from an anteroom through two double doors. The anteroom as connected to the central court, which was four broad steps up through four doors. The anteroom had gypsum benches also, with carbonized remains between two of them thought to possibly be a wooden throne. Both rooms are located in the ceremonial complex on the west of the central court.

Griffin couchant (lying down) facing throne

The throne is flanked by the Griffin Fresco, with two griffins couchant (laying down) facing the throne, one on either side. Griffins were important mythological creatures, also appearing on seal rings, which were used to stamp the identities of the bearers into pliable material, such as clay or wax.

The actual use of the room and the throne is unclear. The two main theories are as follows:

• The seat of a priest-king or his consort, the queen. This is the older theory, originating with Evans. In that regard Matz speaks of the "heraldic arrangement" of the griffins, meaning that they are more formal and monumental than previous Minoan decorative styles. In this theory, the Mycenaean Greeks would have held court in this room, as they came to power in Knossos at about 1450. The "lustral basin" and the location of the room in a sanctuary complex cannot be ignored; hence, "priest-king."
• A room reserved for the epiphany of a goddess,^[24] who would have sat in the throne, either in effigy, or in the person of a priestess, or in imagination only. In that case the griffins would have been purely a symbol of divinity rather than a heraldic motif.

It is also speculated that the throne was made specifically for a female individual, since the indentation seems to be shaped for a woman's buttocks. Also, the extensive use of curved edges and the crescent moon carved at its base both symbolize femininity.

The lustral basin was originally thought to have had a ritual washing use, but the lack of drainage has more recently brought some scholars to doubt this theory. It is now speculated that the tank was used as an aquarium, or possibly a water reservoir.

Minoan society evidenced at Knossos[link]

A long-standing debate between archaeologists concerns the main function of the palace, whether it acted as an administrative center, a religious center, or both, in a theocratic manner. Other important debates consider the role of Knossos in the administration of Bronze Age Crete, and whether Knossos acted as the primary center, or was on equal footing with the several other contemporaneous palaces that have been discovered on Crete. Many of these palaces were destroyed and abandoned in the early part of the 15th century BC, possibly by the Mycenaeans, although Knossos remained in use until it was destroyed by fire about one hundred years later. Knossos showed no signs of being a military site; for example, it had neither fortifications nor stores of weapons.

Notable residents[link]

• Aenesidemus (1st century BC) sceptical philosopher
• Chersiphron (6th century BC) architect
• Epimenides (6th century BC) seer and philosopher-poet
• Ergoteles of Himera (5th century BC) expatriate Olympic runner
• Metagenes (6th century BC) architect
• Minos (mythical) Father of the Minotaur

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Knossos

• Linear A
• Linear B
• Magasa
• Minoan civilization
• Trapeza

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

By Evans[link]

By others[link]

External links[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2010)

Yannis Markopoulos (Γιάννης Μαρκόπουλος) (born 18 March 1939) is a Greek composer.^[1]

Biography[link]

Early life and education[link]

Yannis Markopoulos was born in 1939 in Heraklion, Crete. From one of the old families of the island—his father was an attorney and later the Prefect—he spent his childhood in the seaside town of Ierapetra.^[2] The Byzantine liturgy heard regularly from the church opposite his family home, Cretan traditional music, with its rapid dances of repeated small motifs, played by local instruments at the town’s weekly festivities, but at the same time the sound of the waves, and the detonation of land-mines in the aftermath of World War II, all these formed part of the acoustic universe of the composer as a child. He took his first lessons in music theory and the violin at the local conservatory and played the clarinet in the municipal band. Meanwhile other musical experiences of decisive importance were classical music as well as the music of the wider Eastern Mediterranean and, most important of all, that of nearby Egypt, which he heard either over the radio or from musicians and travellers passing through his hometown. Thanks to his father’s extensive private library he had the opportunity to deepen his knowledge, beyond school education, in literature, philosophy, history and the arts. He began composing music during his adolescence and two melodies of this time would later become songs that have enjoyed great popularity throughout Greece.

