1.
Athens
–
Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, culture, education and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the later on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines, Satine, and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common
Athens
–
From upper left: the
Acropolis, the
Hellenic Parliament, the
Zappeion, the
Acropolis Museum,
Monastiraki Square, Athens view towards the sea
Athens
–
Athena, patron goddess of Athens;
National Archaeological Museum
Athens
–
Acropolis of Athens, with
Odeon of Herodes Atticus seen on bottom left
2.
Greece
–
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
Greece
–
Fresco displaying the Minoan ritual of "bull leaping", found in
Knossos,
Crete.
Greece
–
Flag
Greece
–
The
Lion Gate,
Mycenae
Greece
–
The
Parthenon on the
Acropolis of Athens is one of the best known symbols of
classical Greece.
3.
Greek language
–
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
Greek language
–
Idealized portrayal of
Homer
Greek language
–
regions where Greek is the official language
Greek language
–
Greek language road sign, A27 Motorway, Greece
4.
President of Greece
–
The President of the Hellenic Republic, colloquially referred to in English as the President of Greece, is the head of state of Greece. The President is elected by the Hellenic Parliament, and his role is mostly ceremonial since the 1986 constitutional reform, the incumbent, since 2015, is Prokopis Pavlopoulos, serving his first term in office. The president is the nominal commander-in-chief of the Greek Armed Forces and occupies the first place in the order of precedence. The presidents role was formally brought into line with actual practice by the 1986 constitutional amendment, according to Article 32 the Greek Constitution, the President is elected for a five-year term by the Hellenic Parliament in a special session at least a month before the incumbents term expires. Voting takes place in two phases, each maximally of three ballots, separated by no more than five days, the first and second ballots require a supermajority of 200 out of the 300-strong body, dropping to 180 on the third. In the event of a non-election even after the ballot, the parliament is to be dissolved. After the new parliament convenes, the phase begins, with the required majority at 180 votes in the fourth ballot. The sixth and last ballot is then contested between the two candidates with the most votes and decided by a relative majority, the official residence of the President of Greece is the Presidential Mansion, formerly the New Royal Palace, in central Athens. A staged referendum on 29 July 1973 confirmed the regime change and this attempt at controlled democratization was ended by Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis overthrow of Papadopoulos in November 1973. The republic and its institutions were maintained, but was nothing more than a façade for the military regime. Lt. General Phaedon Gizikis was appointed President of the Republic, but power was in the hands of Ioannidis, in the interim, Gizikis, remained in office as President. After the plebiscite, he was succeeded by the first elected President, a new constitution, promulgated on 11 June 1975, declared Greece a presidential parliamentary democracy. This constitution, revised in 1985,2001, and 2008, is still in force today, there are two living former Greek Presidents, List of heads of state of Greece List of Presidents of Greece by longevity
President of Greece
–
Incumbent
Prokopis Pavlopoulos since 13 March 2015
President of Greece
–
Standard of the President
President of Greece
–
The Presidential Mansion in Athens
5.
Costis Stephanopoulos
–
Konstantinos Kostis Stephanopoulos was a Greek conservative politician who served two consecutive terms as the President of Greece, from 1995 to 2005. Stephanopoulos was born in Patras on 15 August 1926 to the lawyer and subsequent Peoples Party Member of Parliament Dimitrios Stephanopoulos, after attending the Saint Andrew school of Patras, he studied law at Athens University. He practiced law from 1954 until 1974 as a member of the Patras Bar Association and he first stood for election in 1958, with the National Radical Union and was elected for the first time as MP for Achaea Prefecture in 1964. He was re-elected for the constituency for New Democracy in 1974,1977,1981 and 1985. He served as ND parliamentary secretary and parliamentary spokesman from 1981 to 1985, in 1974, Stephanopoulos was appointed Deputy Minister of Commerce in the National Unity government of Constantine Karamanlis. In August 1985 he resigned from ND and on 6 September formed Democratic Renewal and he was elected Member of Parliament for Athens in the 1989 elections while continuing as the leader of DIANA, until it disbanded in June 1994. He was the person to hold the post since the restoration of democratic rule in 1974. He was re-elected on 8 February 2000 on the first ballot and he remained in office until 2 March 2005, when he was succeeded by Karolos Papoulias. As a President he was known for his profile, unifying approach to current and international affairs. During his presidency, he was consistently the most popular figure in Greece. As head of state of the host country, he declared the 2004 Athens Olympics open. Stephanopoulos died at 23,18 in Henry Dunant Hospital, Athens and he had been hospitalised three days earlier, suffering from fever and severe respiratory difficulty, which later emerged as pneumonia. Stephanopoulos was married for 29 years to Tzeni Stounopoulou, who died in 1988, Stephanopoulos received many honorary awards and the highest decorations of foreign countries. He was a citizen of many Greek towns. Poland, Order of the White Eagle Croatia, Grand Order of King Tomislav Slovenia, media related to Konstantinos Stefanopoulos at Wikimedia Commons
Costis Stephanopoulos
–
Konstantinos Stephanopoulos Κωνσταντίνος Στεφανόπουλος
6.
Athens Olympic Stadium
–
The Olympic Stadium of Athens Spyros Louis is part of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex. It is named after the first modern Olympic marathon race winner in 1896, the stadium hosts one of the biggest sport clubs in Greece, AEK Athens. Located in the area of Marousi in Athens, the stadium was designed in 1979. It was completed in time to host the 1982 European Championships in Athletics and it was inaugurated by the President of Greece, at the time Konstantinos Karamanlis, on 8 September 1982. It was extensively renovated in time for the 2004 Summer Olympics, including a roof designed by Santiago Calatrava, the roof was added atop the sidelines and completed just in time for the opening of the Games. The two giant arcs have a span of 304m and a maximum height of 72m. Also, it has a weight of 19,000 tons with 5,000 polycarbonate panels. The west arc was assembled 72m from its position and the east 65m - both later slid into place. The roof is designed to withstand winds up to 120 km/h, the stadium was then officially re-opened on 30 July 2004. It hosted the events and the football final at the 2004 Summer Olympics. It also hosted the ceremony on 13 August 2004. The turf system consists of grass in modular containers which incorporate irrigation. The Olympic Stadium has been used as home ground in various times by the three big clubs of Athens, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens. The stadium played host to Amnesty Internationals Human Rights Now, benefit Concert on 3 October 1988. The show was headlined by Sting and Peter Gabriel and also featured Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Tracy Chapman, Youssou NDour, and George Dalaras. Madonna performed before a crowd of 75,637 at the stadium on 27 September 2008. U2 performed in front of a crowd of 82,662 during their 360° Tour on 3 September 2010, pyx Lax performed also in front of a crowd of about 80,000, during their reunion tour on 13 July 2011. It was the highest attended Greek-band-concert, Bon Jovi performed during their Bon Jovi Live Tour on 20 July 2011
Athens Olympic Stadium
–
Olympic Stadium
Athens Olympic Stadium
–
Olympic flame at the opening ceremony of
2004 Summer Olympics
Athens Olympic Stadium
–
2004 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony
Athens Olympic Stadium
–
Greece vs Malta (2007)
7.
2000 Summer Paralympics
–
The 2000 Paralympic Games were held in Sydney, Australia, from 18 to 29 October. In September 1993, Sydney won the rights to host the 2000 Paralympic Games, to secure this right it was expected that the New South Wales Government would underwrite the budget for the games. The Sydney games were the eleventh Summer Paralympic Games, where an estimated 3800 athletes took part in the programme and they commenced with the opening ceremony on 18 October 2000. It was followed by the 11 days of international competition and was the second largest sporting event ever held in Australia. They were also the first Paralympic Games outside the Northern Hemisphere, the games was estimated to cost $157 million, with the NSW Government and Commonwealth Government contributing $25 million each. The Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games contributed $18 million, the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee entered into a Host City contract with the International Paralympic Committee, which outlines the SPOC’s obligations in hosting the Paralympic Games. To cover the costs, other revenue was raised via sponsorship, though there is no budgeted profit, if any profit is made though the games, repayment to the Federal and State Governments is the first priority. In October 1998, governing bodies of the Paralympics including the SOCOG, an estimated total of forty-one thousand Australians answered this call, non-including those sourced from specialist community groups. The major focus between 1999-2000 was completion of the first stage of the Millennium Parklands and this is composed of 450 hectares of landscape, with up to 40 kilometers of pedestrian and cycle trails. This major first stage included focus on the surrounding Olympic facilities, providing a landscape for recreational activities, conservation. During this time work on the Water Reclamation and Management Scheme will continue to progress, the WRAMS will be in use during the games with the first stage to be implemented. This system will continue after the games, and will be developed after the games has been completed. The WRAMS system is one of the many water saving management strategies to be used during the games period. Stormwater from the Stadium Australia roof is to be collected and used to irrigate the central stadium, the Paralympic Games are governed by the International Paralympic Committee. The Games were organised by the Sydney Paralyampic Organising Committee led by President Dr John Grant, the SOCOG was established at the same time as the Sydney Paralympic organising Committee on 12 November 1993 by the Office of Olympic Co-ordination. In January 1995, SPOC became a company controlled by the Government. A board of directors including the Premier, Minister for the Olympics, the Treasurer and the Minister for Sport, the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee also regulated the use of Paralympic Games indicia and images. On 29 November, the Sydney Games Administration Act 2000 was passed, the legislation caused the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee to dissolve from 1 January 2001, its assets and liabilities were transferred to the Olympic Coordination Authority
2000 Summer Paralympics
–
XI Paralympic Games
2000 Summer Paralympics
–
Daytime view of pond with waterlilies at Sydney Olympic Park during the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games
2000 Summer Paralympics
–
201000 - Opening Ceremony Yothu Yindi perform 3 - 3b - 2000 Sydney opening ceremony photo
2000 Summer Paralympics
–
2000 Summer Paralympics mascot Lizzie the Lizard waves to the audience during the games. The character represents an Australian frilled-neck lizard.
