1.
Skai TV
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Skai TV is a television network based in Piraeus, Greece. It is part of the Skai Group, one of the largest media groups in the country and it was relaunched in its present form on 1 April 2006 in the Athens metropolitan area, and gradually spread its coverage nationwide. Besides analogue terrestrial transmission, it is available on the subscription-based encrypted services of Nova, Skai TV is also a member of Digea, a consortium of private television networks introducing digital terrestrial transmission in Greece. At launch, Skai TV opted for dubbing all foreign language content into Greek and this is very uncommon in Greece for anything except documentaries and childrens programmes, so after intense criticism the station switched to using subtitles for almost all foreign shows. Skai TV was first launched on 21 September 1993 with emphasis in news and sports but on 26 September 1999 was sold and the new owners gradually rebranded it as Alpha TV. The new station had a different programming perspective and opted for a more mainstream profile. On September 6,2007, Skai TV was added to the lineup of NOVA Greece digital platform, on March 2,2016, Skai TV started broadcasting in High Definition. On September 2,2016, SKAI TV won one of four national television licenses auctioned in Greece after Iannis Alafouzos paid EUR43. 6m in a highly unusual competitive bidding process, original Skai TV was heavily criticised for its yellow press news coverage and low-budget programming. It has also been criticised by some Greek conservative commentators for its political documentaries. Skai TV has made a appearance in international airwaves, being the first non-subscription TV station worldwide to use solely digital technology thus being completely tapeless. It uses the SONAPS network broadcast system made by Sony and installed by British company VSC Design, the system is considered by the former as a showcase example of the system. Skai also use Omneon Spectrum servers for Playout together with IBIS automation, Skai TV is also the first station in Greece to broadcast its full programme in 16,9 format. Skai TV airs a programming mix with a focus on entertainment. Programming includes comedies, dramas, current affairs shows, documentaries, foreign programmes originally made up the bulk of Skai TVs schedule but in recent years it has begun producing an increasing amount of original programs which now comprise a third of the schedule. There is also a Greek dubbed BBC World News news bulletin following the stations own news bulletin, Skai TV also shows some friendly matches of Panathinaikos FC when these friendlies are not on any of the Premium Services. Current shows include, Chef ston Aera - Cooking show offering viewers quick, gefsis Sti Fysi - Cooking show, featuring dishes made with fresh & local ingredients. Goal Horis Synora - Analysis and highlights of all the soccer matches from across Europe. Greece-Hands on - weekly informative programme focusing on passionate Greeks who, despite Greeces economic crisis, dare to innovate, kalimera Skai - Morning show for weekends, hosted by Giorgos Autias
2.
Greek language
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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
3.
Television program
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It may be a single production, or more commonly, a series of related productions. A limited number of episodes of a show may be called a miniseries or a serial or limited series. Television series are without a fixed length and are divided into seasons or series. While there is no defined length, U. S. industry practice has traditionally favored longer television seasons than those of other countries, a one-time broadcast may be called a special, or particularly in the UK a special episode. A television film is a film that is initially broadcast on television rather than released in theaters or direct-to-video, a program can be either recorded, as on video tape, other various electronic media forms, played with an on-demand player or viewed on live television. Television programs may be fictional, or non-fictional and it may be topical, or historical. They could be primarily instructional or educational, or entertaining as is the case in situation comedy, a drama program usually features a set of actors playing characters in a historical or contemporary setting. The program follows their lives and adventures, except for soap opera-type serials, many shows especially before the 1980s, remained static without story arcs, and the main characters and premise changed little. If some change happened to the characters lives during the episode, because of this, the episodes could be broadcast in any order. Since the 1980s, there are series that feature progressive change to the plot. For instance, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere were two of the first American prime time television series to have this kind of dramatic structure. While the later series, Babylon 5 is an example of such production that had a predetermined story running over its intended five-season run. In 2012, it was reported that television was growing into a component of major media companies revenues than film. Some also noted the increase in quality of television programs. When a person or company decides to create a new series, they develop the elements, consisting of the concept, the characters, the crew. Then they offer it to the networks in an attempt to find one interested enough to order a prototype first episode of the series. They want very much to get the word out on what types of shows they’re looking for, to create the pilot, the structure and team of the whole series must be put together. If the network likes the pilot, they pick up the show to air it the next season, sometimes they save it for mid-season, or request rewrites and further review
4.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
5.
Greeks
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The Greeks or Hellenes are an ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Turkey, Sicily, Egypt and, to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world, many of these regions coincided to a large extent with the borders of the Byzantine Empire of the late 11th century and the Eastern Mediterranean areas of ancient Greek colonization. The cultural centers of the Greeks have included Athens, Thessalonica, Alexandria, Smyrna, most ethnic Greeks live nowadays within the borders of the modern Greek state and Cyprus. The Greek genocide and population exchange between Greece and Turkey nearly ended the three millennia-old Greek presence in Asia Minor, other longstanding Greek populations can be found from southern Italy to the Caucasus and southern Russia and Ukraine and in the Greek diaspora communities in a number of other countries. Today, most Greeks are officially registered as members of the Greek Orthodox Church, the Greeks speak the Greek language, which forms its own unique branch within the Indo-European family of languages, the Hellenic. They are part of a group of ethnicities, described by Anthony D. Smith as an archetypal diaspora people. Both migrations occur at incisive periods, the Mycenaean at the transition to the Late Bronze Age, the Mycenaeans quickly penetrated the Aegean Sea and, by the 15th century BC, had reached Rhodes, Crete, Cyprus and the shores of Asia Minor. Around 1200 BC, the Dorians, another Greek-speaking people, followed from Epirus, the Dorian invasion was followed by a poorly attested period of migrations, appropriately called the Greek Dark Ages, but by 800 BC the landscape of Archaic and Classical Greece was discernible. The Greeks of classical antiquity idealized their Mycenaean ancestors and the Mycenaean period as an era of heroes, closeness of the gods. The Homeric Epics were especially and generally accepted as part of the Greek past, as part of the Mycenaean heritage that survived, the names of the gods and goddesses of Mycenaean Greece became major figures of the Olympian Pantheon of later antiquity. The ethnogenesis of the Greek nation is linked to the development of Pan-Hellenism in the 8th century BC, the works of Homer and Hesiod were written in the 8th century BC, becoming the basis of the national religion, ethos, history and mythology. The Oracle of Apollo at Delphi was established in this period, the classical period of Greek civilization covers a time spanning from the early 5th century BC to the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 BC. It is so named because it set the standards by which Greek civilization would be judged in later eras, the Peloponnesian War, the large scale civil war between the two most powerful Greek city-states Athens and Sparta and their allies, left both greatly weakened. Many Greeks settled in Hellenistic cities like Alexandria, Antioch and Seleucia, two thousand years later, there are still communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan, like the Kalash, who claim to be descended from Greek settlers. The Hellenistic civilization was the period of Greek civilization, the beginnings of which are usually placed at Alexanders death. This Hellenistic age, so called because it saw the partial Hellenization of many non-Greek cultures and this age saw the Greeks move towards larger cities and a reduction in the importance of the city-state. These larger cities were parts of the still larger Kingdoms of the Diadochi, Greeks, however, remained aware of their past, chiefly through the study of the works of Homer and the classical authors. An important factor in maintaining Greek identity was contact with barbarian peoples and this led to a strong desire among Greeks to organize the transmission of the Hellenic paideia to the next generation
6.
Alexander the Great
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Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty. He was born in Pella in 356 BC and succeeded his father Philip II to the throne at the age of twenty and he was undefeated in battle and is widely considered one of historys most successful military commanders. During his youth, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16, after Philips assassination in 336 BC, he succeeded his father to the throne and inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. Alexander was awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his fathers Panhellenic project to lead the Greeks in the conquest of Persia, in 334 BC, he invaded the Achaemenid Empire and began a series of campaigns that lasted ten years. Following the conquest of Anatolia, Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of battles, most notably the battles of Issus. He subsequently overthrew Persian King Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety, at that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River. He sought to reach the ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea and invaded India in 326 BC and he eventually turned back at the demand of his homesick troops. Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC, the city that he planned to establish as his capital, without executing a series of planned campaigns that would have begun with an invasion of Arabia. In the years following his death, a series of civil wars tore his empire apart, resulting in the establishment of several states ruled by the Diadochi, Alexanders surviving generals, Alexanders legacy includes the cultural diffusion which his conquests engendered, such as Greco-Buddhism. He founded some twenty cities that bore his name, most notably Alexandria in Egypt, Alexander became legendary as a classical hero in the mold of Achilles, and he features prominently in the history and mythic traditions of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. He became the measure against which military leaders compared themselves, and he is often ranked among the most influential people in human history. He was the son of the king of Macedon, Philip II, and his wife, Olympias. Although Philip had seven or eight wives, Olympias was his wife for some time. Several legends surround Alexanders birth and childhood, sometime after the wedding, Philip is said to have seen himself, in a dream, securing his wifes womb with a seal engraved with a lions image. Plutarch offered a variety of interpretations of dreams, that Olympias was pregnant before her marriage, indicated by the sealing of her womb. On the day Alexander was born, Philip was preparing a siege on the city of Potidea on the peninsula of Chalcidice. That same day, Philip received news that his general Parmenion had defeated the combined Illyrian and Paeonian armies, and it was also said that on this day, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, burnt down. This led Hegesias of Magnesia to say that it had burnt down because Artemis was away, such legends may have emerged when Alexander was king, and possibly at his own instigation, to show that he was superhuman and destined for greatness from conception
7.
Georgios Papanikolaou
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Georgios Nikolaou Papanikolaou was a Greek pioneer in cytopathology and early cancer detection, and inventor of the Pap smear. Papanikolaou studied at the University of Athens, where he received his degree in 1904. Six years later he received his PhD from the University of Munich, Germany, after he had spent time at the universities of Jena. In 1913 he emigrated to the U. S. in order to work in the department of Pathology of New York Hospital and the Department of Anatomy at the Cornell Medical College Cornell University. In 1961 he moved to Miami, Florida, to develop the Papanicolaou Cancer Research Institute at the University of Miami, Papanicolaou was the recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research in 1950. Papanikolaous portrait appeared on the obverse of the Greek 10, 000-drachma banknote of 1995–2001, in 1978 his work was honored by the U. S. Postal Service with a 13-cent stamp for early cancer detection. This fact was recounted by Papanikolaou and that year he had undertaken a study of vaginal fluid in women, in hopes of observing cellular changes over the course of a menstrual cycle. In female guinea pigs, Papanicolaou had already noticed cell transformation and it happened that one of Papanicolaous human subjects was suffering from uterine cancer. Upon examination of a made from a smear of the patients vaginal fluid. The first observation of cancer cells in the smear of the cervix, he later wrote. The Romanian physician Aurel Babeş made similar discoveries in the diagnosis of cervical cancer. He discovered that if a loop was used to collect cells from a womans cervix. This was the first screening test to diagnose cervical and uterine cancer, Babeş presented his findings to the Romanian Society of Gynaecology in Bucharest on 23 January 1927. His method of diagnosis was published in a French medical journal, Presse Médicale, on 11 April 1928. Moreover, the two techniques are different in their design, therefore, although Babes publication preceded Papanicolaou, the design of the Pap test belongs to Papanicolaou since he had already tried it in 1925 in Womens Hospital. Recent papers have proven that Babess method was different from Papanicolaous, at a 1928 medical conference in Battle Creek, Michigan, Papanicolaou introduced his low-cost, easily performed screening test for early detection of cancerous and precancerous cells. However, this potential medical breakthrough was initially met with skepticism and this was followed 2 years later by an illustrated monograph based on a study of over 3,000 cases. In 1954 he published another work, the Atlas of Exfoliative Cytology
8.
