Michel Pascal and HOMMM.xyz states, “CALM THE MIND”.  Most of you know that for the last 21 years Good News has been involved with The International Day of Peace and we would love on that day that there is a www.peacedayparty.org everywhere and random acts of peace. Let’s www.pausetheworldforpeace.org.

Peace is an interesting word that has many, many meanings. Peace is NO WAR, Peace is no Domestic Violence, Peace is in one’s body, Peace is Health & Wellness, Peace is having food, shelter, FREEDOM, LOVE, HOPE AND so much more. 

Peace is also taking care of MOTHER EARTH…Creating Actions for being Guardians of the Planet. Today the Good News is growing in corporations/governments with actions for ESG (Environmental Social Governance), CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and for all of us, we have termed, PSR (Personal Social Responsibility/Respect). 

As we think about MOTHER EARTH, for years we thank Reverend Susana Bastarrica, with many other concerned citizens of the world, who helped create the Vigil for the International Day of Peace in Central Park, at the Band Shell, starting in 2002. We all have been involved since then. Susana included Ecology and MOTHER EARTH maybe 10 or so years ago into their theme…we also title our outreach as the International Day of Peace & Ecology because, as DR. JANE GOODALL STATES, “WITHOUT TAKING CARE OF MOTHER EARTH THERE CAN BE NO PEACE”. 

We would like to share our Earth & Water Day Sizzle Reel with you once again, as we have edited in some sustainability facts about the country of Greece that we felt showed sustainability in action, i.e.

Astypalaia has been reborn as one of Greece’s smartest and most sustainable islands. Through a collaboration with the Volkswagen Group, the island has shifted to electric vehicles. Tilos has invested into its energy transformation, becoming the first island in the Mediterranean to be 100% energy self-sufficient, using solar and wind for energy. The cosmopolitan island of Paros in the Cyclades is starting to make waves for the fact that the island is almost entirely plastic-free.

Here is the link for the Sizzle Reel: 

Also, we are creating individual shows, approximately one hour each and we will have 6 Parts, it’s a big show, because caring about MOTHER EARTH is a BIG SUBJECT & WORK! Here is the Run of Show and Link for Part One & Two.

Part 1 includes Pastor Gil Monrose, Scott Harrison, Deloitte, Donna Szatkowski-Zych, Rick Rosenspire, DSM Energy, Kilows, Powertron Global, Mission 6, Integrated Nano-Magnetics Inc. (INM), Earth Quakes, Michael Fitzpatrick, Ringo Starr and Dr. Jane Goodall.

Part 2 includes Carmen Olivia, Steven Joseph, Chip Shelton Peacetime Ensemble, Chuck Armstrong Jr., Chuck Armstrong Sr., Leonardo DiCaprio, Reif Harrison & Mckenzie Brooke, Chuckie Armstrong Jr., AY Young Battery Tour, Todd Cederhome, Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala, Tammy Scarlett & Michele Bongiovanni, Eric LeDuc, Guardians of the Rain Forests and Dr. Kalumuna & Dr. Joseph/Uganda/Mt. Sinai.

2023 Earth & Water Day Times Square Concert Part 1

2023 Earth & Water Day Times Square Concert Part 2

The post GoodNewsLetter: Calm the Mind, More Peace is Coming 09/21/23 appeared first on Good News!.

If you need a quick refresher, the Blue Zones are the five areas of the world that have the longest-living and healthiest populations: Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece, and Loma Linda, California. It was found that they had nine things in common, including the way they eat, despite being in completely different geographical locations and cultures.

