Listed 39 sub titles with search on: Subjects about the place for wider area of: "GREECE Country EUROPE" .
ACHELOOS (River) ETOLOAKARNANIA
Continuity and Change in Athenian Social and Intellectual History
Perseus Project - Thomas R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Homer to Alexander
Perseus Project - Thomas R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Homer to Alexander
GREECE (Country) EUROPE
I. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE
The Greeks are a people who appear first in history as separated
in various small States, but bound together by a common language, religion and
civilization, in the south of the Balkan Peninsula, the islands around, and the
coast of Asia Minor opposite.
For about three centuries these States attained perfection in every form of civilization
that gives them the first place in the history of Europe. Then the Greek ideal--Hellenism--spread
over Asia, Egypt, and westward
to Italy.
The original race gradually sinks in importance; the States have disappeared.
But the power of the Greek language, Greek learning, Greek art is never exhausted;
the magic of the old memories still works in every age; while political changes
cause the rise and fall of other governments, Hellenism never ceases from its
conquests. The great Roman Empire, having become too unwieldy, is divided, and
Greece gradually swallows up the eastern half. For nearly ten centuries again
Greece reigns from Constantinople.
The flood of Islam sweeps over the lands she had moulded; instead of destroying
her, this brings her to fresh conquests across the distant West. Last of all,
chiefly because of the magic of her name, the land where Hellenism was born has
succeeded in shaking off the tyrant and we have again a free Greece.
But Hellas means more than this small country. It is that mighty force,
undying from Homer to the present Phanar
at Constantinople, that,
through all changes of government, has been expressed in the same language, has
evolved its own ideals, and, unbroken in its continuity for nearly thirty centuries,
has moulded to its own likeness nearly every race it met. The barbarous tribes
of Asia Minor--Macedonians,
Christian Arabs, Egyptians and Slavs, Phoenicians and Italians, Wallachians and
even some branches of the great Turkish race--met this ideal in turn, learned
to talk Greek and to call themselves Hellenes. And at the knees of this mother
all Europe has stood. It is not the object of this article to tell again the long
story of Greece. One or two salient points only will clear the ground for an account
of Christianity among this people.
First of all, what is Greece? Greece was not united as one State even
in classical times; Alexander's empire included all manner of nations; under Rome
the scattered Greeks gradually learned to call themselves Romans. The only answer
that can be given for any period is that Greece is the land where Greeks live;
any country, any city where the people in the great majority spoke Greek, were
conscious of being Greeks, was at that time at any rate a part of Hellas: Syracuse
and Halicarnassus as much
as Athens and Corinth.
What is a Greek? It has been the special mission of Hellas to impose
her language and ideals, even the consciousness of being a Greek, on other races.
Of the enormous number of people since Alexander who spoke Greek and called themselves
Greeks the great majority were children of Hellenized barbarians. Moreover districts
were inhabited by mixed populations. The great towns were more or less completely
Hellenized, while the peasants around kept their original languages.
One must use the names Greek and Greece as comparative ones. Where
a certain degree of Greek consciousness (shown most obviously in the use of the
language) prevails, there we may call the people Greeks, more or less so according
to the measure of their absorption by Hellas. When Rome
conquered Greece (146 B.C.) there was no longer any question of a Greek political
nation. But the race goes on, and the language never dies. Constantine (A.D. 324-37)
meant his new city to be Roman. But here, too, Hellas gradually absorbed her conquerors.
At least from the time of Justinian I (527-65) the Eastern Empire, in spite of
its Roman name, must be counted a Greek State.
The Byzantine period (roughly from 527 to 1453) is the direct continuation
of the older Greek civilization. It is true that Byzantine civilization was influenced
from other sides (from Rome
and Asia Minor, for instance);
but this would apply to the old Greek ideals too, on which Egypt,
Persia, and Asia had their
influence; it is the normal process of the development of any civilization to
absorb foreign influences gradually, without breaking its own continuity. It was
a special characteristic of the Turkish conquest that it neither destroyed nor
absorbed the races subject to the sultan. The difference of religion, involving
in this case an entirely different kind of life and different ideals in everything,
prevented absorption. So, after 1453, except for the loss of independence and
the persecution in a more or less acute form that they suffered, the older European
races in the Balkans went on as before. The enormous majority kept their faith
in spite of grievous disabilities. They kept their language, too, and their consciousness
of being Greeks. They never called themselves Turks, nor thought of themselves
as part of the Turkish State. They were Greeks, their land was Greece still.
In the beginning of the nineteenth century the wave of enthusiasm
for liberty started by the French Revolution reached the Rayahs, as the Christian
subjects of the sultan were called by the Turks. The Klephts and Armatoles had
kept up a ceaseless, if hopeless, rebellion against the pashas and kaimakams.
In 1814 the “Philike Hetairia” was founded at Odessa,
to work for the freedom of Greece. In the revolution that followed, from 1821
to 1833, Greeks joined equally all over the Turkish Empire, in the islands and
coast towns of Asia Minor,
in Constantinople and Salonica
as much as in Attica and the
Peloponnesus.
Something must be said about the name. The land and the people that
we call Greece and Greeks are in their own language Hellas and Hellenes. Greek
is a form of the Latin Graecus. After the common use of the other name, Hellene,
this one still survived.
II. THE CHURCH IN GREECE BEFORE THE SCHISM (52-1054)
Greece possesses by the most undisputed right an Apostolic Church.
St. Paul, in his second missionary journey (52-53), while he was at Troas
in Mysia, saw the vision
that brought him for the first time to Europe. At Philippi
in Macedonia he founded the
first Christian Church on European soil. Thence he came to Thessalonica,
Berea and, travelling southwards,
to Athens. Here he preached
about “the unknown God” on the Areopagus,
and went on to Corinth. In
all these places St. Paul preached, according to his custom, first to the colonies
of Jews and then to Gentiles too; in all he left Christian communities from which
others in the neighbourhood were formed by his disciples. The Church spread rapidly
in Greece.
III. THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN GREECE
There is no trace of independent action in local Greek Churches. They
all used the Byzantine Rite and followed the Byzantine Patriarch faithfully. From
29 May 1453 till the nineteenth century the Greeks and the Orthodox Church in
Greece were subject to a Moslem government. The Sultans applied the usual terms
of Moslem law regarding non-Moslem Theists to the Christian population of their
empire. There was to be no active persecution. Christians suffer certain disabilities.
As long as they keep these laws they are not to be molested further, and they
are quite free with regard to their religion. Of course any Christian may turn
Moslem at any time; if he does so it is death to go back. During the centuries
between the fall of Constantinople
and the beginning of Greek independence the Greek Church has no history, unless
one counts as such the affairs of the Patriarchate. The hideous oppression of
the Turk overshadowed all their lives. For the Turk has never kept his own fairly
tolerant law. The Christians were always in a state of simmering rebellion and
the Turks were always punishing their attempts by wholesale massacre. In Crete
50,000 Christian children, in the year 1670, were torn from their parents, circumcized,
and brought up as Moslems; in Asia
Minor thousands of Greeks had their tongues torn out for not talking Turkish.
Meanwhile the clergy celebrated the Holy Liturgy on Sundays, worked in the fields,
and kept wine-shops on weekdays. But they kept alive faith in Christ and Hellas,
prayed for better days, were generally at the bottom of each attempt at resisting
the pasha's abominations, and bore silent but heroic witness for Christ during
those dark centuries. The schism had cut them off from the West. Europe had forgotten
them. They had everything in the world to gain by turning Turk; and yet they kept
the Christian faith alive among their people, in spite of pashas, and soldiers,
and massacres. Their little dark, dirty churches were the centres not only of
Christianity but of Hellenism too.
The Greek War of Independence brought a great change to the Church
of the free kingdom. The clergy had taken a leading part in the revolution. In
1821, at the beginning of the movement, the Metropolitan of Patras,
Germanos, the Archimandrite Dikaios and other leading ecclesiastical persons openly
took the side of the Greeks, helped them with their counsels, and in many cases
even joined in the fighting. In 1822 the Turks began their series of reprisals
by barbarously murdering the Patriarch Gregory V in his vestments, after the Liturgy
of Easter Day. But, in spite of Greek enthusiasm for Gregory V, the court of the
patriarch was too much under the power of the sultan for the free Greeks to submit
to its jurisdiction.
The first National Assemblies (at Epidaurus
and Troezen) in 1822 and 1827,
while declaring that the Orthodox faith is the religion of Greece, had pointedly
said nothing about the oecumenical patriarch. In July, 1833, the Greek Parliament
at Nauplion drew up a constitution for the national Church. Imitating Russia,
they declared their Church autocephalous--independent of any foreign authority--and
proceeded to set up a “Holy Directing Synod” to govern it. Between
1822 and 1844 the Greek Church considered itself autocephalous, managing its own
affairs by its synod, but had sent no notice of the change to the Phanar.