Maria Houkli
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Maria Houkli is a Greek journalist and presenter. Houkli has served as the main anchorwoman for the main newscast on various TV stations in Greece, prior to this, she was the editor in chief of the central news program on the New Hellenic Television of the Greek public television. Houkli was born in Serres, in northern Greece in 1964 and she graduated from the University of Thessaloniki, and worked as a lawyer for two years. In 1987 she began her career on ERT3, worked on private TV channels and she hosted a book show titled For a Place in the Library, and a show about the correct use of the Greek language, Speak Greek. In 2007, she hosted the debate before the September elections. She also hosted three political debates in both spring and autumn 2009, Houkli had worked as a radio announcer. Houkli was the anchorwoman in the news on the New Hellenic Television for man years. In 2009, she participated in the TV show Great Greeks as a celebrity supporter of Georgios Papanikolaou and it was announced in July 2010 that Houkli had signed on to present ANT1 Channels nightly news program starting 1 September 2010. As of January 2017, she is no longer working for ANT1, 1987–1991, ERT3 1991–2000, Mega Channel 2000–2010, NET 2010-2017, ANT1 Haralampidou, Tz. Ραδιοτηλεόραση, 15–20 September 2007, p. 12-14,1162, 12–18 June 1999, p.13 ERT Online Maria Houklis Weblog Maria Houkli at Protagon. gr Maria Houkli at the Internet Movie Database
9.
Theodoros Kolokotronis
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Theodoros Kolokotronis was a Greek general and the pre-eminent leader of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. Kolokotroniss greatest success was the defeat of the Ottoman army under Mahmud Dramali Pasha at the Battle of Dervenakia in 1822, in 1825, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Greek forces in the Peloponnese. Today, Kolokotronis ranks among the most revered of the protagonists of Greeces War of Independence, Theodoros Kolokotronis was born at Ramavouni in Messenia, and was baptised in Piana, from a family of klefts, and grew up in Arcadia in the central Peloponnese where his family originated. The Kolokotroneoi were a powerful and respected clan in Arcadia in the 18th century and he was killed in 1780 in an engagement with Turkish troops, along with two of his brothers, George and Apostolis. Prior to the Greek Revolution, Theodoros Kolokotronis operated as a kleft, an armatolos, as a kapos, Kolokotronis worked for the Deliyannis family. He acquired wealth by stealing sheep and marrying the daughter of a wealthy Peloponnesian notable, in 1805–1806, Ottoman attacks against the klefts forced Kolokotronis to flee to the island of Zakynthos. From his service in the British Army, he adopted his characteristic red helmet and these he tried to train and organize into something resembling a modern army. In May, he was named archistrategos or commander-in-chief and he was already 50 years old by this time, a fact which contributed to his sobriquet O Geros tou Morea or The Elder of Morea, whereby Morea was another name describing the Peloponnese. Kolokotroniss first action was the defense of Valtetsi, the village near Tripoli where his army was mustering, later, he was also the Commander of the Greek forces during the Siege of Tripolitsa. He next commanded Greek troops in the siege of the town of Nafplion. Panicked, government officials abandoned Argos and began evacuations by sea at Nafplion, only an under-strength battalion under Demetrios Ypsilantis remained to hold Larissa castle, the fortress of Argos. Kolokotronis gathered the klephts together to march to the relief of Ypsilantis and this was quite a feat in itself, considering the near-collapse of the government and the notoriously quarrelsome nature of the klephtic bands. Even the troublesome Souliotes lent a hand, the Ottoman army from the north commanded by Mahmud Dramali Pasha, after taking Corinth, had marched to the plain of Argos. The castle of Larissa was an excellent position, commanding the whole plain, to leave such a stronghold straddling Ottoman supply lines was far too dangerous. Dramali would have to reduce the fortress before moving on, scaling the cliffs, breaching the castles stout walls and overcoming its resolute defenders would be no easy task. Yet, there was one weakness Dramali was unaware of, Larissa, unlike the famous Acropolis in Athens, had no spring, unfortunately for the Greeks, it was July and no rains were falling to fill the cisterns. Ypsilantis bluffed the Ottomans as long as he could, but towards the end of the month had to sneak his men out in the middle of the night. Dramalis men plundered the castle the next day, and he was now free to march them toward the coast to resupply, ypsilantiss defense had bought Kolokotronis and the klephts valuable time
10.
Greek War of Independence
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The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution, was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between 1821 and 1832 against the Ottoman Empire. Even several decades before the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, during this time, there were several revolt attempts by Greeks to gain independence from Ottoman control. In 1814, an organization called the Filiki Eteria was founded with the aim of liberating Greece. The Filiki Eteria planned to launch revolts in the Peloponnese, the Danubian Principalities, the first of these revolts began on 6 March 1821 in the Danubian Principalities, but it was soon put down by the Ottomans. The events in the north urged the Greeks in the Peloponnese into action and on 17 March 1821 and this declaration was the start of a spring of revolutionary actions from other controlled states against the Ottoman Empire. By the end of the month, the Peloponnese was in revolt against the Turks and by October 1821. The Peloponnesian revolt was followed by revolts in Crete, Macedonia, and Central Greece. Meanwhile, the makeshift Greek navy was achieving success against the Ottoman navy in the Aegean Sea, tensions soon developed among different Greek factions, leading to two consecutive civil wars. In the meantime, the Ottoman Sultan negotiated with Mehmet Ali of Egypt, although Ibrahim was defeated in Mani, he had succeeded in suppressing most of the revolt in the Peloponnese, and Athens had been retaken. Following years of negotiation, three Great Powers—Russia, Britain and France—decided to intervene in the conflict and each sent a navy to Greece. Following news that combined Ottoman–Egyptian fleets were going to attack the Greek island of Hydra, the battle began after a tense week-long standoff, ending in the destruction of the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet. As a result of years of negotiation, Greece was finally recognized as an independent nation in the Treaty of Constantinople of May 1832, the Revolution is celebrated by the modern Greek state as a national day on 25 March. The Fall of Constantinople on 29 May 1453 and the subsequent fall of the states of the Byzantine Empire marked the end of Byzantine sovereignty. After that, the Ottoman Empire ruled the Balkans and Anatolia, Orthodox Christians were granted some political rights under Ottoman rule, but they were considered inferior subjects. The majority of Greeks were called Rayah by the Turks, a name referred to the large mass of non-Muslim subjects under the Ottoman ruling class. Demetrius Chalcondyles called on Venice and all of the Latins to aid the Greeks against the abominable, monstrous, however, Greece was to remain under Ottoman rule for several more centuries. The Greek Revolution was not an event, numerous failed attempts at regaining independence took place throughout the history of the Ottoman era. Throughout the 17th century there was resistance to the Ottomans in the Morea and elsewhere
11.
Konstantinos Karamanlis
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Konstantinos G. Karamanlis was born in the village of Proti, Macedonia. He became a Greek citizen in 1913, after Macedonia was annexed by Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia and his father was Georgios Karamanlis, a teacher who fought during the Greek Struggle for Macedonia, in 1904–1908. After spending his childhood in Macedonia, he went to Athens to attain his degree in law and he practised law in Serres, entered politics with the conservative Peoples Party and was elected Member of Parliament for the first time in the 1936 election at the age of 28. Health problems made him not participate in the Greco-Italian War, after World War II, Karamanlis quickly rose through the ranks of Greek politics. His rise was supported by fellow party-member and close friend Lambros Eftaxias. Karamanliss first cabinet position was Minister for Labour in 1947 under the same administration, in 1951, along with most prominent members of the Peoples Party, Karamanlis joined the Greek Rally of Alexandros Papagos. When this party won power in 1951, Karamanlis became Minister of Public Works in the Papagos administration and he won the admiration of the US Embassy for the efficiency with which he built road infrastructure and administered American aid programs. When Papagos died after an illness, King Paul of Greece appointed the 48-year-old Karamanlis as Prime Minister. After becoming Prime Minister, Karamanlis reorganized the Greek Rally as the National Radical Union, one of the first bills he promoted as Prime Minister implemented the extension of full voting rights to women, which stood dormant although nominally approved in 1952. In 1959 he announced a plan for the Greek economy, emphasizing improvement of agricultural and industrial production, heavy investment on infrastructure. On the international front, Karamanlis abandoned the previous strategic goal for enosis in favour of independence for Cyprus. In 1958, his government engaged in negotiations with the United Kingdom and Turkey, in 1959 the plan was ratified in London by Makarios III. Max Merten was Kriegsverwaltungsrat of the Nazi German occupation forces in Thessaloniki and he was convicted in Greece and sentenced to a 25-year term as a war criminal in 1959. Mertens arrest also enraged Queen Frederica, a woman with German ties, in Germany, Merten was eventually acquitted from all charges due to lack of evidence. Merten alleged that Karamanlis and Makris were rewarded for their services with a business in Thessaloniki which belonged to a Greek Jew sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp and he also alleged that he had pressured Karamanlis and Makris to grant amnesty and release him from prison. Karamanlis rejected the claims as unsubstantiated and absurd, and accused Merten of attempting to extort money from him prior to making the statements, the West German government also decried the accusations as calumniatory and libelous. Karamanlis accused the party of instigating a smear campaign against him. Merten did not appear to testify during the Greek court proceedings, the Merten Affair remained at the centre of political discussions until early 1961
12.
Stefanos Manos
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Stefanos Manos is a Greek politician, former member of the Hellenic Parliament, and a former government minister. His political career started in the New Democracy party, for which he became a Member of Parliament in 1977, during the 1980s he would be the unpopular forerunner of Greek privatization. After he suspended his Liberals operation in 2002, he established in 2009 his new own party, Drasi, heading Drasi, he took part in the 2009 European parliament election. In May 2012, Drasi merged with the newly formed party Recreate Greece for the 2012 elections, Manos is a notable critic of profligate government spending and waste
13.
