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About Greece: Legacy, People, Country, Language

About Greece (Hellas)
- The Nation
  - Flag - Constitution - Language
- Important People
  - Demosthenes - Socrates - Aristotle - Plato - Constantine - Leonidas - Alexander - Praxiteles - Philippedes - Sophocles - Homer
- Interesting Greek Links
  - Greek Celebrities - The Greek People - Greek Names - Naming Traditions

Greek Celebrities

Agganis, Harry

Agnew, Spiro

Alexander the Great

Angel, Criss

Angelos, Peter

Aniston, Jennifer

Aniston, John

Archimedes

Aristotle

Azaria, Hank

Buckley, Jeff

Bulgari family

Callas, Maria

Carasso, Isaac

Cassavetes, John

Cavafy, Constantine

Chakiris, George

Chelios, Chris

Demokritos

Dimas, Pyrros

DiScala Jamie-Lynn

Dukakis, Michael

Dukakis, Olympia

El Greco

Elytis, Odysseus

Euclid

Fey, Tina

Gage, Nicolas

Gavras, Constantine

Hajiioannou, Sir Stelios

Henner, Marilu

Hippocrates

Huffington, Arianna

Kazantzakis, Nikos

Korner, Alexis

Koteas, Ilias

Lee, Tommy

Leonsis, Ted

Londos Jim

Louganis, Greg

Maharis, George

Maroulis, Constantine

Matenopoulos, Debbie

Menounos, Maria

Mercouri, Melina

Michael, George

Mitropoulos, Dimitris

Mouskouri, Nana

Onassis, Aristotle

Onassis, Athina

Onassis, Christina

Pantages, Alexander

Papanikolaou, George

Vangelis

Pappas, Irene

Payne, Alexander

Perkins, Elizabeth

Pilates Joseph

Plato

Pythagoras

Sampras, Pete

Savalas, Telly

Scourby, Alexander

Seferis, George

Sirtis, Marina

Skouras, Spyros

Snyder, Jimmy

Socrates

Spanos, Alex

Stamos, John

Stephanopoulos, George

Stevens, Cat

Suvari, Mena

Tavoulareas, William

Tenet, George

Thales

Theodorakis, Mikis

Tsongas, Paul Efthemios

Vardalos, Nia

Von Karajan, Herbert

Vouras, Peter

Wilson, Rita

Yanni

Zane, Billy

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The origins of Western literature and of the main branches of Western learning may be traced to the era of Greek greatness that began before 700 BC with the epics of Homer (possibly born in Asia Minor), the Iliad and the Odyssey. Hesiod (fl.700 BC), the first didactic poet, put into epic verse his descriptions of pastoral life, including practical advice on farming, and allegorical myths. The poets Alcaeus (620?-580? BC), Sappho (612?-580? BC), Anacreon (582?-485? BC), and Bacchylides (fl.5th cent. BC) wrote of love, war, and death in lyrics of great feeling and beauty. Pindar (522?-438? BC) celebrated the Panhellenic athletic festivals in vivid odes. The fables of the slave Aesop (b. Asia Minor, 620?-560? BC) have been famous for more than 2,500 years. Three of the world's greatest dramatists were Aeschylus (525-456 BC), author of the Oresteia trilogy; Sophocles (496?-406? BC), author of the Theban plays; and Euripides (485?-406? BC), author of Medea, The Trojan Women, and The Bacchae. Aristophanes (450?-385? BC), the greatest author of comedies, satirized the mores of his day in a series of brilliant plays. Three great historians were Herodotus (b. Asia Minor, 484?-420? BC), regarded as the father of history, known for The Persian Wars; Thucydides (460?-400? BC), who generally avoided myth and legend and applied greater standards of historical accuracy in his History of the Peloponnesian War; and Xenophon (428?-354? BC), best known for his account of the Greek retreat from Persia, the Anabasis. Outstanding literary figures of the Hellenistic period were Menander (342-290? BC), the chief representative of a newer type of comedy; the poets Callimachus (b. Libya, 305?-240? BC), Theocritus (b. Italy, 310?-250? BC), and Apollonius Rhodius (fl.3d cent. BC), author of the Argonautica; and Polybius (200?-118? BC), who wrote a detailed history of the Mediterranean world. Noteworthy in the Roman period were Strabo (b. Asia Minor, 64? BC-AD 24?), a writer on geography; Plutarch (AD 46?-120?), the father of biography, whose Parallel Lives of famous Greeks and Romans is a chief source of information about great figures of antiquity; Pausanias (b. Asia Minor, fl. AD 150), a travel writer; and Lucian (AD 120?-180?), a satirist.