While a lot of their longevity success comes down to where and how they live, there are some key dietary takeaways that can be applied to an American lifestyle without too much work. In a seminar hosted by the Global Wellness Summit, Dan Buettner, a journalist and expert on Blue Zones, shared some of his top longevity nutrition tips gleaned from years of researching how these communities live. Here are the main takeaways:

1. They drink wine after 5 p.m., ideally with friends and a meal
This one may be a little tricky to pull off during quarantine—both the “having meals with friends” part and the “waiting until 5 p.m. to have wine” part. “There’s plenty of evidence in Blue Zones that a couple glasses a day, especially with friends and with a meal… probably lowers your mortality,” Buettner says. (In fact, four out of the five Blue Zones communities drink alcohol in moderation as part of their lifestyle.)

There are a few potential reasons for this: wine is rich in antioxidants, has some anti-inflammatory properties, and has been linked with a reduced risk of heart disease, Tracy Lockwood Beckerman, RD, previously told Well+Good. (This is Sardinia’s red wine of choice, just FYI.) However, if you’re not drinking now, this doesn’t mean you should start; if you choose to imbibe, do it the Blue Zones way.

2. They eat mostly plant based foods…
Yup, even Blue Zones folks are on the plant-based train—and have been for generations. “They’re eating 90 to 100 percent plant-based food beyond a shadow of a doubt,” Buettner says. A plant-based diet has been shown to be good for your heart, your gut, and your brain—not to mention, plant-based foods like veggies and grains have less of a carbon footprint than meat and dairy.

3. …including plenty of carbs
Justice for carbs! Buettner says that people living in Blue Zones typically consume about 65 percent of their daily calories in the form of carbs. Which makes sense: the macronutrient typically comes paired with lots of fiber (great for gut health) along with vitamins and minerals that your body needs to function at its best.

But it’s important to remember that not all carbs are created equal, and people in Blue Zones are getting this macronutrient mostly from sources like grains, greens, tubers, nuts, and beans. (Read: Not the super processed stuff.) There’s one carb that beats all the rest: beans. “The longevity all-star food is beans,” Buettner says. “So if you’re eating about a cup of beans a day, it’s probably worth an extra four years of the life expectancy.”

4. They enjoy meat on occasion
Meat is considered a celebratory food in the Blue Zones, Buettner says, and is typically only eaten about five times per month. People in these communities typically stick to “a portion no bigger than the size of the deck of cards,” he adds, which translates to about three ounces. This makes sense—while meat is a great source of protein, B vitamins, and bioavailable iron, too much of it is also associated with cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer, and other health issues. And studies have shown that higher intakes of meat in both men and women are associated with higher cancer and all-cause mortality rates.

Like the wine tip, you don’t have to start eating meat if you don’t currently do so, but if you are a meat eater, know that a bit is totally fine from a longevity perspective. To take it a step further, here’s how to make the healthiest and most sustainable choices when you do eat meat.

5. They stick to water, coffee, and wine
These are beverage choices I can fully get behind. Buettner says people in Blue Zones drink six glasses of water a day, plus coffee in the morning and a glass of wine with dinner. Missing: sugary beverages like soda, which have been shown to negatively impact your health.

6. They practice modified forms of intermittent fasting
But no, that doesn’t mean they’re dieters. Rather, Buettner says that people in Blue Zones communities typically eat in ways that are similar to what we could call intermittent fasting. “They breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper, and they tend to eat all their calories in an eight hour window, leaving 16 hours for their digestive systems to rest,” Buettner says. Basically, their largest meal is breakfast, their smallest one is dinner, and they don’t eat late into the night. (And it comes with lots of potential longevity-related benefits.) However, this is not an eating plan for everyone, especially if you are recovering from an illness, pregnant, breastfeeding, or trying to conceive, or have a history of eating disorders.

https://apple.news/A_LQmTT8dRme2-r9vnx701A

The post The 6 Golden Rules of Eating for Longevity, According to the Longest-Living People on Earth appeared first on Good News!.

Willard Manus (born September 28, 1930) is a Los Angeles-based novelist, playwright, and journalist. His original play “Dietrich” just enjoyed a limited Off Broadway engagement at the famed Triad Theatre to packed houses and excellent reviews.