So the patriarch affected to ignore the change. The free Greeks had determined
to have nothing more to do with the Phanar
at all.
IV. CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH OF GREECE
The laws that fix the establishment, organization, and regulations
of the Greek Church are those of 1852, in which the parliament repeated and codified
the arrangements made by various governments since 1822:
“The dominant religion in Hellas is the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ.
Every other known religion may be practised without hindrance and shall enjoy
the protection of the laws, only Proselytism and all other attacks on the dominant
Religion are forbidden.” “The Orthodox Church of Hellas acknowledges
as her Head our Lord Jesus Christ. She is indissolubly united in faith with the
Church of Constantinople
and every other Christian Church of the same persuasion [as Constantinople].
She is autocephalous, uses her sovereign rights independently of any other Church,
and is ruled by the members of the Holy Synod”.
There are now 32 sees in Greece. The Holy Synod, to which all bishops
are subject, meets at Athens.
The Metropolitan of Athens is
always president for life. Its jurisdiction is described as extending over questions
of faith (only, of course, in the sense of preserving the Orthodox Faith of the
Seven Councils), rites and canon law, religious instruction, duties of clerks
in Holy orders, ecclesiastical discipline, examinations for ordination, consecration
of churches, celebration of feasts and services. The Synod can appeal to the Government
to put down heretics and refractory clergy, and dangerous books against faith
or morals.
In 1856 the Government established higher schools for the clergy at
Syros, Chalcis
and Tripolis, in 1875 a fourth
was begun at Corfu. It appears
that all these institutions came to an end for want of students. Still higher
in the scale is the Athenian seminary called the Rhizarion (founded by the brothers
Rhizares in 1843) whose students attend lectures at the university besides those
of their own institution. This is the only seminary that in any way comes up to
our standard. Its students form the aristocracy of the clergy and become archimandrites,
professors, and bishops.
There are a great many monasteries in Greece. In spite of the suppression,
in 1833, of the small ones, 80 remained. There are now 250, with 1322 choir monks
and 545 lay brothers, also 9 convents, with 152 nuns and 68 novices (census of
1897). The head of each monastery is the archimandrite, or hegumenos (abbot),
elected by the monks and confirmed by the bishop of the diocese. He must be a
priest-monk (hieromonachos).
V. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN GREECE
With the exception of a very few scattered Uniat congregations, all
Catholics in Greece are Latins. This is explained partly historically and also
by the strictly legal position. After the Great Schism the first restoration of
the Catholic Faith was made by the crusaders, the Frankish princes who ruled as
their successors, and Venice. None of these authorities cared at all about the
Byzantine Church or its rights. Wherever their power extended they set up Latin
bishops, just as at home, and tried to persuade the people to turn Latin by harassing
disabilities that often became real persecution. Whatever native Catholic communities
now exist are the successors of those set up by the Franks and Venetians. They
are strengthened by foreigners (French and Italian merchants, etc.) who are naturally
Latins too.
The legal justification of what seems an anomalous situation is that
Greece is part of Illyricum, and Illyricum, according to the ancient right never
abandoned by the popes, belongs to the Roman patriarchate. According to the general
(but by no means quite universal) principle, that rite follows patriarchate, all
Greeks should be not only Catholics but also Latins. On the other hand, there
is no doubt that this circumstance is a great hindrance to the conversion of Greece.
It would be much easier to persuade Greeks simply to return to the old allegiance
of the first see, than to make them go through so radical an upsetting of their
lives as is involved in turning Latin. The foreign character of all Catholic missions
in Greece is the great difficulty always; the authorities of these missions are
nearly always not only Latins but foreigners--Italians.
VI. PROTESTANTS AND OTHER SECTS
There are a few small communities of Greeks who have left the Orthodox
Church, either converted by Protestant missionaries or following some new protestantizing
or rationalizing leader of their own. English and American missionaries have been
at work here, disseminating bibles and holding prayer meetings, since 1810. At
first the Orthodox seem to have watched their movements without suspicion. The
British and Foreign Bible Society had even arranged with the Patriarch of Constantinople
for the sale of their bibles. But these were found to exclude the deuterocanonical
books and to be done into Modern Greek from the Massoretic text without reference
to the Septuagint, the official text of the Orthodox Church. The missionaries
also, not content with selling their bibles, held prayer meetings in opposition
to the liturgical services and preached against sacraments and ceremonies. So
the Orthodox became suspicious of them; they were denounced as disturbers of the
public peace, and in some places their schools and conventicles were closed.
The end of this disturbance about the missionaries was that the Government
granted entire toleration, but the Orthodox Church formally excommunicated them
and their adherents. At first it had been a question of selling bibles and preaching
to the Orthodox rather than of forming a new sect. Now the issue is quite clear;
the Orthodox are forbidden to attend the missionaries' meetings, so these have
built up regular congregations with ministers. People who join these leave the
established Church and become Protestants. The first church of these Greek Protestants
was opened at Athens in 1874.
There are about 6000 Sephardim Jews in Greece, and in 1889 the census
counted 24,165 Moslems, living chiefly in Thessaly.
It is to the credit of the Government that these Moslems have always been treated
with perfect toleration. They are excused from serving in the army under a flag
marked with the cross. They have their mosques wherever they want them, and the
muezzin still cries from the minaret, as loudly as when the sultan reigned here,
that Mohammed is the prophet of God. Nevertheless, great numbers of Moslems crossed
the frontier into Turkey
when Greece became free; the addition of more territory in 1881 led to another
great emigration, and the Moslem population of Greece is still steadily diminishing.
At Larissa and thereabouts
one finds Turkish quarters with their mosque, as across the frontier, but many
more such villages are now deserted, and their mosques in ruins.
VII. THE CHURCH IN ENSLAVED GREECE
Greeks outside the kingdom are practically all Orthodox. They form
a great part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople,
the aristocracy of the Patriarchates of Alexandria,
Antioch and Jerusalem,
and the whole Orthodox population of Cyprus.
In all these parts except Cyprus
the same evolution is taking place. For many centuries the Greeks had it all their
own way. All the important offices--those of patriarchs, metropolitans, archimandrites--were
never given to the native Orthodox Christians, but were kept in the hands of a
little group of Greeks generally sent out by the Phanar.
In each case the awakening of national sentiment during the nineteenth century
has produced this result: the natives (Slavs, or Wallachians, or Arabs) are making
tremendous, and now always successful, efforts to throw off the yoke of these
Greeks and to have bishops of their own races, the Liturgy in their own tongues.
And everywhere the Greeks are waging a hopeless war in the name of Conservatism
to keep their predominance.
Russia steps
in everywhere, always on the side of the natives; so each year the Greek element
has to retire.In the Patriarchate of Constantinople
the Bulgars have made a formal schism since 1872. They have an exarch at Constantinople,
and his exarchist bishops dispute the jurisdiction of the Greek (patriarchist)
hierarchy all over Macedonia.
This is the greatest schism. At Alexandria
things are better. The Orthodox patriarch, Photios, is of course a Greek; but
he has taken the trouble to learn Arabic and allows the Liturgy to be celebrated
in Arabic to some extent. There is a schism at Antioch.
After a long line of Phanariot patriarchs, the Arabs at last succeeded in getting
an Arab patriarch, Meletios, in 1899. He was at once excommunicated by Constantinople,
apparently for not being a Greek. The trouble at Jerusalem
may be read in all the newspapers. The Patriarch Damianos is a Greek; he has always
been disliked by the Arabs, now he has begun to try to conciliate them, so his
Greek Synod has deposed him for being civil to Arabs, and the Arabs will not have
him because he is a Greek. In Cyprus,
though they are all Greeks, they have a schism too. Since 1900 the quarrel of
the two pretenders to the archiepiscopal see, Cyril of Cyrenia
and Cyril of Kition, has disturbed the whole Orthodox world.
Adrian Fortescue, ed.
Transcribed by: M.E. Smith
This extract is cited June 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
KARLAS (Municipal unit) RIGAS FERAIOS
MAKEDONIA EAST & THRACE (Region) GREECE
AKANTHOS (Ancient city) HALKIDIKI
According to Irodotos, during the Midikous wars, the Persian king Xerxes wanted
to lead his fleet from Acanthus to Thermi
(the first name of Thessaloniki)
but he also wanted to avoid the stormy waters around the peninsula of Athos.
