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Greece
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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
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Epirus
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Epirus is a geographical and historical region in southeastern Europe, now shared between Greece and Albania. It is currently divided between the region of Epirus in northwestern Greece and the counties of Gjirokastër, Vlorë, the largest city in Epirus is Ioannina, seat of the region of Epirus, with Gjirokastër the largest city in the Albanian part of Epirus. A rugged and mountainous region, Epirus was the north-west area of ancient Greece. It was inhabited by the Greek tribes of the Chaonians, Molossians, and Thesprotians, and home to the sanctuary of Dodona, the oldest ancient Greek oracle, and the most prestigious one after Delphi. Unified into a state in 370 BC by the Aeacidae dynasty, Epirus achieved fame during the reign of Pyrrhus of Epirus. Epirus subsequently became part of the Roman Empire along with the rest of Greece in 146 BC, following the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade, Epirus became the center of the Despotate of Epirus, one of the successor states to the Byzantine Empire. Conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, Epirus became semi-independent during the rule of Ali Pasha in the early 19th century, but the Ottomans re-asserted their control in 1821. Following the Balkan Wars and World War I, southern Epirus became part of Greece, the name Epirus is derived from the Greek, Ἤπειρος, Ḗpeiros, meaning mainland or terra firma. It is thought to come from an Indo-European root *apero- coast, and was applied to the mainland opposite Corfu. The local name was stamped on the coinage of the unified Epirote commonwealth, the Albanian name for the region, which derives from the Greek, is Epiri. The historical region of Epirus is generally regarded as extending from the end of the Ceraunian mountains, located just south of the Bay of Aulon. The northern boundary of ancient Epirus is alternatively given as the mouth of the Aoös river, epiruss eastern boundary is defined by the Pindus Mountains, that form the spine of mainland Greece and separate Epirus from Macedonia and Thessaly. To the west, Epirus faces the Ionian Sea, the island of Corfu is situated off the Epirote coast but is not regarded as part of Epirus. The definition of Epirus has changed over time, such that modern administrative boundaries do not correspond to the boundaries of ancient Epirus, the region of Epirus in Greece only comprises a fraction of classical Epirus and does not include its easternmost portions, which lie in Thessaly. Epirus is a rugged and mountainous region. It is largely made up of the Pindus Mountains, a series of limestone ridges that are a continuation of the Dinaric Alps. The Pindus mountains form the spine of mainland Greece and separate Epirus from Macedonia, the ridges of the Pindus are parallel to the sea and generally so steep that the valleys between them are mostly suitable for pasture rather than large-scale agriculture. Altitude increases as one moves east, away from the coast, reaching a maximum of 2, 637m at Mount Smolikas, most of Epirus lies on the windward side of the Pindus, and the prevailing winds from the Ionian Sea make the region the rainiest in mainland Greece
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River
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A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water, small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the term river as applied to geographic features. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location, examples are run in parts of the United States, burn in Scotland and northeast England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always, Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Potamology is the study of rivers while limnology is the study of inland waters in general. Extraterrestrial rivers of liquid hydrocarbons have recently found on Titan. Channels may indicate past rivers on other planets, specifically outflow channels on Mars and rivers are theorised to exist on planets, a river begins at a source, follows a path called a course, and ends at a mouth or mouths. The water in a river is confined to a channel. In larger rivers there is also a wider floodplain shaped by flood-waters over-topping the channel. Floodplains may be wide in relation to the size of the river channel. This distinction between river channel and floodplain can be blurred, especially in areas where the floodplain of a river channel can become greatly developed by housing. Rivers can flow down mountains, through valleys or along plains, the term upriver refers to the direction towards the source of the river, i. e. against the direction of flow. Likewise, the term describes the direction towards the mouth of the river. The term left bank refers to the bank in the direction of flow. The river channel typically contains a stream of water, but some rivers flow as several interconnecting streams of water. Extensive braided rivers are now found in only a few regions worldwide and they also occur on peneplains and some of the larger river deltas. Anastamosing rivers are similar to braided rivers and are quite rare