Socrates
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Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. He is a figure known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon. Platos dialogues are among the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity, though it is unclear the degree to which Socrates himself is hidden behind his best disciple, nothing written by Socrates remains extant. As a result, information about him and his philosophies depends upon secondary sources, furthermore, close comparison between the contents of these sources reveals contradictions, thus creating concerns about the possibility of knowing in-depth the real Socrates. This issue is known as the Socratic problem, or the Socratic question, to understand Socrates and his thought, one must turn primarily to the works of Plato, whose dialogues are thought the most informative source about Socrates life and philosophy, and also Xenophon. These writings are the Sokratikoi logoi, or Socratic dialogues, which consist of reports of conversations apparently involving Socrates, as for discovering the real-life Socrates, the difficulty is that ancient sources are mostly philosophical or dramatic texts, apart from Xenophon. There are no straightforward histories, contemporary with Socrates, that dealt with his own time, a corollary of this is that sources that do mention Socrates do not necessarily claim to be historically accurate, and are often partisan. For instance, those who prosecuted and convicted Socrates have left no testament, historians therefore face the challenge of reconciling the various evidence from the extant texts in order to attempt an accurate and consistent account of Socrates life and work. The result of such an effort is not necessarily realistic, even if consistent, amid all the disagreement resulting from differences within sources, two factors emerge from all sources pertaining to Socrates. It would seem, therefore, that he was ugly, also, Xenophon, being an historian, is a more reliable witness to the historical Socrates. It is a matter of debate over which Socrates it is whom Plato is describing at any given point—the historical figure. As British philosopher Martin Cohen has put it, Plato, the idealist, offers an idol, a Saint, a prophet of the Sun-God, a teacher condemned for his teachings as a heretic. It is also clear from other writings and historical artefacts, that Socrates was not simply a character, nor an invention, the testimony of Xenophon and Aristotle, alongside some of Aristophanes work, is useful in fleshing out a perception of Socrates beyond Platos work. The problem with discerning Socrates philosophical views stems from the perception of contradictions in statements made by the Socrates in the different dialogues of Plato and these contradictions produce doubt as to the actual philosophical doctrines of Socrates, within his milieu and as recorded by other individuals. Aristotle, in his Magna Moralia, refers to Socrates in words which make it patent that the virtue is knowledge was held by Socrates. Within the Metaphysics, he states Socrates was occupied with the search for moral virtues, however, in The Clouds, Aristophanes portrays Socrates as accepting payment for teaching and running a sophist school with Chaerephon. Also, in Platos Apology and Symposium, as well as in Xenophons accounts, more specifically, in the Apology, Socrates cites his poverty as proof that he is not a teacher. Two fragments are extant of the writings by Timon of Phlius pertaining to Socrates, although Timon is known to have written to ridicule, details about the life of Socrates can be derived from three contemporary sources, the dialogues of Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of Aristophanes
14.
Socratic method
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The Socratic method is a method of hypothesis elimination, in that better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those that lead to contradictions. The Socratic method searches for general, commonly held truths that shape beliefs, Socrates promoted an alternative method of teaching which came to be called the Socratic method. Socrates saw this as a paradox, and began using the Socratic method to answer his conundrum, diogenes Laërtius, however, wrote that Protagoras invented the “Socratic” method. But in his dialogues, such as Theaetetus or Sophist, Plato had a different method to philosophical discussions. Elenchus is the technique of the Socratic method. The Latin form elenchus is used in English as the philosophical term. The most common form in English is elenctic, elenchic and elenchtic are also current. In Platos early dialogues, the elenchus is the technique Socrates uses to investigate, for example, according to Vlastos, it has the following steps, Socrates interlocutor asserts a thesis, for example Courage is endurance of the soul, which Socrates considers false and targets for refutation. Socrates secures his interlocutors agreement to further premises, for example Courage is a fine thing and Ignorant endurance is not a fine thing. Socrates then argues, and the interlocutor agrees, that these further premises imply the contrary of the thesis, in this case, it leads to. Socrates then claims that he has shown that his interlocutors thesis is false, one elenctic examination can lead to a new, more refined, examination of the concept being considered, in this case it invites an examination of the claim, Courage is wise endurance of the soul. Most Socratic inquiries consist of a series of elenchi and typically end in puzzlement known as aporia, frede points out that Vlastos conclusion in step #4 above makes nonsense of the aporetic nature of the early dialogues. Having shown that a proposed thesis is false is insufficient to conclude that some other competing thesis must be true, rather, the interlocutors have reached aporia, an improved state of still not knowing what to say about the subject under discussion. W. K. C. Guthrie in The Greek Philosophers sees it as an error to regard the Socratic method as a means by which one seeks the answer to a problem, Guthrie claims that the Socratic method actually aims to demonstrate ones ignorance. Socrates, unlike the Sophists, did believe that knowledge was possible, the essence of the Socratic method is to convince the interlocutor that whereas he thought he knew something, in fact he does not. Such an examination challenged the moral beliefs of the interlocutors, bringing out inadequacies and inconsistencies in their beliefs. In view of such inadequacies, Socrates himself professed his ignorance, Socrates believed that his awareness of his ignorance made him wiser than those who, though ignorant, still claimed knowledge. While this belief seems paradoxical at first glance, it in fact allowed Socrates to discover his own errors where others might assume they were correct and this claim was known by the anecdote of the Delphic oracular pronouncement that Socrates was the wisest of all men
15.
Philosophy
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Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. The term was coined by Pythagoras. Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument and systematic presentation, classic philosophical questions include, Is it possible to know anything and to prove it. However, philosophers might also pose more practical and concrete questions such as, is it better to be just or unjust. Historically, philosophy encompassed any body of knowledge, from the time of Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle to the 19th century, natural philosophy encompassed astronomy, medicine and physics. For example, Newtons 1687 Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy later became classified as a book of physics, in the 19th century, the growth of modern research universities led academic philosophy and other disciplines to professionalize and specialize. In the modern era, some investigations that were part of philosophy became separate academic disciplines, including psychology, sociology. Other investigations closely related to art, science, politics, or other pursuits remained part of philosophy, for example, is beauty objective or subjective. Are there many scientific methods or just one, is political utopia a hopeful dream or hopeless fantasy. Major sub-fields of academic philosophy include metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, logic, philosophy of science, since the 20th century, professional philosophers contribute to society primarily as professors, researchers and writers. Traditionally, the term referred to any body of knowledge. In this sense, philosophy is related to religion, mathematics, natural science, education. This division is not obsolete but has changed, Natural philosophy has split into the various natural sciences, especially astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and cosmology. Moral philosophy has birthed the social sciences, but still includes value theory, metaphysical philosophy has birthed formal sciences such as logic, mathematics and philosophy of science, but still includes epistemology, cosmology and others. Many philosophical debates that began in ancient times are still debated today, colin McGinn and others claim that no philosophical progress has occurred during that interval. Chalmers and others, by contrast, see progress in philosophy similar to that in science, in one general sense, philosophy is associated with wisdom, intellectual culture and a search for knowledge. In that sense, all cultures and literate societies ask philosophical questions such as how are we to live, a broad and impartial conception of philosophy then, finds a reasoned inquiry into such matters as reality, morality and life in all world civilizations. Socrates was an influential philosopher, who insisted that he possessed no wisdom but was a pursuer of wisdom
16.
Aristotle
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Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, at seventeen or eighteen years of age, he joined Platos Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven. Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, teaching Alexander the Great gave Aristotle many opportunities and an abundance of supplies. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in the production of many of his hundreds of books and he believed all peoples concepts and all of their knowledge was ultimately based on perception. Aristotles views on natural sciences represent the groundwork underlying many of his works, Aristotles views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. Their influence extended from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, some of Aristotles zoological observations, such as on the hectocotyl arm of the octopus, were not confirmed or refuted until the 19th century. His works contain the earliest known study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic. Aristotle was well known among medieval Muslim intellectuals and revered as The First Teacher and his ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. All aspects of Aristotles philosophy continue to be the object of academic study today. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues – Cicero described his style as a river of gold – it is thought that only around a third of his original output has survived. Aristotle, whose means the best purpose, was born in 384 BC in Stagira, Chalcidice. His father Nicomachus was the physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. Aristotle was orphaned at a young age, although there is little information on Aristotles childhood, he probably spent some time within the Macedonian palace, making his first connections with the Macedonian monarchy. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle moved to Athens to continue his education at Platos Academy and he remained there for nearly twenty years before leaving Athens in 348/47 BC. Aristotle then accompanied Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor, there, he traveled with Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island. Aristotle married Pythias, either Hermiass adoptive daughter or niece and she bore him a daughter, whom they also named Pythias. Soon after Hermias death, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son Alexander in 343 BC, Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of Macedon. During that time he gave not only to Alexander
17.
Eleftherios Venizelos
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As leader of the Liberal Party, he was elected several times as Prime Minister of Greece, serving from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1933. Venizelos had such influence on the internal and external affairs of Greece that he is credited with being the maker of modern Greece. His first entry into the scene was with his significant role in the autonomy of the Cretan State. Soon, he was invited to Greece to resolve the political deadlock, not only did he initiate constitutional and economic reforms that set the basis for the modernization of Greek society, but also reorganized both army and navy in preparation of future conflicts. Before the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, Venizelos catalytic role helped gain Greece entrance to the Balkan League, through his diplomatic acumen, Greece doubled its area and population with the liberation of Macedonia, Epirus, and most of the Aegean islands. In World War I, he brought Greece on the side of the Allies, however, his pro-Allied foreign policy brought him into direct conflict with the monarchy, causing the National Schism. The Schism polarized the population between the royalists and Venizelists and the struggle for power between the two groups affected the political and social life of Greece for decades. Following the Allied victory, Venizelos secured new territorial gains, especially in Anatolia, despite his achievements, he was defeated in the 1920 General Election, which contributed to the eventual Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War. In his subsequent periods in office Venizelos succeeded in restoring relations with Greeces neighbors. In 1935 he resurfaced from retirement to support a military coup and its failure severely weakened the Second Hellenic Republic, the republic that he had created. In the 18th century, the ancestors of Venizelos, named Cravvatas, lived in Mystras, in southern Peloponnese. During the Ottoman raids in the peninsula in 1770, a member of the Cravvatas family, Venizelos Cravvatas and his sons discarded their patronymic and called themselves Venizelos. The family was of Laconic, Maniot, and Cretan origin, Eleftherios was born in Mournies, near Chania in then-Ottoman Crete to Kyriakos Venizelos, a Cretan merchant and revolutionary, and Styliani Ploumidaki. When the Cretan revolution of 1866 broke out, Venizelos family fled to the island of Syros and they were not allowed to return to Crete, and stayed in Syros until 1872, when Abdülaziz granted an amnesty. He spent his year of secondary education at a school in Ermoupolis in Syros from which he received his Certificate in 1880. In 1881 he enrolled at the University of Athens Law School and he returned to Crete in 1886 and worked as a lawyer in Chania. Throughout his life he maintained a passion for reading and was improving his skills in English, Italian, German. The situation in Crete during Venizelos early years was fluid, the Ottoman empire was undermining the reforms, which were made under international pressure, while the Cretans desired to see the Sultan, Abdul Hamid II, abandon the ungrateful infidels
18.