The leading philosophers of the period preceding Greece's golden age were Thales (b. Asia Minor, 625?-547? BC), Pythagoras (570?-500? BC), Heraclitus (b. Asia Minor, 540?-480? BC), Protagoras (485?-410? BC), and Democritus (460?-370? BC). Socrates (469?-399 BC) investigated ethics and politics. His greatest pupil, Plato (429?-347 BC), used Socrates' question-and-answer method of investigating philosophical problems in his famous dialogues. Plato's pupil Aristotle (384-322 BC) established the rules of deductive reasoning but also used observation and inductive reasoning, applying himself to the systematic study of almost every form of human endeavor. Outstanding in the Hellenistic period were Epicurus (341?-270 BC), the philosopher of moderation; Zeno (b. Cyprus, 335?-263? BC), the founder of Stoicism; and Diogenes (b. Asia Minor, 412?-323 BC), the famous Cynic. The oath of Hippocrates (460?-377 BC), the father of medicine, is still recited by newly graduating physicians. Euclid (fl.300 BC) evolved the system of geometry that bears his name. Archimedes (287?-212 BC) discovered the principles of mechanics and hydrostatics. Eratosthenes (275?-194? BC) calculated the earth's circumference with remarkable accuracy, and Hipparchus (190?-125? BC) founded scientific astronomy. Galen ( AD 129?-199?) was an outstanding physician of ancient times.

The sculptor Phidias (490?-430? BC) created the statue of Athena and the figure of Zeus in the temple at Olympia and supervised the construction and decoration of the Parthenon. Another renowned sculptor was Praxiteles (390?-330? BC).

The legal reforms of Solon (638?-559? BC) served as the basis of Athenian democracy. The Athenian general Miltiades (554?-489? BC) led the victory over the Persians at Marathon in 490 BC, and Themistocles (528?-460? BC) was chiefly responsible for the victory at Salamis 10 years later. Pericles (495?-429? BC), the virtual ruler of Athens for more than 25 years, added to the political power of that city, inaugurated the construction of the Parthenon and other noteworthy buildings, and encouraged the arts of sculpture and painting. With the decline of Athens, first Sparta and then Thebes, under the great military tactician Epaminondas (418?-362 BC), gained the ascendancy; but soon thereafter, two military geniuses, Philip II of Macedon (382-336 BC) and his son Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), gained control over all of Greece and formed a vast empire stretching as far east as India. It was against Philip that Demosthenes (384-322 BC), the greatest Greek orator, directed his diatribes, the Philippics.

The most renowned Greek painter during the Renaissance was El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos, 1541-1614), born in Crete, whose major works, painted in Spain, have influenced many 20th-century artists. An outstanding modern literary figure is Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957), a novelist and poet who composed a vast sequel to Homer's Odyssey. Leading modern poets are Kostes Palamas (1859-1943), Georgios Drosines (1859-1951), and Constantine Cavafy (1868-1933), as well as George Seferis (Seferiades, 1900-1972), and Odysseus Elytis (Alepoudhelis, 1911-96), winners of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1963 and 1979, respectively. Musicians of stature are the composers Nikos Skalkottas (1904-49), Iannis Xenakis (b. Romania, 1922-2001), and Mikis Theodorakis (b.1925); the conductor Dmitri Mitropoulos (1896-1960); and the soprano Maria Callas (Calogeropoulos, b. US, 1923-77). Contemporary filmmakers who have won international acclaim are Michael Cacoyannis (b.1922) and Constantin Costa-Gavras (b.1933). Actresses of note are Katina Paxinou (1900-1973); Melina Mercouri (1925-94), who was appointed minister of culture and science in the Socialist cabinet in 1981; and Irene Papas (Lelekou,b.1926).