He ordered for a deep canal to be opened which began in present Nea
Roda and went right through to Tripiti connecting the gulf of Ierissos
with the Siggitiko gulf, where the cities of Assa,
Piloros, Singos and
Sarti were. The project
was supervised by Artachais who exceeded all the other Persians with a height
of five royal pihes(1m=64cm) (almost 2,5 metres) and had the most loudest voice
than all of them. When Xerxis was in Acanthus, Artachais died, something which
he considered a big disaster. And because of this, he was given a splendid funeral
and a most beautiful monument.
This text is cited March 2004 from the Municipality of Stagira-Akanthos URL below
ALEXANDROUPOLI (Town) EVROS
The Urban Pilot Project of Alexandroupolis, which had been submitted for approval on April 1996, is one of the two Programs, which are taking place in Greece in the framework of the second round of Urban Pilot Projects (UPP) according to the article 10 of the ERDF. The receipt of the Grant Letter on July 1997 had followed the signature of a relevant agreement between the Municipality of Alexandroupolis and the European Commission. The Municipality of Alexandroupolis for the implementation of the Program moved forward in the development of an Implementation Agent, which is the Development Company of Alexandroupolis SA (AN.ET.A. SA). The last one allocated as the responsible body for the realization and operation of the works. On April 1998, this was confirmed by an agreement between the above agents.
This extract is cited Sept 2003 from the Development Company of Alexandroupolis URL below.
KESSARIANI (Suburb of Athens) ATTIKI
This school was founded in 1937, between the Near East Gym and the Shooting Gallery,
and was named "Experimental School for Abnormal and Retarded Children".
The foundation and function of this school was due to the great Greek pedagogue,
Rosa Imvrioti (1898-1977). Rosa Imvrioti had had excellent education, apart from
the Philosophical School in Athens, in Paris and Berlin had been an activist socialist
enemy to the established order of Metaxas. In order to fulfil her vision and aid
the mentally deficient children, she used the German psychologist Sprander, from
whom Metaxas himself had taken a few courses, while studying in the War Academy,
in Berlin, to badger the dictator. Finally, despite his being a declared enemy
of Imvrioti, due to belief, Metaxas gave in and the school was built.
This text is cited January 2004 from the Municipality of Kessariani URL below, which contains image
KOUTSOPODI (Municipality) ARGOLIS
Inachos runs through the fertile territory of the borough of Koutsopodi.
Having the same name from ancient times - although the local people call it by
the name "Panitsa" - springs from "Lyrkio" about ten Kilometers from the center
of the borough and more exactly from the area "Kolibouka", it flows in the Argolic
bay. Ancient Greeks considered this river as a person and believed that "he" was
the King of the area, father of the royal race of Argos. Being the son of "Ocean"
and "Titheos" he was considered to have brought the first cultural elements in
the area. His wife's name was "Melia" and his children were "Foroneas", "Aigialeas",
"Argos", "Pelasgos", "Io" and "Mycene". His descendants by the name "Inachitae"
belonged to the heroic race of "Argos". The waters of "Inachos" flow wastefully
in the Argolic bay without being used for the irrigation of the Argolic plain,
which suffers an especially keen problem of drought during summer months. The
result of this is the uncontrolled drainage of the underground waters with unpredictable
future consequences. The problem could be manageable through good willing on the
part of the government and through the cooperation of the nearby boroughs. That
is, the construction of dams along the river bed of "Inachos" would become possible
the reservation of the rainy waters of winter months and also the enriching of
underground reservoirs and resources.
This extract is cited Oct 2002 from the Municipality of Koutsopodion URL below.
LEMNOS (LIMNOS) (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
The relative delay of the tourist growth and the up to recently limited
reconstruction had as positive consequence the maintenance of the traditional
popular architecture of the place.
According to the researchers, with apropos facility samples of all
phases of development of the popular residence are located, via the centuries
mainly in the removed villages and the settlements of S.E. Limnos. Unfortunately,
in the last years the intense reconstruction bore important alterations with the
introduction of models of home manufacturing, especially in the tourist western
department of the island and the installations of foreigners with the architectural
deposit of Northern Aegean and more specifically with those of Limnos.
Common architectural type of home is the two-storied residence with
exterior stone scale, which shapes the "axata" (built balcony), in the front side
of the house. In the old days, the obvious stone of the stonemasonry and the roman
tile of the roof were incorporated absolutely in the environment chromatically
and morphologically as the villages are usually built in the interior of the island
in smooth slopes of hills, in cavities or in flat locations away from the sea.
The initial type of residence, the "loft", that is to say, a one-
room hovel, is still maintained in use as residence, but more usually, is incorporated
in the main two -floor house as barn or stable and with the built and roofed oven
they shape the sovereign type of popular residence in the villages of the island.
The lack of lime mortar in the island, compelled in solid and powerful
stonework, often with only conjunctive the mud with use of the abundant stone,
which depending on the place where the pit of the stones was being done, coloured
also the settlements either with tons of grey as in the region Kaspaka or with
reddish colour as in Limnos.
The insulation of the roof was ensured with the use of seaweed mixed
with mud and straw, on which the tiles were placed, fixed usually with stones
for protection by the powerful winds. The most characteristic samples of the precocious
phases of the popular architecture are found in the villages of south-eastern
Limnos, Fysini,
Skandali, Agia
Sofia, Kaminia,
but also in Katalako,
in Palio Pedino
and in the rural settlements, Agjo Alexandros, Vounohori, Aminiou, Komi and others,
in northern and north-eastern side of the island.
The common type of the two-storied house is met in all the villages
of Limnos with small differentiations. Interesting built-up aggregations constitute:
Kontias, with the stone houses scrambled in the abrupt rocks, the
windmills in the first entry of village and the row of trees with the platans
in the other. The rows of trees (mainly with mulberries) constituted characteristic
of the entries of the villages up to the recent widening of the streets. Impressive
row of trees meets someone in Tsjmandria, in Atsjki and in Varos.
Kornos
with the marvellous provision of the well-built houses and its mansions, Kaspakas
with obvious the taste of craftsmen of stone, Katalakos with the exceptional view
and the absolute naturalness of the settlement and landscape, Thanos
and Platy in the
western Limnos which despite the pressures they suffer from the growth of tourism
they maintain their physiognomy, Portianou
and Varos with
obvious the traces of older seasons of prosperity, Moudros
and Kondopoulj
with beautiful mansions and old commercial shops.
The visitor discovers interesting architectures and aggregations in
each village of the island as all of them have the same roughly typical provision
with the central square and the traditional cafes, they constitute the centre
of the resident's daily life. Separate and very important category of the folk
architecture of Limnos, constitute the "stone yards" that is to say the agricultural
cattle-breeding residences of the countryside that are found scattered, almost
in each hill in entire the island. The stone yard, is usually built in elevation
that creates a level space, next to a stepped from stones round threshing floor
and more seldom a well, paled with stone yard "xerotrahalo". It impresses, with
the extraordinary for a cattle-breeding installation quality of stonemasonry and
it is equipped with the elementary for the survival of the cattle-breeders and
their families, in the usually one-room house with fireplace that is placed in
a corner with the loggia for the accommodation of the sheep. In certain points
of the island, stone yards are assembled in small numbers, constituting in that
way small settlements that today most of which are abandoned but, show with unique
way, the simplicity and the ancient structure of the rural economy and life of
the island. It won't be hard for the visitor of Poliohni, to recognise the resemblances,
in the manufacture of the folk house and the stone yard, with the corresponding
manufactures of the precocious era of copper.
This text is cited March 2004 from the Municipality of Moudros URL below, which contains images.
SIFNOS (Island) KYKLADES
Siphnos' settlements are characterised by a great variety, since the
town planning in the area of Castro, for instance, is completely different from
the other areas, because it has a strictly defensive character.
Castro's settlement, despite the years that have passed by, still
maintains its medieval character unchanged, with the narrow lanes full of marble
sarcophagi, 'lontzies' (gates through which one enters the settlement) and of
course the remains of the castle which used to dominate on its top. Most of the
houses are two- and three-storeyed, open from one side to the other, with a great
number of marble relieves carved inside their walls.
Most traditional settlements are concentrated on the island's central
plateau, resulting in their borders being difficult to discern, giving the impression
of a continuous settlement having no beginning and no end. There is a traditional
pedestrian zone starting at Artemonas and reaching down to Katavati, passing through
the settlements of Ano Petali and Apollonia, while a stone paved road is also
connecting Aghios Loukas with Exambela, Kato Petali and Castro.
One main feature of these settlements is their coherent cubic architecture
of Cycladic style and the white colour. Another fact characteristic of the Cyclades
is the existence of numerous snow-white churches, incorporated in the settlements
and consisting their integral parts. The area of Artemonas is also renown for
its noble houses.
ll along its coasts, there are settlements developed parallel to the seashore.