8.
2008 Summer Paralympics
–
The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games, the thirteenth Paralympics, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17,2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao,3,951 athletes from 146 countries took part. This was the largest ever number of nations at the Paralympics, China fielded more athletes than any other country. The slogan for the 2008 Paralympics was the same as the 2008 Summer Olympics, One World, China dominated the medal count finishing with 89 gold medals and 211 total medals, more than double the next-ranked NPC in both cases. 339 Paralympic records and 279 world records were broken, international Paralympic Committee President Philip Craven declared the Games the greatest Paralympic Games ever. Nineteen competition venues—seventeen in Beijing, one in Hong Kong, the red, blue, and green in the emblem represent sun, sky, and earth. The slogan was the same as the 2008 Summer Olympics, One World, the mascot was a cartoon cow named Fu Niu Lele, roughly meaning Lucky Ox Happy. The theme song was Flying with the Dream Chinese, 和梦一起飞 and it was performed by Chinese-Tibetan singer Han Hong and Hong Kong singer and actor Andy Lau. The torch relay of the 2008 Summer Paralympics started from Tian Tan on August 28, the flame then gathered before The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and followed two routes. Both routes returned to Beijing on September 5, and the torch was flamed at the National Stadium during the Opening Ceremony on September 6, the opening ceremony took place on September 6,2008. The pre-ceremony performance was a succession of musical performances, ranging from military music to folk music. Following a countdown, a fireworks display signalled the beginning of the ceremony proper, the national flag of China was then raised, in accordance with usual protocol, and the national anthem of China performed. Performers wearing suits in bright colours paraded round the stadium, as a ceremony preceding the athletes entry. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, the ceremony included a parade of nations, countries with the same number of strokes in the first character are sorted by those of the next character. This made Guinea the first country to enter as it takes two strokes to write the first character in the countrys name, the ceremony concludes with Hou Bin, the high jump gold medalist with one leg lighting the flame cauldron. The 2008 Summer Paralympics closing ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium and it began at 8,00 pm China Standard Time on September 17,2008. Twenty sports were on the program, Rowing made its first appearance in the Paralympics at these games, the following National Paralympic Committees sent delegations to compete. Burundi, Gabon, Georgia, Haiti and Montenegro were participating in the Paralympics for the first time, botswana was due to take part, but its single athlete, defending Paralympic champion sprinter Tshotlego Morama, withdrew prior to the Games due to injury
2008 Summer Paralympics
–
Iran v
South Africa in
wheelchair basketball at the 2008 Summer Paralympics.
2008 Summer Paralympics
–
"Sky, Earth, and Human Beings", emblem of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games
2008 Summer Paralympics
–
The
Beijing National Stadium
2008 Summer Paralympics
–
Fu Niu Lele, mascot of the 2008 Summer Paralympics
9.
2002 Winter Paralympics
–
The 2002 Winter Paralympics, the eighth Winter Paralympics, were held in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, from March 7 to 16,2002. A total of 416 athletes from 36 nations participated and they were the first Winter Paralympics in the American continent. These were the first Paralympic Winter Games for Andorra, Chile, the People’s Republic of China, Croatia, Greece, and Hungary. Ragnhild Myklebust of Norway won five medals in skiing and biathlon. The games consisted of four disciplines in three sports, alpine skiing Sledge hockey Nordic skiing Biathlon Cross-country skiing In total 5 venues were used at the 2002 Winter Olympics around 4 cities and towns. The logo of the Salt Lake 2002 Paralympic Winter Games is made up of three distinct marks, the sphere on the top represents the head of the Paralympic athlete and also symbolizes the global unity of the Paralympic Movement. Two broad fluid lines represent the athlete in motion, the three taegeuks beneath the athlete reproduce the green, red and blue marks on the Paralympic Flag. The mascot for the Paralympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City 2002 was Otto the otter, indigenous peoples of the Americas consider otters to be fast swimmers, though in some stories a bit of a show-off. After being nearly wiped out by pollution and overtrapping the river otter has been reintroduced to Utah and can be seen along the banks of the Green River and near Flaming Gorge. The otter was chosen as the mascot of the Salt Lake 2002 Paralympic Winter Games because he embodies vitality and agility. 2002 Winter Olympics 2007 Winter Deaflympics Official site International Paralympic Committee Paralympics at SVTs open archive
2002 Winter Paralympics
–
Mascot Otto the otter
2002 Winter Paralympics
–
VIII Paralympic Winter Games
10.
2006 Winter Paralympics
–
The 2006 Winter Paralympic Games, the ninth Winter Paralympics, took place in Turin, Italy from 10 to 19 March 2006. These were the first Winter Paralympic Games to be held in Italy and they were also the first Paralympics to use the new Paralympics logo. The top 10 NPCs by number of gold medals are listed below, the Games featured 58 medal events in five disciplines of four sports. As with other Paralympic Games, medals are awarded for each classification within each event, the sport of wheelchair curling made its Paralympic debut at these games. Alpine skiing events were held at Sestriere, cross-country skiing and biathlon events were held at Cesana San Sicario. All skiing athletes were accommodated in the Alpine Paralympic Village in Sestriere, ice sledge hockey was held in Turin, and wheelchair curling was held in Pinerolo. These athletes were accommodated in the City Paralympic Village in Turin, thirty-nine National Paralympic Committees entered athletes at the 2006 Winter Paralympics. This was an increase of three from the 36 represented at the 2002 Winter Paralympics, the number in parentheses indicates the number of participants from each NPC. A total of 486 athletes participated in the Games,385 male and 101 female and this is an increase from the 430 athletes participated in 2002. Despite overall increase of delegates and athletes, the nations who participated in the 2002 Winter Paralympics did not send athletes to Turin. Estonia Netherlands Mexico is the country who had sent an athlete to these Games. These are the second Paralympic Games to be held in Italy and these are the first Paralympic Games to feature a live webcast of events, hosted by ParalympicSport. TV. The Games mascot is Aster, a star-shaped snowflake similar in design to the Olympic mascots Neve and Gliz. TV International Paralympic Committee
2006 Winter Paralympics
–
Aster, mascot of
Paralympic Games in
Turin
2006 Winter Paralympics
–
IX Paralympic Winter Games
2006 Winter Paralympics
–
Aster, Mascot of the XI Winter Paralympic Games
11.
2004 Summer Olympics
–
10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team officials from 201 countries. There were 301 medal events in 28 different sports, Athens 2004 marked the first time since the 1996 Summer Olympics that all countries with a National Olympic Committee were in attendance. 2004 marked the return of the games to the city where they began, a new medal obverse was introduced at these Games, replacing the design by Giuseppe Cassioli that had been used since the 1928 Games. This rectified the long lasting mistake of using a depiction of the Roman Colosseum rather than a Greek venue, the new design features the Panathenaic Stadium. The cost of the 2004 Athens Summer Games has been cited as a contributor to the Greek government-debt crisis, some of the venues lie vacant and rotting, while others are in use, the Independent newspaper reports as many as 21 out of 22 are unused. The final medal tally was led by the United States, followed by China, several World and Olympics records were broken during the games. Several concerns were raised over the preparations of the Games and these included excessive budget overruns, infrastructural compromise, the games were deemed generally successful with the rising standard of competition amongst nations across the world. Athens was chosen as the host city during the 106th IOC Session held in Lausanne on 5 September 1997, Athens had lost its bid to organize the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta nearly seven years before on 18 September 1990, during the 96th IOC Session in Tokyo. 1996 coincided with the 100th Anniversary of the first modern Olympics, under the direction of Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, Athens pursued another bid, this time for the right to host the Summer Olympics in 2004. After leading all voting rounds, Athens easily defeated Rome in the 5th, cape Town, Stockholm, and Buenos Aires, the three other cities that made the IOC shortlist, were eliminated in prior rounds of voting. Six other cities submitted applications, but their bids were dropped by the IOC in 1996 and these cities were Istanbul, Lille, Rio de Janeiro, San Juan, Seville, Saint Petersburg and Cali. The 2004 Summer Olympic Games cost the Government of Greece €8.954 billion to stage, the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee, responsible for the preparation and organisation of the games, concluded its operations as a company in 2005 with a surplus of €130.6 million. ATHOC contributed €123.6 million of the surplus to the Greek State to cover other related expenditures of the Greek State in organizing of the games, as a result, ATHOC reported in its official published accounts a net profit of €7 million. The State’s contribution to the total ATHOC budget was 8% of its expenditure against an originally anticipated 14%, the overall revenue of ATHOC, including income from tickets, sponsors, broadcasting rights, merchandise sales etc. totalled €2,098.4 million. The largest percentage of income came from broadcasting rights. The overall expenditure of ATHOC was €1,967.8 million. e, the large projects required for the upgrade of the country’s infrastructure, including sports infrastructure, roads, airports, hospitals, power grid etc. This cost, however, is not directly attributable to the organisation of the Games. Such infrastructure projects are considered by all standards as fixed asset investments that stay with the hosting country for decades after the Games
2004 Summer Olympics
–
The ceremony for the lighting of the flame is arranged as a pagan pageant, with priestesses dancing.