Outstanding Greek public figures in the 20th century include Cretan-born Eleutherios Venizelos (1864-1936), prominent statesman of the interwar period; Ioannis Metaxas (1871-1941), dictator from 1936 until his death; Constantine Karamanlis (1907-98), prime minister (1955-63, 1974-80) and president (1980-85) of Greece; George Papandreou (1888-1968), head of the Center Union Party and prime minister (1963-65); and his son Andreas Papandreou (1919-96), the PASOK leader who became prime minister in 1981.

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Greek Names

Achilleas

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About the Greek Naming Tradition

A nameday is a bigger and more important event than a birthday in Greece, and the process of choosing a name follows fairly rigid conventions. Greece has kept the tradition of naming a child after the grandparents.
The eldest son is often named after the paternal grandfather, and the eldest daughter after the paternal grandmother. Names are usually of religious origin (so the kid has a nameday to celebrate) or it can be an ancient Greek name.

Each island or area in Greece has a patron saint, and people living in that area often give their children that name. Also the names Panayotis (Panayota for a girl), Maria, Despina are very often because of the love of the Greeks towards Panagia (Mary). Also sometimes parents promise to name the kid after a saint if the saint "helps" the mother to have a kid without any complications during the birth.

When you are searching for an ancestor it's important to know one thing about Greek names.

Let's assume that you're looking for a long lost relative named Yannis Thomas Pappas. On a first glance you probably think that all you have is your ancestor's first, middle and last name. This is not completely correct.

Thomas is most likely your ancestor's father name since Greeks do not really use middle names. In older times they used their father's name as a middle name in order to tell cousins apart. Therefore Yannis Thomas Pappas and Yannis Alexandros Pappas could possibly be cousins (their fathers being Thomas and Alexandros Pappas).

Then your ancestor's name could give you even more information than you think. Let's take our example's last name "Pappas". "Pappas" in Greek (the accent on the second "a") means priest, so chances are that one of your ancestors was actually a priest since most Greek last names derive from nicknames or from the job your ancestor was doing!

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The Greek Language

Like Latin, Sanskrit and Gothic, Ancient Greek is one of the oldest representatives of the Indo-European family of languages, and knowledge of it is indispensable for the work of historical and comparative linguists.

Unlike Latin, however, which was the dialect of a single region, Ancient Greek comprised a far-flung group of related dialects that covered an area extending from mainland Greece over the Aegean islands and down the eastern seaboard of Ionia (modern Turkey.) In early times, each region produced its own distinctive literature: the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer originated in Ionia, the lyric poetry of Sappho was penned on the Aegean island of Lesbos, and Athens was home to a host of great writers including Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Plato, Thucydides and Demosthenes; a desire for unmediated experience of this brilliant body of literature continues to be the primary motive for the study of Ancient Greek.

With the conquests of Alexander the Great (died 323 BC), Greek came to be spoken throughout the whole of the eastern Mediterranean world. The koine - or 'common' - dialect of Greek that emerged over this wide area also spread through the Western Roman Empire when Greek was adopted by the Romans as a language of learning and culture.

As the lingua franca of the Mediterranean world, Greek was a natural vehicle for nascent Christianity, whose scriptures were recorded in the koine. Unlike Latin, Greek never became sufficiently well established to propagate itself in daughter languages.

With the collapse of Roman political authority in Spain, Gaul and Italy, it ceased to be spoken in the western Mediterranean; knowledge of Greek was largely lost in Western Europe. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the range of the language was effectively confined to mainland Greece: Modern Greek is its sole descendant.