Career[link]

In 1956 Markopoulos moved to Athens to further his music studies at the Athens Conservatoire under the composer Yiorgos Sklavos and the violin teacher Joseph Bustidui, while studying philosophy and sociology at the Panteion University. While a student he composed music for the theatre, for the cinema and for dance performances. When he was 24 he was awarded the Music Prize of the International Thessaloniki Film Festival for Nikos Koundouros’ film Young Aphrodites and subsequently his works Theseus (dance-drama), Hiroshima(ballet suite) and Three Dance Sketches were performed by avant-garde dance groups. In 1967 a military dictatorship was imposed in Greece. Markopoulos left for London, where he enriched his knowledge under the English composer Elizabeth Lutyens, while his acquaintance with the composers Jani Christou and Iannis Xenakis played an important rôle in the deepening of his contact with the most pioneering musical figures. In London he composed the secular cantata Ilios o Protos (Sun the First) on the poetry of Odysseas Elytis (Nobel Prize 1979) and completed the musical ceremony Idou o Nymphios, a work the composer still wishes to keep unreleased with the exception of one part, the song Zavara-Katra-Nemia, a vocal composition of Dionysian character, that was released in 1966 and became one of his best known pieces. Also in London he composed Chroismoi (Oracles) for symphony orchestra and the Pyrrichioi Dances A, B, C (the first three of the 24 Dances he completed in 2001) that were performed in 1968 by the London Concertante Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. During the same year he was commissioned to write the music for Shakespeare’s The Tempest performed by the Royal National Theatre and directed by David Hugh Jones. In 1969 Markopoulos returned to Athens with a musical vision that would not only change the course of music in Greece but would also lend immediate moral support to the general demand for restoration of democracy, the struggle being led primarily by university students and intellectuals. He founded a new and highly distinctive musical ensemble which included Greek local instruments. Thus the piano was combined with the lyre for the first time, while he also added instruments of his own invention, particularly among the percussion, with the intention of enriching the variety of sounds. He then selected young musicians, singers and actors, from both the city and the provinces, and collaborating with painters and poets he presented a series of performances with his musical works Ilios o Protos (Sun the First), Chroniko (Chronicle), Ithagenia (Nativeland), Thitia (Lifetime), Stratis Thalassinos Among the Agapanthi (poetry by Giorgos Seferis, Nobel Prize 1963), Oropedio (Mountain Plain) at the Lydra venue which he named music-studio. His most fervent supporters were indeed the students and intellectuals who filled the music-studio daily, despite the constant interventions of the regime that would constantly attempt to shut it down. The composer’s vision had materialised and a new musical wave had been born which he termed “Return to the Roots”. He defined it as “a project for the future involving the process of examination, evaluation and selection of the indestructible sources of our living traditions in combination with selected contemporary art forms and elements”: the outcome was an exceptionally original sound emerging from the unique tone colours stemming from the unaccustomed blends of instruments and voices. In 1976 he composed the popular liturgy The Free Besieged, based on the poem by Greece’s national poet Dionysios Solomos, that he conducted in the crowded Panathenean Stadium, and which was presented in London in 1979. In 1977 he composed the music for the BBC television series Who Pays the Ferryman? The musical theme was a hit in Britain and gained the composer international renown. Numerous invitations for concerts abroad followed, in Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Canada, Russia, Australia and the United States. Markopoulos continued composing music for the theatre and for the cinema, collaborating with directors such as Jules Dassin, George Cosmatos, Nikos Koundouros and Spyros Evaggelatos. Through his work Yannis Markopoulos did much to shape the musical landscape of the 1970s.

In 1980 Markopoulos married the singer Vassiliki Lavina, his long-time associate, and in 1981 their daughter Eleni was born. For a period he sought a more private life with his family while preparing for the opening of a new chapter in his music, compositions that would display melodic outbursts sustained by polytonic quality and dazzling rhythms of an inexhaustible exuberance. In 1987 he founded the Palintonos Armonia Orchestra (the name deriving from Heraclitus) with which he would give concerts in Greece and abroad and record many of his works. The works of this period include the Concerto-Rhapsody for Lyre and Symphony Orchestra, Mitroa for string orchestra, the Healing Symphony, two oratorios, two song cycles, chamber music works, four quartets, two sonatas, and five pieces for violin and piano. In 1994 he composed one of his most important works The Liturgy of Orpheus. There followed Re-Naissance: Crete between Venice and Constantinople, a musical journey in four units that strikes a balance between the opera form and that of the oratorio, and the opera Erotokritos and Areti. In 1999 he composed Shapes in Motion, a piano concerto inspired by Pythagoras and dedicated to his daughter Eleni. Some of his latest works are Evilia Topia (Sunlit Landscapes), fantasy for solo flute; O Nomos tis Thalporis, oratorio-musical spectacle for voices, choir, wind orchestra, ballet and video projection, dedicated to the environment; and Triptych for flute, strings and harp.