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Epirus (region)
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Epirus, formally the Epirus Region, is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region in northwestern Greece. It borders the regions of West Macedonia and Thessaly to the east, West Greece to the south, the region has an area of about 9,200 km2. It is part of the historical region of Epirus, which overlaps modern Albania and Greece. Greek Epirus, like the region as a whole, is rugged and it comprises the land of the ancient Molossians and Thesprotians and a small part of the land of the Chaonians the greater part being in Southern Albania. It is largely made up of ridges, part of the Dinaric Alps. The regions highest spot is on Mount Smolikas, at an altitude of 2.637 metres above sea level, in the east, the Pindus Mountains that form the spine of mainland Greece separate Epirus from Macedonia and Thessaly. Most of Epirus lies on the side of the Pindus. The winds from the Ionian Sea offer the more rainfall than any other part of Greece. The Vikos-Aoos and Pindus National Parks are situated in the Ioannina Prefecture of the region, both areas have imposing landscapes of dazzling beauty as well as a wide range of fauna and flora. The climate of Epirus is mainly alpine, the vegetation is made up mainly of coniferous species. The animal life is rich in this area and includes, among other species, bears, wolves, foxes, deer. Epirus is divided into four units, which are further subdivided into municipalities. The regional units are, Thesprotia, Ioannina, Arta and Preveza, in January 2011, according to the reform introduced by the Kallikratis Programme the prefectures were abolished and replaced by regional units. The former municipalities and communities were re-structured to form only 18 new municipalities, the regions governor is, since 1 January 2011, Alexandros Kachrimanis, who was elected in the November 2010 local administration elections for the New Democracy and Popular Orthodox Rally parties. Arta Igoumenitsa Ioannina Konitsa Metsovo Paramythia Parga Preveza Syvota Epirus has few resources, sheep and goat pastoralism have always been an important activity in the region but there seems to be a decline in recent years. Tobacco is grown around Ioannina, and there is some farming and fishing. Epirus is home to a number of the countrys most famous dairy products brands, another important area of the local economy is tourism, especially eco-tourism. The outstanding natural beauty of the area, as well as its picturesque villages, around 350,000 people live in Epirus
5.
Parga
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Parga is a town and municipality located in the northwestern part of the regional unit of Preveza in Epirus, northwestern Greece. The seat of the municipality is the village Kanallaki, Parga lies on the Ionian coast between the cities of Preveza and Igoumenitsa. It is a town known for its scenic beauty.796 km2. In antiquity the area was inhabited by the Greek tribe of the Thesprotians, the ancient town of Toryne was probably located here. The village of Parga stands from the early 13th century and it was originally built on top of the mountain Pezovolo. In 1360 the Pargians, in order to avoid the attacks of the Magrebins, during that period, with the help of the Normans, who held the island of Corfu, the fortress of Parga was built. In 1401 a treaty was signed with the Venetians, and the rule of Ionian Islands passed to them, the Venetians respected the lifestyle of the Pargians who provided, in turn, invaluable assistance to the fleet of the Venetians. At the same time the Pargians fought by the side of their compatriots to throw off the Ottoman rule, as Parga was the only free Christian village of Epirus, it was a perfect refuge for persecuted fighters and their families. In 1797 the area, along with the Ionian Islands and Parga, fell into the hands of the French, in 1815, with the fortunes of the French failing, the citizens of Parga revolted against French rule and sought the protection of the British. In 1817, following a treaty between Britain and the Ottoman Empire, the British granted Parga to the Ottomans, the former citizens of Parga never ceased to dream of returning to a free country and to participate actively in the struggle for liberation. But they had to wait almost 100 years for this, Parga and the rest of Epirus was liberated from the Ottoman rule on 1913 following the victory of Greece in the Balkan Wars. The Castle is found on the top of a hill overlooking the town and was used to protect the town from the mainland and it was initially built in the 11th century by the residents of Parga to protect their town from pirates and the Turks. In the 13th century, as their control of the region increased, in 1452, Parga and the castle were occupied by the Ottomans for two years during which time part of the castle was demolished. 