2004 Summer Olympics
–
Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
2004 Summer Olympics
–
The OAKA Plaza and Arch adjacent to the Olympic Stadium
2004 Summer Olympics
–
Faliro Sports Pavilion Arena
12.
Bids for the 2004 Summer Olympics
–
Five cities made the shortlist with their bids to host the 2004 Summer Olympics, which were awarded to Athens, on September 5,1997. The other shortlisted cities were Rome, Cape Town, Stockholm, in the first round of voting, Buenos Aires and Cape Town tied with the lowest number of votes. Round two was therefore a tie-breaker round between the two cities, with Buenos Aires being eliminated, Stockholm was the next city to be eliminated followed by Cape Town. The final round saw Athens receive enough votes to defeat Rome, Athens was the leader in all rounds of voting, except in Round 2, which was a tie-breaker due to a first round tie between Cape Town and Buenos Aires. Cape Town won that round over Buenos Aires, before losing out in the 4th round, rio de Janeiro, Brazil San Juan, Puerto Rico Istanbul, Turkey Lille, France Saint Petersburg, Russia Seville, Spain
Bids for the 2004 Summer Olympics
–
The
Colosseum, one of
Rome 's most famous landmarks.
Bids for the 2004 Summer Olympics
–
Bids for the 2004 (2004) Summer Olympics and Paralympics
Bids for the 2004 Summer Olympics
–
Man and Pegasus statue at
Millesgården, in
Lidingö.
13.
Venues of the 2004 Summer Olympics
–
For the 2004 Summer Olympics, a total of thirty-five sports venues were used. Athens hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 that included such as Panathinaiko Stadium. A change in democracy in 1975 resulted in Greeces admission into the European Economic Community in 1979. Athens first bid for the 1996 Summer Olympics as part of the 100th anniversary of the Modern Olympics, seven years later, Athens won the right to host the 2004 Summer Olympics. At the time of the award, 75% of competition and 92% of training venues were available though a construction and renovation program was taken to get the venues ready for the games. Accessibility and environmental issues were taken account in venue design. The marathon course used was the one used for the 1896 Games though it was 2.195 km longer to the marathon not being standardized until 1924. Canoe slaloms venue at Ellinikon was the first using saltwater, having it pumped in from the Aegean Sea, after the Olympics, Markopoulo Olympic Shooting Centre was converted into a police training center while two other venues were converted into entertainment centers. Greece served as home of the Ancient Olympic Games that ran from 776 B. C. to 393 A. D. in Olympia, following the effort of Pierre de Coubertin to revive the Olympic Games, the first modern Olympics took place at Athens in 1896. The main stadium, Panathinaiko, served as host of the athletic, gymnastic, weightlifting, the city of Marathon served the start point for the sport of the same name and the starting and finishing point of cyclings Individual road race. Between the 1896 and 2004 Summer Olympics, Greece underwent a series of events that created political instability in the country, by the 1950s, Greece reemerged as an economic model though a coup détat in April 1967 forced the country into a military junta that lasted until 1974. It would take a back to democracy in 1975 and an entrance into the European Economic Community in 1979 set Greece back to growth. Athens first bid for the Summer Olympics took place in 1986 for the 1996 Olympics and they lost out to eventual winner Atlanta, Georgia in the United States at a 1990 International Olympic Committee meeting in Tokyo. Olympic Stadium in Athens served as host for the European Athletics Championships in 1982 and this venue also served as host for the Mediterranean Games in 1991. In 1995, Athens submitted a bid for the 2004 Summer Olympics which it was awarded in September 1997, a month earlier, Olympic Stadium hosted the World Championships in Athletics. At the time of the bid in 1997, the venues to be used for the 2004 Games were available for 75% of the competition, venue locations were settled between 1998 and 2003. Construction funding started in 1998 with laws passing in 1999 and 2000 to assist this along, a total of 37 contracts were issued for venue construction and renovation involving three different governmental ministries. Monthly reports were issues to the Athens Organizing Committee on venue project status, design drawings were completed by December 2002
Venues of the 2004 Summer Olympics
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Olympic flame at the opening ceremony of 2004 Summer Olympics.
Venues of the 2004 Summer Olympics
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Athens Olympic Aquatic Centre
Venues of the 2004 Summer Olympics
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Athens Olympic Tennis Centre
Venues of the 2004 Summer Olympics
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Athens Olympic Velodrome
14.
Athena and Phevos
–
Athena and Phevos were the Olympic mascots of the 2004 Summer Olympics, held in Athens. The pair are one of the few examples of anthropomorphic mascots in the history of the Olympics. ”The mascots were named after the Greek gods Athena and Apollo, Phevos being a transcription of the modern Greek pronunciation of Phoebus, an epithet of Apollo. They were loosely modeled after an archaic Greek terra cotta daidala from the 7th century BC, the Athens 2004 Olympic Organizing Committee claimed that the mascots represented participation, brotherhood, equality, cooperation, fair play the everlasting Greek value of human scale. The mascots have been emblazoned on a variety of items for sale, including pins, clothing, in a BBC Radio interview on June 26,2004, Dr. Pan. For these reasons we have proceeded to legal action demanding the punishment of those responsible, the fact that the organizing committee referred to the daidala as dolls has been the cause of some controversy among scholars of Ancient Greek culture, as the daidala were religious artifacts
Athena and Phevos
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Soft toys were among the many items of mascot-themed
merchandising available at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Athena and Phevos
–
The mascots were based on this archaic terracotta
daidala at the
National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
15.
2004 Summer Olympics torch relay
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The 2004 Summer Olympics Torch Relay took the Olympic Flame across every habitable continent, returning to Athens, Greece. Every city which had hosted the Summer Olympics was revisited by the torch, the relay was the first time the Olympic flame had travelled to Africa, India and South America. The flame was transported from country to country aboard a specially-equipped Boeing 747 leased from Atlanta Icelandic called Zeus, on board the flame was carried and burned continuously in specially modified miners lamps. On March 25,2004, the Olympic Flame was ignited at Olympia, Greece, after visiting Cyprus, the Greek Leg of the Torch Relay resumed on July 9,2004, with the flame touching down in Crete in the city of Heraklion. During the Greek Leg of the relay, the torch made a cursory stopover in Albania when the torch was carried through a lake on the Greek-Albanian border. However, those plans were abandoned in March 2009 due to the protests in the leg of the torch relay of the 2008 Summer Olympics
2004 Summer Olympics torch relay
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Olympic Torch Relay Jet - Zeus (Registration TF-ARO)
16.
2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony
–
The opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games was held on August 13,2004 at the Olympic Stadium in Maroussi, Greece, a suburb of Athens. 72,000 spectators attended the event, with approximately 15,000 athletes from 202 countries participating in the ceremony as well and it marked the first-ever international broadcast of high definition television, undertaken by the U. S. broadcaster NBC and the Japanese broadcaster NHK. A blazing projectile, seemingly coming from the ancient stadium of Olympia on the screen, according to Dimitris Papaioannou, the event was a pageant of traditional Greek culture and history harkening back to its mythological beginnings, and viewed through the progression of Greek art. The dramatic music that accompanied the performances often combined drumming with the traditionally Greek sound of bouzouki. From the screen where from the images of the Olympia drummer are being shown, next, a young Greek boy sailed into the stadium on a giant paper boat waving the host nations flag, symbolizing Greeces maritime tradition and its close connection to the sea. The segments that followed were divided in two main parts, the first part of the main artistic segment of the opening ceremony was called Allegory. The second part, called the Clepsydra, or Hourglass, celebrates the themes introduced in the Allegory section through a portrayal of Greek history from the ancient to the modern times. The Allegory segment began with a recitation of a verse from Nobel Prize-winning Greek poet George Seferis poem Mythistorema 3, as the verse is being recited on the speakers, the spotlights are focused upon a woman clad in a black gown looking out to the water. Holding a marble head, the woman seems to be entering into a dream. As she looks into the water, a centaur appears whose human and animal parts supposedly symbolize the duality of spirit. The centaur then walks about and then throws a spear of light into the center of the stadium and this Cycladic head also represents one of the very first attempts of humanity to understand itself. With the use of lasers, geometrical shapes and other scientific images were displayed on the figures face and this last sequence is meant to symbolize the birth of logical thought, higher learning, and humanity finally making sense of the world in which it lives. After this sequence, the pieces of sculpture descend to the water, in the next sequence, Eros, the Greek god of love, was introduced flying over a pair of lovers frolicking in the pool of water located in the center of the stadium. The young couple along with Eros symbolize the fact that the humanity which create and shape history is born out of love and this segment introduces the next part of the ceremony, the Clepsydra, which highlights the themes of the opening ceremony through a celebration of Greek history. The lovers then lie down in the water, and both fall into a dream state, the pageantry following the statues and the introduction of Eros continued to portray scenes that showed the sequence of Greek civilisation through its art. The scenes started with the Minoan civilisation, the first float featured the iconic image of Minoan civilization, that of the fertility goddess clad in a bodice exposing her breasts and clutching serpents in both hands. The subsequent floats then featured scenes of bull-jumping, dolphins, the scenes then proceeded to the more stark art of the Mycenean civilisation, followed by representations of the Classical period. At the end of the parade, Eros lowered enough to help a pregnant woman remove her outer garment
2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony
–
The
olympic flame at the Opening Ceremony. The concept was the work of choreographer and director
Dimitris Papaioannou, a
modern dance artist.
