1.
Heraklion
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Heraklion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete. It is the fourth largest city in Greece.3 km2, Heraklion is the capital of Heraklion regional unit. The Bronze Age palace of Knossos, also known as the Palace of Minos, is located nearby. The Arab raiders from Andalusia who founded the Emirate of Crete moved the capital from Gortyna to a new castle they called ربض الخندق rabḍ al-ḫandaq Castle of the Moat in the 820s. After the Byzantine reconquest, the city was known as Megalo Kastro or Castro. The ancient name Ηράκλειον was revived in the 19th century and comes from the nearby Roman port of Heracleum, english usage formerly preferred the classicizing transliterations Heraklion or Heraclion, but the form Iraklion is becoming more common. Heraklion is close to the ruins of the palace of Knossos, though there is no archaeological evidence of it, Knossos might well have had a port at the site of Heraklion as early as 2000 BC. They built a moat around the city for protection, and named the city ربض الخندق and it became the capital of the Emirate of Crete. The Saracens allowed the port to be used as a haven for pirates who operated against Imperial shipping. In 961, Byzantine forces under the command of Nikephoros Phokas, later to become Emperor, landed in Crete, after a prolonged siege, the city fell. The Saracen inhabitants were slaughtered, the city looted and burned to the ground, soon rebuilt, the town was renamed Χάνδαξ, Chandax, and remained under Greek control for the next 243 years. Chandax was renamed Candia and became the seat of the Duke of Candia, the city retained the name of Candia for centuries and the same name was often used to refer to the whole island of Crete as well. To secure their rule, Venetians began in 1212 to settle families from Venice on Crete, after the Venetians came the Ottoman Empire. During the Cretan War, the Ottomans besieged the city for 21 years, from 1648 to 1669, in its final phase, which lasted for 22 months,70,000 Turks,38,000 Cretans and slaves and 29,088 of the citys Christian defenders perished. The Ottoman army under an Albanian grand vizier, Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Pasha conquered the city in 1669, under the Ottomans, the city was known officially as Kandiye but informally in Greek as Megalo Castro. During the Ottoman period, the harbour silted up, so most shipping shifted to Chania in the west of the island, in 1898, the autonomous Cretan State was created, under Ottoman suzerainty, with Prince George of Greece as its High Commissioner and under international supervision. During the period of occupation of the island by the Great Powers. At this time, the city was renamed Heraklion, after the Roman port of Heracleum, in 1913, with the rest of Crete, Heraklion was incorporated into the Kingdom of Greece
2.
Ottoman Crete
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The offshore island fortresses of Souda, Granbousa, and Spinalonga would remain under Venetian rule until in 1715, when they too were captured by the Ottomans. Crete took part in the Greek War of Independence, but the uprising was suppressed with the aid of Muhammad Ali of Egypt. The island remained under Egyptian control until 1840, when it was restored to full Ottoman authority. Despite an Ottoman victory in the war, Crete became a state in 1898 because of intervention in favor of Greece by European powers and was united with Greece after the Balkan Wars. During the Cretan War, Venice was pushed out of Crete by the Ottoman Empire, most of the island fell in the first years of the war, but the capital Candia held out during long siege which lasted from 1648 to 1669, possibly the longest siege in history. The last Venetian outposts, the fortresses of Souda, Gramvousa and Spinalonga. There were significant rebellions against Ottoman rule, particularly in Sfakia, daskalogiannis was a famous rebel leader. Who in 1770 led a heroic but foredoomed revolt, which did not get the aid from the Russians who instigated it, the Greek War of Independence began in 1821 and Cretan participation was extensive. An uprising by Christians met with a response from the Ottoman authorities. Between 1821 and 1828, the island was the scene of repeated hostilities, the Muslims were driven into the large fortified towns on the north coast and it would appear that as many as 60% of them died from plague or famine while there. The Cretan Christians also suffered severely, losing around 21% of their population, during the great massacre of Heraklion on 24 June 1821, remembered in the area as the great ravage, the Turks also killed the metropolite of Crete, Gerasimos Pardalis, and five more bishops. As the Ottoman Sultan, Mahmud II, had no army of his own available, he was forced to seek the aid of his rebellious vassal and rival, Muhammad Ali of Egypt, who sent an expedition to the island. In 1825 Muhammad Alis son, Ibrahim, landed in Crete, in 1834, however, a Cretan committee was set up in Athens to work for the union of the island with Greece. In 1840, Egypt was forced by Palmerston to return Crete to direct Ottoman rule, an Anglo-Ottoman naval operation restored control in the island and Mustafa Pasha was confirmed as the governor of the island, though under command from Constantinople. He remained there until 1851 when he was summoned to Constantinople, after Greece achieved its independence, Crete became an object of contention as the Christian part of its population revolted several times against Ottoman rule. Despite these concessions, the Christian Cretans maintained their ultimate aim of union with Greece, thus, in 1866 the great Cretan Revolt began. The uprising, which lasted for three years, involved volunteers from Greece and other European countries, where it was viewed with considerable sympathy, despite early successes of the rebels, who quickly confined the Ottomans to the northern towns, the uprising failed. His approach bore fruits, as the rebel leaders gradually submitted, by early 1869, the island was again under Ottoman control
3.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
4.
Freiburg im Breisgau
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Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany with a population of about 220,000. In the south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain. The city is known for its medieval minster and Renaissance university, as well as for its standard of living. The city is situated in the heart of the major Baden wine-growing region, according to meteorological statistics, the city is the sunniest and warmest in Germany and held the all-time German temperature record of 40.2 °C from 2003 to 2015. Freiburg was founded by Konrad and Duke Berthold III of Zähringen in 1120 as a market town, hence its name. Frei means free, and Burg, like the modern English word borough, was used in those days for a city or town. The German word Burg also means a town, as in Hamburg. Thus, it is likely that the name of place means a fortified town of free citizens. This town was located at a junction of trade routes between the Mediterranean Sea and the North Sea regions, and the Rhine and Danube rivers. In 1200, Freiburgs population numbered approximately 6,000 people, at about that time, under the rule of Bertold V, the last duke of Zähringen, the city began construction of its Freiburg Münster cathedral on the site of an older parish church. Begun in the Romanesque style, it was continued and completed 1513 for the most part as a Gothic edifice, in 1218, when Bertold V died, then Egino V von Urach, the count of Urach assumed the title of Freiburgs count as Egino I von Freiburg. The city council did not trust the new nobles and wrote down its established rights in a document, at the end of the thirteenth century there was a feud between the citizens of Freiburg and their lord, Count Egino II of Freiburg. Egino II raised taxes and sought to limit the freedom, after which the Freiburgers used catapults to destroy the counts castle atop the Schloßberg. The furious count called on his brother-in-law the Bishop of Strasbourg, Konradius von Lichtenberg, the bishop responded by marching with his army to Freiburg. According to an old Freiburg legend, a butcher named Hauri stabbed the Bishop of Strasbourg to death on 29 July 1299. It was a Pyrrhic victory, since henceforth the citizens of Freiburg had to pay an annual expiation of 300 marks in silver to the count of Freiburg until 1368, in 1366 the counts of Freiburg made another failed attempt to occupy the city during a night raid. Eventually the citizens were fed up with their lords, and in 1368 Freiburg purchased its independence from them, the city turned itself over to the protection of the Habsburgs, who allowed the city to retain a large measure of freedom. Most of the nobles of the city died in the battle of Sempach, the patrician family Schnewlin took control of the city until the guildsmen revolted
5.
West Germany
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West Germany is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation on 23 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990. During this Cold War era, NATO-aligned West Germany and Warsaw Pact-aligned East Germany were divided by the Inner German border, after 1961 West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East Germany by the Berlin Wall. This situation ended when East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of Germany along with the reunified city-state of Berlin. With the reunification of West and East Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany, enlarged now to sixteen states and this period is referred to as the Bonn Republic by historians, alluding to the interwar Weimar Republic and the post-reunification Berlin Republic. The Federal Republic of Germany was established from eleven states formed in the three Allied Zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, US and British forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Its population grew from roughly 51 million in 1950 to more than 63 million in 1990, the city of Bonn was its de facto capital city. The fourth Allied occupation zone was held by the Soviet Union, as a result, West Germany had a territory about half the size of the interbellum democratic Weimar Republic. At the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided among the Western and Eastern blocs, Germany was de facto divided into two countries and two special territories, the Saarland and divided Berlin. The Federal Republic of Germany claimed a mandate for all of Germany. It took the line that the GDR was an illegally constituted puppet state, though the GDR did hold regular elections, these were not free and fair. For all practical purposes the GDR was a Soviet puppet state, from the West German perspective the GDR was therefore illegitimate. Three southwestern states of West Germany merged to form Baden-Württemberg in 1952, in addition to the resulting ten states, West Berlin was considered an unofficial de facto 11th state. It recognised the GDR as a de facto government within a single German nation that in turn was represented de jure by the West German state alone. From 1973 onward, East Germany recognised the existence of two German countries de jure, and the West as both de facto and de jure foreign country, the Federal Republic and the GDR agreed that neither of them could speak in the name of the other. The first chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who remained in office until 1963, had worked for an alignment with NATO rather than neutrality. He not only secured a membership in NATO but was also a proponent of agreements that developed into the present-day European Union, when the G6 was established in 1975, there was no question whether the Federal Republic of Germany would be a member as well. With the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, symbolised by the opening of the Berlin Wall, East Germany voted to dissolve itself and accede to the Federal Republic in 1990. Its five post-war states were reconstituted along with the reunited Berlin and they formally joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990, raising the number of states from 10 to 16, ending the division of Germany
6.
