1.
Symbols of the European Union
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A number of symbols of Europe have emerged since antiquity. In present day, each of these may either apply to the continent as a whole, several symbols were introduced in the 1950s and 1960s by the Council of Europe. In addition to those of Pan-European identity, the EU has created symbols for itself through its integration. Europa was used as a term, for one of the great divisions of the known world. It became the term for the landmass west of the Tanais in the Roman-era geography by Strabo. Europa first began to be used in a sense, denoting the territory of Latin Christendom. Europa is a name, the name of a nymph in Hesiod, and in a legend first related by Herodotus. The classical legend of Europa being abducted not by Greek pirates, according to this account, Zeus took the guise of a tame white bull and mixed himself with the herds of Europas father. While Europa and her attendants were gathering flowers, she saw the bull. Zeus took that opportunity and ran to the sea and swam, with her on his back, there he revealed his true identity, and Europa became the first queen of Crete. Zeus gave her a necklace made by Hephaestus and three additional gifts, Talos, Laelaps and a javelin that never missed, Zeus later re-created the shape of the white bull in the stars, which is now known as the constellation Taurus. For instance, statues of Europa and the bull are located several of the European Unions institutions. Europas name appeared on postage stamps commemorating the Council of Europe, furthermore, the dome of the European Parliaments Paul-Henri Spaak building contains a large mosaic by Aligi Sassu portraying the abduction of Europa with other elements of Greek mythology. The bull is also in the corner of the new design of the residence permit card of all European Union countries. Europa regina is the depiction of the European continent as a queen. The first map to depict Europe in this manner was made by Johannes Bucius Aenicola in 1537, at the time, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V had united the lands of the Habsburgs in his hands, including Spain. Thus, the map is oriented westwards to have Spain as the crowned head, the most conspicuous reference to the Holy Roman Empire is the Carolingian hoop crown. Another connection to Charles V is the gown, which resembles the contemporary dress code at the Habsburg court, and the face of the queen, which some say resembles Charles Vs wife Isabella
2.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
3.
Europa (mythology)
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In Greek mythology Europa was the mother of King Minos of Crete, a woman with Phoenician origin of high lineage, and for whom the continent Europe was named. This can especially be said of the story of Europa, Europas earliest literary reference is in the Iliad, which is commonly dated to the 8th century BC. Another early reference to her is in a fragment of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, the earliest vase-painting securely identifiable as Europa dates from mid-7th century BC. Greek Εὐρώπη Eurṓpē contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ/ὠπ-/ὀπτ- eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion. It is common in ancient Greek mythology and geography to identify lands or rivers with female figures, thus, Europa is first used in a geographic context in the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo, in reference to the western shore of the Aegean Sea. As a name for a part of the world, it is first used in the 6th century BC by Anaximander. Barry adduces the word Ereb on an Assyrian stele with the meaning of night, sunset, in opposition to Asu sunrise and this proposal is mostly considered unlikely or untenable. They call it the temple of Astarte, I hold this Astarte to be no other than the moon-goddess. But according to the story of one of the priests this temple is sacred to Europa and this legend I heard from other Phœnicians as well, and the coinage current among the Sidonians bears upon it the effigy of Europa sitting upon a bull, none other than Zeus. Thus they do not agree that the temple in question is sacred to Europa, the paradox, as it seemed to Lucian, would be solved if Europa is Astarte in her guise as the full, broad-faced moon. Sources differ in details regarding Europas family, but agree that she is Phoenician, and from a lineage that descended from Io, the mythical nymph beloved of Zeus, who was transformed into a heifer. She is generally said to be the daughter of Agenor, the Phoenician King of Tyre, other sources, such as the Iliad, claim that she is the daughter of Agenors son, the sun-red Phoenix. So some interpret this as her brother Phoenix gave his siblings name to his three children and this Europa is also loved by Zeus, but because of the same name, gave some confusions to others. After arriving in Crete, Europa had three sons fathered by Zeus, Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon, the three of whom became the three judges of the Underworld when they died, in Crete she married Asterion also rendered Asterius and became mother of his daughter Crete. There were two competing myths relating how Europa came into the Hellenic world, but they agreed that she came to Crete, the mythical Europa cannot be separated from the mythology of the sacred bull, which had been worshipped in the Levant. There is also a sanctuary of Demeter Europa, the mythographers tell that Zeus was enamored of Europa and decided to seduce or ravish her, the two being near-equivalent in Greek myth. He transformed himself into a white bull and mixed in with her fathers herds. While Europa and her helpers were gathering flowers, she saw the bull, caressed his flanks, Zeus took that opportunity and ran to the sea and swam, with her on his back, to the island of Crete
4.