The first buildings were old pottery shops with furnaces, which were built near
the beach so that the caiques (small fishing boats) could have direct access to
load the ceramics.Many of them remain open until today.
The 'themonies' (haystacks), together with the 'peristeriones' (pigeon
houses) are the local rural houses. They usually have one room with few auxiliary
spaces, such as cellars for storing products, a winepress, a stable and often
a threshing floor.
This text is cited August 2004 from the Municipality of Sifnos URL below, which contains images
STRATONIKI (Village) HALKIDIKI
The Kassandra mines are found in the NE area of Chalkidiki, covering
an area of a total of 200 Km2 between Olympiada, Stanos, Megali Panagia and Ierissos.
The Kassandra mines include the layers of basic and precious metals in Olympiada,
Madem Lakkos, Mavres Petres, the layers of manganese and gold in Piavitsas and
Barbara and the layers of copper and gold in Skouria and Megali Panagia. Recently
the mines were transfered by the TVX Hellas Company to KINROSS Gold Corporation
and now they are in complete inactivity after the closure of the Madem Lakkos
mines and the metal installations in Stratoni.
The mines of gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper and manganese in Northern
Halkidiki (Stratoni and Olympiada) constituted the major financier for the Macedonian
kingdom and the expeditions of Alexander the Great. In the region there are more
than 300 wells and roughly 200.000 m3 of ancient metallurgic waste and substances.
Based on historical sources and the results of direct and indirect analyses, it
has been determined that activity began in the beginnings of classic ancient times.
In 1705 after the Sultan's firman, the mine and the right of exploiting
silver was granted to the residents of the region. At the same time in the region,
a government owned coinery began functioning. With the excavation and the fusion
of mainly the magganese minerals, the region was able to ensure gold and silver
in the Big Gate. Belon has given us exceptionally interesting information, concerning
the use of German technical terminology within the region.
The name Kassandra Mines is first presented in 1893, the year in which
the exploitation of region was granted to a French-Turkish Company which had their
headquarters in Paris. The name is obviously owed to the fact that at that time
the whole Prefecture of Halkidiki was called Kassandra. In the then 600 roughly
furnaces, the multinational community of 6.000 workers worked at a primative version
of five days work per week as the Jewish workers had their holiday on Saturdays
while the Christians on Sundays.
The 19th century meant that the Mademohoria, would pass from self-governing
to dependent work, under the power of a Corporate Administration for the exploitation
of mines. In the furnaces the company had processed until 1900, 72.000 tons of
mineral. The enterprise exploited the secondary minerals of manganese, the ferrous
layers of Mavres Petres, Piavitsas, Basdekou and Olympiada. In 1901 began the
surface exploitation of iron pyrite in the Madem Lakko mines which was continued
until 1974, but with an underground mainly method of exploitation.
In the 1920's the mines of Stratoni enter their second to last modern
period of exploitation. The French- Turkish Company succeeds the Anonymous Greek
Company of Chemical Products and Fertilizers. The company had foreseen at that
time, the necessity of wide use of fertilizers for the growth of agriculture in
the country, and thus was led to the purchase of mines in order to guarantee sulphur
which was the raw material for their Manufactures. It bought the mines of Stratoni,
Cyprus, Ermionis, Orowpos and Koronis, and founded a fertilizer factory in Drapetsona.
By this period, the accommodation quarters for workers and the essential
spaces of common use were a necessity in the wider region of the mines, so they
were installed in the higher points with a view towards the gulf of Ierissos and
were bequeathed by the AEEHP and Fertilizers Company from the French- Turkish
Company. Their arrangement is related immediately with the fact that the major
mining activity at that season was limited to the adjacent, closed however today,
gallery 323. Current Stratoni constituted then substantially as the area for the
loading of mineral, which was transported with a Decauville at a distance of 6
kilometres. In 1932 this was replaced by an air transport system.
As the mining activity increased, new installations, exclusively of
functional character, were created up to the level of today's main gallery 262.
These were the unit for the distribution of electric power, the system used for
pressurized air,mechanic areas, the offices and the outposts. The steam powered
unit for the production of electric power is located on the beach of Stratoni.
The development of a settlement in Stratoni began with the Asia Minor catastrophy,
when refugees from the mining village of Balia-Madem near Ellispontos are installed
in the temperary huts. Oral testimonies certify that the residents of Balias came
for work in the mines of Stratoni before the Asia Minor destruction. After the
powerful earthquake in 1932 that destroyed a lot of settlements in the wider region,in
Stratoni the typical huts-homes were built - under the guidance of the Ministry
of Reconstruction. Some of them are saved up to today. After the 2nd World War,
the majority of shares in the AEEHP and Fertilizers Company is taken by Bodosaki
Athanasiadi, who's activity stimulated particularly the mining sector and more
specifically Stratoni.
In the 1970's, the AEEHP and Fertilizers manufactured on the beach
of Stratoni, an enrichment factory and began the production of mixed sulphur minerals.
At the same time it manufactured groups of two-storied houses (110 in number)
for the workers as well as independent detached houses, free for the scientific
personnel. In February 1967, the new loading area was constructed and completed
within only 3 months. In the mid 70's at the entrance to the village,the Organisation
of Working Residence manufactured the known clusters of working residences. Already
by 1960 the company had granted Jouliano Hunter (an englishman) the right of exploitating
layers of manganese in Piavitsa. The mining activity of manganese degenerated
progressively and finally ceased by the middle of the 80's. Remnants of Hunte's
mine in Piavitsa, are found in between Stagira and Neohori.
The layer of lead, zinc, gold and silver in Olympiada was located
near the end of the 60's by the AEEHP and Fertilizers Company, and the production
in the mine began in 1972 and was continued up to 1995. In 1976 the new factory
of enrichment was manufactured in Olympiada, therefore the products through the
mining activity came ready to the loading area of Stratoni. Today the Kassandra
mines together with the total of mining installations and mining rights have been
transfered by the Canadian company TVX Hellas, to the KINROSS Gold Corporation.
This text is cited March 2004 from the Municipality of Stagira-Akanthos URL below
TITHOREA (Municipality) FTHIOTIDA
In the area there is a railway station which is considered to be a
junction for the region. The train is the basic means of transport and linking
with Athens (lasts 1 hour
and 30 minutes). It also gives the opportunity to get to the
skiing center of Parnassos very quickly.
Each visitor of Tithorea comes in touch with considerable natural
scenes (for example forests, Kahala canyon) and gets impressed by the unique dignity
and magnificence of Parnassos.
He has also the opportunity to see some historical monuments such
as the ancient wall with the castle, the traditional watermill, the cave of Odysseus
Androutsos, country churches with Byzantine wall painting, archeological findings
of roman spa at Modi
etc.
Finally the mountaineering paths of Parnassos which end at Tithorea,
offer some physical exercise to those who are willing to walk through them. It
is a way to escape a little from the life in cities.
Visitors can be served at hotels, tourist accommodation and traditional
taverns.
Some religious festivals take place in our Municipality with traditional
bands at the name day of Agia Marina 17/7, Agia Paraskevi 27/7, Sotiros Metamorfosis
6/8, Theotokos Kimisis 15/8. There are also carnival festivals and cultural displays
run by the Women Club. Something special for this region is the Easter grilling
of the lamb in different neighborhoods with 15-20 lambs in each hole.
This text is cited June 2005 from the Municipality of Tithorea URL below
ATHENS (Ancient city) GREECE
Introduction
The best information about Greek social class comes from
a city called Athens. People who had more of an education and more money were
known as the upper class. Directly below the upper class were the Metics, or the
middle class. This group of people were not necessarily known as the “middle
class” they were just known to be somewhere in between the upper and the
lower class. They didn't have all the opportunities of the upper class, but they
were still better off than the lower class. Below them were the freemen, or the
lower class. The very bottom of the social ladder consisted of slaves. I will
show how the people of Athens were placed in these classes during the time period
from 600 to about 300 BC. This time frame was called the Classical period.
The Upper Class
In order to be a member of the upper class in Athens there
are two major requirements. You must be a citizen, which allowed you to vote if
you were a man, and you aren't allowed to have a job. A member of the upper class
must be free from economic tasks such as trading. An upperclassman's job was often
considered owning slaves, and most of the time it was the wives' job to manage
them. In turn this allows him time for politics, government, war, literature,
and philosophy. The Athenians believed there must be a leisure class, or there
would be no standard for good taste, no encouragement of the arts, no civilization.