Ioannis Kapodistrias
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After a long career in European politics and diplomacy he was elected as the first head of state of independent Greece. He is considered as the founder of the modern Greek state, Ioannis Kapodistrias was born in Corfu, the most populous Ionian Island to a distinguished Corfiote family. Kapodistriass father was the nobleman, artist and politician Antonios Maria Kapodistrias and his familys name in Capodistria had been Vitori or Vittori. His mother was Adamantine Gonemis, a countess, and daughter of the noble Christodoulos Gonemis, the Gonemis were a Greek family originally from the island of Cyprus, they had migrated to Crete when Cyprus fell to the Ottomans in the 16th century. They then migrated to Epirus when Crete fell in the 17th century, the Gonemis family, like the Kapodistriases, had been listed in the Libro dOro of Corfu. Kapodistrias, though born and raised as a nobleman, was throughout his life a liberal thinker and had democratic ideals and his ancestors fought along with the Venetians during the Turkish sieges of Corfu and had received a title of nobility from them. Kapodistrias studied medicine, philosophy and law at the University of Padua in 1795–97, when he was 21 years old, in 1797, he started his medical practice as a doctor in his native island of Corfu. In 1799, when Corfu was briefly occupied by the forces of Russia and Turkey, in 1802 he founded an important scientific and social progress organisation in Corfu, the National Medical Association, of which he was an energetic member. Kapodistrias, substituting for his father, became one of two ministers of the new state, thus, at the age of 25, Kapodistrias became involved in politics. With the same determination, he established authority in all the seven islands. When Russia sent an envoy, Count George Motsenigo, a Noble from Zakynthos who had served as Russian Diplomat in Italy, Motsenigo later helped Kapodistrias to join the Russian diplomatic service. When elections were carried for a new Senate, Kapodistrias was unanimously appointed as Chief Minister of State, in December,1803, a less feudal and more liberal and democratic constitution was voted by the Senate. As minister of state, he organised the public sector, putting emphasis on education. In 1807 the French re-occupied the islands and dissolved the Septinsular Republic, in 1809 Kapodistrias entered the service of Alexander I of Russia. His first important mission, in November 1813, was as unofficial Russian ambassador to Switzerland and he also obtained new international guarantees for the constitution and neutrality of Switzerland through an agreement among the Powers. After these brilliant diplomatic successes, Alexander I appointed Kapodistrias joint Foreign Minister of Russia, realising that Kapodistriass progressive vision was antithetical to his own, Metternich then tried to undermine Kapodistriass position in the Russian court. Although Metternich was not a factor in Kapodistriass leaving his post as Russian Foreign Minister, he nevertheless attempted to actively undermine Kapodistrias by rumour. More than anyone else he possesses the art of devaluing opinions that are not his own, the most honourable life and he always tried to attract his Emperors attention to matters Greek
19.
Plato
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Plato was a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, unlike nearly all of his philosophical contemporaries, Platos entire work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years. Along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle, Plato laid the foundations of Western philosophy. Alfred North Whitehead once noted, the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. In addition to being a figure for Western science, philosophy. Friedrich Nietzsche, amongst other scholars, called Christianity, Platonism for the people, Plato was the innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy, which originate with him. He was not the first thinker or writer to whom the word “philosopher” should be applied, few other authors in the history of Western philosophy approximate him in depth and range, perhaps only Aristotle, Aquinas and Kant would be generally agreed to be of the same rank. Due to a lack of surviving accounts, little is known about Platos early life, the philosopher came from one of the wealthiest and most politically active families in Athens. Ancient sources describe him as a bright though modest boy who excelled in his studies, the exact time and place of Platos birth are unknown, but it is certain that he belonged to an aristocratic and influential family. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars believe that he was born in Athens or Aegina between 429 and 423 BCE. According to a tradition, reported by Diogenes Laertius, Ariston traced his descent from the king of Athens, Codrus. Platos mother was Perictione, whose family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian lawmaker, besides Plato himself, Ariston and Perictione had three other children, these were two sons, Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a daughter Potone, the mother of Speusippus. The brothers Adeimantus and Glaucon are mentioned in the Republic as sons of Ariston, and presumably brothers of Plato, but in a scenario in the Memorabilia, Xenophon confused the issue by presenting a Glaucon much younger than Plato. Then, at twenty-eight, Hermodorus says, went to Euclides in Megara, as Debra Nails argues, The text itself gives no reason to infer that Plato left immediately for Megara and implies the very opposite. Thus, Nails dates Platos birth to 424/423, another legend related that, when Plato was an infant, bees settled on his lips while he was sleeping, an augury of the sweetness of style in which he would discourse about philosophy. Ariston appears to have died in Platos childhood, although the dating of his death is difficult. Perictione then married Pyrilampes, her mothers brother, who had served many times as an ambassador to the Persian court and was a friend of Pericles, Pyrilampes had a son from a previous marriage, Demus, who was famous for his beauty. Perictione gave birth to Pyrilampes second son, Antiphon, the half-brother of Plato and these and other references suggest a considerable amount of family pride and enable us to reconstruct Platos family tree
20.
Platonism
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Platonism, rendered as a proper noun, is the philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems considered closely derived from it. Lower case platonists need not accept any of the doctrines of Plato, in a narrower sense, the term might indicate the doctrine of Platonic realism. The forms are described in dialogues such as the Phaedo, Symposium. In the Republic the highest form is identified as the Form of the Good, the source of all other forms, in the Sophist, a later work, the forms being, sameness and difference are listed among the primordial Great Kinds. The primary concept is the Theory of Forms, the only true being is founded upon the forms, the eternal, unchangeable, perfect types, of which particular objects of moral and responsible sense are imperfect copies. The multitude of objects of sense, being involved in perpetual change, are deprived of all genuine existence. The number of the forms is defined by the number of concepts which can be derived from the particular objects of sense. The following excerpt may be representative of Platos middle period metaphysics and epistemology, Since the beautiful is opposite of the ugly, and since they are two, each is one. And the same account is true of the just and unjust, the good and the bad, each of them is itself one, but because they manifest themselves everywhere in association with actions, bodies, and one another, each of them appears to be many. The lovers of sights and sounds like beautiful sounds, colors, shapes, and everything fashioned out of them, in fact, there are very few people who would be able to reach the beautiful itself and see it by itself. What about someone who believes in things, but doesnt believe in the beautiful itself. Dont you think he is living in a rather than a wakened state. Isnt this dreaming, whether asleep or awake, to think that a likeness is not a likeness, I certainly think that someone who does that is dreaming. Book VI of the Republic identifies the highest form as the Form of the Good, the cause of all other Ideas, conceptions derived from the impressions of sense can never give us the knowledge of true being, i. e. of the forms. It can only be obtained by the activity within itself, apart from the troubles and disturbances of sense. Dialectic, as the instrument in this process, leading us to knowledge of the forms, later Neoplatonism, beginning with Plotinus, identified the Good of the Republic with the so-called transcendent, absolute One of the first hypothesis of the Parmenides. Platonist ethics is based on the Form of the Good, virtue is knowledge, the recognition of the supreme form of the good. And, since in this cognition, the three parts of the soul, which are reason, spirit, and appetite, all have their share, we get the three virtues, Wisdom, Courage, and Moderation
21.
Pericles
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Pericles was a prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during the Golden Age—specifically the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful, Pericles had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thucydides, a contemporary historian, acclaimed him as the first citizen of Athens. Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire, and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. Pericles promoted the arts and literature, it is principally through his efforts that Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world and he started an ambitious project that generated most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis. This project beautified and protected the city, exhibited its glory, Pericles also fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist. Pericles was born c.495 BC, in Athens, Greece and he was the son of the politician Xanthippus, who, though ostracized in 485–484 BC, returned to Athens to command the Athenian contingent in the Greek victory at Mycale just five years later. Agariste was the great-granddaughter of the tyrant of Sicyon, Cleisthenes, according to Herodotus and Plutarch, Agariste dreamed, a few nights before Pericles birth, that she had borne a lion. Interestingly, legends say that Philip II of Macedon had a dream before the birth of his son. Pericles belonged to the tribe of Acamantis and his early years were quiet, the introverted young Pericles avoided public appearances, instead preferring to devote his time to his studies. His familys nobility and wealth allowed him to pursue his inclination toward education. He learned music from the masters of the time and he is considered to have been the first politician to attribute importance to philosophy and he enjoyed the company of the philosophers Protagoras, Zeno of Elea, and Anaxagoras. Anaxagoras, in particular, became a friend and influenced him greatly. Pericles manner of thought and rhetorical charisma may have been in part products of Anaxagoras emphasis on emotional calm in the face of trouble and his proverbial calmness and self-control are also often regarded as products of Anaxagoras influence. In the spring of 472 BC, Pericles presented The Persians of Aeschylus at the Greater Dionysia as a liturgy, Plutarch says that Pericles stood first among the Athenians for forty years. If this was so, Pericles must have taken up a position of leadership by the early 460s BC- in his early or mid-thirties, throughout these years he endeavored to protect his privacy and to present himself as a model for his fellow citizens. For example, he would often avoid banquets, trying to be frugal, in 463 BC, Pericles was the leading prosecutor of Cimon, the leader of the conservative faction who was accused of neglecting Athens vital interests in Macedon. Although Cimon was acquitted, this proved that Pericles major political opponent was vulnerable. The leader of the party and mentor of Pericles, Ephialtes, the Ecclesia adopted Ephialtes proposal without opposition
22.
Greco-Persian Wars
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The Greco-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire of Persia and Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the political world of the Greeks and the enormous empire of the Persians began when Cyrus the Great conquered the Greek-inhabited region of Ionia in 547 BC. Struggling to rule the cities of Ionia, the Persians appointed tyrants to rule each of them. This would prove to be the source of trouble for the Greeks. This was the beginning of the Ionian Revolt, which would last until 493 BC, Aristagoras secured military support from Athens and Eretria, and in 498 BC these forces helped to capture and burn the Persian regional capital of Sardis. The Persian king Darius the Great vowed to have revenge on Athens, the revolt continued, with the two sides effectively stalemated throughout 497–495 BC. In 494 BC, the Persians regrouped, and attacked the epicentre of the revolt in Miletus, at the Battle of Lade, the Ionians suffered a decisive defeat, and the rebellion collapsed, with the final members being stamped out the following year. In 490 BC a second force was sent to Greece, this time across the Aegean Sea, under the command of Datis and this expedition subjugated the Cyclades, before besieging, capturing and razing Eretria. However, while en route to attack Athens, the Persian force was defeated by the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon. Darius then began to plan to completely conquer Greece, but died in 486 BC, in 480 BC, Xerxes personally led the second Persian invasion of Greece with one of the largest ancient armies ever assembled. Victory over the allied Greek states at the famous Battle of Thermopylae allowed the Persians to torch an evacuated Athens, however, while seeking to destroy the combined Greek fleet, the Persians suffered a severe defeat at the Battle of Salamis. The following year, the confederated Greeks went on the offensive, defeating the Persian army at the Battle of Plataea, the allied Greeks followed up their success by destroying the rest of the Persian fleet at the Battle of Mycale, before expelling Persian garrisons from Sestos and Byzantium. The Delian League continued to campaign against Persia for the three decades, beginning with the expulsion of the remaining Persian garrisons from Europe. At the Battle of the Eurymedon in 466 BC, the League won a victory that finally secured freedom for the cities of Ionia. However, the Leagues involvement in an Egyptian revolt resulted in a disastrous defeat, a Greek fleet was sent to Cyprus in 451 BC, but achieved little, and when it withdrew the Greco-Persian Wars drew to a quiet end. Some historical sources suggest the end of hostilities was marked by a treaty between Athens and Persia, the Peace of Callias. Almost all the sources for the Greco-Persian Wars are Greek. By some distance, the source for the Greco-Persian Wars is the Greek historian Herodotus
23.