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
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The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, usually referred to simply as the University of Athens, is a public university in Athens, Greece. Today it is the biggest university in Europe, with more than 104,000 registered students, the University of Athens was founded on May 3,1837 by King Otto of Greece and was named in his honour Othonian University. It was the first university in the liberated Greek state and in the area of the Southeast Europe as well. It was also the academic institution after the Ionian Academy. This fledging university consisted of four faculties, Theology, Law, Medicine, during its first year of operation, the institution was staffed by 33 professors, while courses were attended by 52 students and 75 non-matriculated auditors. It was first housed in the residence of architects Stamatios Kleanthis and Eduard Schaubert, on the slope of the Acropolis, in Plaka. In November 1841 the university relocated on the Central Building of the University of Athens and he followed a neoclassical approach, combining the monuments magnificence with a human scale simplicity and gave the building its H-shape. Construction began in 1839 in a location to the north of the Acropolis and its front wing, also known as the Propylaea, was completed in 1842–1843. The rest of the construction, that was supervised at first by Greek architect Lysandros Kaftantzoglou. The building is part of what is called the Athenian Neoclassical Trilogy. The Othonian University was renamed to National University in 1862, following events that forced King Otto to leave the country and it was later renamed to National and Kapodistrian University of Athens to honour Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first head of state of the independent modern Greek state. In 1919, a department of chemistry was added, and in 1922 the School of Pharmacy was renamed a Department, a further change came about when the School of Dentistry was added to the faculty of medicine. Between 1895 and 1911, an average of 1,000 new students matriculated each year and this resulted in the decision to introduce entrance examinations for all the faculties, beginning for the academic year 1927–28. Since 1954 the number of students admitted each year has been fixed by the Ministry of Education and Religion, from 1911 until 1932 the university was separated into the Kapodistrian University and the National University. In 1932, the two legal entities were merged into the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. During the 1960s construction work began on the University Campus in the suburb of Ilissia, in a statement, the University Senate said that any educational, research and administrative operation of the University of Athens is objectively impossible. The emblem of the University of Athens is the pagan goddess Athena, the University of Athens is divided into schools, faculties and departments as follows. The naming is nοt consistent in English for historical reasons, but in Greek the largest divisions are generally named σχολές and are divided in τμήματα, there the faculties of Science, Theology and Philosophy are situated
7.
University of Paris
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The University of Paris, metonymically known as the Sorbonne, was a university in Paris, France. Emerging around 1150 as an associated with the cathedral school of Notre Dame de Paris. Vast numbers of popes, royalties, scientists and intellectuals were educated at the University of Paris, following the turbulence of the French Revolution, education was suspended in 1793 whereafter its faculties were partly reorganised by Napoleon as the University of France. In 1896, it was renamed again to the University of Paris, in 1970, following the May 1968 events, the university was divided into 13 autonomous universities. Others, like Panthéon-Sorbonne University, chose to be multidisciplinary, in 1150, the future University of Paris was a student-teacher corporation operating as an annex of the Notre-Dame cathedral school. The university had four faculties, Arts, Medicine, Law, the Faculty of Arts was the lowest in rank, but also the largest, as students had to graduate there in order to be admitted to one of the higher faculties. The students were divided into four nationes according to language or regional origin, France, Normandy, Picardy, the last came to be known as the Alemannian nation. Recruitment to each nation was wider than the names might imply, the faculty and nation system of the University of Paris became the model for all later medieval universities. Under the governance of the Church, students wore robes and shaved the tops of their heads in tonsure, students followed the rules and laws of the Church and were not subject to the kings laws or courts. This presented problems for the city of Paris, as students ran wild, students were often very young, entering the school at age 13 or 14 and staying for 6 to 12 years. Three schools were especially famous in Paris, the palatine or palace school, the school of Notre-Dame, the decline of royalty brought about the decline of the first. The other two were ancient but did not have much visibility in the early centuries, the glory of the palatine school doubtless eclipsed theirs, until it completely gave way to them. These two centres were much frequented and many of their masters were esteemed for their learning, the first renowned professor at the school of Ste-Geneviève was Hubold, who lived in the tenth century. Not content with the courses at Liège, he continued his studies at Paris, entered or allied himself with the chapter of Ste-Geneviève, and attracted many pupils via his teaching. Distinguished professors from the school of Notre-Dame in the century include Lambert, disciple of Fulbert of Chartres, Drogo of Paris, Manegold of Germany. Three other men who added prestige to the schools of Notre-Dame and Ste-Geneviève were William of Champeaux, Abélard, humanistic instruction comprised grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. To the higher instruction belonged dogmatic and moral theology, whose source was the Scriptures and it was completed by the study of Canon law. The School of Saint-Victor arose to rival those of Notre-Dame and Ste-Geneviève and it was founded by William of Champeaux when he withdrew to the Abbey of Saint-Victor
8.
Doctorat
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There are a variety of doctoral degrees, with the most common being the Doctor of Philosophy, which is awarded in many different fields, ranging from the humanities to the scientific disciplines. The term doctor derives from the Latin docere meaning to teach, the doctorate appeared in medieval Europe as a license to teach Latin at a university. Its roots can be traced to the church in which the term doctor referred to the Apostles, church fathers. The right to grant a licentia docendi was originally reserved to the Catholic church, the Third Council of the Lateran of 1179 guaranteed the access—at that time largely free of charge—of all able applicants. This right remained a bone of contention between the authorities and universities that were slowly distancing themselves from the Church. The right was granted by the pope to the University of Paris in 1213 where it became a universal license to teach, according to Keith Allan Noble, the first doctoral degree was awarded in medieval Paris around 1150. The so-called professional, vocational, or technical curriculum of the Middle Ages included only theology, law, the doctorate of philosophy developed in Germany in the 17th century. The term philosophy does not refer solely to the field or academic discipline of philosophy, but is used in a sense in accordance with its original Greek meaning. In most of Europe, all fields were traditionally known as philosophy, the doctorate of philosophy adheres to this historic convention, even though the degrees are not always for the study of philosophy. D. University doctoral training was a form of apprenticeship to a guild, the traditional term of study before new teachers were admitted to the guild of Masters of Arts was seven years, matching the apprenticeship term for other occupations. Originally the terms master and doctor were synonymous, but over time the doctorate came to be regarded as a higher qualification than the masters degree, University degrees, including doctorates, were originally restricted to men. The use and meaning of the doctorate has changed over time, for instance, until the early 20th century few academic staff or professors in English-speaking universities held doctorates, except for very senior scholars and those in holy orders. After that time the German practice of requiring lecturers to have completed a research doctorate spread, universities shift to research-oriented education increased the doctorates importance. Today, a doctorate or its equivalent is generally a prerequisite for an academic career. Professional doctorates developed in the United States from the 19th century onward, the first professional doctorate to be offered in the United States was the M. D. The MD became the standard first degree in medicine during the 19th century, the MD, as the standard qualifying degree in medicine, gave that profession the ability to set and raise standards for entry into professional practice. The modern research degree, in the shape of the German-style Ph. D. was first awarded in the U. S. in 1861, in the UK, research doctorates initially took the form of higher doctorates, introduced from 1882 onwards. The PhD spread to the UK from the US via Canada, following the MD, the next professional doctorate, the Juris Doctor, was established by Chicago University in 1902
9.
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
10.
Modern Greek literature
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Modern Greek literature refers to literature written in common Modern Greek, emerging from late Byzantine times in the 11th century AD. During this period, spoken Greek became more prevalent in the tradition, as demotic Greek came to be used more and more over the Attic idiom. These emigres were grammarians, humanists, poets, writers, printers, lecturers, musicians, astronomers, architects, academics, artists, scribes, philosophers, scientists and they brought to Western Europe the far greater preserved and accumulated knowledge of their own civilization. The Cretan Renaissance poem Erotokritos is undoubtedly the masterpiece of early period of modern Greek literature. It is a romance written around 1600 by Vitsentzos Kornaros. The other major representative of the Cretan literature was Georgios Chortatzis and his most notable work was Erofili, adamantios Korais and Rigas Feraios are two of the most notable figures. The years before the Greek Independence, the Ionian islands became the center of the Heptanese School and its main characteristics was the Italian influence, romanticism, nationalism and use of Demotic Greek. Notable representatives were Andreas Laskaratos, Andreas Kalvos, Aristotelis Valaoritis, after the independence the intellectual center was transferred in Athens. A major figure of new era was Kostis Palamas, considered national poet of Greece. He was the figure of the Greek literary generation of the 1880s. Its main characteristic was the use of Demotic Greek and he was also the writer of the Olympic Hymn. Modern Greek literature is written in polytonic orthography, though the monotonic orthography was made official in 1981 by Andreas Papandreou government. Modern Greek literature is represented by writers, poets and novelists. Cavafy, Demetrius Vikelas, while George Seferis and Odysseas Elytis have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, beaton, An Introduction to Modern Greek Literature, Oxford University Press,1999. M. Vitti, Ιστορία της Νεοελληνικής Λογοτεχνίας, ed. Οδυσσέας, Athens,2003
11.
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
12.
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
13.
Christ Recrucified
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Christ Recrucified is a 1954 novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. It takes place in a Greek village, Lycovrisi, under Ottoman rule, the village holds Passion Plays every seven years and the elders of the village choose the actors from among the villagers. Manolios, who is chosen to play the role of Christ, is a shepherd boy who was once a novice in a monastery. He is a merchant-peddler who travels with his donkey through the villages and he is warm-hearted, naïve and loves his donkey above all else. Michelis, the son of the wealthy nobleman old Patriarcheas, becomes Apostle John, kostandis, the owner of the village café, is Apostle James the Great. He is good-hearted, willing to share, but confused, then comes Panayotaros, who is chosen to be Judas. He is a wild, passionate man, waiting for revenge, the widow Katerina is Mary Magdalene. She is beautiful, but of course an outsider in the village, but she is the most generous one and in the end gives her life for what she believes in. Then the Elders of Lycovrissi are introduced, there is the Priest Grigoris — a domineering man who bends Gods will to his own. Archon Patriarcheas is the leader of the village and he only lives for his own pleasure. Old Ladas is a miser who is obsessed with his money, hadji Nikolis is the schoolmaster, who means well but is ineffectual, haunted by fear of his brother the priest. The whole story is made colorful by the Turkish household consisting of The Agha and he lives surrounded by his Oriental splendor, drinks himself crazy and enjoys rakı and pretty boys. Hussein is the guard, a giant Oriental who does everything his master asks of him, another character is the Priest Fotis. He comes to the village with a group of starved villagers from a devastated village which has been overrun by the Turks. Denied this by the priest Grigoris, the refugees retire to the slopes of the nearby mountain Sarakina. The villagers, simple, earnest people who are fond of Manolios, there he tries to survive with the help of Manolios, Yannakos, Michelis and Konstandis. Father Grigoris is afraid to lose the power over the village and starts his campaign first against the priest and his people. At one point Manolios offers his life to save the village, the venom of the village elders appalls even the Agha, but he is too comfortable and too afraid to lose his power to do anything
14.