17.
2004 Summer Olympics medal table
–
The 2004 Summer Olympics medal table is a list of National Olympic Committees ranked by the number of medals won during the 2004 Summer Olympics, held in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. A total of 10,625 athletes from 201 countries participated in these games, kiribati and Timor Leste competed for the first time in these Olympic Games. Athletes from 74 countries won at least one medal, leaving 127 countries without a medal, the United States won the most gold medals, the most silver medals and the most medals overall. China finished second on the International Olympic Committee medal table, the countrys best performance until the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Russia finished third, and also won the most bronze medals. Host nation Greece finished fifteenth, with six gold, six silver, australia became the first nation to improve their gold medal total at the Games immediately after hosting a Summer Olympics. The United Arab Emirates, Paraguay and Eritrea won their first ever Olympic medals, israel, Chile, Dominican Republic, Georgia, Chinese Taipei and United Arab Emirates won their first Olympic gold medals. The medal table is based on information provided by the International Olympic Committee and is consistent with IOC convention in its published medal tables, by default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won. The number of medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If nations are tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically. In boxing and judo, two medals were awarded in each weight class, so the total number of bronze medals is greater than the total number of gold. Since the conclusion of the 2004 Games, doping scandals have resulted in the revocations of medals from numerous athletes, in the team jumping event, German equestrian Ludger Beerbaum was disqualified, after his horse Goldfever tested positive for the illegal substance betamethasone. Christian Ahlmann, Marco Kutscher, and Otto Becker of the German team retained a medal, US cyclist Tyler Hamilton in mens road time trial confessed that he doped during the Summer Olympics. He had his gold medal reallocated to Viatcheslav Ekimov from Russia, US cyclist Bobby Julich was awarded the silver medal, and Australian Michael Rogers receiving bronze. The US womens 4 x 400 metres relay team was recommended by the International Association of Athletics Federations to be stripped of their gold medal, the gold medal should theoretically go to Russia, silver to Jamaica and bronze to Great Britain. However, up to today, no action has been taken by IOC. Hence, the US relay team is listed as the winner for this event. Four Athletes were stripped of their medals on 5 December 2012 after drug re-testings of their samples were found positive, no decision has yet been taken on reallocating the medals. No decision has yet taken on reallocating the medals
2004 Summer Olympics medal table
–
The
Olympic flame burns in the
Athens Olympic Stadium cauldron, during the opening ceremonies of the
2004 Summer Olympics.
18.
2004 Summer Olympics closing ceremony
–
10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team officials from 201 countries. There were 301 medal events in 28 different sports, Athens 2004 marked the first time since the 1996 Summer Olympics that all countries with a National Olympic Committee were in attendance. 2004 marked the return of the games to the city where they began, a new medal obverse was introduced at these Games, replacing the design by Giuseppe Cassioli that had been used since the 1928 Games. This rectified the long lasting mistake of using a depiction of the Roman Colosseum rather than a Greek venue, the new design features the Panathenaic Stadium. The cost of the 2004 Athens Summer Games has been cited as a contributor to the Greek government-debt crisis, some of the venues lie vacant and rotting, while others are in use, the Independent newspaper reports as many as 21 out of 22 are unused. The final medal tally was led by the United States, followed by China, several World and Olympics records were broken during the games. Several concerns were raised over the preparations of the Games and these included excessive budget overruns, infrastructural compromise, the games were deemed generally successful with the rising standard of competition amongst nations across the world. Athens was chosen as the host city during the 106th IOC Session held in Lausanne on 5 September 1997, Athens had lost its bid to organize the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta nearly seven years before on 18 September 1990, during the 96th IOC Session in Tokyo. 1996 coincided with the 100th Anniversary of the first modern Olympics, under the direction of Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, Athens pursued another bid, this time for the right to host the Summer Olympics in 2004. After leading all voting rounds, Athens easily defeated Rome in the 5th, cape Town, Stockholm, and Buenos Aires, the three other cities that made the IOC shortlist, were eliminated in prior rounds of voting. Six other cities submitted applications, but their bids were dropped by the IOC in 1996 and these cities were Istanbul, Lille, Rio de Janeiro, San Juan, Seville, Saint Petersburg and Cali. The 2004 Summer Olympic Games cost the Government of Greece €8.954 billion to stage, the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee, responsible for the preparation and organisation of the games, concluded its operations as a company in 2005 with a surplus of €130.6 million. ATHOC contributed €123.6 million of the surplus to the Greek State to cover other related expenditures of the Greek State in organizing of the games, as a result, ATHOC reported in its official published accounts a net profit of €7 million. The State’s contribution to the total ATHOC budget was 8% of its expenditure against an originally anticipated 14%, the overall revenue of ATHOC, including income from tickets, sponsors, broadcasting rights, merchandise sales etc. totalled €2,098.4 million. The largest percentage of income came from broadcasting rights. The overall expenditure of ATHOC was €1,967.8 million. e, the large projects required for the upgrade of the country’s infrastructure, including sports infrastructure, roads, airports, hospitals, power grid etc. This cost, however, is not directly attributable to the organisation of the Games. Such infrastructure projects are considered by all standards as fixed asset investments that stay with the hosting country for decades after the Games
2004 Summer Olympics closing ceremony
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The ceremony for the lighting of the flame is arranged as a pagan pageant, with priestesses dancing.
2004 Summer Olympics closing ceremony
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Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
2004 Summer Olympics closing ceremony
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The OAKA Plaza and Arch adjacent to the Olympic Stadium
2004 Summer Olympics closing ceremony
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Faliro Sports Pavilion Arena
19.
2004 Summer Paralympics medal table
–
Athletes from 75 countries has won at least one medal, leaving 61 countries without a medal. The ranking in this table is based on information provided by the International Paralympic Committee and is consistent with IPC convention in its published medal tables, by default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won. The number of medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If nations are tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by IPC country code. Host country To sort this table by nation, total medal count, or any other column, medal Standings - Athens 2004 Paralympic Games. 2004 Summer Olympics medal table International Paralympic Committee
2004 Summer Paralympics medal table
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Summer Games
2004 Summer Paralympics medal table
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To sort this table by nation, total medal count, or any other column, click on the icon next to the column title.
20.
International Olympic Committee
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The International Olympic Committee is the supreme authority of the worldwide Olympic movement. It is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Lausanne and its mission is enshrined in the Olympic Charter, to support the development of competitive sport by ethical and environmentally sustainable means. The IOC was created by Pierre de Coubertin, on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president, today its membership consists of 100 active members,32 honorary members, and 1 honour member. The IOC is the authority of the worldwide modern Olympic movement. The IOC organises the modern Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games, held in summer and winter, the first Summer Olympics organised by the IOC was held in Athens, Greece, in 1896, the first Winter Olympics was in Chamonix, France, in 1924. Until 1992, both Summer and Winter Olympics were held in the same year, the first Summer Youth Olympics were in Singapore in 2010 and the first Winter Youth Olympics were held in Innsbruck in 2012. In 2009, the UN General Assembly granted the IOC Permanent Observer status and this decision enables the IOC to be directly involved in the UN Agenda and to attend UN General Assembly meetings where it can take the floor. This has provided the possibility to promote sport at a new level, during each proclamation at the Olympics, announcers speak in different languages, French is always spoken first followed by an English translation and the dominant language of the host nation. The stated mission of the International Olympic Committee is to promote Olympic throughout the world and it is the IOC’s supreme organ and its decisions are final. Extraordinary Sessions may be convened by the President or upon the written request of at least one third of the members, among others, the powers of the Session are, To adopt or amend the Olympic Charter. To elect the members of the IOC, the Honorary President, to elect the President, the Vice-Presidents and all other members of the IOC Executive Board. To elect the host city of the Olympic Games, the Olympic Laurel is awarded to individuals for promoting education, culture, development, and peace through sport. For most of its existence, the IOC was controlled by members who were selected by other members, countries that had hosted the Games were allowed two members. When named, they did not become the representatives of their countries to the IOC. The membership of IOC members ceases in the circumstances, Resignation. Non re-election, any IOC member ceases to be a member without further formality if they are not re-elected, age limit, any IOC member ceases to be a member at the end of the calendar year during which they reach the age of 80. Failure to attend Sessions or take part in IOC work for two consecutive years. Transfer of domicile or of main center of interests to an other than the country which was theirs at the time of their election
International Olympic Committee
–
The headquarters of the International Olympic Committee in
Lausanne,
Switzerland.