1537, Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa burnt and destroyed the fortress, before the reconstruction of the castle in 1572 by the Venetians, the Turks demolished it once again. The Venetians created a defence plan which they combined with the natural fortification made the fortress. Outside the castle eight towers placed in different positions completed the defence, inside the narrow space of citadel there were 400 houses, positioned so that they occupied only a small space far away from the seaside. From this castle the free-besieged population of Parga and Souli fought epic battles, from the faucet “Kremasma” the tanks of the castle and the houses were provided with water. The castle for its used the two bays of Valtos and Pogonia
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Greek mythology
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It was a part of the religion in ancient Greece. Greek mythology is explicitly embodied in a collection of narratives. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world, and details the lives and adventures of a variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines. These accounts initially were disseminated in a tradition, today the Greek myths are known primarily from ancient Greek literature. The oldest known Greek literary sources, Homers epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on the Trojan War, archaeological findings provide a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featured prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles, in the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence. Greek mythology has had an influence on the culture, arts. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes, Greek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the Geometric period from c. Mythical narration plays an important role in every genre of Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus and this work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Apollodorus of Athens lived from c, 180–125 BC and wrote on many of these topics. His writings may have formed the basis for the collection, however the Library discusses events that occurred long after his death, among the earliest literary sources are Homers two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other poets completed the cycle, but these later and lesser poems now are lost almost entirely. Despite their traditional name, the Homeric Hymns have no connection with Homer. They are choral hymns from the part of the so-called Lyric age. Hesiods Works and Days, a poem about farming life, also includes the myths of Prometheus, Pandora. The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, lyrical poets often took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including Pindar, Bacchylides and Simonides, and bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama
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Greek underworld
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The Greek underworld, in mythology, is an otherworld where souls go after death, and is the original Greek idea of afterlife. At the moment of death the soul is separated from the corpse, taking on the shape of the former person, the Underworld itself is described as being either at the outer bounds of the ocean or beneath the depths or ends of the earth. It is considered the counterpart to the brightness of Mount Olympus. Hades is an invisible to the living, made solely for the dead. There are five rivers that are visible both in the living world and the underworld. Their names were meant to reflect the emotions associated with death, the Styx is generally considered to be one of the most prominent and central rivers of the Underworld and is also the most widely known out of all the rivers. Its known as the river of hatred and is named after the goddess Styx and this river circles the underworld seven times. The Acheron is the river of pain and its the one that Charon, also known as the Ferryman, rows the dead over according to many mythological accounts, though sometimes it is the river Styx or both. The Lethe is the river of forgetfulness and it is associated with the goddess Lethe, the goddess of forgetfulness and oblivion. In later accounts, a poplar branch dripping with water of the Lethe became the symbol of Hypnos, the Phlegethon is the river of fire. According to Plato, this leads to the depths of Tartarus. The Cocytus is the river of wailing, oceanus is the river that encircles the world, and it marks the east edge of the underworld, as Erebos is west of the mortal world. In front of the entrance to the underworld live Grief, Anxiety, Diseases, fear, Hunger, Death, Agony, and Sleep also live in front of the entrance, together with Guilty Joys. On the opposite threshold is War, the Erinyes, and Eris, close to the doors are many beasts, including Centaurs, Gorgons, the Lernaean Hydra, the Chimera, and Harpies. In the midst of all this, an Elm can be seen where false dreams cling under every leaf, the souls that enter the Underworld carry a coin under their tongue to pay Charon to take them across the river. Charon may make exceptions or allowances for those carrying a certain Golden Bough. Charon is appallingly filthy, with eyes like jets of fire, a bush of unkempt beard upon his chin, although Charon embarks now one group now another, some souls he grimly turns away. These are the unburied which cant be taken across from bank to bank until they receive a proper burial, across the river, guarding the gates of the Underworld, is Cerberus