Captain Michalis
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Captain Michalis is a 1953 novel by the Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis. It is known as Freedom and Death in the United Kingdom, the writer was influenced by his early years on the island of Crete and uses explicit Cretan Greek words and the Cretan idiom in a way that preserves it untouched. It is one of the most widely read books of modern Greek literature which has translated and published in several languages. The book deals with the rebellion of the Cretans against the Ottoman Empire in the year 1889 and it is thought that the books title honours Kazantzakis father Michalis Kazantzakis, by whom the writer was inspired. The word Captain is not used in its naval rank sense, Freedom or Death was added as a subtitle to the second edition in Greek released by Difros publishers in Athens in 1955 and was the preferred English title. In the UK the book was published as Freedom and Death, the expression comes from the Greek national motto Freedom or Death, derived from the Greek War of Independence and used by Cretan rebels such as the books protagonist. The or was replaced with and in the ending text by Kazantzakis. Captain Michalis has been translated into many languages, including Turkish,1955, Denmark, Jespersen og Pio, Copenhagen. 1955, USA, Simon and Schuster, New York,1956, Great Britain, Bruno Cassirer, Oxford ISBN 0-85181-012-8. 1957, Argentina, Carlos Lohlé, Buenos Aires,1963, Israel, Am Oved, Tel Aviv. 1965, USSR, Vydavnytstvo Khudozhnoi Literatury Dnipro, Kiev, the book however was never translated into Russian. 1973, Albania, Shtepia Botuese Naim Frasheri Tirana,1982, China, Wai guo wen xue chu ban she, Peking. Poetry Magazine article Review by the Kazantzakis Museum Lawrence Durrells take on Freedom or Death
15.
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
16.
Modern Greek theatre
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Modern Greek theatre refers to the theatrical production and theatrical plays written in the Modern Greek language, from the post-Byzantine times until today. The renaissance which led to the modern Greek theatre, took place in the Venetian Crete, significal dramatists include Georgios Chortatzis, Vitsentzos Kornaros, and other Cretan writers. Erotokritos is undoubtedly the masterpiece of early period of modern Greek literature. It is a romance written around 1600 by Vitsentzos Kornaros. During this period, there was production of different theatrical genres, such as tragedies, comedies, pastoral and religious plays. After the occupation of Crete by the Ottoman empire, in late 17th century, the Heptanesean theatre was heavily influenced by the Italian Renaissance. Notable playwrights include Petros Katsaitis, Savoyas Rousmelis and Dimitrios Gouzelis, one of the most notable works was Vasilikos by Antonios Matesis. These writers were using mainly a conservative and archaic form of the Greek language, a notable exception is the comedy Babylonia, by Dimitris Vyzantios, a satyra of the different Greek idiomas in simple language. Until the end of the 19th century, the tragedy will dominate, such as the Maria Doxapatri. The Royal Theatre was founded in 1880 in Athens, since the 1880s new genres started to be popular. Revues, operettas and komidylio, with works like I tychi tis Maroulas, O agapitikos tis voskopoulas by Dimitrios Koromilas and Golfo by Spyros Peresiadis. With the apprearence of the New Athenian School, in the late 19th century, and the figure of Kostis Palamas. However, in 1903, a translation by the Royal Theatre of Aeschylus Oresteia in common Greek language provoked protests by students who were in favour of Katharevousa. Notable actors Aimilios Veakis, Marika Kotopouli and Cybele Andrianou, the Royal Theatre was re-founded in 1932 as National Theatre. The first plays staged were the Aeschylus Agamemnon and Gregorios Xenopoulos comedy O theios Oneiros, the first actor team included Katina Paxinou, Aimilios Veakis, Eleni Papadaki and Alexis Minotis. First theatrical director was placed Fotos Politis and from 1934 Dimitris Rontiris, after the war, new playwrights appeared, like Dimitris Psathas, Nikos Tsiforos. Their work in cases was transferred in the cinema. For example, most of the plays of Sakellarios/Giannakopoulos, were transferred also in the cinema, significant theatrical actors appeared also in the movies of the Greek cinema, like Dimitris Horn, Manos Katrakis, Orestis Makris, Melina Mercouri and more
17.
Travel literature
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The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century AD, in the early modern period, James Boswells Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides helped shape travel memoir as a genre. The travel genre was a common genre in medieval Arabic literature. Travel literature became popular during the Song Dynasty of medieval China, the genre was called travel record literature, and was often written in narrative, prose, essay and diary style. One of the earliest known records of taking pleasure in travel, of travelling for the sake of travel and he states that he went to the mountaintop for the pleasure of seeing the top of the famous height. His companions who stayed at the bottom he called frigida incuriositas and he then wrote about his climb, making allegorical comparisons between climbing the mountain and his own moral progress in life. Antoine de la Sale, author of Petit Jehan de Saintre, climbed to the crater of a volcano in the Lipari Islands in 1407, councils of mad youth were his stated reasons for going. In 1589, Richard Hakluyt published Voyages, a text of the travel literature genre. In the 18th Century, travel literature was commonly known as the book of travels, in 18th century Britain, almost every famous writer worked in the travel literature form. Captain James Cooks diaries were the equivalent of todays best sellers, Other later examples of travel literature include accounts of the Grand Tour. Aristocrats, clergy, and others with money and leisure time travelled Europe to learn about the art, a very popular subgenre of travel literature started to emerge in the form of narratives of exploration, a still unexplored source for colonial and postcolonial studies. Travel books range in style from the documentary to the evocative, from literary to journalistic and they are often associated with tourism and include guide books, meant to educate the reader about destinations, provide advice for visits, and inspire readers to travel. Travel writing may be found on web sites, in periodicals and it has been produced by a variety of writers, such as travelers, military officers, missionaries, explorers, scientists, pilgrims, social and physical scientists, educators, and migrants. Travel literature often intersects with essay writing, as in V. S. Naipauls India, A Wounded Civilization, whose trip became the occasion for extended observations on a nation and this is similarly the case in Rebecca Wests work on Yugoslavia, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. Sometimes a writer will settle into a locality for an extended period, examples of such writings include Lawrence Durrells Bitter Lemons, Deborah Talls The Island of the White Cow, and Peter Mayles best-selling A Year in Provence and its sequels. Travel and nature writing merge in many of the works by Sally Carrighar, Gerald Durrell and these authors are naturalists, who write in support of their fields of study. Another naturalist, Charles Darwin, wrote his famous account of the journey of HMS Beagle at the intersection of science, natural history, a number of writers famous in another field have written about their travel experiences. H. Lawrences Twilight in Italy and Other Essays, Mornings in Mexico and Other Essays, Rebecca Wests Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, in the world of sailing Joshua Slocums Sailing Alone Around the World is a classic of outdoor adventure literature
18.
Zorba the Greek (film)
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Zorba the Greek is a 1964 British-Greek comedy-drama film written, produced, edited, and directed by Cypriot Michael Cacoyannis and starring Anthony Quinn as the title character. Based on the 1946 novel of the name by Nikos Kazantzakis, the films supporting cast includes Alan Bates, Lila Kedrova, Irene Papas. Basil is a half-English, half-Greek writer raised in Britain who bears the hallmarks of an uptight and he is waiting at the Athens port of Piraeus on mainland Greece to catch a boat to Crete when he meets a gruff, yet enthusiastic Greek Macedonian peasant and musician named Zorba. Basil explains to Zorba that he is traveling to a rural Cretan village where his father owns some land, with the intention of reopening a lignite mine, Zorba relates his experience with mining and convinces Basil to take him along. When they arrive at Crete, they take a car to the village where they are greeted enthusiastically by the impoverished peasant community. They stay with an old French war widow and courtesan named Madame Hortense in her self-styled Hotel Ritz. The audacious Zorba tries to persuade Basil into making a move on the much older Madame Hortense, but when he is reluctant, Zorba seizes the opportunity. Over the next few days, Basil and Zorba attempt to work the old lignite mine, but find it unsafe and shut it down. Zorba then has an idea to use the forest in the mountains for logging, however the land is owned by a powerful monastery, so Zorba visits and befriends the monks. Afterwards, he comes home to Basil and begins to dance in a way that mesmerizes Basil, one rainy afternoon, Basil offers her his umbrella, which she reluctantly takes. Zorba suggests that she is attracted to him, but Basil, ever shy, denies this, Basil hands Zorba some money, and sends him off to the large town of Chania, where Zorba is to buy cable and other supplies for the implementation of his grand plan. Zorba says goodbye to Basil and Madame Hortense, who is by now madly in love with him, in Chania, Zorba entertains himself at a cabaret and strikes up a brief romance with a much younger dancer. In a letter to Basil, he details his exploits and indicates that he has found love, meanwhile, the Widow returns Basils umbrella by way of Mimithos, the village idiot. When Zorba eventually returns with supplies and gifts, he is surprised and angered to hear of Basils lie to Madame Hortense and he also asks Basil about his whereabouts the night before. That night, Basil had gone to the Widows house, made love to her, the brief encounter comes at great cost. A villager catches sight of them, and word spreads, the next morning, the villagers find his body by the sea, where he has drowned himself out of shame. The boys father holds a funeral which the villagers attend, the widow attempts to come inconspicuously, but is blocked from entering the church. She is eventually trapped in the courtyard, then beaten and stoned by the villagers, Basil, meek and fearful of intervening, tells Mimithos to quickly fetch Zorba
19.
The Last Temptation of Christ (film)
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The Last Temptation of Christ is a 1988 American epic drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. Written by Paul Schrader with uncredited rewrites from Scorsese and Jay Cocks, the film, starring Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Andre Gregory, Harry Dean Stanton and David Bowie, was shot entirely in Morocco. Like the novel, the film depicts the life of Jesus Christ and his struggle with various forms of temptation including fear, doubt, depression, reluctance and lust. This results in the book and film depicting Christ being tempted by imagining himself engaged in sexual activities, the film includes a disclaimer explaining that it departs from the commonly accepted biblical portrayal of Jesus life and is not based on the Gospels. The film received polarized reviews from critics on its release but Scorsese received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director, hersheys performance as Mary Magdalene earned her a nomination for the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. Peter Gabriels music score also received acclaim, including a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, Jesus of Nazareth is a carpenter in Roman-occupied Judea, torn between his own desires and his knowledge that God has a plan for him. His conflict results in self-loathing, and he collaborates with the Romans to crucify Jewish rebels, Judas Iscariot, a friend of Jesus originally sent to kill him for collaboration, instead suspects that Jesus is the Messiah and asks him to lead a liberation war against the Romans. Jesus replies that his message is love of mankind, whereupon Judas joins Jesus in his ministry, Jesus also has an undisclosed prior relationship with Mary Magdalene, a Jewish prostitute. After saving Mary Magdalene from a mob gathered to stone her for prostitution and working on the sabbath and he acquires disciples, but remains uncertain of his role. He visits John the Baptist, who baptizes him, and the two discuss theology and politics, johns primary goal is to gain freedom from the Romans, while Jesus maintains people should tend to matters of the spirit. Jesus returns from the desert to the home of Martha and Mary of Bethany, who restore him to health and attempt to persuade him that the way to please God is to have a home, a marriage, and children. Jesus then appears to his disciples to tear out his own heart. With newfound confidence he performs miracles and raises Lazarus from the dead. Eventually his ministry reaches Jerusalem, where Jesus performs the Cleansing of the Temple and leads an army to capture the temple by force. He begins bleeding from his hands, which he recognizes as a sign that he must die on the cross to bring salvation to mankind, confiding in Judas, he persuades the latter to give him to the Romans, despite Judas inclination otherwise. Jesus convenes his disciples for Passover seder, whereupon Judas leads a contingent of soldiers to arrest Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, Pontius Pilate confronts Jesus and tells him that he must be put to death because he represents a threat to the Roman Empire. Jesus is flogged, a crown of thorns is placed on his head, while on the cross, Jesus converses with a young lady who claims to be his guardian angel. She tells him that although he is the Son of God, he is not the Messiah, and that God is pleased with him and she brings him down off the cross and, invisible to others, takes him to Mary Magdalene, whom he marries
20.