International Olympic Committee
–
The first IOC, at the
1896 Athens Games
International Olympic Committee
–
1985
German Democratic Republic stamp
21.
Hellenic Olympic Committee
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Hellenic Olympic Committee is the governing Olympic body of Greece. It is one of the oldest National Olympic Committees in the world, being founded in 1894 and it is based in Athens, Greece. The HOC was founded in Athens on 3 February,1894 on the name Commiittee of the Olympic Games with first chairman Crown Prince Constantine of Greece, on the same day, the committee held first meeting to organize the first modern Olympic Games. After the dissolution of this committee because of crisis in the country. Finally, after problems, the Games were opened on 6 April. Which was restored in white marble thanks to the donation of one million drachmas from George Averoff, one year later after the Games has formed first permanent committee on the proposal of king George II to held every 4 year Panhellenic Games in Athens. Because of debate who is chairman in sports events, government gave to E. O. A, full responsibility to cooperate with other sports federations, spread Olympic spirit and his structure of 12 members led by successor. In 2000, for organisation 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, the E. O. A, changed its name to the Hellenic Olympic Committee
Hellenic Olympic Committee
–
Hellenic Olympic Committee logo
22.
Summer Paralympic Games
–
The Summer Paralympic Games or the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event, where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, the Paralympic Games are held every four years, organized by the International Paralympic Committee. Medals are awarded in each event, with medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third. The United States and the United Kingdom have each hosted two Summer Paralympic Games, more than any other nation. Other countries that have hosted the summer Paralympics are Australia, Canada, China, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, in the 2016 Summer Paralympics, Brazil will host the first Summer Games in South America in Rio de Janeiro. Tokyo will be the first city to host the Summer Paralympics more than once,1964 and 2020. Seven of those countries have won at least one medal at every Summer Paralympic Games, Australia, Austria, France, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands. The United States have been the nation for eight of the Paralympic Summer Games,1964,1968,1976,1980,1984,1988,1992 and 1996. China have been the nation for the four most recent Games,2004,2008,2012 and 2016. Italy, West Germany and Australia have been the nation one time each. Qualification rules for each of the Paralympic sports are set by the International Federation that governs that sports international competition, the first official Paralympic Games, was held in Rome in 1960. 400 athletes from 23 countries competed at the 1960 Games though only athletes in wheelchairs competed, at the 1976 Summer Games athletes with different disabilities were included for the first time at a summer Paralympics. With the inclusion of more disability classifications, the 1976 Summer Games expanded to 1,600 athletes from 40 countries, the 1988 Summer Paralympics were the first to be hosted in the same venues as the Olympics of that year. Since then, all Paralympic Games are now held in the city that hosted the Olympics. Each Paralympic sport then has its own classifications, dependent upon the physical demands of competition. Events are given a code, made of numbers and letters, describing the type of event, within the ten disability categories the athletes still need to be divided according to their level of impairment. The classification systems differ from sport to sport, and is intended to even the playing field so as to allow as many athletes to participate as possible, classifications vary in accordance with the different skills required to perform the sport. Archery, Archery is open to athletes with a physical disability, classifications are broken up into three divisions, W1, spinal cord injured and Cerebral Palsy athletes with impairment in all four limbs
Summer Paralympic Games
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Summer Paralympic Games
Summer Paralympic Games
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Paralympic Games
Summer Paralympic Games
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A wheelchair basketball game at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
Summer Paralympic Games
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The Swedish goalball team at the
2004 Summer Paralympics
23.
Multi-sport event
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A multi-sport event is an organized sports event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports between organized teams of athletes from nation states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of significance is the modern Olympic Games. Many regional multi-sport events have since founded and modeled after the Olympics. Most have the basic structure. Games are held over the course of days in and around a host city. Countries send national teams to each competition, consisting of individual athletes, athletes or teams are awarded gold, silver or bronze medals for first, second and third place respectively. The games are held every four years, though some are annual competitions. Instead, the Greek sports of racing and wrestling, as well as the Etruscan sport of gladiatorial combat. In the late 19th and early 20th century, athletes at events were almost exclusively male. As international womens sport began to develop, events such as the Womens World Games, though short-lived, events such as these led to greater inclusion of women at multi-sport events over the course of the 20th century. Since the establishment of the Olympics, most serial multi-sport events have been organized for specific audiences, after some celebrations, the Olympics became very popular nowadays. The number of sports, initially only a few, is still growing, the Paralympic Games is the largest multi-sport event involving athletes with physical disabilities, and is organised by the International Paralympic Committee. Arranged for the first time in 1960 in Rome, Italy, the number of sports, initially only a few, is still growing. The first Special Olympics International Summer Games were held in Chicago, the most recent Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles, United States, involved 25 sports and approximately 6,500 athletes from 177 countries. At the beginning of the 20th century, another multi-sport event and these Games were held in Scandinavia, and the sports conducted were winter sports such as cross-country skiing and speed skating. The Nordic Games were last held in 1926, after which the 1924 Winter Sports Week in Chamonix was declared the first Olympic Winter Games, in the 1920s, all kinds of other multi-sport events were set up. These were usually directed for a group of athletes, rather than everybody. Regional games were another kind of event that was established, such as the Far Eastern Championship Games
Multi-sport event
–
The
Pan American Games is one of the largest multi-sport events and involves athletes from the Americas.
24.
Disabled sports
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Disabled sports, also adaptive sports or parasports, are sports played by persons with a disability, including physical and intellectual disabilities. As many disabled sports are based on existing able bodied sports, modified to meet the needs of persons with a disability, however, not all disabled sports are adapted, several sports that have been specifically created for persons with a disability have no equivalent in non-disabled sports. Disability exists in four categories, physical, mental, permanent, organized sport for athletes with a disability is generally divided into three broad disability groups, the deaf, people with physical disabilities, and people with intellectual disabilities. Each group has a history, organization, competition program. Formal international competition in sport began with the 1924 Paris Silent Games, organized by the Comité International des Sports des Sourds. These games evolved into the modern Deaflympics, governed by the CISS, the CISS maintains separate games for deaf athletes based on their numbers, their special communication needs on the sports field, and the social interaction that is a vital part of sports. Organized sport for persons with disabilities existed as early as 1911. One of the athletes was Walter William Francis, a Welshman. Later, events often developed out of rehabilitation programs, following the Second World War, in response to the needs of large numbers of injured ex-service members and civilians, sport was introduced as a key part of rehabilitation. Sport for rehabilitation grew into recreational sport and then into competitive sport, the pioneer of this approach was Sir Ludwig Guttmann of the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England. In 1948, while the Olympic Games were being held in London and this was the origin of the Stoke Mandeville Games, which evolved into the modern Paralympic Games. The first official Paralympic Games, after the change, was held in Rome in 1960. In 1975, the Paralympic Games expanded to include those with limb amputations, individuals with cerebral palsy were allowed to compete beginning in 1980. Currently, Paralympic sport is governed by the International Paralympic Committee, one such program is the Wounded Warrior program, which offers sitting volleyball to injured service members. Some organizations also offer opportunities to family and friends of injured service members in addition to the members themselves. Sport for persons with intellectual disabilities began to be organized in the 1960s through the Special Olympics movement and this grew out of a series of summer camps organized by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, beginning in 1962. In 1968 the first international Special Olympics were held, in Chicago, today, Special Olympics provides training and competition in a variety of sports for persons with intellectual disabilities. Sport for persons with physical disabilities began to be organized in the US in the late 1960s through Disabled Sports USA, in 1970, Hal OLeary founded the National Sports Center for the Disabled at Winter Park in Colorado
Disabled sports
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Iris Pruysen competes in the
long jump at the 2014 Paris Athletics Paralympic Meeting.
Disabled sports
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A wheelchair racer during the
Marathon International de Paris (Paris Marathon) in 2014.
Disabled sports
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Wounded Warrior Chuck Sketch participates in swim practice on Feb. 14, 2012 at United States
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
25.