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Homer
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Homer is the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the semi-legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems which are the central works of Greek literature. The Odyssey focuses on the home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca. Many accounts of Homers life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a bard from Ionia. The modern scholarly consensus is that these traditions do not have any historical value, the Homeric question - by whom, when, where and under what circumstances were the Iliad and Odyssey composed - continues to be debated. Broadly speaking, modern scholarly opinion on the authorship question falls into two camps, one group holds that most of the Iliad and the Odyssey is the work of a single poet of genius. The other considers the Homeric poems to be the crystallization of a process of working and re-working by many contributors and it is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century B. C. Most researchers believe that the poems were transmitted orally. The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education, to Plato, the chronological period of Homer depends on the meaning to be assigned to the word Homer. Was Homer a single person, an imaginary person representing a group of poets and this information is often called the world of Homer. The Homeric period would in that cover a number of historical periods, especially the Mycenaean Age. Considered word-for-word, the texts as we know them are the product of the scholars of the last three centuries. Each edition of the Iliad or Odyssey is a different, as the editors rely on different manuscripts and fragments. The term accuracy reveals a belief in an original uniform text. The manuscripts of the work currently available date to no earlier than the 10th century. These are at the end of a missing thousand-year chain of copies made as each generation of manuscripts disintegrated or were lost or destroyed and these numerous manuscripts are so similar that a single original can be postulated. The time gap in the chain is bridged by the scholia, or notes, on the existing manuscripts, librarian of the Library of Alexandria, he had noticed a wide divergence in the works attributed to Homer, and was trying to restore a more authentic copy. He had collected several manuscripts, which he named, the Sinopic, the one he selected for correction was the koine, which Murray translates as the Vulgate. Aristarchus was known for his selection of material
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Hades
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Hades was the ancient Greek chthonic god of the underworld, which eventually took his name. In Greek mythology, Hades was regarded as the oldest son of Cronus and Rhea and he and his brothers Zeus and Poseidon defeated their fathers generation of gods, the Titans, and claimed rulership over the cosmos. Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, Hades was often portrayed with his three-headed guard dog Cerberus. The Etruscan god Aita and Roman gods Dis Pater and Orcus were eventually taken as equivalent to the Greek Hades and merged as Pluto, the origin of Hades name is uncertain, but has generally been seen as meaning The Unseen One since antiquity. Modern linguists have proposed the Proto-Greek form *Awides, the earliest attested form is Aḯdēs, which lacks the proposed digamma. West argues instead for a meaning of the one who presides over meeting up from the universality of death. In Homeric and Ionic Greek, he was known as Áïdēs, other poetic variations of the name include Aïdōneús and the inflected forms Áïdos, Áïdi, and Áïda, whose reconstructed nominative case *Áïs is, however, not attested. The name as it came to be known in classical times was Háidēs, later the iota became silent, then a subscript marking, and finally omitted entirely. Perhaps from fear of pronouncing his name, around the 5th century BC, Plouton became the Roman god who both rules the underworld and distributed riches from below. This deity was a mixture of the Greek god Hades and the Eleusinian icon Ploutos, and from this he received a priestess. More elaborate names of the genre were Ploutodótēs or Ploutodotḗr meaning giver of wealth. Epithets of Hades include Agesander and Agesilaos, both from ágō and anḗr or laos, describing Hades as the god who carries away all. He was also referred to as