Modern Greek
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Modern Greek refers to the dialects and varieties of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. Varieties of Modern Greek include several varieties, including Demotic, Katharevousa, Pontic, Cappadocian, Mariupolitan, Southern Italian, Yevanic, Demotic Greek comprises various regional varieties with minor linguistic differences, mainly in phonology and vocabulary. Due to the degree of mutual intelligibility of these varieties, Greek linguists refer to them as idioms of a wider Demotic dialect. Most English-speaking linguists however refer to them as dialects, emphasising degrees of variation only when necessary, Demotic Greek varieties are divided into two main groups, Northern and Southern. The main distinguishing feature common to Northern variants is a set of standard phonological shifts in unaccented vowel phonemes, becomes, becomes, and and are dropped. The dropped vowels existence is implicit, and may affect surrounding phonemes, for example, Southern variants do not exhibit these phonological shifts. Examples of Northern dialects are Rumelian, Epirote, Thessalian, Macedonian, Thracian, Demotic Greek has officially been taught in monotonic Greek script since 1982. Polytonic script remains popular in intellectual circles, Katharevousa is a semi-artificial sociolect promoted in the 19th century at the foundation of the modern Greek state, as a compromise between Classical Greek and modern Demotic. It was the language of modern Greece until 1976. Katharevousa is written in polytonic Greek script, also, while Demotic Greek contains loanwords from Turkish, Italian, Latin, and other languages, these have for the most part been purged from Katharevousa. It hails from Hellenistic and Medieval Koine and preserves characteristics of Ionic due to ancient colonizations of the region, Pontic evolved as a separate dialect from Demotic Greek as a result of the regions isolation from the Greek mainstream after the Fourth Crusade fragmented the Byzantine Empire into separate kingdoms. Rumeíka or Mariupolitan Greek is a dialect spoken in about 17 villages around the northern coast of the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine, thereafter, the Crimean Greek state continued to exist as the independent Greek Principality of Theodoro. The Greek-speaking inhabitants of Crimea were invited by Catherine the Great to resettle in the new city of Mariupol after the Russo-Turkish War to escape the then Muslim-dominated Crimea, mariupolitans main features have certain similarities with both Pontic and the northern varieties of the core dialects. Southern Italian or Italiot comprises both Calabrian and Griko varieties, spoken by around 15 villages in the regions of Calabria and Apulia, the Southern Italian dialect is the last living trace of Hellenic elements in Southern Italy that once formed Magna Graecia. Its origins can be traced to the Dorian Greek settlers who colonised the area from Sparta, Griko and Demotic are mutually intelligible to some extent, but the former shares some common characteristics with Tsakonian. Yevanic is an extinct language of Romaniote Jews. The language was already in decline for centuries until most of its speakers were killed in the Holocaust, afterward, the language was mostly kept by remaining Romaniote emigrants to Israel, where it was displaced by modern Hebrew. Tsakonian evolved directly from Laconian and therefore descends from the Doric branch of the Greek language and it has limited input from Hellenistic Koine and is significantly different from and not mutually intelligible with other Greek varieties
21.
Divine Comedy
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The Divine Comedy is a long narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c.1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work in Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature, the poems imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written and it is divided into three parts, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. On the surface, the poem describes Dantes travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise or Heaven, but at a level, it represents, allegorically. At this deeper level, Dante draws on medieval Christian theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy, consequently, the Divine Comedy has been called the Summa in verse. The work was simply titled Comedìa and the word Divina was added by Giovanni Boccaccio. The first printed edition to add the word divina to the title was that of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce, the Divine Comedy is composed of 14,233 lines that are divided into three canticas – Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso – each consisting of 33 cantos. An initial canto, serving as an introduction to the poem and generally considered to be part of the first cantica, the number three is prominent in the work, represented in part by the number of canticas and their lengths. Additionally, the scheme used, terza rima, is hendecasyllabic, with the lines composing tercets according to the rhyme scheme aba, bcb, cdc. Written in the first person, the tells of Dantes journey through the three realms of the dead, lasting from the night before Good Friday to the Wednesday after Easter in the spring of 1300. The Roman poet Virgil guides him through Hell and Purgatory, Beatrice, Dantes ideal woman, within each group of 9,7 elements correspond to a specific moral scheme, subdivided into three subcategories, while 2 others of greater particularity are added to total nine. For example, the seven sins of the Catholic Church that are cleansed in Purgatory are joined by special realms for the Late repentant. The core seven sins within Purgatory correspond to a scheme of love perverted, subdivided into three groups corresponding to excessive love, deficient love, and malicious love. In central Italys political struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines, Dante was part of the Guelphs, who in general favored the Papacy over the Holy Roman Emperor, florences Guelphs split into factions around 1300, the White Guelphs and the Black Guelphs. The last word in each of the three canticas is stelle, the poem begins on the night before Good Friday in the year 1300, halfway along our lifes path. Conscious that he is ruining himself and that he is falling into a low place where the sun is silent, Dante is at last rescued by Virgil, the circles number 9, with the addition of Satan completing the structure of 9 +1 =10. Having survived the depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend out of the undergloom to the Mountain of Purgatory on the far side of the world. The Mountain is on an island, the land in the Southern Hemisphere
22.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
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Thus Spoke Zarathustra, A Book for All and None is a philosophical novel by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, composed in four parts between 1883 and 1885 and published between 1883 and 1891. Much of the deals with ideas such as the eternal recurrence of the same, the parable on the death of God, and the prophecy of the Übermensch. Thus Spoke Zarathustra was conceived while Nietzsche was writing The Gay Science, he made a note, reading 6,000 feet beyond man and time. Nietzsche planned to write the book in three parts over several years, Nietzsche commented in Ecce Homo that for the completion of each part, Ten days sufficed, in no case, neither for the first nor for the third and last, did I require more. The first three parts were first published separately, and were published in a single volume in 1887. The fourth part remained private after Nietzsche wrote it in 1885, in March 1892, the four parts were finally reprinted as a single volume. Since then, the version most commonly produced has included all four parts, the original text contains a great deal of word-play. An example of this is the use of words beginning über and unter, often paired to emphasise the contrast, an example is Untergang, literally down-going but used in German to mean setting, which Nietzsche pairs with its opposite Übergang. Another example is Übermensch, discussed later in this article, the book chronicles the fictitious travels and speeches of Zarathustra. Zarathustras namesake was the founder of Zoroastrianism, usually known in English as Zoroaster, Nietzsche is clearly portraying a new or different Zarathustra, one who turns traditional morality on its head. It possesses a unique style, one that is, for instance. Likewise, the separate Dithyrambs of Dionysus was written in autumn 1888, some speculate that Nietzsche intended to write about final acts of creation and destruction brought about by Zarathustra. Zarathustra also contains the famous dictum God is dead, which had appeared earlier in The Gay Science, in his autobiographical work Ecce Homo, Nietzsche states that the books underlying concept is discussed within the penultimate section of the fourth book of The Gay Science. It is the recurrence of the same events. This concept first occurred to Nietzsche while he was walking in Switzerland through the woods along the lake of Silvaplana, he was inspired by the sight of a gigantic, towering, pyramidal rock. Before Zarathustra, Nietzsche had mentioned the concept in the book of The Gay Science. Apart from its salient presence in Zarathustra, it is echoed throughout Nietzsches work. At any rate, it is by Zarathustras transfiguration that he embraces eternity, the Übermensch is one of the many interconnecting, interdependent themes of the story, and is represented through several different metaphors
23.
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
24.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
25.
Juris Doctor
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The Juris Doctor degree, also known as the Doctor of Jurisprudence degree, is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. It is earned by completing law school in Australia, Canada and the United States and it has the academic standing of a second-entry, professional baccalaureate degree in Canada, a masters degree in Australia and a professional doctorate in the United States. The degree was first awarded in the United States in the early 20th century and was created as a version of the old European doctor of law degree. Originating from the 19th century Harvard movement for the study of law. It involves a program in most jurisdictions. To be authorized to practice law in the courts of a state in the United States. Lawyers must, however, be admitted to the bar of the court before they are authorized to practice in that court. Admission to the bar of a district court includes admission to the bar of the related bankruptcy court. In the United States, the doctorate in law may be conferred in Latin or in English, as Juris Doctor and at some law schools Doctor of Law. Juris Doctor literally means Teacher of Law, while the Latin for Doctor of Jurisprudence—Jurisprudentiae Doctor—literally means Teacher of Legal Knowledge, the J. D. is not to be confused with Doctor of Laws or Legum Doctor. In institutions where the latter can be earned, e. g. D, the LL. D. is invariably an honorary degree in the United States. The first university in Europe, the University of Bologna, was founded as a school of law by four famous legal scholars in the 11th century who were students of the school in that city. This served as the model for law schools of the Middle Ages. While Bologna granted only doctorates, preparatory degrees were introduced in Paris, the nature of the J. D. can be better understood by a review of the context of the history of legal education in England. The teaching of law at Cambridge and Oxford Universities was mainly for philosophical or scholarly purposes, the universities taught only civil and canon law but not the common law that applied in most jurisdictions. The original method of education at the Inns of Court was a mix of moot court-like practice and lecture, by the fifteenth century, the Inns functioned like a university akin to the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, though very specialized in purpose. With the frequent absence of parties to suits during the Crusades, the importance of the role grew tremendously. The apprenticeship program for solicitors thus emerged, structured and governed by the rules as the apprenticeship programs for the trades
26.