International Paralympic Committee
–
The International Paralympic Committee is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and functions as the federation for nine sports. Founded on 22 September 1989 in Düsseldorf, Germany, its mission is To enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and inspire, furthermore, the IPC wants to promote the Paralympic values and to create sport opportunities for all persons with a disability, from beginner to elite level. The IPCs headquarters is located in Bonn, Germany, in the upcoming years, other organizations joined and the need for a democratically guided organization emerged, demanded by the nations participating in the Paralympic Movement. They desired a democratic structure, to national and regional representation. The 1994 Winter Paralympics, Norway, were the first to be organized by the IPC, the word Paralympic derives from the Greek preposition para. and Olympics. The first connotation connected to the para was paralysis or paraplegia. But since the Paralympics cover different disability groups and the association to the Olympic Movement. A fifteen-member Governing Board oversees the IPC between meetings of the General Assembly, dr. Robert D. Steadward became the first President in 1989. Since 2001, Sir Philip Craven is President of the IPC, the number of athletes and nations participating in the Paralympic Games and thus being part of the Paralympic Movement is constantly increasing, along with the audience. Sport for persons with a disability is growing on a national and international level, the International Paralympic Committee has had two presidents to date. Its founding president, who presided it from 1989 to 2001, was the Canadian Robert Steadward and he was succeeded in 2001 by Philip Craven, a British former Paralympic athlete, who remains president as of 2016. The IPC Governing Board consists of 14 members elected at the General Assembly, including the President, two members of the board without voting rights are the co-opted member Bernard Bourigeaud, and the CEO Xavier Gonzalez. The IPC has a board of distinguished individuals who support the IPCs goals and use their profile to raise funds. Chronology of milestones in the development of the International Paralympic Committee, the IPC publishes The Paralympian three times a year. The London 2012 Paralympics and other events related to the Paralympic Movement can be watched on the Internet TV channel for Paralympic Sports created by the IPC. The agreement came into effect at the 2008 Paralympic Summer Games in Beijing, the agreement was adjusted in 2003. An extension was signed in June 2006, a further extension was signed in 2012, valid until 2020
International Paralympic Committee
–
Headquarter Paralympic Committee in Bonn
International Paralympic Committee
–
Paralympic Games
26.
Paralympic association football
–
Paralympic football consists of adaptations of the sport of association football for athletes with a physical disability. The two most prominent versions of Paralympic football are 5-a-side football for athletes with visual impairments, 5-a-side football, also known as futsal and blind football, is an adaptation of football for athletes with visual impairments including blindness. The sport, governed by the International football Sports Federation, is played with modified FIFA rules, the field of play is smaller, and is surrounded by boards. Teams are reduced to five players, including the goalkeeper, per team, teams may also use one guide, who is positioned off the field of play, to assist in directing players. The ball is equipped with a device to allow players to locate it by sound. Matches consist of two 25-minute halves, with a break at half-time. B2 - Partially sighted, able to recognise the shape of a hand up to an acuity of 2/60 or a visual field of less than 5 degrees. For Class B1 games, only athletes with sport class B1 are permitted as players, with the exception of the goalkeepers and the guides, who may be class B2, B3, or sighted. For Class B2/B3 games, teams can field players in sport classes B2 and B3, 5-a-side football in Europe was developed in Spain. The first Spanish national championships took place in Spain in 1986, in South America, there are records of a Brazilian Tournament organized in 1980. European and American Championships took place in 1997, followed by the first World Championships in 1998, the sport was added to the Summer Paralympic Games in 2004. Brazil was champion of the tournaments in 1998,2000,2010 and 2014. 7-a-side football is an adaptation of football for athletes with cerebral palsy and other neurological disorders, including stroke. The sport is governed by the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association, the sport is played with modified FIFA rules. Among the modifications are a field of play, a reduction in the number of players, elimination of the offside rule. Matches consist of two halves, with a fifteen-minute half-time break. Players competing in 7-a-side football are given a class based on their level of disability. Eligible classes are, C5, Athletes with difficulties walking and running
Paralympic association football
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Brazil vs. Argentina in the Final of the Football for 5 at the 2007 Parapan American Games in Rio de Janeiro
27.
United States at the 2004 Summer Paralympics
–
The United States sent a delegation to compete at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece. A total of 235 U. S. competitors took part in 18 sports, the United States finished fourth in the gold and overall medal count, behind China, Great Britain and Canada. The following American athletes won medals at the games, United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics International Paralympic Committee Official Website United States Paralympic Committee Official Website
United States at the 2004 Summer Paralympics
28.
Australia at the 2004 Summer Paralympics
–
Australia competed at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece. It was Australias 12th year of participation at the Paralympics, Australian competitors won 101 medals to finish fifth in the gold medal table and second on the total medal table. Australia competed in 12 sports and won medals in 8 sports, the Chef de Mission was Paul Bird. The IPC decision resulted in leading Australian athletes such as Siobhan Paton, leading Australian athletes included, Swimmer Matthew Cowdrey won a total of seven medals Swimmers Chantel Wolfenden and Prue Watt won six and five medals respectively. Tim Sullivan won four medals in athletics sprints events. The 2004 Summer Paralympics, formally known as Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was held from September 17 to September 28, the twelfth Paralympic Games, a total of 3,808 competitors from 135 countries participated. During these games 304 World Records were broken with 448 Paralympic Games Records being broken across 19 different sports, addition of judo and sitting volleyball for women and football 5-a-side for men were included. The event was possible through the help of 8,863 volunteers Louise Sauvage lit the cauldron during the opening ceremonies for the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney. In 2004, Sauvage carried the Australian flag into the opening ceremony stadium at what was her 4th Paralympic games and she has a Sydney ferry, a street and a pathway named after her, as well as numerous school sport houses around Australia. His amazing achievements were recognised and was chosen to carry the Australia flag at the Closing Ceremony of the Games and he also received a Medal of the Order of Australia and Swimmer of the Year with a Disability for success at the games. The Athens Paralympics saw record media attendance which is thought be attributed to the introduction of 5-a-side Football, Australia was a part of a collective viewing audience of 1.852 billion people around the world. There were 518 Medal events at the games, Australia brought home 101 medals, including a record 26 gold medals. The 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens were a precursor to the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, china dominated the medal count with more goal medals, more silver medals and more medals overall than any other nation. Australia had the second highest medal tally overall, Australia represented in archery, Women - Natalie Cordowiner Officials - Vicki OBrien Australias sole competitor did not win a medal. Leading athletes were Tim Sullivan, Kurt Fearnley and Amy Winters, leading cyclists were Christopher Scott, Greg Ball and Kieran Modra. Australia did not qualify for goalball Australia represented in judo, Men – Anthony Clarke Women – Desiree Allan Coach - Trevor Kschammer, Lara Sullivan Australia failed to win any medals. Australia represented in powerlifting, Men – Darren Gardiner, Steve Green, Wayne Sharpe Women - Deahnne McIntyre Coaches – Martin Leach and he originally finished third but was awarded the silver medal after Habibollah Mousavi, gold medallist in +100 kg was disqualified after a positive doping test. Matthew Cowdrey, in his first Paralympic Swim Team appearance, was Australias best performing swimmer winning 3 gold,2 silver and 2 bronze medals, Prue Watt won five silver and 2 bronze medals
Australia at the 2004 Summer Paralympics
–
Athens 2004 Paralympic Games logo
Australia at the 2004 Summer Paralympics
Australia at the 2004 Summer Paralympics
–
From the Paralympics opening ceremony
29.
Chantal Petitclerc
–
Chantal Petitclerc, CC, CQ, MSM is a Canadian wheelchair racer and a Senator from Quebec. At the age of 13, Petitclerc lost the use of legs in an accident when at a friends farm, a heavy barn door fell on her. In a 2011 interview, she stated that, really helped me get more fit and stronger, swimming also allowed her to discover her competitive drive. While she had previously been first in her class academically, it was her introduction to the world of competitive racing, when she was eighteen, Pierre Pomerleau, a trainer at Université Laval in Quebec City, introduced her to wheelchair sports. Using a homemade wheelchair, she took part in her first race and came last, however, she had fallen in love with wheelchair racing and a long and fruitful career had begun. Four years later, at the Atlanta games, she took gold medals in the 100 and 200 m events and three silvers in the 400,800, and 1500 m races. At the 2000 Summer Paralympics, she won two golds, in the 200 m and 800 m, and two silvers, in the 100 m and 400 m races. She won three medals and a bronze at the 2002 World Championships and a gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in the 800 m. At the 2004 Summer Olympics she won the 800 m, for her performance in 2008, she was awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canadian athlete of the year and the Canadian Presss Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canadas female athlete of the year. With her 5 golds in the 2004 Paralympics, she tied the existing Canadian gold medal record at a single Games, Winter or Summer and her 5 golds in the 2008 Paralympics tied that record. As of 2010, the record still stood, as of 2012 she holds five world records for wheelchair racing. She was chosen as the flagbearer of the Canadian team at the ceremonies of the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Petitclerc lives in Montreal, and trains at Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard, Rio Tinto Alcan is her main sponsor since 1998. Petitclerc was named the Chef de Mission for Canada’s 2014 Commonwealth Games team and she was also named Chef de Mission for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Petitclerc is married to music composer James Duhamel and gave birth to son Elliot in December 2013. On March 18,2016, Petitclerc was named to the Senate of Canada on the advice of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and she will sit as an Independent senator, not affiliated to any political party. Senator Petitclerc sits on two committees, Agriculture and Forestry and Social affairs, science and technology and her main priorities in the Senate are health as well as the rights of persons with disabilities. In June 2016, Senator Petitclerc delivered her first speech in the Chamber on Bill C-14, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and to make related amendments to other Acts
Chantal Petitclerc
–
Chantal Petitclerc
30.