Zeus Katachthonios, meaning the Zeus of the Underworld, by avoiding his actual name. In Greek mythology, Hades the god of the underworld, was a son of the Titans Cronus and he had three sisters, Demeter, Hestia, and Hera, as well as two brothers, Zeus, the youngest of the three, and Poseidon. Upon reaching adulthood, Zeus managed to force his father to disgorge his siblings, after their release, the six younger gods, along with allies they managed to gather, challenged the elder gods for power in the Titanomachy, a divine war. The war lasted for ten years and ended with the victory of the younger gods, following their victory, according to a single famous passage in the Iliad, Hades and his two brothers, Poseidon and Zeus, drew lots for realms to rule. Some myths suggest that Hades was dissatisfied with his turnout, but had no choice, Hades obtained his wife and queen, Persephone, through abduction at the behest of Zeus. Despite modern connotations of death as evil, Hades was actually more altruistically inclined in mythology, Hades was often portrayed as passive rather than evil, his role was often maintaining relative balance
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Virgil
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Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil /ˈvɜːrdʒᵻl/ in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He wrote three of the most famous poems in Latin literature, the Eclogues, the Georgics, a number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, are sometimes attributed to him. Virgil is traditionally ranked as one of Romes greatest poets and his Aeneid has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome from the time of its composition to the present day. Virgils work has had wide and deep influence on Western literature, most notably Dantes Divine Comedy, in which Virgil appears as Dantes guide through Hell, the tradition holds that Virgil was born in the village of Andes, near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul. Analysis of his name has led to beliefs that he descended from earlier Roman colonists, modern speculation ultimately is not supported by narrative evidence either from his own writings or his later biographers. Macrobius says that Virgils father was of a background, however. He attended schools in Cremona, Mediolanum, Rome and Naples, after considering briefly a career in rhetoric and law, the young Virgil turned his talents to poetry. From Virgils admiring references to the neoteric writers Pollio and Cinna, it has been inferred that he was, for a time, according to Servius, schoolmates considered Virgil extremely shy and reserved, and he was nicknamed Parthenias or maiden because of his social aloofness. Virgil also seems to have suffered bad health throughout his life, according to the Catalepton, he began to write poetry while in the Epicurean school of Siro the Epicurean at Naples. A group of works attributed to the youthful Virgil by the commentators survive collected under the title Appendix Vergiliana. One, the Catalepton, consists of fourteen poems, some of which may be Virgils, and another. The biographical tradition asserts that Virgil began the hexameter Eclogues in 42 BC and it is thought that the collection was published around 39–38 BC, the Eclogues are a group of ten poems roughly modeled on the bucolic hexameter poetry of the Hellenistic poet Theocritus. The loss of his farm and the attempt through poetic petitions to regain his property have traditionally been seen as Virgils motives in the composition of the Eclogues. This is now thought to be an unsupported inference from interpretations of the Eclogues, the ten Eclogues present traditional pastoral themes with a fresh perspective. Eclogues 1 and 9 address the land confiscations and their effects on the Italian countryside,2 and 3 are pastoral and erotic, discussing both homosexual love and attraction toward people of any gender. Eclogue 4, addressed to Asinius Pollio, the so-called Messianic Eclogue uses the imagery of the age in connection with the birth of a child. Virgil came to many of the other leading literary figures of the time, including Horace, in whose poetry he is often mentioned, and Varius Rufus. At Maecenas insistence Virgil spent the years on the long didactic hexameter poem called the Georgics which he dedicated to Maecenas
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Charon (mythology)