Council of Europe
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The Council of Europe is an international organisation focused on protecting human rights, democracy, rule of law in Europe and promoting European culture. Founded in 1949, it has 47 member states, covers approximately 820 million people, No country has ever joined the EU without first belonging to the Council of Europe. Unlike the EU, the Council of Europe cannot make binding laws, the best known body of the Council of Europe is the European Court of Human Rights, which enforces the European Convention on Human Rights. The Commissioner for Human Rights is an independent institution within the Council of Europe, mandated to promote awareness of, the Secretary General heads the secretariat of the organisation. Other major CoE bodies include the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines, the headquarters of the Council of Europe are in Strasbourg, France. English and French are its two official languages, the Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress also use German, Italian, Russian, and Turkish for some of their work. In a speech at the University of Zurich on 19 September 1946, Sir Winston Churchill called for a kind of United States of Europe and he had spoken of a Council of Europe as early as 1943 in a radio broadcast. There were two schools of thought competing, some favoured a classical international organisation with representatives of governments, both approaches were finally combined through the creation of the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly under the Statute of the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe was founded on 5 May 1949 by the Treaty of London and those conventions and decisions are developed by the member states working together at the Council of Europe. Both organizations function as concentric circles around the foundations for European co-operation and harmony. The European Union could be seen as the circle with a much higher level of integration through the transfer of powers from the national to the EU level. The Council of Europe and the European Union, different roles, Council of Europe conventions/treaties are also open for signature to non-member states, thus facilitating equal co-operation with countries outside Europe. The Convention created the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the Court supervises compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights and thus functions as the highest European court. It is to court that Europeans can bring cases if they believe that a member country has violated their fundamental rights. The various activities and achievements of the Council of Europe can be found in detail on its official website, Promotion of the right to education under Article 2 of the first Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights and several conventions on the recognition of university studies and diplomas. Promotion of fair sport through the Anti-Doping Convention Promotion of European youth exchanges and co-operation through European Youth Centres in Strasbourg and Budapest, Promotion of the quality of medicines throughout Europe by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and its European Pharmacopoeia. The institutions of the Council of Europe are, The Secretary General, mr Thorbjørn Jagland, the former Prime Minister of Norway was elected Secretary General of the Council of Europe in September 2009. In June 2014, he was re-elected, and his term in office commenced on 1 October 2014
5.
European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
6.
Velificatio
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Velificatio is a stylistic device used in ancient Roman art to frame a deity by means of a billowing garment. It represents vigorous movement, an epiphany, or the vault of heaven, often appearing with celestial, weather, a figure so framed is a velificans. Not all deities are portrayed as velificantes, but the device might be used to mark a member of the Imperial family who had been divinized. Velificatio is a frequent device in Roman art, including painting, mosaic, relief, the Athenian sculptor Praxiteles was able to achieve it. The term is used to describe Hellenistic art. In classical Latin, the abstract noun velificatio is uncommon, and refers to the act of setting sail, from velum, sail, the verbal form was the basis for modern scholarly usage. Pliny describes Aurae velificantes sua veste, the Breezes making a sail with their own garment at the Porticus Octaviae. Such depictions of the Aurae are known from extant Roman art, not all scholars agree on this analysis of the scene. The creatures on which the velificantes are seated also suggest Nereids, the significance of the veil is sometimes explained in terms of the initiation rites of the mystery religions. Initiates wore drapery or a veil which was lifted by a priestess, the veil was a symbol of death, and its removal in the rite signified the initiates rebirth. The velificatio thus appears in scenes on sarcophagi and in funerary art
7.