Jonas Jacobsson
–
Jonas Jacobsson is a Swedish sport shooter who has won several gold medals at the Paralympic Games. He has participated in nine consecutive Summer Paralympics from 1980 to 2012, winning a total of seventeen gold, in 1996, he won two gold medals in the air rifle 3×40 and English match events and a bronze in the air rifle prone at the Atlanta Paralympics. At the 2000 Summer Paralympics, he took two medals in the free rifle 3×40 and free rifle prone events and two bronzes in air rifle standing and air rifle prone events. Four years later, at the Athens Games, he competed in the four events. On 10 September 2008 Jacobsson won his 16th gold medal in the Paralympic Games making him the best performing male Paralympics contestant so far, later that year, he became the first physically disabled athlete to receive the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal, Swedens most significant sports award. Athletes with most gold medals in one event at the Paralympic Games Results for Jonas Jacobsson from the International Paralympic Committee
Jonas Jacobsson
–
Jonas Jacobsson
31.
Trischa Zorn
–
Trischa Zorn is a United States swimmer. Blind from birth, she competes in Paralympic swimming and she is the most successful athlete in the history of the Paralympic Games, having won 55 medals, and was inducted into the Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2012. She took the Paralympic Oath for athletes at the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta, Zorn studied at the University of Nebraska, and, as of 2001, teaches third and fourth graders with special needs in Indianapolis. She competed in the 1980,1984,1988,1992,1996,2000 and 2004 Paralympic Games, in the 1996 Games in Atlanta, she won more medals than any other athlete, two gold, three silver and three bronze. She had also topped the medal table at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, with ten gold medals. She had won seven medals during her first Games in 1980. Following the Athens Games in 2004, she had won 52 medals at the Paralympic Games, more than any other athlete, of those,37 were gold medals,10 were silver and 5 were bronze. After the Sydney Games in 2000, she also held eight world records in her disability category, on 1 January 2005, Zorn was one of eight athletes honoured during New Year celebrations in Times Square in New York City. The eight athletes were centre stage during the festivities in the leading up to ringing in the New Year. In 2012, she was inducted into the International Paralympian Hall of Fame, the medals without relay races from 1980 Summer Paralympics to 1988 Summer Paralympics, are 46 for IPC. The relay team of United States, in the category of Zorn, the question marks in the infobox refer however to 9 gold medals, this is to confirm the total number of 55, reported in many websites including that of the official IPC in another of his article
Trischa Zorn
–
Trischa Zorn at the London Summer Paralympic Games in 2012, where she presented a gold medal
32.
Hippocrates
–
Hippocrates of Kos, also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is referred to as the Father of Modern Medicine in recognition of his contributions to the field as the founder of the Hippocratic School of Medicine. Hippocrates is commonly portrayed as the paragon of the ancient physician, historians agree that Hippocrates was born around the year 460 BC on the Greek island of Kos, other biographical information, however, is likely to be untrue. Soranus of Ephesus, a 2nd-century Greek gynecologist, was Hippocrates first biographer and is the source of most personal information about him, later biographies are in the Suda of the 10th century AD, and in the works of John Tzetzes, which date from the 12th century AD. Hippocrates is mentioned in passing in the writings of two contemporaries, Plato, in Protagoras and Phaedrus, and, Aristotles Politics, which date from the 4th century BC. Soranus wrote that Hippocrates father was Heraclides, a physician, and his mother was Praxitela, the two sons of Hippocrates, Thessalus and Draco, and his son-in-law, Polybus, were his students. According to Galen, a physician, Polybus was Hippocrates true successor, while Thessalus. Soranus said that Hippocrates learned medicine from his father and grandfather, Hippocrates was probably trained at the asklepieion of Kos, and took lessons from the Thracian physician Herodicus of Selymbria. Hippocrates taught and practiced medicine throughout his life, traveling at least as far as Thessaly, Thrace, several different accounts of his death exist. He died, probably in Larissa, at the age of 83,85 or 90, Hippocrates is credited with being the first person to believe that diseases were caused naturally, not because of superstition and gods. Hippocrates was credited by the disciples of Pythagoras of allying philosophy, indeed there is not a single mention of a mystical illness in the entirety of the Hippocratic Corpus. However, Hippocrates did work with many convictions that were based on what is now known to be incorrect anatomy and physiology, ancient Greek schools of medicine were split on how to deal with disease. The Knidian school of medicine focused on diagnosis, Medicine at the time of Hippocrates knew almost nothing of human anatomy and physiology because of the Greek taboo forbidding the dissection of humans. The Knidian school consequently failed to distinguish when one disease caused many possible series of symptoms, the Hippocratic school or Koan school achieved greater success by applying general diagnoses and passive treatments. Its focus was on patient care and prognosis, not diagnosis and it could effectively treat diseases and allowed for a great development in clinical practice. Hippocratic medicine and its philosophy are far removed from that of modern medicine, now, the physician focuses on specific diagnosis and specialized treatment, both of which were espoused by the Knidian school. S. Houdart called the Hippocratic treatment a meditation upon death, after a crisis, a relapse might follow, and then another deciding crisis. According to this doctrine, crises tend to occur on critical days, if a crisis occurred on a day far from a critical day, a relapse might be expected
Hippocrates
–
Engraving by
Peter Paul Rubens, 1638
Hippocrates
–
Asklepieion on
Kos
Hippocrates
–
A number of ancient Greek surgical tools. On the left is a
trephine; on the right, a set of
scalpels. Hippocratic medicine made good use of these tools.
Hippocrates
–
Clubbing of fingers in a patient with
Eisenmenger's syndrome; first described by Hippocrates, clubbing is also known as "Hippocratic fingers".
33.
Olive
–
Olea europeana sylvestris is a subspecies that corresponds to a smaller tree bearing noticeably smaller fruits. The olives fruit, also called the olive, is of agricultural importance in the Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil. The tree and its fruit give their name to the plant family, which includes species such as lilacs, jasmine, Forsythia. The word derives from Latin ŏlīva a borrowing from the Greek ἐλαία, the oldest attested forms of the Greek words are the Mycenaean
Olive
–
Olive
Olive
–
19th-century illustrations
Olive
–
Storing olives on
Dere Street;
Tacuinum Sanitatis, 14th century,
Olive
–
An olive vat room used for curing.
34.
Allegory
–
As a literary device, an allegory is a metaphor whose vehicle may be a character, place or event, representing real-world issues and occurrences. Many ancient religions are based on astrological allegories, that is, allegories of the movement of the sun, in classical literature two of the best-known allegories are the Cave in Platos Republic and the story of the stomach and its members in the speech of Menenius Agrippa. One of the examples of allegory, Platos Allegory of the Cave. In this allegory, Plato describes a group of people who have lived chained in an all of their lives. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows, using language to identify their world. He tries to tell the people in the cave of his discovery, also allegorical is Ezekiel 16 and 17, wherein the capture of that same vine by the mighty Eagle represents Israels exile to Rome. Allegory has an ability to freeze the temporality of a story, Mediaeval thinking accepted allegory as having a reality underlying any rhetorical or fictional uses. The allegory was as true as the facts of surface appearances, if, then, the Greeks or others say that they were not committed to the care of Peter and his successors, they necessarily confess that they are not of the sheep of Christ. This text also demonstrates the frequent use of allegory in religious texts during the Mediaeval Period, following the tradition, since meaningful stories are nearly always applicable to larger issues, allegories may be read into many stories which the author may not have recognised. This is allegoresis, or the act of reading a story as an allegory. S, lewis and A Kingdom Far and Clear, The Complete Swan Lake Trilogy by Mark Helprin. The story of the apple falling onto Isaac Newtons head is another famous allegory and it simplified the idea of gravity by depicting a simple way it was supposedly discovered. It also made the scientific revelation well known by condensing the theory into a short tale. According to Henry Littlefields 1964 article, L. Yet, George MacDonald emphasised in 1893 that, A fairy tale is not an allegory, I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and this further reinforces the idea of forced allegoresis, as allegory is often a matter of interpretation and only sometimes of original artistic intention. Like allegorical stories, allegorical poetry has two meanings – a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning, some unique specimens of allegory can be found in the following works, Edmund Spenser – The Faerie Queene, The several knights in the poem actually stand for several virtues. Nathaniel Hawthorne – Young Goodman Brown, The Devils Staff symbolises defiance of God, the characters names, such as Goodman and Faith, ironically serve as paradox in the conclusion of the story. Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter, The scarlet letter symbolises many things, the characters, while developed with interiority, are allegorical in that they represent ways of seeing the world. George Orwell – Animal Farm, The pigs stand for political figures of the Russian Revolution, lászló Krasznahorkai - The Melancholy of Resistance and the film Werckmeister Harmonies, It uses a circus to describe an occupying dysfunctional government
Allegory
–
Allegory of Music by
Filippino Lippi (between 1475 and 1500): The "Allegory of Music" is a popular theme in painting. Lippi uses
symbols popular during the
High Renaissance, many of which refer to Greek mythology.
Allegory
–
Salvator Rosa:
Allegory of Fortune, representing
Fortuna, the Goddess of luck, with the
horn of plenty
Allegory
–
British School 17th century - Portrait of a Lady, Called Elizabeth, Lady Tanfield. Sometimes the meaning of an allegory can be lost, even if art historians suspect that the artwork is an allegory of some kind.
Allegory
–
Allegory of
Arithmetic, by
Laurent de La Hyre, c. 1650
35.