Peloponnesian War
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The Peloponnesian War was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases and this period of the war was concluded in 421 BC, with the signing of the Peace of Nicias. That treaty, however, was undermined by renewed fighting in the Peloponnese. In 415 BC, Athens dispatched an expeditionary force to attack Syracuse in Sicily. This ushered in the phase of the war, generally referred to either as the Decelean War. The destruction of Athens fleet at Aegospotami effectively ended the war, Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed and all its citizens should be enslaved, but Sparta refused. The Peloponnesian War reshaped the ancient Greek world, the economic costs of the war were felt all across Greece, poverty became widespread in the Peloponnese, while Athens found itself completely devastated, and never regained its pre-war prosperity. Greek warfare, meanwhile, originally a limited and formalized form of conflict, was transformed into a struggle between city-states, complete with atrocities on a large scale. Indeed, the fifty years of Greek history that preceded the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War had been marked by the development of Athens as a major power in the Mediterranean world. The city proceeded to conquer all of Greece except for Sparta and its allies, by the middle of the century, the Persians had been driven from the Aegean and forced to cede control of a vast range of territories to Athens. This tribute was used to support a fleet and, after the middle of the century, to fund massive public works programs in Athens. According to Thucydides, although the Spartans took no action at this time, conflict between the states flared up again in 465 BC, when a helot revolt broke out in Sparta. The Spartans summoned forces from all of their allies, including Athens, Athens sent out a sizable contingent, but upon its arrival, this force was dismissed by the Spartans, while those of all the other allies were permitted to remain. According to Thucydides, the Spartans acted in this way out of fear that the Athenians would switch sides and support the helots, the offended Athenians repudiated their alliance with Sparta. When the rebellious helots were finally forced to surrender and permitted to evacuate the country, a fifteen-year conflict, commonly known as the First Peloponnesian War, ensued, in which Athens fought intermittently against Sparta, Corinth, Aegina, and a number of other states. The war was ended by the Thirty Years Peace, signed in the winter of 446/5 BC. The Thirty Years Peace was first tested in 440 BC, when Athens powerful ally Samos rebelled from its alliance with Athens, the rebels quickly secured the support of a Persian satrap, and Athens found itself facing the prospect of revolts throughout the empire. The Spartans, whose intervention would have been the trigger for a war to determine the fate of the empire
24.
Athenian democracy
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Other Greek cities set up democracies, most following the Athenian model, but none are as well documented as Athens. It was a system of democracy, in which participating citizens voted directly on legislation. The longest-lasting democratic leader was Pericles, after his death, Athenian democracy was twice briefly interrupted by oligarchic revolutions towards the end of the Peloponnesian War. It was modified somewhat after it was restored under Eucleides, the most detailed accounts of the system are of this fourth-century modification rather than the Periclean system, Democracy was suppressed by the Macedonians in 322 BC. The Athenian institutions were revived, but how close they were to a real democracy is debatable. Solon, Cleisthenes, and Ephialtes contributed to the development of Athenian democracy and he broke up the power of the nobility by organizing citizens into ten groups based on where they lived rather than on their wealth. The word democracy combines the elements dêmos and krátos, and thus means literally people power, in the words monarchy and oligarchy, the second element comes from archē, meaning beginning, and hence also first place or power, sovereignty. One might expect the term demarchy to have adopted, by analogy. However, the word demarchy had already taken and meant mayoralty. We are not certain that the democracy was extant when systems that came to be called democratic were first instituted. The word is attested in Herodotus, who some of the earliest surviving Greek prose. Around 460 BC an individual is known with the name of Democrates, a name possibly coined as a gesture of democratic loyalty, Athens was not the only polis in Ancient Greece that instituted a democratic regime. Aristotle cites many other cities as well, yet, it is only with reference to Athens that we can attempt to trace some of specific sixth century events that led to the institution of democracy at the end of the century. Before the first attempt at government, Athens was ruled by a series of archons or chief magistrates. The members of these institutions were generally aristocrats, who ruled the polis for their own advantage, in 621 BC Draco codified a set of notoriously harsh laws that were a clear expression of the power of the aristocracy over everybody else. This did not stop the aristocratic families feuding amongst themselves to obtain as much power as possible, however, the enfranchisement of the local laboring classes was succeeded by the development of chattel slavery, the enslavement of, in large part, foreigners. Solon, the mediator, reshaped the city by absorbing the traditional aristocracy in a definition of citizenship which allotted a political function to every resident of Attica. Athenians were not slaves but citizens, with the right, at the very least, under these reforms, the position of archon was opened to all with certain property qualifications, and a Boule, a rival council of 400, was set up
25.
Mikis Theodorakis
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Michael Mikis Theodorakis is a Greek songwriter and composer who has written over 1000 songs. He scored for the films Zorba the Greek, Z, and he composed the Mauthausen Trilogy also known as The Ballad of Mauthausen, which has been described as the most beautiful musical work ever written about the Holocaust and possibly his best work. He is viewed as Greeces best-known living composer and he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. Politically, he is associated with the left because of his ties to the Communist Party of Greece. He was an MP for the KKE from 1981 to 1990 and he continues to speak out in favor of left-liberal causes, Greek–Turkish–Cypriot relations, and against the War in Iraq. He has consistently opposed oppressive regimes and was a key voice against the 1967–1974 Greek junta, Mikis Theodorakis was born on the Greek island of Chios and spent his childhood years in different provincial Greek cities such as Mytilene, Cephallonia, Patras, Pyrgos, and Tripoli. His father, a lawyer and a servant, was from the small village of Kato Galatas on Crete and his mother, Aspasia Poulakis, was from an ethnically Greek family in Çeşme. He was raised with Greek folk music and was influenced by Byzantine liturgy, theodorakiss fascination with music began in early childhood, he taught himself to write his first songs without access to musical instruments. In Patras and Pyrgos he took his first music lessons, and in Tripoli, Peloponnese, he gave his first concert at the age of seventeen. He went to Athens in 1943, and became a member of a Reserve Unit of ELAS, and led a troop in the fight against the British and the Greek right in the Dekemvriana. During the Greek Civil War he was arrested, sent into exile on the island of Icaria and then deported to the island of Makronisos, where he was tortured and twice buried alive. During the periods when he was not obliged to hide, not exiled or jailed, in 1950, he finished his studies and took his last two exams with flying colours. He went to Crete, where he became the head of the Chania Music School, at this time he ended what he has called the first period of his musical writing. In 1954 he travelled with his young wife Myrto Altinoglou to Paris where he entered the Conservatory and studied musical analysis under Olivier Messiaen and his time in Paris, 1954–1959, was his second period of musical writing. His symphonic works, a Piano concerto, his first suite, his first symphony, in 1957, he won the Gold Medal in the Moscow Music Festival, President of the Jury was Dmitri Shostakovitch. Chairman of the International Theodorakis Foundation FILIKI, list of works based on the research of Asteris Koutoulas, published in O Mousikos Theodorakis. Κύκλος τραγουδιών για πιάνο και φωνή Χαιρετισμοί,4 Maria Farantouri — Asmata Mikis Theodorakis — Symphony No. A - Γ Να μαγευτώ και να μεθύσω Μάνου Χατζιδάκι εγκώμιον I had Three Lives Σπίθα, Music and Social Change, Foreword by Mikis Theodorakis
26.
Melina Mercouri
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Maria Amalia Mercouri, known professionally as Melina Mercouri, was a Greek actress, singer and politician. Mercouri was born to a cavalry officer and member of the Greek parliament, Stamatis Mercouris. When she completed her education, she attended the National Theatres Drama School. Mercouris first husband was a landowner, Panos Harokopos. As an actress, Mercouri made her debut in Stella and met international success with her performances in Never on Sunday, Phaedra, Topkapi. She won the award for Best Actress at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and she was nominated for an Academy Award, a Tony Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and two BAFTA Awards. A political activist during the Greek military junta of 1967–1974, Mercouri became a member of the Hellenic Parliament in 1977, in 1983, Mercouri proposed the programme of the European Capital of Culture, which was established by the European Union in 1985. Mercouri was an advocate for the return to Athens of the Parthenon Marbles, which were removed from the Parthenon. After her graduation, Mercouri joined the National Theatre of Greece, in 1949, she had her first major success in the theatre playing Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams and staged by Karolos Kouns Art Theatre. Until 1950, she worked in the same theatre in other plays by Aldous Huxley, Arthur Miller. In 1953, Mercouri received the Marika Kotopouli Prize, Mercouri returned to Greece in 1955. At the Kotopouli-Rex Theatre, Mercouri starred in Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Mercouris first movie was the Greek language film Stella, directed by Zorba the Greek director Michael Cacoyannis. The film received praise at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. Their first professional pairing was 1957s He Who Must Die, other films by Dassin and featuring Mercouri followed, such as The Law. Mercouri became well-known to international audiences when she starred in Never on Sunday, in which Dassin was the director and co-star. For this film, she earned the Best Actress Award at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Mercouri worked with directors as Joseph Losey, Vittorio De Sica, Ronald Neame, Carl Foreman, Norman Jewison. Mercouri continued her career in the Greek production of Tennessee Williamss Sweet Bird of Youth
27.