The aristocrats of Athens believed that a man in a hurry was not civilized. This
elite class was very small. They numbered about 300 families. The Young boys from
this class had the opportunity to attend school and learn about literature and
philosophy. They started going to school at about age five or six. However the
girls stayed home with their mothers and learned the duties of a good wife and
mother. Because by the age of fifteen or so, she would be married off to start
a family and raise children. Marriages of the upper and middle class were arranged
by the parents. Love was not taken into consideration; it was more of a business
arrangement. Ancient units of money during this time period were called talents.
To be considered wealthy, a land owner needed about 20 talents.
The In-Between Class
For the most part, Athens had an upper and a lower class. However
of those two classes, there were people in between. This might be referred to
as a middle class. The majority of this class consisted of non-citizens. The free-men
(non-slaves) of foreign birth spent their life in Athens. Because the free-men
were not born in to citizenship, they had no chance of ever becoming a citizen.
They were mostly professional men: merchants, contractors, manufacturers, managers,
tradesmen, craftsmen, doctors, and artists. In the course of their wandering,
they found in Athens the jobs they needed and opportunity to make money, which
somewhat outweighed the down side of not being able to vote. These men were willing
to give up their right to vote in other cities because they could not make as
good of a living in neighboring cities.
The ceramic industry was owned entirely by the middle class. The non-citizens
were forbidden to own land, or marry into a family of a citizen. Creating such
a law allowed the citizens to buy land at a cheaper price, because outside competition
for the land was eliminated. This working class made sure that the navy fleet
was maintained, the empire was supported through heavy taxes, and the commercial
supremacy of Athens was preserved. The upper class wanted to show the rest of
the world how great they were, and used all the classes below them to do the dirty
work. Men who owned between one talent and 20 minae, that is a third of a talent,
were able to serve as hoplites (foot soldiers), and the wealthiest 1,000 of these
9,000 men rode horses during battle.
Women in the middle class had a lot of work to do. Usually they had
less slaves to help with their chores. One of their most important jobs was making
clothes. They had to spin the wool themselves, without a spinning wheel, to make
the thread. Then they had to weave the fabric in order to make the material for
the clothes. This was one of the first jobs that little girls learned. And this
was very time consuming. It was also the woman's job to cook, clean and tend to
the garden and the animals. Another job that took up a lot of time was getting
water from the well. You can imagine that a woman in the middle class really had
her hands full.
The Lower Class
The lower class was partly made up of freedmen, who at one time in
their lives had been slaves. These people were not citizens of Athens, so the
best they could have ever been were middle class, or well off lower class. There
were different ways that a slave could gain his or her freedom. The slave may
have been freed by his or her ransom being paid off by a relative or friend. If
a slave ever earned enough money he could buy his own freedom, which was difficult
because slaves did not always get paid for their services, and if they did it
was usually very little. Sometimes, if they had time, he or she would have to
work a second job. There was also a chance that men would be released if he were
to fight in a war. And two of the more common ways to acquire freedom, were for
the master to die, or if the master felt the job the slave was bought for had
been completed. If a slave was bought in order to tutor a child through school,
upon the child's graduation, it's more than likely that the slave was set free.
Every once in a while a slave who was set free had a chance to make a better life
for him/herself.
The Greeks in general felt that all men were not created equal. To
an Athenian, there was no greater disgrace than being stripped of his citizenship.
Some families had lived in Greece
for generations, but they still were not considered citizens. The lower classes
outnumbered the upper class by an enormous number, but in the 600's BC, only the
upper class citizens who owned land could vote. This meant that all the decisions
were made by the upper class men who owned land, even though the rules and laws
applied to all. This might look like an evil system, this oligarchy- which was
the rule of the few, but it was an improvement over the traditional style of leadership,
which consisted of only one person making the political decisions for everyone.
By the 400's BC, Athens had a democracy and all of the men in the three classes
could vote (everyone but the slaves and the metics).
The Slaves
The slaves of Athens were un-ransomed prisoners of war, victims of
slave raids, infants rescued from exposure, and criminals. Only a number of slaves
were considered barbarians because they were from a different place. The cost
of a slave ranged from 50 to 1,000 dollars. Even a lower-class citizen sometimes
had a slave or two, while a rich home could have as many as fifty. The Athenian
government employed a number of public slaves as clerks, attendants, minor officials,
or policemen. Many slaves were women who worked in the home. If a slave misbehaved
he was often whipped; If he was hit in the face by a person whose rank was higher
than a slave, the slave must not defend himself. If a slave were going to testify
in court, he or she could only testify legally under torture, to make sure the
slave told the truth. In no case could a citizen legally go as far as to kill
his slave. The treatment of slaves verried. Sometimes the owners treated their
slaves better than others. In these earlier times slavery was legal, but not all
people agreed with this. As one philosopher noted, “God has sent all men
into the world free, and nature has made no man a slave, but slavery goes on.”
The worst position for a woman was as a mistreated slave. She not
only had herself to look after, but often she had the concern of her child or
getting pregnant. There was hardly any medical attention for her and usually no
time off to recover or take proper care of her baby. Situations were different,
sometimes women had more care than others.
by Philippa Fraser
In Athens the popular viewpoint of the time was that the State and
its government were set up to benefit the individual citizen. The training of
boys, both physical and mental, should be for citizenship and for living, not
just for warfare. Such education involved the cultivation of the mind even more
than the body, and had as its goals the attainment of character, taste, and, above
all, sophrosyne, or patience, moderation, and good behavior in word, thought,
and daily actions.
In Athens, education was largely a private matter. There were, of
course, exceptions. For example, certain large gymnasiums were built and maintained
for public use.
Not much is known about Greek education other than the subjects taught.
We do know that only boys were generally educated, and that the sons of wealthy
Athenians began school earlier and stayed longer than the sons of not-quite-so-wealthy
parents. These latter boys usually left school around the age of fourteen.
Little children were taught at home by their parents or by a slave,
called a paedagogus. At the age of six or seven the boys were sent to primary
school which was usually within the neighborhood. Elementary school teachers were
always men, never women. Because of the low pay, and the Athenian aversion to
taking a job, these men were themselves little educated and had little or no social
standing. The money these teachers made came from the tuition fees the child's
parents sent monthly. The costs of tuition and the topic of study were the choice
of the teacher.
In school, the boys sat on plain benches while their teacher sat in
an armchair, called a cathedra, and dictated, or read to the boys, their lessons
from a book. At this time, books were very expensive. Therefore, the boys did
not own copies of the books they were studying. Instead, while the teacher was
reading out loud, the students would write down on tablets of wax what he was
saying. Later they would memorize what they had written. In this way, entire books
were memorized by Athenian students!
Interestingly enough, Greeks never read silently to themselves--always
out loud. Proper enunciation of sound and clearness of words were essential and
voice training was constant. Classes were taught and information was learned almost
entirely from the spoken word. This is why the Greeks had a love of drama, recitations,
public recitals, and contests. Paintings the Athenians put on their vases show
us pictures of the school rooms. They had writing tablets, rulers, baskets full
of manuscripts, and, for music, lyres and flutes. Playing the lyre, an instrument
resembling a small hand-held harp, was considered so important, that if a boy
couldn't play the lyre well enough, it was thought to be a sign of bad breeding.
In the better and larger schools reading, writing, and mathematics
would be taught by a special teacher, called the grammatistes, lessons in music
and poetry were given by teachers called the kitharistes, and physical training
was directed by the trainer, or paidotribes.
Education in ancient Greece
was far different from education today. The Athenian boy in school had a study
program far easier than boys (and girls) have today. The Athenian boy could concentrate
only on the Greek language and literature because no other languages were taught.
Mathematics was basic and simple. There was little scientific knowledge in the
fifth and fourth centuries (499 -300) B.C. The readings were mainly the works
of Homer, Hesiod, Theognis and the lyric poets and probably, towards the end of
the fifth century (499-400) B.C. the tragic plays of various authors. Especially
emphasized were the poems of Homer. These poems were the very backbone of the
school course.
Primary education for Athenian boys lasted usually from the ages of
six to fourteen. Secondary education, for boys from the wealthier families, was
from the ages of fourteen to eighteen. Then, finally, the boys entered a military
training camp for two years, until the age of twenty, when they were called ephebes.
Gradually this military training was decreased to only one year, and school attendance,
once mandatory, later became, after the Macedonian conquest, voluntary. Toward
the end of the second century B.C. (199-100), foreigners were freely admitted
to the college.
In the aristocratic political structure of Athens, offices were filled
according to wealth and birth right. At first the offices were held for life.
Later, the terms were shortened to ten years.
The Athenians had nine positions in their government. They were called
the Basileus, Polemarkhos, Arkhon, and six Thesmothetai. Each one of the nine
officials had a different job. The Basileus had religious power. He was in charge
of things such as giving his wife to the god, Dionysos. The Polemarkhos, translated
“military leader”, was exactly that. He was in charge of the military.