Hephaestos
–
Hephaestus is the Greek god of blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera, in another version, he was Heras parthenogenous child, rejected by his mother because of his deformity and thrown off Mount Olympus and down to earth. As a smithing god, Hephaestus made all the weapons of the gods in Olympus and he served as the blacksmith of the gods, and was worshipped in the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, particularly Athens. The cult of Hephaestus was based in Lemnos, Hephaestus symbols are a smiths hammer, anvil, and a pair of tongs. The name of the god in Greek has a root which can be observed in names of places of Pre-Greek origin, Hephaestus had his own palace on Olympus, containing his workshop with anvil and twenty bellows that worked at his bidding. Hephaestus crafted much of the magnificent equipment of the gods, in later accounts, Hephaestus worked with the help of the chthonic Cyclopes—among them his assistants in the forge, Brontes, Steropes and Pyracmon. Hephaestus built automatons of metal to work for him and this included tripods that walked to and from Mount Olympus. He gave to the blinded Orion his apprentice Cedalion as a guide, in some versions of the myth, Prometheus stole the fire that he gave to man from Hephaestuss forge. Hephaestus also created the gift that the gods gave to man, being a skilled blacksmith, Hephaestus created all the thrones in the Palace of Olympus. The Greek myths and the Homeric poems sanctified in stories that Hephaestus had a power to produce motion. He made the golden and silver lions and dogs at the entrance of the palace of Alkinoos in such a way that they could bite the invaders, the Greeks maintained in their civilization an animistic idea that statues are in some sense alive. This kind of art and the animistic belief goes back to the Minoan period, when Daedalus, a statue of the god was somehow the god himself, and the image on a mans tomb indicated somehow his presence. Homers Odyssey and Iliad have Hephaestus being born of the union of Zeus, in another tradition, attested by Hesiod, Hera bore Hephaestus alone. In Hesiods Zeus-centered cosmology, Hera gave birth to Hephaestus as revenge for Zeus giving birth to Athena without her, several later texts follow Hesiods account, including Bibliotheke, Hyginus, and the preface to Fabulae. In the account of Attic vase painters, Hephaestus was present at the birth of Athena, in the latter account, Hephaestus is there represented as older than Athena, so the mythology of Hephaestus is inconsistent in this respect. In one branch of Greek mythology, Hera ejected Hephaestus from the heavens because he was shrivelled of foot and he fell into the ocean and was raised by Thetis and the Oceanid Eurynome. In another account, Hephaestus, attempting to rescue his mother from Zeus advances, was flung down from the heavens by Zeus. He fell for a day and landed on the island of Lemnos
Hephaestos
–
Hephaestus at the Forge by
Guillaume Coustou the Younger (
Louvre)
Hephaestos
–
Vulcan (Roman counterpart of Hephaestus) presenting the arms of Achilles to Thetis. By
Peter Paul Rubens.
Hephaestos
–
The western face of the Doric
temple of Hephaestus,
Agora of Athens.
36.
Zeus
–
Zeus /ˈzjuːs/ is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter and his mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of the Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin. Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, in most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus. At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses. He was equated with many foreign weather gods, permitting Pausanias to observe That Zeus is king in heaven is a common to all men. 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 right hand. The gods name in the nominative is Ζεύς Zeús and it is inflected as follows, vocative, Ζεῦ Zeû, accusative, Δία Día, genitive, Διός Diós, dative, Διί Dií. Diogenes Laertius quotes Pherecydes of Syros as spelling the name, Ζάς, Zeus is the Greek continuation of *Di̯ēus, the name of the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph2tēr. The god is known under this name in the Rigveda, Latin, Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology. The earliest attested forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek
Zeus
–
The Jupiter de Smyrne, discovered in
Smyrna in 1680
Zeus
–
The Chariot of Zeus, from an 1879 Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church.
Zeus
–
Zeus, at the Getty Villa, A.D. 1 - 100 by unknown.
Zeus
–
"
Cave of Zeus ",
Mount Ida (Crete).
37.
Hera
–
Hera is the goddess of women and marriage in Greek mythology and religion. She is the daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, Hera is married to her brother Zeus and is titled as the Queen of Heaven. One of her characteristics is her jealous and vengeful nature against Zeuss other lovers and offspring, Hera is commonly seen with the animals she considers sacred including the cow, lion and the peacock. Scholar of Greek mythology Walter Burkert writes in Greek Religion, Nevertheless, there are memories of an aniconic representation, as a pillar in Argos. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno, According to Plutarch, Hera was an allegorical name and an anagram of aēr. So begins the section on Hera in Walter Burkerts Greek Religion, in a note, he records other scholars arguments for the meaning Mistress as a feminine to Heros, Master. John Chadwick, a decipherer of Linear B, remarks her name may be connected with hērōs, ἥρως, hero, a. J. van Windekens, offers young cow, heifer, which is consonant with Heras common epithet βοῶπις. R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin and her name is attested in Mycenaean Greek written in the Linear B syllabic script as
Hera
–
The
Campana Hera, a
Roman copy of a
Hellenistic original, from the
Louvre
Hera
–
Jupiter and
Juno by
Annibale Carracci.
Hera
–
The Temple of Hera at
Agrigento,
Magna Graecia.
Hera
–
Roman copy of a Greek 5th century Hera of the "
Barberini Hera " type, from the
Museo Chiaramonti
38.
Turkmenistan
–
Turkmenistan has been at the crossroads of civilizations for centuries. In medieval times, Merv was one of the cities of the Islamic world and an important stop on the Silk Road. Annexed by the Russian Empire in 1881, Turkmenistan later figured prominently in the movement in Central Asia. In 1924, Turkmenistan became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, Turkmenistan possesses the worlds fourth largest reserves of natural gas resources. Most of the country is covered by the Karakum Desert, since 1993, citizens have received government-provided electricity, water and natural gas free of charge. Turkmenistan was ruled by President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov until his death in 2006, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was elected president in 2007. According to Human Rights Watch, Turkmenistan remains one of the world’s most repressive countries, after suspending the death penalty, the use of capital punishment was formally abolished in the 2008 constitution. Historically inhabited by the Indo-Iranians, the history of Turkmenistan begins with its annexation by the Achaemenid Empire of Ancient Iran. In the 8th century AD, Turkic-speaking Oghuz tribes moved from Mongolia into present-day Central Asia, part of a powerful confederation of tribes, these Oghuz formed the ethnic basis of the modern Turkmen population. In the 10th century, the name Turkmen was first applied to Oghuz groups that accepted Islam, There they were under the dominion of the Seljuk Empire, which was composed of Oghuz groups living in present-day Iran and Turkmenistan. Turkmen soldiers in the service of the played a important role in the spreading of Turkic culture when they migrated westward into present-day Azerbaijan. In the 12th century, Turkmen and other tribes overthrew the Seljuk Empire, in the next century, the Mongols took over the more northern lands where the Turkmens had settled, scattering the Turkmens southward and contributing to the formation of new tribal groups. The sixteenth and eighteenth centuries saw a series of splits and confederations among the nomadic Turkmen tribes, by the 16th century, most of those tribes were under the nominal control of two sedentary Uzbek khanates, Khiva and Bukhoro. Turkmen soldiers were an important element of the Uzbek militaries of this period, in the 19th century, raids and rebellions by the Yomud Turkmen group resulted in that groups dispersal by the Uzbek rulers. According to Paul R. Spickard, Prior to the Russian conquest, Russian forces began occupying Turkmen territory late in the 19th century. From their Caspian Sea base at Krasnovodsk, the Russians eventually overcame the Uzbek khanates, in 1916 the Russian Empires participation in World War I resonated in Turkmenistan, as an anticonscription revolt swept most of Russian Central Asia. In 1924 the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic was formed from the tsarist province of Transcaspia, by the late 1930s, Soviet reorganization of agriculture had destroyed what remained of the nomadic lifestyle in Turkmenistan, and Moscow controlled political life. The Ashgabat earthquake of 1948 killed over 110,000 people, during the next half-century, Turkmenistan played its designated economic role within the Soviet Union and remained outside the course of major world events
Turkmenistan
–
Turkmen helmet (15th century).
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
–
Russians attack a Turkmen caravan 1873 (during the "
The Great Game ").
Turkmenistan
–
A Turkmen man of Central Asia in traditional clothes. Photo by
Prokudin-Gorsky between 1905 and 1915.
39.
Australia
–
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
Australia
–
Aboriginal rock art in the
Kimberley region of Western Australia
Australia
Australia
–
Portrait of Captain
James Cook, the first European to map the eastern coastline of Australia in 1770
Australia
–
Tasmania's
Port Arthur penal settlement is one of eleven UNESCO World Heritage-listed
Australian Convict Sites.
40.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
France
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One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
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Flag
France
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The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
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With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
41.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
Spain
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Lady of Elche
Spain
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Flag
Spain
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Altamira Cave paintings, in
Cantabria.
Spain
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Celtic castro in
A Guarda,
Galicia.
42.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
Germany
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The
Nebra sky disk is dated to c. 1600 BC.
Germany
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Flag
Germany
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Martin Luther (1483–1546) initiated the
Protestant Reformation.
Germany
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Foundation of the
German Empire in
Versailles, 1871.
Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.
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