Andreas Papandreou
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Andreas Georgios Papandreou was a Greek economist, a socialist politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics. The son of Georgios Papandreou, Andreas was a Harvard-trained academic and he served two terms as prime minister of Greece. His assumption of power in 1981 influenced the course of Greek political history, in a poll conducted by Kathimerini in 2007, 48% of those polled called Papandreou the most important Greek Prime Minister. In the same poll, the first four years of Papandreous government after Metapolitefsi were voted as the best government Greece ever had, Papandreou was born on the island of Chios, Greece, the son of Zofia Mineyko and the leading Greek liberal politician George Papandreou. His maternal grandfather was Polish-born public figure Zygmunt Mineyko, and his grandmother was Greek. Before university, he attended Athens College a leading school in Greece. He attended the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens from 1937 until 1938 when, during the Fascist Metaxas dictatorship, following representations by his father, he was allowed to leave for the US. In 1943, Papandreou received a PhD degree in economics from Harvard University and he returned to Harvard in 1946 and served as a lecturer and associate professor until 1947. In 1948, he entered into a relationship with University of Minnesota journalism student Margaret Chant, born in 1924, daughter of Douglas Chant and wife Hulda Pfund. After Chant obtained a divorce, and after his own divorce from Christina Rasia, his first wife, Papandreou and they had three sons and a daughter. Papandreou also had, with Swedish actress and TV presenter Ragna Nyblom, an out of wedlock, Emilia Nyblom. Papandreou returned to Greece in 1959, where he headed an economic development research program, in 1960, he was appointed chairman of the board of directors, general director of the Athens Economic Research Center, and advisor to the Bank of Greece. In 1963, his father George Papandreou, head of the Center Union, Andreas became his chief economic advisor. He renounced his American citizenship and was elected to the Greek Parliament in the Greek legislative election,1964 and he immediately became Minister to the First Ministry of State. Papandreou took publicly a neutral stand on the Cold War and wished for Greece to be independent from the United States. He also criticized the presence of American military and intelligence in Greece. Constantine II of Greece refused to endorse this move and essentially forced George Papandreous resignation, Greece entered a period of political polarisation and instability which ended with the coup détat of 21 April 1967. When the Greek colonels led by Georgios Papadopoulos seized power in April 1967, gust Avrakotos, a high- ranking CIA officer in Greece who was close to the colonels who led the coup, advised them to shoot the motherfucker because hes going to come back to haunt you
28.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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Nikos Kazantzakis was a Greek writer, celebrated for his novels, which include Zorba the Greek, Christ Recrucified, Captain Michalis, and The Last Temptation of Christ. He also wrote plays, travel books, memoirs and philosophical essays such as The Saviors of God, universally recognised as a giant of modern Greek literature, Kazantzakis was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in nine different years. His fame was spread in the English speaking world by cinematic adaptations of Zorba the Greek. When Kazantzakis was born in 1883 in Heraklion, Crete had not yet joined the modern Greek state, from 1902 to 1906 Kazantzakis studied law at the University of Athens, his 1906 Juris Doctor thesis title was Ο Φρειδερίκος Νίτσε εν τη φιλοσοφία του δικαίου και της πολιτείας. Then he went to the Sorbonne in 1907 to study philosophy, there he fell under the influence of Henri Bergson. His 1909 doctoral dissertation at the Sorbonne was a version of his 1906 dissertation under the title Friedrich Nietzsche dans la philosophie du droit et de la cité. Upon his return to Greece, he began translating works of philosophy, in 1914 he met Angelos Sikelianos. Together they travelled for two years in places where Greek Orthodox Christian culture flourished, largely influenced by the enthusiastic nationalism of Sikelianos, Kazantzakis married Galatea Alexiou in 1911, they divorced in 1926. He married Eleni Samiou in 1945, between 1922 and his death in 1957, he sojourned in Paris and Berlin, Italy, Russia, Spain, and then later in Cyprus, Aegina, Egypt, Mount Sinai, Czechoslovakia, Nice, China, and Japan. While in Berlin, where the situation was explosive, Kazantzakis discovered communism. He never became a committed communist, but visited the Soviet Union and stayed with the Left Opposition politician and he witnessed the rise of Joseph Stalin, and became disillusioned with Soviet-style communism. Around this time, his earlier nationalist beliefs were gradually replaced by a more universalist ideology, in 1945, he became the leader of a small party on the non-communist left, and entered the Greek government as Minister without Portfolio. He resigned this post the following year, in 1946, The Society of Greek Writers recommended that Kazantzakis and Angelos Sikelianos be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1957, he lost the Prize to Albert Camus by one vote, Camus later said that Kazantzakis deserved the honour a hundred times more than himself. In total Kazantzakis was nominated in nine different years, late in 1957, even though suffering from leukemia, he set out on one last trip to China and Japan. Falling ill on his flight, he was transferred to Freiburg, Germany. He is buried on the surrounding the city of Heraklion near the Chania Gate. His epitaph reads I hope for nothing, the 50th anniversary of the death of Nikos Kazantzakis was selected as main motif for a high-value euro collectors coin, the €10 Greek Nikos Kazantzakis commemorative coin, minted in 2007
29.
Zorba the Greek
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Zorba the Greek is a novel written by the Cretan author Nikos Kazantzakis, first published in 1946. It is the tale of a young Greek intellectual who ventures to escape his life with the aid of the boisterous and mysterious Alexis Zorba. The novel was adapted into a successful 1964 film of the name by Michael Cacoyannis as well as a 1968 musical. The book opens in a café in Piraeus, just before dawn on a gusty autumn morning, the year is most likely 1916. He sets off for Crete to re-open a disused lignite mine and immerse himself in the world of peasants and working-class people. He is about to begin reading his copy of Dantes Divine Comedy when he feels he is being watched, he turns around, the man enters and immediately approaches him to ask for work. He claims expertise as a chef, a miner, and player of the santuri, or cimbalom, and introduces himself as Alexis Zorba, the narrator is fascinated by Zorbas lascivious opinions and expressive manner and decides to employ him as a foreman. On their way to Crete, they talk on a number of subjects. They are forced by circumstances to share a bathing-hut, the narrator spends Sunday roaming the island, the landscape of which reminds him of good prose, carefully ordered, sober… powerful and restrained and reads Dante. On returning to the hotel for dinner, the pair invite Madame Hortense to their table, Zorba gives her the pet-name Bouboulina. The next day, the mine opens and work begins, the narrator, who has socialist ideals, attempts to get to know the workers, but Zorba warns him to keep his distance, Man is a brute. If youre cruel to him, he respects and fears you, if youre kind to him, he plucks your eyes out. Zorba himself plunges into the work, which is characteristic of his overall attitude, quite frequently Zorba works long hours and requests not to be interrupted while working. The narrator absorbs a new zest for life from his experiences with Zorba and the people around him. His one-night stand with a beautiful passionate widow leads to her public decapitation, alienated by the villagers harshness and amorality, he eventually returns to the mainland once his and Zorbas ventures are completely financially spent. It almost goes without saying that the two will remember each other for the duration of their natural lives, Alexis Zorba, a fictionalized version of the mine worker, George Zorbas. The story was turned into a film as well as a ballet. The Nikos Kazantzakis Files Book review, Time Magazine, April 20,1953
30.
The Last Temptation of Christ
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The Last Temptation of Christ or The Last Temptation is a historical novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis, first published in 1955. It was first published in English in 1960, L. A. Richards claims that Kazantzakis, in his The Last Temptation novel, tried to reclaim the values of early Christianity, such as love, brotherhood, humility, and self-renunciation. According to P. Bien, the psychology in The Last Temptation is based on the idea that every person, Jesus included, is evil by nature as well as good, violent, a psychologically sound individual does not ignore or bury the evil within him. Instead, he channels it into the service of good, the central thesis of the book is that Jesus, while free from sin, was still subject to fear, doubt, depression, reluctance, and lust. Kazantzakis argues in the preface that by facing and conquering all of mans weaknesses. In 1988, a controversial film adaptation by Martin Scorsese was released. It is discussed in The Da Vinci Code when in a flashback Sophie remembers her grandfather defending the film version, the Gospel According to Jesus Christ Temptation of Christ
31.
Odysseas Elytis
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Odysseas Elytis was regarded as a major exponent of romantic modernism in Greece and the world. In 1979 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, descendant of the Alepoudelis, an old industrial family from Lesbos, Elytis was born in Heraklion on the island of Crete, on 2 November 1911. His family later moved to Athens, where the poet graduated from high school, in 1935 Elytis published his first poem in the journal New Letters at the prompting of such friends as George Seferis. His entry with an earthy and original form assisted to inaugurate a new era in Greek poetry. From 1969 to 1972, under the Greek military junta of 1967–1974 and he was romantically linked to the lyricist and musicologist Mariannina Kriezi, who subsequently produced and hosted the legendary childrens radio broadcast Here Lilliput Land. Elytis was intensely private and vehemently solitary in pursuing his ideals of poetic truth, in 1937 he served his military requirements. As an army cadet, he joined the National Military School in Corfu and he assisted Queen Frederika off the train and on to Greek soil personally when she arrived from Germany to marry hereditary Prince Paul. During the war he was appointed Second Lieutenant, placed initially at the 1st Army Corps Headquarters, then transferred to the 24th Regiment, Elytis was sporadically publishing poetry and essays after his initial foray into the literary world. He was a member of the Association of Greek Art Critics, AICA-Hellas, in 1948–1952 and 1969–1972 he lived in Paris. There, he audited philology and literature seminars at the Sorbonne and was received by the pioneers of the worlds avant-garde as Tériades most respected friend. Teriade was simultaneously in Paris publishing works with all the renowned artists, Elytis and Teriade had formed a strong friendship that solidified in 1939 with the publication of Elytis first book of poetry entitled Orientations. Both Elytis and Teriade hailed from Lesbos and had a love of the Greek painter Theophilos. Starting from Paris he travelled and subsequently visited Switzerland, England, Italy, in 1961, upon an invitation of the State Department, he traveled through the U. S. A. and —upon similar invitations— through the Soviet Union in 1963 and Bulgaria in 1965. Odysseas Elytis had been completing plans to travel overseas when he died in Athens on 18 March 1996, at the age of 84. He was survived by his niece Myrsene and his older brother Evangelos, a parallel manner concerning technique resulted in introducing the inner architecture, which is evident in a great many poems of his, mainly in the phenomenal landmark work It Is Truly Meet. Elytis theoretical and philosophical ideas have been expressed in a series of essays under the title The Open Papers, besides creating poetry he applied himself to translating poetry and theatre as well as a series of collage pictures. Translations of his poetry have been published as books, in anthologies or in periodicals in eleven languages. Procedute dal Canto eroico e funebre per il sottotenente caduto in Albania, robert Levesque Six plus un remords pourle ciel
32.