Friedrich Nietzsche
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He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869, Nietzsche resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life, and he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and he lived his remaining years in the care of his mother, and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, and died in 1900. Nietzsches body of work touched widely on art, philology, history, religion, tragedy, culture, and science, and drew inspiration from figures such as Schopenhauer, Wagner. His writing spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism, born on 15 October 1844, Nietzsche grew up in the small town of Röcken, near Leipzig, in the Prussian Province of Saxony. He was named after King Frederick William IV of Prussia, who turned forty-nine on the day of Nietzsches birth, Nietzsches parents, Carl Ludwig Nietzsche, a Lutheran pastor and former teacher, and Franziska Oehler, married in 1843, the year before their sons birth. They had two children, a daughter, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, born in 1846, and a second son, Ludwig Joseph. Nietzsches father died from an ailment in 1849, Ludwig Joseph died six months later. The family then moved to Naumburg, where they lived with Nietzsches maternal grandmother, after the death of Nietzsches grandmother in 1856, the family moved into their own house, now Nietzsche-Haus, a museum and Nietzsche study centre. Nietzsche attended a school and then, later, a private school, where he became friends with Gustav Krug, Rudolf Wagner. In 1854, he began to attend Domgymnasium in Naumburg, because his father had worked for the state the now-fatherless Nietzsche was offered a scholarship to study at the internationally recognized Schulpforta. He transferred and studied there from 1858 to 1864, becoming friends with Paul Deussen and he also found time to work on poems and musical compositions. Nietzsche led Germania, a music and literature club, during his summers in Naumburg. His end-of-semester exams in March 1864 showed a 1 in Religion and German, a 2a in Greek and Latin, a 2b in French, History, and Physics, while at Pforta, Nietzsche had a penchant for pursuing subjects that were considered unbecoming. The teacher who corrected the essay gave it a mark but commented that Nietzsche should concern himself in the future with healthier, more lucid. After graduation in September 1864, Nietzsche commenced studies in theology, for a short time he and Deussen became members of the Burschenschaft Frankonia. After one semester, he stopped his studies and lost his faith. In June 1865, at the age of 20, Nietzsche wrote to his sister Elisabeth, who was deeply religious, a letter regarding his loss of faith
27.
Henri Bergson
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Henri-Louis Bergson was a French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century and after WWII in continental philosophy. Bergson is known for his arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism. He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas, in 1930 France awarded him its highest honour, the Grand-Croix de la Legion dhonneur. Bergson was born in the Rue Lamartine in Paris, not far from the Palais Garnier in 1859 and his father, the pianist Michał Bergson, was of a Polish Jewish background. His great-grandmother, Temerl Bergson, was a well-known patroness and benefactor of Polish Jewry and his mother, Katherine Levison, daughter of a Yorkshire doctor, was from an English and Irish Jewish background. The Bereksohns were a famous Jewish entrepreneurial family of Polish descent, Henri Bergsons great-great-grandfather, Szmul Jakubowicz Sonnenberg, called Zbytkower, was a prominent banker and a protégé of Stanisław August Poniatowski, King of Poland from 1764 to 1795. Henri Bergsons family lived in London for a few years after his birth, before he was nine, his parents settled in France, Henri becoming a naturalized French citizen. Henri Bergson married Louise Neuberger, a cousin of Marcel Proust, Henri and Louise Bergson had a daughter, Jeanne, born deaf in 1896. Bergsons sister, Mina Bergson, married the English occult author Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, a founder of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and he then replaced Gabriel Tarde in the Chair of Modern Philosophy, which he held until 1920. The public attended his open courses in large numbers, Bergson attended the Lycée Fontanes in Paris from 1868 to 1878. He had previously received a Jewish religious education, between 14 and 16, however, he lost his faith. While at the lycée Bergson won a prize for his work and another, in 1877 when he was eighteen. His solution was published the year in Annales de Mathématiques. It was his first published work, after some hesitation as to whether his career should lie in the sphere of the sciences or that of the humanities, he decided in favour of the latter, to the dismay of his teachers. When he was nineteen, he entered the École Normale Supérieure, during this period, he read Herbert Spencer. He obtained there the degree of licence ès lettres, and this was followed by that of agrégation de philosophie in 1881 from the University of Paris, the same year he received a teaching appointment at the lycée in Angers, the ancient capital of Anjou. Two years later he settled at the Lycée Blaise-Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand, while teaching and lecturing in this part of his country, Bergson found time for private study and original work. He crafted his dissertation Time and Free Will, which was submitted, along with a short Latin thesis on Aristotle, the work was published in the same year by Félix Alcan
28.
Angelos Sikelianos
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Angelos Sikelianos was a Greek lyric poet and playwright. His themes include Greek history, religious symbolism as well as universal harmony in poems such as The Moonstruck, Prologue to Life, Mother of God, and Delphic Utterance. His plays include Sibylla, Daedalus in Crete, Christ in Rome, The Death of Digenis, The Dithyramb of the Rose, although occasionally his grandiloquence blunts the poetic effect of his work, some of Sikelianos finer lyrics are among the best in Western literature. Sikelianos was born in Lefkada where he spent his childhood, in 1900, he registered to the Athens Law School but never graduated. In the course of the years he traveled extensively and devoted himself to poetry. In 1907, he married the AmericanEva Palmer in America, the moved to Athens in 1908. He also befriended fellow writer Nikos Kazantzakis, and in 1914 they spent forty days on Mount Athos, visiting most of the monasteries there, the following year they embarked on a pilgrimage through Greece. The two writers were kindred spirits, but also different in their respective views on life. Sikelianos was a man of the world, full of optimism, Kazantzakis was the taciturn and reclusive counterpart who was doubt-ridden, and had, as he himself admitted, a tendency to focus on the skull behind the face. Together, however, they shared the mutual concern of attempting to refine, in May 1927, with the support of his wife, Eva Palmer-Sikelianos, Sikelianos held the Delphic Festival as part of his general effort towards a revival of the Delphic Idea. Sikelianos believed that the principles which had shaped classical civilisation, if reexamined, could offer spiritual independence, the event consisted of athletic contests a concert of Byzantine music, an exhibition of folk art as well as a performance of Prometheus Bound. The Delphic Festivals were acclaimed by critics and despite a lack of state assistance, the revival was then permanently abandoned due to the excessive organization costs. In honor of the memory of Angelos and Eva Sikelianos, the European Cultural Centre of Delphi bought and restored their house in Delphi, Eva Palmer left for the United States, and Sikelianos married Anna Karamani. During the German occupation, he became a source of inspiration to the Greek people, especially through his speech and it was he who composed the letter which was spearheaded by Archbishop Damaskinos to save the lives of Greek Jews by appealing directly to the Germans. The letter was signed by many prominent Greek citizens in defense of the Jews who were being persecuted, there is no similar document of protest against Nazi occupiers during World War II that has come to light in any other European country. In 1949, he was a Nobel Prize for Literature candidate, Sikelianos suffered from a chronic disease for several years, he died accidentally on June 19,1951 in Athens from inadvertently drinking Lysol after having requested Nujol. He was buried in the First Cemetery of Athens, Sikelianos published his poetic work in three volumes in 1946 and 1947. The collections title was Lyric Life and he left, however, several poems unpublished
29.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
30.
Cyprus
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Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and Palestine, north of Egypt, the earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC, Cyprus was placed under British administration based on Cyprus Convention in 1878 and formally annexed by Britain in 1914. While Turkish Cypriots made up 18% of the population, the partition of Cyprus and creation of a Turkish state in the north became a policy of Turkish Cypriot leaders, following nationalist violence in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted independence in 1960. On 15 July 1974, a coup détat was staged by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta in an attempt at enosis and these events and the resulting political situation are matters of a continuing dispute. The Cyprus Republic has de jure sovereignty over the island of Cyprus, as well as its territorial sea and exclusive economic area, another nearly 4% of the islands area is covered by the UN buffer zone. The international community considers the part of the island as territory of the Republic of Cyprus occupied by Turkish forces. The occupation is viewed as illegal under law, amounting to illegal occupation of EU territory since Cyprus became a member of the European Union. Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean, on 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the eurozone. The earliest attested reference to Cyprus is the 15th century BC Mycenaean Greek
31.
Aegina
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Aegina is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf,27 kilometres from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina the mother of the hero Aeacus, during ancient times Aegina was a rival of Athens, the great sea power of the era. The municipality of Aegina consists of the island of Aegina and a few offshore islets and it is part of the Islands regional unit, Attica region. The municipality is subdivided into the five communities, Aegina Kypseli Mesagros Perdika Vathy The capital is the town of Aegina. Due to its proximity to Athens, it is a vacation place during the summer months. The province of Aegina was one of the provinces of the Piraeus Prefecture and its territory corresponded with that of the current municipalities Aegina and Agkistri. Aegina is roughly triangular in shape, approximately 15 km from east to west and 10 km from north to south, with an area of 87.41 km2, an extinct volcano constitutes two thirds of Aegina. Economically, the fisheries are of notable importance. The southern volcanic part of the island is rugged and mountainous and its highest rise is the conical Mount Oros in the south, and the Panhellenian ridge stretches northward with narrow fertile valleys on either side. The beaches are also a popular tourist attraction, hydrofoil ferries from Piraeus take only forty minutes to reach Aegina, the regular ferry takes about an hour, with ticket prices for adults within the 4–15 euro range. There are regular bus services from Aegina town to destinations throughout the island such as Agia Marina, portes is a fishing village on the east coast. Aegina, according to Herodotus, was a colony of Epidaurus and its placement between Attica and the Peloponnesus made it a site of trade even earlier, and its earliest inhabitants allegedly came from Asia Minor. Minoan ceramics have been found in contexts of ca.2000 BC, the famous Aegina Treasure, now in the British Museum is estimated to date between 1700 and 1500 BC. It is probable that the island was not doricised before the 9th century BC. e. not later than the half of the 7th century BC. Its early history reveals that the importance of the island dates back to pre-Dorian times. It is usually stated on the authority of Ephorus, that Pheidon of Argos established a mint in Aegina, the first city-state to issue coins in Europe, one stamped stater can be seen in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris. It is an electrum stater of a turtle, a sacred to Aphrodite. The fact that the Aeginetic standard of weights and measures was one of the two standards in use in the Greek world is sufficient evidence of the early commercial importance of the island
32.