Another office held was the Arkhon (or Archon). The official was to
take care of anything administrative in Athens. The last positions were the six
Thesmothetai. This position came about sometime later than the first three. These
men were to record statutes (laws) and preserve them for judgment between litigants.
As a unit these officials were called the nine arkhons. This term is directly
translated into “leader”. Arkhon is used as the name for the administrative
leader and to describe all nine of the offices held.
The Athenians claim the credit of being the first to have regular
processes of law. In the beginning the administration of justice was done by amateurs.
People were selected by lot, they presided over trials and preliminary hearings
before the popular courts. In the fifth century when rhetoric was being taught,
some became so good at persuasion, they held a distinct advantage. These men wrote
speeches for clients to use as their own. Good speeches were like advertisements
for them.
Oratory Rhetoric.
Oratory rhetoric was divided into epideictic, deliberative, and forensic.
Deliberative was used to address the people in the general Assembly. Forensic
was delivered in the law courts. These are usually called political oratory because
they both deal with government. Epideictic or display oratory included all other
oratations, such as those delivered during festivals, public rites, or moral discourses.
While under Macedonian rule oratory rhetoric languished and Athens
became a provincial town. Other cities succeeded Athens, the “School of
Greece” as Pericles
had called her. However, oratory eventually degenerated into declamation.
Judiciary.
The Areopagus, the popular Assembly, called the Ecclesia, and the
regular magistrates or Archons all had well-recognized judicial functions. The
steps in which government controlled and developed the administration of justice
can be followed easier in Athens than anywhere else, because we have more information
from there.
In 900-800 B.C. government was what Aristotle called a “monarchy
of the heroic age.” There were no laws or tribunals. It was up to the individual
to get justice for wrongs against him. Relatives and friends were always expected
to help and sometimes the whole community if it concerned them all. When a person
of another tribe committed an outrage, a crime, against a citizen, his fellow
citizens would help him demand compensation. Because of this, communities started
to seek to prevent and punish aggressors from other tribes. This is where the
popular assembly came in. Anyone could appeal to it provided it was of public
import.
In the case of minor disputes it was left to kings or other prominent
persons whose integrity and judgment inspired confidence. This led to the belief
that settling disputes was a royal prerogative. This is the justification of Aristotle's
statement that “the king [in the Heroic Age] was a general and a judge and
had control of religion.”
About 700 B.C. the monarchy had been gradually disappearing and the
dispensing of justice had by this time become a recognized function of government.
Unfortunately the chiefs who were the ruling aristocracy did not have a problem
enriching themselves by accepting bribes. This and the needs of more complex social
and economic organization aroused the people to demand written laws and rules
of procedure to protect against corrupt judges.
“No worse foe than a despot hath a state
Under whom, first, can be no written laws,
But one rules, keeping in his private hands
The Law: so is equality no more.
But when the laws are written then the weak
And wealthy have alike but equal right.”
After the aristocratic republic came an oligarchy. Instead of kings
there were magistrates elected annually on the basis of wealth and birth. Soon
functions of the king were distributed among nine magistrates called “archons.”
The chief was the Archon. He handled civil suits involving estates and family
relations. The Polemarch exercised the military functions of the king and had
jurisdiction over aliens. The remaining six were known as the Thesmothetae. They
took cognizance of all cases outside the jurisdiction of the other magistrates
and recorded judicial decisions. The Areopagus was the governing body of the state
and served as a criminal court.
In 621 B.C. Draco gave Athens its first code. The only laws that have
survived are those dealing with homicide. So severe were the punishments in his
code that some said Draco wrote his laws not in ink but in blood.
In 594 B.C. Solon, the great lawgiver, threw out all of Draco's laws
except the ones dealing with homicide, and gave Athens a democratic constitution
with a senate and popular assembly. With the expulsion of the tyrants Cleisthenes
revised the constitution in a democratic spirit.
The Ecclesia was the sovereign power of the state and composed of
all citizens. Associated with it was the Council of Five Hundred, or Boule, which
was a representative body chosen annually by lot from citizens of thirty years
or older. Fifty were selected from each of the ten tribes into which the citizens
were divided. Each of the ten was a committee called the Prytaneis. They presided
over the Boule, furnished chairmen for the meetings of the government. Higher
offices of the state were filled from the first three of the four classes, into
which the citizens were divided on a basis of wealth.
All these bodies and officials shared in the administration of justice.
However the supreme judicial authority was vested in the sovereign people. They
normally dispensed justice only in the case of serious crimes or offenses not
otherwise provided for by law, though they could take action in any case they
wished.
Regular proceedings were called eisangeliae or “impeachment”.
Much like today it was a trial before a political body. A crime could also be
brought to attention by presentment. A vote of acquittal ended the matter, a vote
of condemnation though without legal effect usually encouraged the prosecutor
to bring the charge before a regular court. Basically it was an expression of
public opinion.
Solon also started the first court of appeals. Magistrates could not
be allowed to have final judgment where the people claimed the right to exercise
all functions of government. the right to grant appeal went to the members of
the Heliaea, a judicial assembly. Only those thirty years or older could be members.
And the members were not officials of the state over the people, they were the
people.
Significant Changes.
Many changes happened between Cleisthenes and the age of Demosthenes.
Some were suggested by experience, others because of the progress of democracy.
Some to relieve the congestion of the courts.
Some of the more significant changes were: Pisistratus set up a tyranny
which endured for fifty years, he made no drastic changes and only filled offices
with his friends and family. He did however appoint judges to go on circuit throughout
the Attic townships, they acted primarily as arbitrators. Evidence stated to be
presented in the form of affidavits acknowledged by the witnesses in court so
appeals could be based on evidence in its original form.Pericles made provision
for paying the jurors a small fee. In 425 B.C. Cleon made a substantial increase
in that pay. Amnesty, statute of limitations, accord and satisfaction were also
started by the ancient Greeks.
Homicide.
Homicide in 900-800 B.C. was dealt with by relatives who started blood
feuds or put a price on the killer. The community did not intervene until the
shedding of blood polluted the soil. the killer had to be purified or banished
because he was considered polluted as well. Avoiding blood feuds and maintaining
peace was an important influence in bringing about state intervention. Special
courts were used to try homicide cases. The right to prosecute an alleged murderer
was left to near relatives of the victim; the state did not bring cases itself.
The Areopagus is reputed to be the most ancient homicide court in
Greece. In the beginning
it tried all cases of homicide, but after the differentiation of voluntary, involuntary,
and justifiable homicide four additional courts were instituted. Voluntary came
under the jurisdiction of the Areopagus under the King Archon who actively participated
in the trial. The Palladium tried cases of involuntary homicide and of killing
non-citizens, i.e., slaves, resident aliens, and transient foreigners. Justifiable
homicide was tried by the court of Delphinium. And the court at Preatto tried
those who, while in banishment for involuntary homicide, were charged with murder
or wounding with intent. All defendants were tried from a boat before the court
seated on the shore to prevent pollution of the soil. The judges were composed
of fifty-one special judges recruited from the membership of the Areopagus.
During the fifth century the Ephetae were replaced by regular juryman.
this occurred because the Areopagus was deprived of political and judicial powers.
The court of the Prytaneum, consisting of the tribal kings under the King Anchon,
tried unknown slayers and animals and inanimate objects that had caused the death
of a human being. Condemned objects were cast beyond the borders of Attica.
A similar practice is found in Anglo-Saxon law, where condemned objects were called
“deodands”.
Conclusion.
As you can see we have a judicial system not unlike the ancient Athenians.
They were the first to do many things in the ways of justice and government. Many
of today's governments have copied what they did so long ago. Whether or not it
is done better now or then is left to argument.
CRETE (Island) GREECE
Crete offers visitors endless possibilities for pursuing their particular
sports or hobbies. The large hotels, which have marvelous recreational facilities,
pride themselves on their facilities for sports. We might mention as well:
Swimming: Swimming competitions are often held in
island clubs.
Tennis: All large hotels have courts and there are
tennis clubs in the bigger towns.
Mountain climbing: Mountain climbing clubs organize
expeditions.
Water-skiing and windsurfing: Facilities fro both
sports are available in the larger hotels.
Sailing: Facilities are available in the larger hotels
and in local sailing clubs.
Fishing and hunting: Foreigners can fish without
a license all year round. Hunting is permitted in season.
Bowling: Facilities are available in some hotels.
Car, motorcycle and bicycle racing: Local clubs in
the larger towns often organized competitions.
Flying: There are two aeroclubs, one in Heracleion
and the other in Chania.