Frederik de Wit
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Frederick de Wit was a cartographer and artist who drew, printed and sold maps. On maps his name is also written Frederic, Frederik, Frederico and his surname is also written as de Witt and de Widt. He was born in Gouda and died in Amsterdam, Frederick de Wit was born Frederick Hendricksz or Frederick son of Hendrick. He was born to a Protestant family in 1629/30, in Gouda and his father Hendrick Fredericsz was a hechtmaecker from Amsterdam, and his mother Neeltij Joosten was the daughter of a merchant in Gouda. Frederick was married on August 29,1661, to Maria van der Way, from ca.1648 until his death at the end of July 1706, Frederick de Wit lived and worked in Amsterdam. Frederick and Maria had seven children, but only one Franciscus Xaverius survived them, by 1648, during the height of the Dutch Golden Age, De Wit had moved from Gouda to Amsterdam. As early as 1654 he had opened an office and shop under the name “De Drie Crabben” which was also the name of his house on the Kalverstraat. In 1655, De Wit changed the name of his shop to the “Witte Pascaert”, under this name De Wit and his firm became internationally known. The first charts engraved by De Wit were published in 1654 under the “De Drie Crabben” address, the first map that was both engraved and dated by De Wit was that of Denmark, REGNI DANIÆ Accuratissima delineatio Perfeckte Kaerte van ‘t CONJNCKRYCK DENEMARCKEN. in 1659. His first world maps, NOVA TOTIUS TERRARUM ORBIS TABULA AUCTORE F, DE WIT. and Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula appeared around 1660. His Atlas began to appear around 1662 and by 1671 included anywhere from 17 to 151 maps each, in the 1690s he began to use a new title page Atlas Maior but continued to use his old title page. His atlas of the Low Countries first published in 1667, was named Nieuw Kaertboeck van de XVII Nederlandse Provinciën and contained 14 to 25 maps. De Wit quickly expanded upon his first small folio atlas which contained mostly maps printed from plates that he had acquired, by 1671 he was publishing a large folio atlas with as many as 100 maps. Smaller atlases of 17 or 27 or 51 maps could still be purchased and by the mid-1670s an atlas of as many as 151 maps and his atlases cost between 7 and 20 Guilders depending on the number of maps, color and the quality of binding. In ca.1675 De Wit released a new nautical atlas, the charts in this atlas replaced the earlier charts from 1664 that are known today in only four bound examples and a few loose copies. De Wit’s new charts were sold in a book and as part of his atlases. De Wit published no fewer than 158 land maps and 43 charts on separate folio sheets, in 1695 De Wit began to publish a town atlas of the Netherlands after he acquired a large number of city plans at the auction of the famous Blaeu publishing firm’s printing plates. Dating De Wits atlases is considered difficult because usually no dates were recorded on the maps and their dates of publication extended over many years
8.
Ecumene
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The ecumene or oecumene was an ancient Greek term for the known world, the inhabited world, or the habitable world. Under the Roman Empire, it came to refer to civilization, in present usage, it is used as the noun form of ecumenical and describes the Christian Church as a unified whole or the unified modern world civilization. It is also used in cartography to describe a type of map used in late Antiquity. The Greek term cited above is the present middle participle of the verb οἰκέω and is a clipped form of οἰκουμένη γῆ. Eratosthenes of Cyrene deduced the circumference of the Earth with remarkable accuracy, the Greek cartographer Crates created a globe about 150 BC. Claudius Ptolemy calculated the Earths surface in his Geography and described the inhabited portion as spanning 180 degrees of longitude and about 80 degrees of latitude. Ptolemy was well aware that the Romans knew only about a quarter of the globe, in fact, symmetry led him to expect that there should be three other continents to balance the ecumene, Perioeci, Antoeci and the Antipodes. The cameo Gemma Augustea includes a Roman artistic personification of Oikoumene as she crowns an emperor, probably Augustus, the word was adopted within Christianity after Constantine the Greats assembly of a synod of bishops from all over the world at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. By that time, the Greek term had come to more specifically to the civilized world. This usage continued after the Diocletian Reforms and the Byzantine emperors used it to refer to their imperial administration, Constantinople was the Ecumenical City and, after 586, the Patriarch of Constantinople was known as the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Pope Gregory I objected to the adoption of this style by John IV of Constantinople, the name continues to be borne by the Greek Orthodox patriarchs, although with the more restricted sense that they are the bishops of the former imperial capital. The movement is not accepted by many Christian groups, relevant issues include Baptism, the Eucharist and Ministry. In the context of history, the term was first used in an academic sense by Lewis Mumford in his work, Technics and Civilization. McNeill suggested that a single global ecumene was created through the dominance of European political institutions, science, technology and it was the Spanish conquistadores that fused this second ecumene to the first to create a single integrated world system. The term is used in cartography and the historical cartography to describe a type of symbolic, schematic world map made in late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The author J. R. R. Tolkien described his Middle-earth setting for his fiction as equivalent to the Greek ecumene, in the Demon Princes series of science fiction novels by Jack Vance, the Oikumene is the term used for the human-inhabited worlds of the galaxy. In Hainish Cycle of fiction novels and stories by Ursula K, le Guin, the Ekumen is a loose confederation of inhabited worlds, linked by instantaneous communication, but separated by slower-than-light travel. In the science fiction trilogy The Golden Oecumene, by John C, wright, a polity called the Golden Oecumene spans all of the Solar System
9.