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A coin to pay Charon for passage, usually an obolus or danake, was sometimes placed in or on the mouth of a dead person. Some authors say that those who could not pay the fee, Charon is the son of Nyx and Erebus. Nyx and Erebus were brother and sister and he was also the brother of Thanatos and Hypnos. The word may be a euphemism for death, flashing eyes may indicate the anger or irascibility of Charon as he is often characterized in literature, but the etymology is not certain. The ancient historian Diodorus Siculus thought that the ferryman and his name had been imported from Egypt, Charon is depicted frequently in the art of ancient Greece. Attic funerary vases of the 5th and 4th centuries BC are often decorated with scenes of the dead boarding Charon’s boat. On the earlier such vases, he looks like a rough, unkempt Athenian seaman dressed in reddish-brown, holding his ferrymans pole in his right hand, hermes sometimes stands by in his role as psychopomp. On later vases, Charon is given a more “kindly and refined” demeanor, when the boatman tells Hercules to halt, the Greek hero uses his strength to gain passage, overpowering Charon with the boatmans own pole. In the second century, Lucian employed Charon as a figure in his Dialogues of the Dead, in the 14th century, Dante Alighieri described Charon in his Divine Comedy, drawing from Virgils depiction in Aeneid 6. Charon is the first named mythological character Dante meets in the underworld, Dante depicts him as having eyes of fire. In modern times, he is depicted as a living skeleton in a cowl. The French artist, Gustave Dore, depicted Charon in two of his illustrations for Dantes Divine Comedy, the Flemish painter, Joachim Patinir, depicted Charon in his Crossing the River Styx. And the Spanish painter, Jose Benlliure y Gil, portrayed Charon in his La Barca de Caronte, most accounts, including Pausanias and later Dantes Inferno, associate Charon with the swamps of the river Acheron. Ancient Greek literary sources – such as Pindar, Aeschylus, Euripides, Plato, roman poets, including Propertius, Ovid, and Statius, name the river as the Styx, perhaps following the geography of Virgil’s underworld in the Aeneid, where Charon is associated with both rivers. Charon, the dwarf planet of the Pluto-Charon system, is named after him. Haros is the modern Greek equivalent of Charon, and usage includes the curse you will be eaten by Haros, during the Korean War, the Greek Expeditionary Force defended an outpost called Outpost Harry. The Greek soldiers referred to it as Outpost Haros, Charon Media related to Charon at Wikimedia Commons The Theoi Project, KHARON Images of Charon in the Warburg Institute Iconographic Database
12.
William Blake
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William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a figure in the history of the poetry. His so-called prophetic works were said by 20th century critic Northrop Frye to form what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language. His visual artistry led 21st-century critic Jonathan Jones to proclaim him far, in 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBCs poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Although he lived in London his entire life, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich œuvre and his paintings and poetry have been characterised as part of the Romantic movement and as Pre-Romantic. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the Church of England, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French, despite these known influences, the singularity of Blakes work makes him difficult to classify. William Blake was born on 28 November 1757 at 28 Broad Street in Soho and he was the third of seven children, two of whom died in infancy. Blakes father, James, was a hosier and he attended school only long enough to learn reading and writing, leaving at the age of ten, and was otherwise educated at home by his mother Catherine Blake. Even though the Blakes were English Dissenters, William was baptised on 11 December at St Jamess Church, Piccadilly, the Bible was an early and profound influence on Blake, and remained a source of inspiration throughout his life. Blake started engraving copies of drawings of Greek antiquities purchased for him by his father, within these drawings Blake found his first exposure to classical forms through the work of Raphael, Michelangelo, Maarten van Heemskerck and Albrecht Dürer. The number of prints and bound books that James and Catherine were able to purchase for young William suggests that the Blakes enjoyed, at least for a time, a comfortable wealth. When William was ten years old, his parents knew enough of his headstrong temperament that he was not sent to school and he read avidly on subjects of his own choosing. During this period, Blake made explorations into poetry, his work displays knowledge of Ben Jonson, Edmund Spenser. On 4 August 1772, Blake was apprenticed to engraver James Basire of Great Queen Street, at the sum of £52.10, at the end of the term, aged 21, he became a professional engraver. This aside, Basires style of line-engraving was of a kind held at the time to be old-fashioned compared to the flashier stipple or mezzotint styles. It has been speculated that Blakes instruction in this form may have been detrimental to his acquiring of work or recognition in later life. After two years, Basire sent his apprentice to copy images from the Gothic churches in London and his experiences in Westminster Abbey helped form his artistic style and ideas. The Abbey of his day was decorated with suits of armour, painted funeral effigies, ackroyd notes that. the most immediate would have been of faded brightness and colour