Nobel Prize in Literature
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Though individual works are sometimes cited as being particularly noteworthy, here work refers to an authors work as a whole. The Swedish Academy decides who, if anyone, will receive the prize in any given year, the academy announces the name of the chosen laureate in early October. Although the Nobel Prize in Literature has become the worlds most prestigious literature prize, many authors who have won the prize have fallen into obscurity, while others rejected by the jury remain widely studied and read. The prize has become seen as a political one - a peace prize in literary disguise, whose judges are prejudiced against authors with different political tastes to them. Tim Parks has expressed skepticism that it is possible for Swedish professors, as of 2016,16 of the 113 recipients have been of Scandinavian origin. The Academy has often been alleged to be biased towards European, Nobels vague wording for the criteria for the prize has led to recurrent controversy. In the original Swedish, the word translates as either idealistic or ideal. The Nobel Committees interpretation has varied over the years, in recent years, this means a kind of idealism championing human rights on a broad scale. Though Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime, the last was written a little over a year before he died, Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets,31 million Swedish kronor, to establish and endow the five Nobel Prizes. Due to the level of surrounding the will, it was not until 26 April 1897 that the Storting approved it. The executors of his will were Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist, the members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that were to award the Peace Prize were appointed shortly after the will was approved. The prize-awarding organisations followed, the Karolinska Institutet on 7 June, the Swedish Academy on 9 June, the Nobel Foundation then reached an agreement on guidelines for how the Nobel Prize should be awarded. In 1900, the Nobel Foundations newly created statutes were promulgated by King Oscar II, according to Nobels will, the Royal Swedish Academy was to award the Prize in Literature. Each year, the Swedish Academy sends out requests for nominations of candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature and it is not permitted to nominate oneself. Thousands of requests are sent out each year, and as of 2011 about 220 proposals are returned and these proposals must be received by the Academy by 1 February, after which they are examined by the Nobel Committee. By April, the Academy narrows the field to around twenty candidates, by May, a short list of five names is approved by the Committee. The subsequent four months are spent in reading and reviewing the works of the five candidates. In October, members of the Academy vote and the candidate who receives more than half of the votes is named the Nobel laureate in Literature
33.
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
34.
Iliad
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The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Then the epic narrative takes up events prophesied for the future, such as Achilles imminent death and the fall of Troy, although the narrative ends before these events take place. However, as events are prefigured and alluded to more and more vividly. The Iliad is paired with something of a sequel, the Odyssey, along with the Odyssey, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version is usually dated to around the 8th century BC. Recent statistical modelling based on language evolution gives a date of 760–710 BC, in the modern vulgate, the Iliad contains 15,693 lines, it is written in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek and other dialects. Note, Book numbers are in parentheses and come before the synopsis of the book, after an invocation to the Muses, the story launches in medias res towards the end of the Trojan War between the Trojans and the besieging Greeks. Chryses, a Trojan priest of Apollo, offers the Greeks wealth for the return of his daughter Chryseis, held captive of Agamemnon, although most of the Greek army is in favour of the offer, Agamemnon refuses. Chryses prays for Apollos help, and Apollo causes a plague to afflict the Greek army, after nine days of plague, Achilles, the leader of the Myrmidon contingent, calls an assembly to deal with the problem. Under pressure, Agamemnon agrees to return Chryseis to her father, angered, Achilles declares that he and his men will no longer fight for Agamemnon but will go home. Odysseus takes a ship and returns Chryseis to her father, whereupon Apollo ends the plague, in the meantime, Agamemnons messengers take Briseis away. Achilles becomes very upset, sits by the seashore, and prays to his mother, Achilles asks his mother to ask Zeus to bring the Greeks to the breaking point by the Trojans, so Agamemnon will realize how much the Greeks need Achilles. Thetis does so, and Zeus agrees, Zeus sends a dream to Agamemnon, urging him to attack Troy. Agamemnon heeds the dream but decides to first test the Greek armys morale, the plan backfires, and only the intervention of Odysseus, inspired by Athena, stops a rout. Odysseus confronts and beats Thersites, a soldier who voices discontent about fighting Agamemnons war. After a meal, the Greeks deploy in companies upon the Trojan plain, the poet takes the opportunity to describe the provenance of each Greek contingent. When news of the Greek deployment reaches King Priam, the Trojans too sortie upon the plain, in a list similar to that for the Greeks, the poet describes the Trojans and their allies. The armies approach each other, but before they meet, Paris offers to end the war by fighting a duel with Menelaus, urged by his brother and head of the Trojan army, Hector. While Helen tells Priam about the Greek commanders from the walls of Troy, Paris is beaten, but Aphrodite rescues him and leads him to bed with Helen before Menelaus can kill him
35.
Odyssey
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The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the Odyssey is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second-oldest extant work of Western literature, the Iliad is the oldest. Scholars believe the Odyssey was composed near the end of the 8th century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the poem mainly focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. In his absence, it is assumed Odysseus has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of suitors, the Mnesteres or Proci. The Odyssey continues to be read in the Homeric Greek and translated into languages around the world. Many scholars believe the poem was composed in an oral tradition by an aoidos, perhaps a rhapsode. The details of the ancient oral performance and the conversion to a written work inspire continual debate among scholars. The Odyssey was written in a dialect of Greek—a literary amalgam of Aeolic Greek, Ionic Greek. Among the most noteworthy elements of the text are its non-linear plot, in the English language as well as many others, the word odyssey has come to refer to an epic voyage. The Odyssey has a lost sequel, the Telegony, which was not written by Homer and it was usually attributed in antiquity to Cinaethon of Sparta. In one source, the Telegony was said to have stolen from Musaeus by either Eugamon or Eugammon of Cyrene. The Odyssey begins ten years after the end of the ten-year Trojan War, and Odysseus has still not returned home from the war. Odysseus protectress, the goddess Athena, requests to Zeus, king of the gods, to finally allow Odysseus to return home when Odysseus enemy, then, disguised as a Taphian chieftain named Mentes, she visits Telemachus to urge him to search for news of his father. He offers her hospitality, they observe the suitors dining rowdily while the bard Phemius performs a poem for them. Penelope objects to Phemius theme, the Return from Troy, because it reminds her of her missing husband and that night Athena, disguised as Telemachus, finds a ship and crew for the true prince. The next morning, Telemachus calls an assembly of citizens of Ithaca to discuss what should be done with the suitors. Accompanied by Athena, he departs for the Greek mainland and the household of Nestor, most venerable of the Greek warriors at Troy, now at home in Pylos
36.
Manos Hatzidakis
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Manos Hatzidakis was a Greek composer and theorist of Greek music. He was also one of the movers of the Éntekhno song. In 1960 he received an Academy Award for Best Original Song for his song Never on Sunday from the film of the same name and his musical education began at the age of fourteen and consisted of piano lessons from the Armenian pianist Altunian. At the same time, he learned to play the violin, after the separation of his parents, Hatzidakis moved permanently to Athens in 1932 with his mother. A few years later in 1938, his father died in an aircraft accident and this event, in combination with the beginning of World War II, brought the family into a difficult financial situation. At the same time, he expanded his knowledge by studying advanced music theory with Menelaos Pallandios. At the same time, he studied philosophy at the University of Athens, however, he never completed this course. During this period, he met and connected with other musicians, writers, among these were Nikos Gatsos, George Seferis, Odysseas Elytis, Angelos Sikelianos and the artist Yannis Tsarouchis. His very first work was the tune for the song Paper Moon, from Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire staged by Karolos Kouns Art Theatre of Athens, a collaboration which continued for 15 years. Putting theory to practice, he adapted classic rembetika in his 1951 piano work, Six Folk Paintings, in 1949 he co-founded the Greek Dance Theatre Company with the choreographer Rallou Manou. At this point he began writing immensely popular pop songs and movie soundtracks alongside more serious works, cycle, a song cycle for piano and voice recalling the German lied in its form, if not in style. In 1955 he wrote the score for Michael Cacoyannis film Stella, with actress Melina Mercouri, Hatzidakis always maintained that he wrote his serious pieces for himself and his less serious ones to make a living. In 1959, Hatzidakis met Nana Mouskouri, his first ideal interpreter and it was 1960 that brought him international success, as his song Never on Sunday, from Jules Dassins film Never on Sunday, won him an Academy Award and became a worldwide hit. In 1962, he produced the musical Street of Dreams and completed his score for Aristophanes Birds, the score was also used later by Maurice Béjarts 20th Century Ballets. He also wrote the music for a song which Arthur Altman added English lyrics to, the song was All Alone Am I. In 1964 he released the album 15 Vespers with the famous song Mr Antonis, in 1965, his LP Giocondas Smile was released on Minos-EMI. In 2004, it was re-released, digitally remastered as an audiophile LP, in 1966 he travelled to New York City for the premiere of Illya Darling, a Broadway musical based on Never on Sunday, which starred Mercouri. He did not return to Greece until 1972 due to his opposition to Greeces military dictatorship, Hatzidakis returned to Greece in 1972 and recorded Magnus Eroticus with opera-trained alto Fleury Dantonaki and singer Dimitris Psarianos
37.
Leonidas I
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Leonidas I was a warrior king of the Greek city-state of Sparta. He was the husband of Gorgo, the daughter of Cleomenes I of Sparta and the 17th of the Agiad line, Anaxandridas refused, claiming his wife was blameless, whereupon the ephors agreed to allow him to take a second wife without setting aside his first. This second wife, a descendent of Chilon of Sparta, promptly bore a son, however, one year after Cleomenes birth, Anaxandridas first wife also gave birth to a son, Dorieus. Leonidas was the son of Anaxandridas first wife, and either the elder brother or twin of Cleombrotus. Leonidas was thus one of the few Spartan kings to have undergone the notoriously harsh training of Spartan youth. Anaxandridas died in 520 BC, and Cleomenes succeeded to the sometime between then and 516 BC. Dorieus was so outraged that the Spartans had preferred his half-brother over himself that he found it impossible to remain in Sparta. He made one attempt to set up a colony in Africa and, when this failed, sought his fortune in Sicily. Leonidas relationship with his bitterly antagonistic elder brothers is unknown, but he married Cleomenes daughter, Gorgo, Leonidas was heir to the Agiad throne and a full citizen at the time of the Battle of Sepeia against Argos. Likewise, he was a citizen when the Persians sought submission from Sparta. Leonidas was chosen to lead the combined Greek forces determined to resist the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 481 BC, the rejection of Leotychidas and Pausanias was not a reflection on Spartan arms. Spartas military reputation had never stood in higher regard, nor was Sparta less powerful in 478 BC than it had been in 481 BC and this selection of Leonidas to lead the defense of Greece against Xerxes invasion led to Leonidas death in the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. Upon receiving a request from the confederated Greek forces to aid in defending Greece against the Persian invasion, there are various theories on why Leonidas was accompanied by such a small force of hoplites. After completing their festival Carneia, they left their garrison at Sparta, the rest of the allies planned to do likewise, for the Olympiad coincided with these events. They accordingly sent their advance guard, not expecting the war at Thermopylae to be decided so quickly, many modern commentators are unsatisfied with this explanation and point to the fact that the Olympic Games were in progress or impute internal dissent and intrigue. Whatever the reason Spartas own contribution was just 300 Spartiates, the force assembled for the defense of the pass of Thermopylae came to something between four and seven thousand Greeks. They faced a Persian army who had invaded from the north of Greece under Xerxes I, Herodotus stated that this army consisted of over two million men, modern scholars consider this to be an exaggeration and give estimates ranging from 70,000 to 300,000. Xerxes waited four days to attack, hoping the Greeks would disperse, finally, on the fifth day the Persians attacked
38.
Hippocrates
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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
39.