Herodotus
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Herodotus was a Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus in the Persian Empire and lived in the fifth century BC, a contemporary of Socrates. The Histories is the work which he is known to have produced. Despite Herodotus historical significance, little is known of his personal life and his place in history and his significance may be understood according to the traditions within which he worked. His work is the earliest Greek prose to have survived intact, of these only fragments of Hecataeuss work survive yet they allow us glimpses into the kind of tradition within which Herodotus wrote his own Histories. In his introduction to Hecataeus’s work, Genealogies, This points forward to the ‘folksy’ yet ‘international’ outlook typical of Herodotus. Yet, one scholar has described the work of Hecataeus as “a curious false start to history” since despite his critical spirit. It is possible that Herodotus borrowed much material from Hecataeus, as stated by Porphyry in a recorded by Eusebius. But Hecataeus did not record events that had occurred in living memory, unlike Herodotus, Herodotus claims to be better informed than his predecessors by relying on empirical observation to correct their excessive schematism. For example, He argues for continental asymmetry as opposed to the theory of a perfectly circular earth with Europe. Yet, he retains idealizing tendencies, as in his notions of the Danube. His debt to previous authors of prose ‘histories’ might be questionable, however, this point is one of the most contentious issues in modern scholarship. It is on account of the strange stories and the folk-tales he reported that his critics in early modern times branded him “The Father of Lies”. Even his own contemporaries found reason to scoff at his achievement, similarly, the Athenian historian Thucydides dismissed Herodotus as a “logos-writer”. Moreover, Thucydides developed a historical topic more in keeping with the Greek world-view, the interplay of civilizations was more relevant to Greeks living in Anatolia, such as Herodotus himself, for whom life within a foreign civilization was a recent memory. Modern scholars generally turn to Herodotus’s own writing for reliable information about his life, supplemented with ancient yet much later sources, modern accounts of his life typically go something like this, Herodotus was born at Halicarnassus around 484 BC. His name is not mentioned later in the tribute list of the Athenian Delian League, the epic poet Panyassis – a relative of Herodotus – is reported to have taken part in a failed uprising. Herodotus expresses affection for the island of Samos, and this is an indication that he might have lived there in his youth. So it is possible that his family was involved in an uprising against Lygdamis, leading to a period of exile on Samos, Herodotus wrote his Histories in the Ionian dialect, yet he was born in Halicarnassus, which was a Dorian settlement
10.
Epirus
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Epirus is a geographical and historical region in southeastern Europe, now shared between Greece and Albania. It is currently divided between the region of Epirus in northwestern Greece and the counties of Gjirokastër, Vlorë, the largest city in Epirus is Ioannina, seat of the region of Epirus, with Gjirokastër the largest city in the Albanian part of Epirus. A rugged and mountainous region, Epirus was the north-west area of ancient Greece. It was inhabited by the Greek tribes of the Chaonians, Molossians, and Thesprotians, and home to the sanctuary of Dodona, the oldest ancient Greek oracle, and the most prestigious one after Delphi. Unified into a state in 370 BC by the Aeacidae dynasty, Epirus achieved fame during the reign of Pyrrhus of Epirus. Epirus subsequently became part of the Roman Empire along with the rest of Greece in 146 BC, following the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade, Epirus became the center of the Despotate of Epirus, one of the successor states to the Byzantine Empire. Conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, Epirus became semi-independent during the rule of Ali Pasha in the early 19th century, but the Ottomans re-asserted their control in 1821. Following the Balkan Wars and World War I, southern Epirus became part of Greece, the name Epirus is derived from the Greek, Ἤπειρος, Ḗpeiros, meaning mainland or terra firma. It is thought to come from an Indo-European root *apero- coast, and was applied to the mainland opposite Corfu. The local name was stamped on the coinage of the unified Epirote commonwealth, the Albanian name for the region, which derives from the Greek, is Epiri. The historical region of Epirus is generally regarded as extending from the end of the Ceraunian mountains, located just south of the Bay of Aulon. The northern boundary of ancient Epirus is alternatively given as the mouth of the Aoös river, epiruss eastern boundary is defined by the Pindus Mountains, that form the spine of mainland Greece and separate Epirus from Macedonia and Thessaly. To the west, Epirus faces the Ionian Sea, the island of Corfu is situated off the Epirote coast but is not regarded as part of Epirus. The definition of Epirus has changed over time, such that modern administrative boundaries do not correspond to the boundaries of ancient Epirus, the region of Epirus in Greece only comprises a fraction of classical Epirus and does not include its easternmost portions, which lie in Thessaly. Epirus is a rugged and mountainous region. It is largely made up of the Pindus Mountains, a series of limestone ridges that are a continuation of the Dinaric Alps. The Pindus mountains form the spine of mainland Greece and separate Epirus from Macedonia, the ridges of the Pindus are parallel to the sea and generally so steep that the valleys between them are mostly suitable for pasture rather than large-scale agriculture. Altitude increases as one moves east, away from the coast, reaching a maximum of 2, 637m at Mount Smolikas, most of Epirus lies on the windward side of the Pindus, and the prevailing winds from the Ionian Sea make the region the rainiest in mainland Greece