Selected discography[link]

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• 2009 THE LITURGY OF ORPHEUS For voices,mixed choir, narrator and symphony orchestra
• 2009 SHAPES IN MOTION ( Piano Concerto) For solo piano and symphony orchestra
• 2004 O TAHITATOS LOUIS For mixed choir, narrator and symphony orchestra
• 2001 TO TRAGOUDI TOU ACHILLEA (THE SONG OF ACHILLES) For voices, mixed choir, narrator and symphony orchestra
• 2003 EROTOKRITOS AND ARETI Opera in two acts
• 1996 RE-NAISSANCE, Crete between Venice and Constantinople Musical performance in two acts with four parts'''
• 1998 FILI POU FEVGOUN (FRIENDS WHO ARE LOST) Songs Cycle
• 1996 BRIGHTNESS (ANTAVGIES) Orchestral memories of movements and pictures
• 1994 THE LITURGY OF ORPHEUS For voices,mixed choir, narrator and symphony orchestra
• 1988 MUSIC FOR DOMENIKOS THEOTOKOPOULOS [EL GRECO) For ensemble Renaissance instruments
• 1983 SIRINES (SIRENS) Musical voyage in four seasons in the form of a contemporary oratorio
• 1980 ΟRΙΖΟNTΕS (HORIZONS) Songs Cycle
• 1980 DENEKEDOUPOLI Musical performance for children
• 1979 SERGIANI STON KOSMO Songs cycle in three unities
• 1978 WHO PAYS THE FERRYMAN? Music for the BBC TV series
• 1978 PERIODIA PROTI (THE FIRST TOUR) 13 compositions for orchestra
• 1977 I ELEFTHERI POLIORKIMENI (THE FREE BESIEGED) For voices, female narrator, mixed choir and chamber orchestra
• 1975 OROPEDIO (MOUNTAIN PLAIN ) Musical discourse
• 1974 THITIA (LIFETIME ) Work in nine parts, type of one-act opera
• 1974 METANASTES (EMIGRANT WORKERS) Songs Cycle
• 1974 THESSALIKOS KIKLOS (THESSALIAN CYCLE) Popular musical work with theatrical style performances
• 1973 O STRATIS THALASSINOS ANAMESA STOUS AGAPANTHOUS - KE ALLA TRAGOUDIA (STRATIS THALASSINOS AMONG THE AGAPANTHI - AND OTHER SONGS) For voices, mixed choir and chamber orchestra
• 1973 ANEXARTITA Series of unrelated songs
• 1972 ITHAGENIA (NATIVELAND) For voices, and chamber orchestra
• 1972 TA TRAGOUDIA TOU NEOU PATERA (THE SONGS OF THE NEW FATHER )
• 1970 CHRONIKO (CHRONICLE) For voices, and chamber orchestra
• 1969 ILIOS O PROTOS (SUN THE FIRST) For voices, narrator, female choir and chamber orchestra
• 1963 THESEUS (THISEAS) Ballet enriched

SONGS[link]

• 1975 I ELLADA (LENGO) GREECE (LENGO)
• 1973 I OCHTHRI /ENEMIES EN TERED THE CITY
• 1972 OCHI DEN PREPI
• 1968 ZAVARA -KATRA - NEMIA
• 1965 PERA APO TI THALASSA
• 1964 GREMISMENA SPITIA
• 1964 KARAVIA
• 1964 I KORI (MAVROMADILOUSA)
• 1964 MOURAGIO
• 1964 XASTERIA
• 1964 O PRAMATEFTIS
• 1964 POU ISSE AFTI TIN ANIXI
• 1960 ANISTORO TI MONAXIA
• 1960 GALAZIO PERISTERI

MUSIC FOR THEATER AND FILM[link]

• 1989 THESMOPHORIAZOUSES by ARISTOPHANES
• 1993 LYSISTRATA by ARISTOPHANES
• 1965 THE GIRL WITH THE RIBBON
• 1993 BYRON
• 1984 TA CHRONIA TIS THIELAS
• 1977 KRAVGI GINEKON
• 1971 VORTEX (Das Gesicht der Medusa)
• 1968 EPICHIRISIS APOLLON
• 1967 O THANATOS TOU ALEXANDROU
• 1966 DICHASMOS
• 1963 MIKRES APHRODITES ( Young Aphrodites)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website