(text: MANOLIS DOULGERAKIS & UTE SCHACHTELE)
This text (extract) is cited February 2004 from the Heraklio
Hoteliers Association tourist pamphlet.
HELLAS (Ancient country) GREECE
Slavery played a major role in ancient Greek civilization. Without
it, the citizens wouldn't have been able to devote so much time into other activities
such as the government, art and thought.
What were the Greeks' sources for slaves?
There were different ways in which a person could have become
a slave in ancient Greece. The main source of slaves was prisoners of war. The
prisoners of war that became slaves were sometimes other Greeks, but the majority
of them were what the Greeks called “barbarians”. The word “barbarian”
referred to any person that was non-Greek. Another source of slaves was children
that had been born into slavery. Also, they might have been exposed as an
infant, and that means that the parents abandoned their newborn baby on a hillside
or at the gates of the city to die or be claimed by anyone who wanted it. Another
possible way in which one might have become a slave was if a family needed money,
they sometimes sold one of the children into slavery. Usually it was a daughter
because the male children were needed to help out with the chores or the farm.
Kidnapping was another way in which one could have been sold into slavery.
The price one might have paid for a slave in ancient Greek times varied
depending on their appearance, age and attitude. Those who were healthy, atttractive,
young and submissive, could sell for as much as 10 minae ($180.00). Those who
were old, weak and stubborn might have sold for as little as 1/2 a mina ($9.00).
If there happened to be a large supply of slaves on the market, the price automatically
went down. This usually happened after winning a large battle, when there were
many prisoners of war.
What kind of jobs did the slaves do?
There were two kinds of slaves: public and private. The public slaves
were government owned, and they had many jobs: secretaries, clerks, prison attendants,
executioners, scribes, and accountants. The most famous group of public slaves
were the police force in Athens--the
“Athenian archers”. They were made up of about 300 Scythian slaves.
The second type of slave was the private slave. They were owned by an individual
master. These slaves did everything from household chores to working in the industrial
area. Some of their jobs were: maids, wet-nurses, teachers, and messengers. They
also worked in the fields, usually beside their masters. They worked in quarries
and mines, and the most famous mine was the silver mine in Laurium,
where it has been estimated that 30,000 slaves worked.
There were some slaves that were set apart from the others. They were
skilled craftsmen who would make things such as shoes or pottery and sell them.
They would live outside the master's house on their own but give a certain percentage
of their profits to their master. That is why they are sometimes referred to as
“pay-bringers”, because they would bring some of what they earned
to their master. No one in Greece could tell the difference between these slaves
and regular citizens.
What were the things that a slave couldn't do?
There were four personal restrictions that affected slaves:
1) In all legal matters, the slave must have his master represent
him. He cannot represent himself.
2) A slave is subject to seizure and arrest.
3) He can only do what his master orders, he cannot do what he wants.
4) The slave cannot choose where he wants to live, or be who he wants
to be with.
There were other limits to what a slave could do. They could not enter
the Gymnasium or the Public Assembly. They could not use their own names, but
were assigned names by their master. It is important to remember that these people
were thought of as property of their masters rather than citizens of Greece.
If a slave misbehaved, he could be punished. In Athens,
fifty blows was the common punishment. A master could only punish his own slave
and not one that belonged to someone else. Here's an interesting fact: with the
consent of the master, a slave could give testimony in court during a trial through
torture. That is, they believed that the surest way to get the truth out of a
slave was by pain.
How did slaves become free?
There were two basic methods used in setting a slave free. The first
was if the state manumitted the slaves in a big group. (Manumission is a formal
release from bondage by a slave's master.) This was usually carried out by a tyrant
to strengthen his power or gain military support. The second way a slave could
become free (or manumitted) was by his individual master. His master could free
the slave in his own will, or while he was still alive. If a slave had saved up
enough money to buy his freedom, then his master was compelled to accept it and
set him free. In Greece, there were benefit social clubs called Eranoi. They helped
some slaves by lending money so they could buy their freedom. But, if the slaves
could not pay the Eranoi back, then the deal was off and they were back to being
slaves.
One important thing to note about slavery in Ancient Greece was that
slavery WAS NOT based on race, as in other countries' pasts. Slavery was not identified
with color, but instead with superior force.
by Sarah Mussio
Just like today, perjury, or lying under oath, was a problem in ancient
Greece. The Greeks used verbal oaths to make deals or agreements. These oaths
were unbreakable, and if you did break them you and your children would face punishment
from the gods in the form of a curse. But what if an oath-taker swears to do a
service, but is prevented from keeping his sworn promise by external circumstances,
which are not of his causing, then has he committed perjury? And if a sworn man
swears to the truth of a statement, not knowing it to be false, does he commit
perjury?
In the Iliad Hector swears to give Achilles' horses to Dolon. But
according to Homer the oath he swore was false, even though Dolon died, which
prevented the fulfillment of the oath, and his death was entirely independent
of Hector's will. Homer is not considering the intention of the oath-taker. This
implies that a perjurer is a person who swears an objectively false proposition.
Hesiod on the other hand did take the oath-taker in consideration:
“god Oath...most grieves men on earth when they willfully swear false oaths.”
Herodutus said that “even the will to commit perjury, without the deed,
would bring down punishment.” Aristotle was the first to differentiate between
the perjury of a promissory oath, breaking an oath, and the perjury of an assertory
oath, intentionally swearing a false oath.
In the third century B.C. Cleanthus decided that an oath taker swears
rightly or falsely at the time he swears. If he intends to do the things he swears
to do in the oath he swears rightly. But if he has no intention of performing
them he swears falsely. Chrysippus, on the other hand, said that an assertory
oath is true or false, but a promissory oath is either good or bad. According
to Chrysippus a man is not a perjurer at the time he swears to an oath if he swears
falsely, but becomes one when it is time to fulfill the terms of the oath.
Aristotle, Cleanthus, and Chrysippus agree that the intention of an
oath-taker is an essential factor of perjury. And they disagree as to whether
the intention can be applied to the future (promissory oath) or the past and present
(assertory oath).
Ethical-Religious Aspect of Perjury.
The curse of the oath is connected to its religious aspect. According
to Homer a “perjurer is a sinner in the eyes of gods, and the Furies”
And impossibilities that prevent the fulfillment of an oath do not relieve one
from the obligations of the oath. Hesoid said that the perjurer makes an oath
a punishment, and Herodotus says the perjurer is stricken by the curse.
This made many believe the curse was magic and the only way to break
the spell was to fulfill the oath. This magic was so strong that not even the
gods could escape the curse in case of perjury. According to Herodotus, “Delphian
Apollo assured that the curse would strike, if not the perjurer himself, then
certainly his offspring.” And because some oaths were sworn under stress
of necessity and then broken, the gods learned how to separate forced oaths from
voluntary oaths and did not require their observance.
The Legal Aspect of Perjury
Perjury as false testimony was a legal offense and subject to legal
action. In Athens legislation
on perjury has been dated fifth century. Because depositions were oral cases of
perjury were rare and difficult to prove. In the beginning of the fourth century
when depositions became written, perjury cases were more frequent, since they
were easier to prove.
Prosecution of false testimony was encouraged and slight penalties
were given to the prosecutor in cases of failure. A small fee was given to the
party that brought fourth the notice of perjury if they failed to follow up with
formal indictment.
Perjury before arbitrators was not punishable. “For it is not
the same, men of Athens,
to give false evidence before you and before the arbitrator; great indignation
and penalty await those who gave false testimony before you; but before the arbitrator
they give what evidence they wish, without risk and without shame.” Many
people wanted to solve problems through arbitrators because there was no risk
to lying.
Those convicted usually paid a fine to the wronged party or to the
prosecutor and to the treasury. All penalties were decided upon by the judges.
Also those convicted faced contempt of court charges, with the penalty of loss
of citizenship rights. However, if the prosecutor of the case is unsuccessful,
he had to pay the alleged perjurer an amount equal to one third of the litigation
sum. Over time there was development in the legal punishment for perjury. Gradual
progression of simple compensation to additional punitive fines to the state.
IOULIS (Ancient city) KEA
The laws of Iulis were very celebrated in antiquity; and hence Cean
Laws were used proverbially to indicate any excellent institutions. (Comp. Plat.
Prot. p. 341, Leg. i. p. 638; Bockh, ad Min. p. 109.) These laws related to the
morals of the citizens and their mode of life. One of them quoted by Menander
was particularly celebrated: ho me dunamenos zen kalos ou zei kakos.
It was said that every citizen above 60 years of age was obliged to
put an end to his life by poison, for which we find two reasons assigned; one
that there might be a sufficient maintenance left for the other inhabitants, and
the other that they might not suffer from sickness or weakness in their old age.