Mount Sinai
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Mount Sinai, also known as Mount Horeb or Gabal Musa, is a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt that is a possible location of the biblical Mount Sinai. The latter is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus and other books of the Bible, according to Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition, the biblical Mount Sinai was the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments. Mount Sinai is a 2, 285-metre moderately high mountain near the city of Saint Catherine in the Sinai region and it is next to Mount Catherine. It is surrounded on all sides by higher peaks of the mountain range, Mount Sinais rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shields evolution. Mount Sinai displays a complex that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types. The granites range in composition from syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite, the volcanic rocks are alkaline to peralkaline and they are represented by subaerial flows and eruptions and subvolcanic porphyry. Generally, the nature of the rocks in Mount Sinai indicates that they originated from differing depths. The biblical Mount Sinai is one of the most important sacred places in the Jewish, Christian, according to Bedouin tradition, it was the mountain where God gave laws to the Israelites. Christians settled upon this mountain in the third century AD, georgians from the Caucasus moved to the Sinai Peninsula in the Fifth Century, and a Georgian colony was formed there in the Ninth Century. Georgians erected their own churches in the area of the modern Mount Sinai, the construction of one such church was connected with the name of David The Builder, who contributed to the erecting of churches in Georgia and abroad as well. There were political, cultural and religious motives for locating the church on Mount Sinai, Georgian monks living there were deeply connected with their motherland. The church had its own plots in Kartli, some of the Georgian manuscripts of Sinai remain there, but others are kept in Tbilisi, St. Petersburg, Prague, New York, Paris, or in private collections. According to some scholars, the Song of Deborah suggests that God dwelt at Mount Seir, Saint Catherines Monastery lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of an inaccessible gorge at the foot of modern Mount Sinai in Saint Catherine at an elevation of 1550 meters. The monastery is Greek Orthodox and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, there are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower route, Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, the steeper, more direct route is up the 3,750 steps of penitence in the ravine behind the monastery. The summit of the mountain has a mosque that is used by Muslims. It also has a Greek Orthodox chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th-century church, the chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone. At the summit also is Moses cave, where Moses was said to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments
33.
Czechoslovakia
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From 1939 to 1945, following its forced division and partial incorporation into Nazi Germany, the state did not de facto exist but its government-in-exile continued to operate. From 1948 to 1990, Czechoslovakia was part of the Soviet bloc with a command economy and its economic status was formalized in membership of Comecon from 1949, and its defense status in the Warsaw Pact of May 1955. A period of liberalization in 1968, known as the Prague Spring, was forcibly ended when the Soviet Union, assisted by several other Warsaw Pact countries. In 1993, Czechoslovakia split into the two states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Form of state 1918–1938, A democratic republic, 1938–1939, After annexation of Sudetenland by Nazi Germany in 1938, the region gradually turned into a state with loosened connections among the Czech, Slovak, and Ruthenian parts. A large strip of southern Slovakia and Carpatho-Ukraine was annexed by Hungary, 1939–1945, The region was split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the Slovak Republic. A government-in-exile continued to exist in London, supported by the United Kingdom, United States and its Allies, after the German invasion of Russia, Czechoslovakia adhered to the Declaration by United Nations and was a founding member of the United Nations. 1946–1948, The country was governed by a government with communist ministers, including the prime minister. Carpathian Ruthenia was ceded to the Soviet Union, 1948–1989, The country became a socialist state under Soviet domination with a centrally planned economy. In 1960, the country became a socialist republic, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It was a state of the Soviet Union. 1989–1990, The federal republic consisted of the Czech Socialist Republic, 1990–1992, Following the Velvet Revolution, the state was renamed the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, consisting of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. Neighbours Austria 1918–1938, 1945–1992 Germany Hungary Poland Romania 1918–1938 Soviet Union 1945–1991 Ukraine 1991–1992 Topography The country was of irregular terrain. The western area was part of the north-central European uplands, the eastern region was composed of the northern reaches of the Carpathian Mountains and lands of the Danube River basin. Climate The weather is mild winters and mild summers, influenced by the Atlantic Ocean from the west, Baltic Sea from the north, and Mediterranean Sea from the south. The area was long a part of the Austro Hungarian Empire until the Empire collapsed at the end of World War I, the new state was founded by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who served as its first president from 14 November 1918 to 14 December 1935. He was succeeded by his ally, Edvard Beneš. The roots of Czech nationalism go back to the 19th century, nationalism became a mass movement in the last half of the 19th century
34.
Nice
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Nice is the fifth most populous city in France and the capital of the Alpes-Maritimes département. The urban area of Nice extends beyond the city limits. Nice is about 13 kilometres from the principality of Monaco, the city is nicknamed Nice la Belle, which means Nice the Beautiful, which is also the title of the unofficial anthem of Nice, written by Menica Rondelly in 1912. The area of todays Nice contains Terra Amata, a site which displays evidence of a very early use of fire. Around 350 BC, Greeks of Marseille founded a permanent settlement and called it Nikaia, after Nike, through the ages, the town has changed hands many times. Its strategic location and port significantly contributed to its maritime strength, for centuries it was a dominion of Savoy, and was then part of France between 1792 and 1815, when it was returned to Piedmont-Sardinia until its re-annexation by France in 1860. The citys main seaside promenade, the Promenade des Anglais owes its name to visitors to the resort, for decades now, the picturesque Nicean surroundings have attracted not only those in search of relaxation, but also those seeking inspiration. The clear air and soft light have particularly appealed to some of Western cultures most outstanding painters, such as Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Niki de Saint Phalle and Arman. Their work is commemorated in many of the museums, including Musée Marc Chagall, Musée Matisse. Nice has the second largest hotel capacity in the country and it is one of its most visited cities and it also has the third busiest airport in France, after the two main Parisian ones. It is the capital city of the County of Nice. Nice was probably founded around 350 BC by the Greeks of Massalia, the ruins of Cemenelum are in Cimiez, now a district of Nice. In the 7th century, Nice joined the Genoese League formed by the towns of Liguria. In 729 the city repulsed the Saracens, but in 859 and again in 880 the Saracens pillaged and burned it, during the Middle Ages, Nice participated in the wars and history of Italy. As an ally of Pisa it was the enemy of Genoa, during the 13th and 14th centuries the city fell more than once into the hands of the Counts of Provence, but it regained its independence even though related to Genoa. The medieval city walls surrounded the Old Town, the landward side was protected by the River Paillon, which was later covered over and is now the tram route towards the Acropolis. The east side of the town was protected by fortifications on Castle Hill, another river flowed into the port on the east side of Castle Hill. Engravings suggest that the area was also defended by walls
35.
Antibes
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Antibes is a Mediterranean resort in the Alpes-Maritimes department of southeastern France, on the Côte dAzur between Cannes and Nice. The town of Juan-les-Pins is in the commune of Antibes and the Sophia Antipolis technology park is northwest of it, traces of occupation dating back to the early Iron Age have been found in the areas of the castle and cathedral. However, most trade was with the Greek world, via the Phocaeans of Marseille, Antipolis was founded by Phocaeans from Massilia. As a Greek colony settlement, it was known as Antipolis from its close to Nice. The exact location of the Greek city is not well known, given Greek colonial practices, it is likely that it was set at the foot of the rock of Antibes in todays old city. Traces of occupation in the Hellenistic period have been identified around the castle, the goods unearthed during these excavations show the dominance of imported products of the Marseilles region, associated with Campanian and indigenous ceramics. Early in the second century BC the Ligurian Deceates and Oxybiens tribes launched repeated attacks against Nikaia, the Greeks of Marseille appealed to Rome as they had already done a few years earlier against the federation of Salyens. In 154 BC the consul Quintus Opimius defeated the Décéates and Oxybiens, Rome gradually increased its hold over the Mediterranean coast. In 43 BC, Antipolis was officially incorporated in the province of Narbonesian Gaul. Antipolis grew into the largest town in the region and an entry point into Gaul. Roman artifacts such as aqueducts, fortified walls. The city was supplied with water by two aqueducts, the Fontvieille aqueduct rises in Biot and eventually joins the coast below the RN7 and the railway track at the Fort Carré. It was discovered and restored in the 18th century by the Chevalier dAguillon for supplying the modern city, the aqueduct called the Bouillide or Clausonnes rises near the town of Valbonne. Monumental remains of aqueduct bridges are located in the neighbourhood of Fugaret, in the forest of Valmasque, like most Roman towns Antipolis possessed these buildings for shows and entertainment. A Roman theatre is attested by the tombstone of the child Septentrion, the inscription says he danced and was popular on the stage of the theatre. The theatre was located, like the amphitheatre, between Rue de la République and Rue de Fersen, near the Porte Royale, the back wall is positioned substantially next to Rue Fourmillère. A radial wall was found on the side of the bus station. A plan of the made in the 16th century is in the Marciana National Library of Venice. The remains of the amphitheatre were still visible at the end of the 17th century during the restructuring of the fortifications of the city, a concentric oval was still visible in many plans of the seventeenth century and in a map of Antibes from the early nineteenth century
36.
Vladimir Lenin
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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known by the alias Lenin, was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as head of government of the Russian Republic from 1917 to 1918, of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1918 to 1924, under his administration, Russia and then the wider Soviet Union became a one-party socialist state governed by the Russian Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, he developed political theories known as Leninism, born to a wealthy middle-class family in Simbirsk, Lenin embraced revolutionary socialist politics following his brothers execution in 1887. Expelled from Kazan Imperial University for participating in protests against the Russian Empires Tsarist regime and he moved to Saint Petersburg in 1893 and became a senior figure in the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In 1897, he was arrested for sedition and exiled to Shushenskoye for three years, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya, after his exile, he moved to Western Europe, where he became a prominent party theorist through his publications. In 1903, he took a key role in a RSDLP ideological split, Lenins government was led by the Bolsheviks—now renamed the Communist Party—with some powers initially also held by elected soviets. It redistributed land among the peasantry and nationalised banks and large-scale industry, opponents were suppressed in the Red Terror, a violent campaign orchestrated by the state security services, tens of thousands were killed and others interned in concentration camps. Anti-Bolshevik armies, established by both right and left-wing groups, were defeated in the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922, responding to wartime devastation, famine, and popular uprisings, in 1921 Lenin promoted economic growth through a mixed economic system. Seeking to promote world revolution, Lenins government created the Communist International, waged the Polish–Soviet War, in increasingly poor health, Lenin expressed opposition to the growing power of his successor, Joseph Stalin, before dying at his Gorki mansion. He became a figurehead behind Marxism-Leninism and thus a prominent influence over the international communist movement. Lenins father, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov, was from a family of serfs, his origins remain unclear, with suggestions being made that he was Russian, Chuvash, Mordvin. Despite this lower-class background he had risen to middle-class status, studying physics and mathematics at Kazan Imperial University before teaching at the Penza Institute for the Nobility, Ilya married Maria Alexandrovna Blank in mid-1863. Well educated and from a prosperous background, she was the daughter of a German–Swedish woman. Soon after their wedding, Ilya obtained a job in Nizhny Novgorod, five years after that, he was promoted to Director of Public Schools for the province, overseeing the foundation of over 450 schools as a part of the governments plans for modernisation. His dedication to education earned him the Order of St. Vladimir, the couple had two children, Anna and Alexander, before Lenin—who would gain the childhood nickname of Volodya—was born in Simbirsk on 10 April 1870, and baptised several days later. They were followed by three children, Olga, Dmitry, and Maria. Two later siblings died in infancy, Ilya was a devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church and baptised his children into it, although Maria – a Lutheran – was largely indifferent to Christianity, a view that influenced her children. Every summer they holidayed at a manor in Kokushkino
37.