Pythagoras
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Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and the putative founder of the movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written centuries after he lived. He was born on the island of Samos, and travelled, visiting Egypt and Greece, around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, in Magna Graecia, and there established some kind of school or guild. In 520 BC, he returned to Samos, Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religion in the late 6th century BC. He is often revered as a mathematician and scientist and is best known for the Pythagorean theorem which bears his name. Many of the accomplishments credited to Pythagoras may actually have been accomplishments of his colleagues, some accounts mention that the philosophy associated with Pythagoras was related to mathematics and that numbers were important. It was said that he was the first man to himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom, and Pythagorean ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato. Burkert states that Aristoxenus and Dicaearchus are the most important accounts, Aristotle had written a separate work On the Pythagoreans, which is no longer extant. However, the Protrepticus possibly contains parts of On the Pythagoreans and his disciples Dicaearchus, Aristoxenus, and Heraclides Ponticus had written on the same subject. These writers, late as they are, were among the best sources from whom Porphyry and Iamblichus drew, while adding some legendary accounts. Herodotus, Isocrates, and other writers agree that Pythagoras was the son of Mnesarchus and born on the Greek island of Samos. His father is said to have been a gem-engraver or a wealthy merchant, a late source gives his mothers name as Pythais. As to the date of his birth, Aristoxenus stated that Pythagoras left Samos in the reign of Polycrates, at the age of 40, around 530 BC he arrived in the Greek colony of Croton in what was then Magna Graecia. There he founded his own school the members of which he engaged to a disciplined. He furthermore aquired some political influence, on Greeks and non-Greeks of the region, following a conflict with the neighbouring colony of Sybaris, internal discord drove most of the Pythagoreans out of Croton. Pythagoras left the city before the outbreak of civil unrest and moved to Metapontum, after his death, his house was transformed into a sanctuary of Demeter, out of veneration for the philosopher, by the local population. In ancient sources there was disagreement and inconsistency about the late life of Pythagoras. His tomb was shown at Metapontum in the time of Cicero, according to Walter Burkert, Most obvious is the contradiction between Aristoxenus and Dicaearchus, regarding the catastrophe that overwhelmed the Pythagorean society
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Constantine P. Cavafy
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Constantine P. Cavafy was an Egyptian Greek poet, journalist and civil servant. His consciously individual style earned him a place among the most important figures not only in Greek poetry, Cavafy wrote 154 poems, while dozens more remained incomplete or in sketch form. His most important poems were written after his birthday. Cavafy was born in 1863 in Alexandria, Egypt, to Greek parents and his fathers name was Πέτρος Ἰωάννης, Petros Ioannēs —hence the Petrou patronymic in his name— and his mothers Charicleia. His father was a prosperous importer-exporter who had lived in England in earlier years, after his father died in 1870, Cavafy and his family settled for a while in Liverpool in England. In 1876, his family faced financial problems due to the Long Depression of 1873, so, by 1877, in 1882, disturbances in Alexandria caused the family to move again, though temporarily, to Constantinople. This was the year when a revolt broke out in Alexandria against the Anglo-French control of Egypt, Alexandria was bombarded by a British fleet, and the family apartment at Ramleh was burned. In 1885, Cavafy returned to Alexandria, where he lived for the rest of his life and his first work was as a journalist, then he took a position with the British-run Egyptian Ministry of Public Works for thirty years. He published his poetry from 1891 to 1904 in the form of broadsheets, any acclaim he was to receive came mainly from within the Greek community of Alexandria. Eventually, in 1903, he was introduced to mainland-Greek literary circles through a review by Xenopoulos. He received little recognition because his style differed markedly from the then-mainstream Greek poetry and it was only twenty years later, after the Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War, that a new generation of almost nihilist poets would find inspiration in Cavafys work. Subsequently I visited this country as an adult, but for a period of time. I have also lived in France, during my adolescence I lived over two years in Constantinople. It has been years since I last visited Greece. My last employment was as a clerk at a government office under the Ministry of Public Works of Egypt, I know English, French, and a little Italian. He died of cancer of the larynx on April 29,1933, since his death, Cavafys reputation has grown. His poetry is taught in school in Greece and Cyprus, E. M. Forster knew him personally and wrote a memoir of him, contained in his book Alexandria. Forster, Arnold J. Toynbee, and T. S. Eliot were among the earliest promoters of Cavafy in the English-speaking world before the Second World War
41.
Maria Callas
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Maria Callas, Commendatore OMRI, was a Greek-American soprano, and one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised her bel canto technique, wide-ranging voice and dramatic interpretations and her musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed as La Divina. Born in New York City and raised by a mother, she received her musical education in Greece. Forced to deal with the exigencies of wartime poverty and with myopia that left her nearly blind onstage, she endured struggles and scandal over the course of her career. She turned herself from a woman into a svelte and glamorous one after a mid-career weight loss, which might have contributed to her vocal decline. The press exulted in publicizing Callass temperamental behavior, her rivalry with Renata Tebaldi. Callass father had shortened the surname Kalogeropoulos first to Kalos and subsequently to Callas in order to make it more manageable, If you marry this man, I will never be able to help you. Evangelia had ignored his warning, but soon realized that her father was right, the situation was aggravated by Georges philandering and was improved neither by the birth of a daughter, named Yakinthi, in 1917 nor the birth of a son, named Vassilis, in 1920. Vassiliss death from meningitis in the summer of 1922 dealt another blow to the marriage, the family left for New York in July 1923, moving first into an apartment in Astoria, Queens. Evangelia was convinced that her child would be a boy. Maria was christened three years later at the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in 1926, when Maria was 4, George Callas opened his own pharmacy, settling the family in Manhattan on 192nd Street in Washington Heights where Callas grew up. Around the age of three, Marias musical talent began to manifest itself, and after Evangelia discovered that her youngest daughter also had a voice, Callas later recalled, I was made to sing when I was only five, and I hated it. George was unhappy with his wife favoring their elder daughter, as well as the put upon young Mary to sing. The marriage continued to deteriorate and in 1937 Evangelia decided to return to Athens with her two daughters, I was the ugly duckling, fat and clumsy and unpopular. It is a thing to make a child feel ugly. Ill never forgive her for taking my childhood away, during all the years I should have been playing and growing up, I was singing or making money. Everything I did for them was good and everything they did to me was mostly bad. In 1957, she told Norman Ross, Children should have a wonderful childhood, I have not had it – I wish I had
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Archimedes
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Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the scientists in classical antiquity. He was also one of the first to apply mathematics to physical phenomena, founding hydrostatics and statics and he is credited with designing innovative machines, such as his screw pump, compound pulleys, and defensive war machines to protect his native Syracuse from invasion. Archimedes died during the Siege of Syracuse when he was killed by a Roman soldier despite orders that he should not be harmed. Cicero describes visiting the tomb of Archimedes, which was surmounted by a sphere and a cylinder, unlike his inventions, the mathematical writings of Archimedes were little known in antiquity. Archimedes was born c.287 BC in the city of Syracuse, Sicily, at that time a self-governing colony in Magna Graecia. The date of birth is based on a statement by the Byzantine Greek historian John Tzetzes that Archimedes lived for 75 years, in The Sand Reckoner, Archimedes gives his fathers name as Phidias, an astronomer about whom nothing is known. Plutarch wrote in his Parallel Lives that Archimedes was related to King Hiero II, a biography of Archimedes was written by his friend Heracleides but this work has been lost, leaving the details of his life obscure. It is unknown, for instance, whether he married or had children. During his youth, Archimedes may have studied in Alexandria, Egypt and he referred to Conon of Samos as his friend, while two of his works have introductions addressed to Eratosthenes. Archimedes died c.212 BC during the Second Punic War, according to the popular account given by Plutarch, Archimedes was contemplating a mathematical diagram when the city was captured. A Roman soldier commanded him to come and meet General Marcellus but he declined, the soldier was enraged by this, and killed Archimedes with his sword. Plutarch also gives an account of the death of Archimedes which suggests that he may have been killed while attempting to surrender to a Roman soldier. According to this story, Archimedes was carrying mathematical instruments, and was killed because the thought that they were valuable items. General Marcellus was reportedly angered by the death of Archimedes, as he considered him a valuable asset and had ordered that he not be harmed. Marcellus called Archimedes a geometrical Briareus, the last words attributed to Archimedes are Do not disturb my circles, a reference to the circles in the mathematical drawing that he was supposedly studying when disturbed by the Roman soldier. This quote is given in Latin as Noli turbare circulos meos. The phrase is given in Katharevousa Greek as μὴ μου τοὺς κύκλους τάραττε
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Aristotle Onassis
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Onassis was born in Smyrna and fled the city with his family to Greece in 1922 in the wake of the Greco-Turkish War. He moved to Argentina in 1923 and established himself as a trader and later a shipping owner during the Second World War. In the 1960s Onassis attempted to establish an investment contract, Project Omega, with the Greek military junta. Onassis was greatly affected by the death of his 24-year-old son, Alexander, in a crash in 1973. Onassis was born in Karataş, a suburb of the city of Smyrna in Anatolia to Socrates. Onassis had one full-sister, Artemis, and two half-sisters, Kalliroi and Merope, by his fathers second marriage following Penelopes death, Onassis became a successful shipping entrepreneur and was able to send his children to prestigious schools. When Aristotle Onassis graduated from the local Evangelical Greek School at the age of 16, he spoke four languages, Greek, Turkish, Spanish, and English. Smyrna was briefly administered by Greece in the aftermath of the Allied victory in World War I, the Onassis familys substantial property holdings were lost, causing them to become refugees fleeing to Greece after the Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922. He went into business for himself and made a fortune importing tobacco to Argentina and he obtained the Argentine citizenship in 1929. Eventually he relocated to New York where he built up his shipping businesses, Onassis built up a fleet of freighters and tankers that eventually exceeded seventy vessels. Onassiss fleet had Panamanian flags and sailed tax-free while operating at low cost, because of this, Onassis could turn a profit in every transaction, even though he charged one of the lowest prices in the merchant navy market. Onassis moved his headquarters into the Old Sporting Club on Monacos Avenue dOstende shortly after taking control of the SBM. The SBM was a significant owner of property in Monaco, its assets included the Monte Carlo Casino, the Monaco Yacht Club, the Hôtel de Paris, Onassis and Rainier had differing visions for Monaco. Onassis wished the country to remain a resort for an exclusive clientele, Monaco had become less attractive as a tax haven in the wake of Frances actions, and Rainier urged Onassis to invest in the construction of hotels. Onassis was reluctant to invest in hotels without a guarantee from Rainier that no other competing hotel development would be permitted, but promised to build two hotels and an apartment block. Unwilling to give Onassis his guarantee, Rainier used his veto to cancel the entire hotel project, in the Supreme Court of Monaco the share creation was challenged by Onassis who claimed that it was unconstitutional, but the court found against him in March 1967. Following the ruling Onassis sold his holdings in SBM to the state of Monaco for $9.5 million, according to Frank Brady in Onassis, An Extravagant Life, Onassiss words about the issue were, We were gypped. During the oil boom of the 1950s Onassis was in discussions with the King of Saudi Arabia for securing a tanker transport deal