(Strab. l. c.; Steph. B. s. v. Ioulis; Aelian, V. H. iii. 37; Val. Max. ii. 6.
§ 8; Heracl. Pont. Pol. c. 9) Other Cean laws are mentioned by Heraclides Pont.
(Pol. c. 9) and Athenaeus (xiii. p. 610; comp. Muller, Aeginetica, p. 132).
This extract is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KALYMNOS (Island) DODEKANISSOS
Apart from being renowned the world over as the island of the Sponge
Divers, Kalymnos is also the island of Letters and the Arts. Scattered around
the island are churches worth visiting and museums where works of art and findings
of inestimable value are exhibited. Since the late 1800s a great number of inspired
artists, painters, sculptors and men of letters have left their stamp upon the
world of Art.
Several of the above were the offspring of simple-divers. And yet
we see them acquiring a good education and developing into outstanding talents.
They have brilliant careers and create masterpieces.
Some of the most significant painters are: S. Maglis, S. Galouzis,
G. Economou, M. Zairis, M. Alahouzos, A. Karafyllakis, Billiris, Kourounis and
Tataris.
There are numerous churches where one can find these artists’
works and whose architectural style is to be greatly admired, such as: the Cathedral
Church of Christ the Saviour, the Church of Virgin Mary at Hora
with its gild temple, the Church of Panagia Hosti in Vathi,
the Church of the Apostles in Argos,
of St. George in Panormos,
of Agios Savas and many others.
The museums one can visit are: the Archaeological
museum ("Vouvalio"), the Maritime
museum and the Folk museum in Pothia.
There one can find items that show the customs the working methods and the habits
of the sponge divers. The Valsamides museum in Vlychadia,
which contains unique underwater findings. Finally the Traditional House on the
way to Agios Savas where you will be taken back in time and will get an idea of
customs and traditional lifestyle of the island.
This text (extract) is cited November 2003 from the Municipality
of Kalymnos tourist pamphlet.
KEFALLONIA (Island) IONIAN ISLANDS
Cephalonian cuisine is mixture of greek and western. A popular hors
d’ oeuvre is "riganada", i.e. bread soaked in water with oregano,
tomato, feta cheese and olive oil. Other dishes are the meat pie made with lamb
and beef mixed with rice, vegetables and herbs, the cheese pie, which is made
with various kinds of cheese, the octopus pie which is eaten the third Sunday
of the Lent. There are also dishes with seafood (cuttlefish with celery). The
hare is also cooked in many ways. For example, "stifado" is a dish with
hare and onions and "lagoto" is hare cooked with tomato and lemon sauce.
The island’s desserts include the caramel pudding, an influence of british
and french cuisine and the priest’s wife walnut pie is more a rich cake
than a pie.
This text (extract) is cited January 2004 from the Assoc.
of Local Authorities of Kefalonia & Ithaca tourist pamphlet.
KERDYLION (Mountain) THESSALONIKI
KORINTHOS (Ancient city) PELOPONNISOS
A woman of loose character. There are a number of words in Greek and Latin to designate the harlot; hetaira and concubina usually implying one who has a quasi-recognized connection with a single man, while porne, meretrix, scortum, etc., designate the common prostitute. . .were very numerous at Athens and especially at Corinth, which last city was proverbial for its loose morals and the beauty of its hetaerae . . . It is probable that the indulgence with which women of this class were looked upon sprang in part from the semi-religious character of the prostitute as being associated with the worship of Aphrodite. At Corinth, for instance, a large number of these women were formally dedicated to the service of that goddess and were styled hierodouloi. Few citizens ever entered the ranks of the pornai, and whenever such a case happened loss of citizenship was the penalty, as also for a person who kept a porneion.
This extract is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities
Cited Sept 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
KOTZINOS (Port) LEMNOS (LIMNOS)
The name of the city was probably Kokkinos, which in Greek means Red.
This name derives from the red clay which was dug nearby and which - as it is
said - had medical abilities. The clay could heat effectively dysenteries, hemorrhages,
the wounds caused by the snake bites. The fact is that this clay, known as "Limnian
earth" to the European travelers - the local population called it "sacred earth"
- became a sumptuous good, in great request in the East and West Europe till very
recent times. The only ones who had the exclusive right to exploit it were those
who dominated the island at the time. Such was the fame of the earth during antiquity
that the famous doctor of Hellenistic period, Galinos, came to the island twice
in order to attend to the celebrations which took place during the extraction
of the earth. These celebrations did not change very much through the ages independently
of religious beliefs and aspects. All the dominants respected them, Roman Catholics
as well as Moslems. In antiquity, the extraction took place during the days when
goddess Artemis was honoured at the beginning of May, in the Christian ages on
the 6th of August, when people celebrated the Metamorphosis of Our Christ.
This text (extract) is cited June 2003 from the Lemnos
Provincial Government tourist pamphlet (1997).
MAKRINITSA (Village) VOLOS
Makrinitsa reached its peak in 18th and 19th century, when in 1881
became the center of its ex-municipality. Its town-planning organisation is based
on a fundamental powed street called "back bone",that starts from Koukourava (in
300m altitude) and goes up to Kakouna (800m). A second cobbled path network leads
to the very last house of the most widthdrawn neighborhood. In the center of the
village the big flagged square in altitude of 630 m, is shadowed by enormous long-lived
platans, adorned with a unique water fountain (1809) decorated with rich stone
sculptures. Dated since the 18th and 19th century, the majority are three-floored,
stone built in their biggest part, apart from sections of the last floor that
are more lightly constructed (tsatma). They have a fortress shaping with few and
armored windows in the basement, that multiply in the upper floors. They have
loopholes, gates, bars, scalders and defensive small towers. The ground plan is
shaped depending on the needs of the family and the weather conditions. The basement
was used for the yearly food storage. The middle floor with the many fire places
was for the family's winter stay and the floor with the glory the kiosk and the
"Lounge" for the summer stay. Such mansions are preserved in Makrinitsa like Vaigi
Koukourava (1761), Hajikostas, Topalis, Tsibouki, Xiradaki, Mousli, Mavrou and
many more .
This text is cited September 2004 from the Community of Makrinitsa URL below, which contains images
MARATHON (Ancient demos) ATTICA, EAST
The site of the ancient battle of Marathon has become a scene of conflict between environmentalists and the Olympic movement.
SKYROS (Island) STEREA HELLAS
Although Skyros is a historical island, it's also a contemporary island.
This is expressed in the Skyrian’s daily life, who has not only managed
to adjust the modern way of life to a fervently traditional character, but has
also expressed it in the Skyrian house, an ornament house, which displays a miraculous
combination of beauty and ingeniousness.
The Skyrians lived with the fear of pirates and other invaders. For
this reason, they were forced to share a very narrow piece of land on the hill.
This is how the stone cube was created and clasped the large family called the
Skyrians. The arrangement of space is so inventive that there is room for everything:
living room, bed room ("sfas"), warehouse, kitchen ("apokrevates")
nad fireplace. Even dishes, pans, sauce-pans, jugs, and coffee-pots, are exhibited
on the walls. So every single item, or room had to be a sight by itself. This
necessity turned everything into a piece of art. Pottery (popular Skyrian dishes),
wooden made items (miniature Skyrian furniture), copper works, weaving and embroidery
are modern people's inheritance.
This the inheritance that the Skyrians will deliver to the next generation,
after they have added their personal touch. Nature, as well as the other traditional
symbols of the Skyrian art like the cock, the ship and the oath have proved to
be a good inspiration for the artists. These elaborate geometric designs are so
difficult to embroider, that Skyrian women swear they will never do it again,
or give the pattern to someone else.
This text (extract) is cited July 2003 from the Municipality
of Skyros tourist pamphlet.
Skyros looks like an island of mixed origin, born form the pairing
of opposites in the North, the island is green, full of pines and cultivations.
The southern part of the island has brownish-yellow colours. It is an extended
pasture for goats and sheep and for the Skyrian small horse - a special miniature
species, which is about one metre tall and has no relation to the small pony of
the Northern Europe.
The Skyrian horse, which is a miniature horse, is of ancient origin.
We find it carved in the Panathenaea procession and in skeletons discovered in
the excavations in Vergina and Marathon. Just like the English Shetland horse,
this miniature Skyrian horse is a sight worth seeing by itself.
This text (extract) is cited July 2003 from the Municipality
of Skyros tourist pamphlet.
When the Roman epmire was at its height, historical sources tell us
that the "Skyrian variegated stone", a coloured marble, for which the
island was famous, was shipped from Skyros to embellish public and private buildings.
This text (extract) is cited July 2003 from the Municipality
of Skyros tourist pamphlet (1992, 2nd ed. 1996).
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