Left Opposition
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The Left Opposition was a faction within the Bolshevik Party from 1923 to 1927, headed de facto by Leon Trotsky. The Left Opposition formed as part of the struggle within the party leadership that began with the Soviet founder Vladimir Lenins illness. The Right Opposition was led by the party theoretician and Pravda editor Nikolai Bukharin. In late 1924, as Stalin proposed his new Socialism in One Country theory, Stalin drew closer to the Right Opposition and his triumvirate with Zinoviev and Kamenev slowly broke up over the next year. The Right Opposition were allied to Stalins Centre from late 1924, until their alliance broke up in the years from 1928-1930 over strategy towards the Kulaks, Trotsky and his supporters in the Left Opposition were joined by the Group of Democratic Centralism. The first confrontation between the Left Opposition and the triumvirate occurred in October 1923 – January 1924, first secretly and then, from early December on, openly. The troika won decisively at the XIII Party Conference in January 1924, the second confrontation took place in October–December 1924 during the so-called Literary Discussion and ended with the removal of Trotsky from his ministerial post on 6 January 1925. Soon after their defeat, Zinoviev and Kamenev joined forces with Trotskys Left Opposition in early 1926, in July–October 1926, the United Opposition lost out to Stalin, and its leaders were expelled from the ruling Politburo. In December 1927, the XVth Party Congress declared Left Opposition and Trotskyist views to be incompatible with Communist Party membership, Trotsky and his supporters, on the other hand, refused to capitulate to Stalin and were exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union in early 1928. Trotsky was eventually expelled from the country in February 1929, sent into exile in Turkey, the Left Opposition attempted to field opposition candidates against the official Communist Party candidates in the 1929 elections, but to no avail. In the meantime, Trotsky founded the International Left Opposition in 1930 and it was meant to be an opposition group within the Comintern, but members of the Comintern were immediately expelled as soon as they joined the ILO. The ILO therefore concluded that opposing Stalinism from within the communist organizations controlled by Stalins supporters had become impossible, in 1933, the ILO was renamed the International Communist League, which formed the basis of the Fourth International, founded in Paris in 1938. Leon Trotsky, Peoples Commissar for Foreign Affairs, founder and commander of the Red Army and Peoples Commissar of War during the Russian Civil War, expelled from the USSR in 1928, he went on to found the Fourth International. Andrei Bubnov, signed the Declaration of the 46 in October 1923, later head of the Communist Party organization within the Red Army and then People Commissar of Education. Expelled from the Party Central Committee in November 1937, arrested and perished in the Great Purge, chen Duxiu, founder of the Chinese Communist Party, from which he was expelled in 1927, and went on to found the Chinese Left Opposition Yakov Drobnis. Nikolai Muralov, a hero of the Civil War, once Deputy Peoples Commissar of Agriculture, valerian Obolensky, one of the leaders of the Group of Democratic Centralism. Yevgeni Preobrazhensky, the theoretician of the Left Opposition, the author of The New Economics. Timofei Sapronov, one of the leaders of the Group of Democratic Centralism, ivar Smilga, chairman of the Regional Committee of the Soviets in Finland in 1917, chairman of Tsentrobalt, Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet, 1917–1918)
38.
Victor Serge
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Victor Serge, born Victor Lvovich Kibalchich, was a Russian revolutionary and writer. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks five months after arriving in Petrograd in January 1919 and later worked for the Comintern as a journalist and he was critical of the Stalinist regime and remained a revolutionary Marxist until his death. He is best remembered for his Memoirs of a Revolutionary and series of seven witness-novels chronicling the lives of revolutionaries of the first half of the 20th Century, Serge was born in Brussels, Belgium, to a couple of impoverished Russian anti-Czarist exiles. Leo, himself a Peoples Will sympathiser, had fled Russia around 1887 and gone to Switzerland and she was the daughter of an impoverished petty nobleman of Polish extraction from the Nizhni-Novgorod province. She fell in love with the handsome, feckless Kibalchich, Victor was born by chance in Brussels, where the couple were so poor that Victors younger brother died of malnutrition before Leonid eventually found work as a teacher at the Institute of Anatomy. The Kibalchich myth of revolutionary idealism and sacrifice dominated Victors impoverished childhood and he read a great deal, and became interested in socialism and anarchism along with his friends, including Raymond Callemin and Jean de Boë. Serges parents broke up in 1905, when he was 15, meanwhile, he and his friends were hanging out at an anarchist commune in the forest near Brussels, where they learned the printing trades and put out a newspaper. Serge left Brussels in 1909 and, after a stay in the Ardennes, moved to Paris, Serges first published article was written in September 1908. Under the pen name Le Rétif, Serge wrote many articles for Le Révolté and, starting in 1909, LAnarchie, a journal founded by Albert Libertad, whom Serge and his friends considered to be a hero. Serge at this stage was a supporter of individualist anarchism and illegalism, frequently clashing with the editor of LAnarchie, André Roulot. In 1910, following a schism in LAnarchie, Lorulot departed, during this time Serge was in a relationship with Rirette Maitrejean, another anarchist activist. Several of his comrades, including his friend, Raymond Callemin, were executed and others, like Jean de Boë. He was thus in prison on the outbreak of the First World War, in September 1914, Serge was in the Melun penitentiary on an island in the Seine, twenty-five miles or so from the Battle of the Marne. The local population, suspecting a French defeat, began to flee, and for a while Serge, expelled from France on his release in 1917 he went to live in Spain, which was neutral in World War I but was the scene of an attempted syndicalist revolution. It was around this time that he first used the name Victor Serge, nicholas II was overthrown in February,1917, and in July Serge decided to travel to Russia for the first time in his life, to participate in the revolutionary activities there. In order to get there he returned to France and attempted to join the Russian troops fighting there and he studied art history for two months, but was then arrested for violating the expulsion order. In October 1918 the Danish Red Cross intervened, arranging for Serge and other revolutionaries to be exchanged for Bruce Lockhart and he also believed that while revolutionary conditions were ripe in Germany, the necessary revolutionary consciousness was lacking. Serge lived in Petrograd, the former Saint Petersburg, which was going through a difficult period, at one time he lived in a mansion that had belonged to a noble family
39.
Joseph Stalin
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Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Holding the post of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he was effectively the dictator of the state. Stalin was one of the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 in order to manage the Bolshevik Revolution, alongside Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Sokolnikov, and Bubnov. Among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who took part in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and he managed to consolidate power following the 1924 death of Vladimir Lenin by suppressing Lenins criticisms and expanding the functions of his role, all the while eliminating any opposition. He remained General Secretary until the post was abolished in 1952, the economic changes coincided with the imprisonment of millions of people in Gulag labour camps. The initial upheaval in agriculture disrupted food production and contributed to the catastrophic Soviet famine of 1932–33, major figures in the Communist Party and government, and many Red Army high commanders, were arrested and shot after being convicted of treason in show trials. Stalins invasion of Bukovina in 1940 violated the pact, as it went beyond the Soviet sphere of influence agreed with the Axis, Germany ended the pact when Hitler launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Despite heavy human and territorial losses, Soviet forces managed to halt the Nazi incursion after the decisive Battles of Moscow, after defeating the Axis powers on the Eastern Front, the Red Army captured Berlin in May 1945, effectively ending the war in Europe for the Allies. The Soviet Union subsequently emerged as one of two recognized world superpowers, the other being the United States, Communist governments loyal to the Soviet Union were established in most countries freed from German occupation by the Red Army, which later constituted the Eastern Bloc. Stalin also had relations with Mao Zedong in China and Kim Il-sung in North Korea. On February 9,1946, Stalin delivered a public speech in which he explained the fundamental incompatibility of communism and capitalism. He stressed that the system needed war for raw materials. The Second World War was but the latest in a chain of conflicts which could be broken only when the economy made the transformation into communism. Stalin led the Soviet Union through its post-war reconstruction phase, which saw a significant rise in tension with the Western world that would later be known as the Cold War, Stalin remains a controversial figure today, with many regarding him as a tyrant. However, popular opinion within the Russian Federation is mixed, the exact number of deaths caused by Stalins regime is still a subject of debate, but it is widely agreed to be in the order of millions. Joseph Stalin was born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, the Russian-language version of his birth name is Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. Ioseb was born on 18 December 1878 in the town of Gori, Georgia and his father was Besarion Jughashvili, a cobbler, while his mother was Ekaterine Keke Geladze, a housemaid. As a child, Ioseb was plagued with health issues
40.
Miguel Primo de Rivera
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He deeply believed that it was the politicians who had ruined Spain and that governing without them he could restore the nation. His slogan was Country, Religion, Monarchy, historians depict him as an inept dictator who lacked clear ideas and political acumen, and who alienated his potential supporters such as the army. He did not create a base of support among the voters and his actions discredited the king and ruined the monarchy, while heightening social tensions that led in 1936 to a full-scale Spanish Civil War. On the death of his uncle in 1921 he became Marques de Estella, with the support of King Alfonso XIII and the army, Primo de Rivera led a military coup in September 1923. He was appointed Prime Minister by the King and he promised to eliminate corruption and to regenerate Spain. In order to do this he suspended the constitution, established law, imposed a strict system of censorship. Primo de Rivera initially said he would rule for only 90 days, however, little social reform took place but he attempted to reduce unemployment by spending money on public works. To pay for this, Primo de Rivera introduced higher taxes on the rich, when they complained he chose to change his policies and attempted to raise money by public loans. This caused rapid inflation and—after losing support of the army—he was forced to resign in January 1930, after his death, his son, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, played an important role in the development of fascism in Spain. Miguel Primo de Rivera was born into a military family of Jerez de la Frontera. His father was a retired colonel and his uncle, Fernando, was Captain General in Madrid and the soon-to-be first marquis of Estella. Fernando later participated in the plot to restore the monarchy in 1875. His great-grandfather was Bértrand Primo de Rivera, 21st Count of Sobremonte, studying history and engineering before deciding upon a military career, he won admission to the newly created General Academy in Toledo, and graduated in 1884. His army career gave him a role as officer in the colonial wars in Morocco, Cuba. He then held several important military posts including the captain-generalship of Valencia, Madrid and he showed courage and initiative in battles against the Berbers of the Rif region in northern Morocco, and promotions and decorations came steadily. Primo de Rivera became convinced that Spain probably could not hold on to its North African colony, for many years, the government had tried without success to crush the Berber rebels, wasting lives and money. He concluded Spain must withdraw from what was called Spanish Morocco if it could not dominate the colony and he was familiar with Cuba and the Philippines, in 1898 he watched the humiliating defeat in the Spanish–American War, bringing a close to his nations once-great empire. That loss frustrated many Spaniards, Primo de Rivera included and they criticized the politicians and the parliamentary system which could not maintain order or foster economic development at home, nor preserve the vestiges of Spains imperial glory
41.
Benito Mussolini
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Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 to 1943. He ruled constitutionally until 1925, when he dropped all pretense of democracy, known as Il Duce, Mussolini was the founder of Italian Fascism. In 1912 Mussolini was the member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party. Mussolini was expelled from the PSI for withdrawing his support for the stance on neutrality in World War I. He served in the Royal Italian Army during the war until he was wounded and discharged in 1917, Mussolini denounced the PSI, his views now centering on nationalism instead of socialism, and later founded the fascist movement. Following the March on Rome in October 1922 he became the youngest Prime Minister in Italian history until the appointment of Matteo Renzi in February 2014, within five years he had established dictatorial authority by both legal and extraordinary means, aspiring to create a totalitarian state. Mussolini remained in power until he was deposed by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1943, a few months later, he became the leader of the Italian Social Republic, a German client regime in northern Italy, he held this post until his death in 1945. Mussolini had sought to delay a major war in Europe until at least 1942, however, Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, resulting in declarations of war by France and the United Kingdom and starting World War II. In the summer of 1941 Mussolini sent Italian forces to participate in the invasion of the Soviet Union, and war with the United States followed in December. On 24 July 1943, soon after the start of the Allied invasion of Italy, the Grand Council of Fascism voted against him, on 12 September 1943, Mussolini was rescued from prison in the Gran Sasso raid by German special forces. In late April 1945, with total defeat looming, Mussolini attempted to escape north and his body was then taken to Milan, where it was hung upside down at a service station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise. Mussolini was born in Dovia di Predappio, a town in the province of Forlì in Romagna on 29 July 1883. During the Fascist era, Predappio was dubbed Duces town, pilgrims went to Predappio and Forlì, to see the birthplace of Mussolini. His father, Alessandro Mussolini, was a blacksmith and a Socialist, while his mother, Benito was the eldest of his parents three children. His siblings Arnaldo and Edvige followed, as a young boy, Mussolini would spend some time helping his father in his smithy. His fathers political outlook combined views of anarchist figures like Carlo Cafiero and Mikhail Bakunin, the military authoritarianism of Garibaldi, in 1902, at the anniversary of Garibaldis death, Benito Mussolini made a public speech in praise of the republican nationalist. The conflict between his parents about religion meant that, unlike most Italians, Mussolini was not baptized at birth, as a compromise with his mother, Mussolini was sent to a boarding school run by Salesian monks. After joining a new school, Mussolini achieved good grades, in 1902, Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland, partly to avoid military service
42.
Euro gold and silver commemorative coins (Greece)
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Greece was one of the first twelve countries in the Eurozone that introduced the euro on 1 January 2002. Since 2003, the Mint of Greece have been minting both normal issues of Greek euro coins, which are intended for circulation, and commemorative coins in gold. These special coins have a legal tender only in Greece, unlike the normal issues of the Greek euro coins and this means that the commemorative coins made of gold and silver cannot be used as money in other countries. Furthermore, as their value generally vastly exceeds their face value. For this reason, they are usually named Collectors coins, the coins usually commemorate the anniversaries of historical events or draw attention to current events of special importance. Greece mints four of coins on average per year, mainly in silver. However, to celebrate the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece minted almost three more than normal number of coins in 2003 and 2004, in both gold and silver. As of 27 October 2008,36 variations of Greek commemorative coins have been minted,15 in 2003,12 in 2004, one in 2005, the following table shows the number of coins minted per year. In the first section, the coins are grouped by the metal used, all euro greek commemorative coins poster
43.
Coat of arms of Greece
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The coat of arms of Greece displays a white cross on a blue escutcheon, which is surrounded by two laurel branches. The constitution does not specify a tincture for the branches, implying proper, the Greek government normally uses a design in which the laurel branches are monochrome blue. A version with golden laurel leaves is displayed by the military, the first Greek coat of arms was introduced during the reign of the Bavarian King Otto. Based on that of the Kingdom of Bavaria, and supported by two crowned lions rampant and surmounted by the royal crown, the escutcheon of pretence was the coat of arms of Bavaria, as a symbol of the House of Wittelsbach. This emblem was discarded upon the kings exile in 1862, when Greece became a republic in 1924, all external ornamentation was discarded. After Ottos fall, the young Prince William of Denmark was in 1864 chosen as king, the escutcheon remained the same, but the dynastic arms of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg family became the new escutcheon of pretence. The shield remained surmounded by the royal crown, two new male figures were introduced as new supporters, alluding to the legendary Heracles. The Order of the Redeemer was also added, the motto of the dynasty, i. e. Ἰσχύς μου ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ λαοῦ, was also introduced. This achievement remains in use by the current pretender Greek Royal Family, in 1973, the then-ruling military junta abolished the monarchy. 7 June 1975, the current arms was introduced and this is a restoration of the traditional arms, yet with laurel leaves being the sole external ornamentation. The government uses a design by the artist Kostas Grammatopoulos. The first Greek national emblem was provided for by the Constitution of Epidauros of 1 January 1822 and was established by decree on 15 March of the same year and it was the shape of a blue and white circular cockade. Since it was first established the emblem has undergone changes in shape and in design. The original Greek national emblem depicted the goddess Athena and the owl, at the time of Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first Prime Minister of modern Greece, the phoenix, the symbol of rebirth, was added
44.
Albert Camus
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Albert Camus was a French philosopher, author, and journalist. His views contributed to the rise of the known as absurdism. He wrote in his essay The Rebel that his life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism while still delving deeply into individual freedom. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957, Camus did not consider himself to be an existentialist despite usually being classified as a follower of it, even in his lifetime. In a 1945 interview, Camus rejected any ideological associations, No, Sartre and I are always surprised to see our names linked. Camus was born in French Algeria to a Pied-Noir family and studied at the University of Algiers, in 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons to denounce two ideologies found in both the USSR and the USA. Albert Camus was born on 7 November 1913 in Dréan in French Algeria and his mother was of Spanish descent and could only hear out of her left ear. His father, Lucien, an agricultural worker of Alsatian descent, was wounded in the Battle of the Marne in 1914 during World War I. Lucien died from his wounds in an army hospital on 11 October. Camus and his mother, a house cleaner, lived without many basic material possessions during his childhood in the Belcourt section of Algiers. In 1923, Camus was accepted into the Lycée Bugeaud and eventually was admitted to the University of Algiers, after he contracted tuberculosis in 1930, he had to end his football activities, he had been a goalkeeper for a prominent Algerian university team. In addition, he was able to study part-time. To earn money, he took odd jobs, as a tutor, car parts clerk. Camus joined the French Communist Party in early 1935, seeing it as a way to fight inequalities between Europeans and natives in Algeria. He did not suggest he was a Marxist or that he had read Das Kapital, in 1936, the independence-minded Algerian Communist Party was founded. Camus joined the activities of the Algerian Peoples Party, which got him into trouble with his Communist party comrades, Camus then became associated with the French anarchist movement. The anarchist André Prudhommeaux first introduced him at a meeting in 1948 of the Cercle des Étudiants Anarchistes as a sympathiser familiar with anarchist thought, Camus wrote for anarchist publications such as Le Libertaire, La révolution Prolétarienne, and Solidaridad Obrera, the organ of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT. Camus stood with the anarchists when they expressed support for the uprising of 1953 in East Germany and he again allied with the anarchists in 1956, first in support of the workers uprising in Poznań, Poland, and then later in the year with the Hungarian Revolution
45.
Eastern Orthodox Church
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The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had also shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are also recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin. Eastern, then, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa
46.
Existentialism
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While the predominant value of existentialist thought is commonly acknowledged to be freedom, its primary virtue is authenticity. Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophies, in style and content, as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience. Søren Kierkegaard is generally considered to have been the first existentialist philosopher and he proposed that each individual—not society or religion—is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and sincerely, or authentically. Existentialism became popular in the years following World War II, and strongly influenced many disciplines besides philosophy, including theology, drama, art, literature, and psychology. The term is seen as a historical convenience as it was first applied to many philosophers in hindsight. In fact, while existentialism is generally considered to have originated with Kierkegaard, Sartre posits the idea that what all existentialists have in common is the fundamental doctrine that existence precedes essence, as scholar Frederick Copleston explains. Sartre himself, in a lecture delivered in 1945, described existentialism as the attempt to draw all the consequences from a position of consistent atheism and this assertion comes from two sources. The Norwegian philosopher Erik Lundestad refers to the Danish philosopher Fredrik Christian Sibbern, Sibbern is supposed to have had two conversations in 1841, the first with Welhaven and the second with Kierkegaard. This was then brought to Kierkegaard by Sibbern, the second claim comes from the Norwegian historian Rune Slagstad, who claims to prove that Kierkegaard himself said the term existential was borrowed from the poet. He strongly believes that it was Kierkegaard himself who said that Hegelians do not study philosophy existentially, on the other hand, the Norwegian historian Anne-Lise Seip is critical of Slagstad, and believes the statement in fact stems from the Norwegian literary historian Cathrinus Bang. The actual life of the individuals is what constitutes what could be called their true essence instead of there being an arbitrarily attributed essence others use to define them, thus, human beings, through their own consciousness, create their own values and determine a meaning to their life. However, an existentialist philosopher would say such a wish constitutes an inauthentic existence - what Sartre would call bad faith, instead, the phrase should be taken to say that people are defined only insofar as they act and that they are responsible for their actions. For example, someone who acts cruelly towards other people is, by that act, furthermore, by this action of cruelty, such persons are themselves responsible for their new identity. This is as opposed to their genes, or human nature, as Sartre writes in his work Existentialism is a Humanism. Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world—and defines himself afterwards. Of course, the positive, therapeutic aspect of this is also implied, A person can choose to act in a different way. Here it is clear that since humans can choose to be either cruel or good, they are, in fact. Sartres definition of existentialism was based on Heideggers magnum opus Being and this way of living, Heidegger called average everydayness