Accompanied by pianist Russell Daisey and starring Cindy Marinangel, “Dietrich” is a based on a true story. Set in May 1960, the play takes place when Marlene Dietrich returned to the Berlin stage for the first time since fleeing the Hitler regime in the 1930’s.

Inside her dressing room at the Tatiana Palast Theater, Dietrich weighs whether to go through with the live performance despite threats on her life by Nazi sympathizers who resent her for having spent much of World War II entertaining American soldiers on the front lines. To them, Dietrich is a turncoat; a traitor who deserves to be shot and killed on stage.

Willard Manus is a playwright, journalist and novelist. He is a member of the playwrights/director’s unit of The Actors Studio. His most recent plays are “Joe and Marilyn: A Love Story,” “Frank and Ava” (now a motion picture) and “Who Killed Comrade Rabbit?” His best known book is Mott the Hoople (1966), the novel from which the British 1970s hard rock band derived their name. Manus was born in New York. He is the author of This Way to Paradise: Dancing on the Tables, a memoir of life in Lindos, Rhodes, Greece, from the 1960s to the 1990s. Additionally he has had a dozen other books published, most recently a young adult novel, A Dog Called Leka, which deals with a young lad sailing the Aegean islands in the company of an exceptional dog. More than two dozen of his plays have been produced in Los Angeles, regionally and in Europe. He has been a member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association since 1981.

Cindy Marinangel (Marlene Dietrich) is a Lifetime Member of The Actors Studio and a graduate of the Chicago Second City Conservatory. Marinangel was recently seen in “Beverly Hills Christmas,” a holiday film starring actor Dean Cain that airs seasonally on UPtv. She is a voice over talent, an avid ballroom dancer, animal advocate and producer of film, theatre and dance shows.

Russell Daisey is an internationally acclaimed pianist, singer and songwriter. He performed at The First Hiroshima International Peace Summit (on stage with the Dalai Lama); the Palais des Congres in Paris; before President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; as well as Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Ellie Wiesel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Betty Williams.

For bookings reviews and inquiries:
https://www.dietrichplay.com/

Works Written by Willard Manus:

Journalism
· Columns

Southern California Correspondent for Playbill On-Line (1995-2000).

Monthly columnist (theatre, opera, books, movies, jazz & blues) What’s Up Magazine &, Lively-Arts.com , Total Theater, The Outlook, Daily News, North-East Newspapers, Pasadena Star News, and many others

Books
· Novels

Love Under Aegean Skies – Amazon E-Book

Mott the Hoople, McGraw-Hill Co & Pinnacle Books – Amazon E-Book

· Fiction

The Fighting Men, Panjandrum Books – Amazon E-Book

The Fixers, Ace Books – E-Book

Connubial Bliss, Panjandrum Books – Amazon E-Book

The Pigskin Rabbi, Breakaway Books – Amazon E-Book

· Children’s

The Island Kids, Anglo-Hellenic Publishing Co (Picture Book)

· Young adult

The Proud Rebel, Ridge Press/Teenage Book Club

Sea Treasure, Doubleday

Mystery of the Flooded Mine, Doubleday

A Dog Called Leka, Viveca Smith Publishing Co – Amazon E-Book

· Non-fiction

This Way to Paradise–Dancing on the Tables, Lycabettus Press

Plays (premiered)
Actual Productions: Bon Appetit (Los Angeles, 1984, director Bert Rosario)

Diamonds (Los Angeles, 1985, director Richmond Shepard)

Hemingway–On the Edge (Los Angeles, 1993, director Lonny Chapman)

In My Father’s House (Los Angeles, 2000, director Jerome Guardino)

Junk Food (Los Angeles, 1981, director Rick Edelstein)

MM at 58 (Los Angeles, 1989, director Gary Guidinger)

The Bleachers

The Deepest Hunger (Los Angeles, 1984, director Lonny Chapman)

The Electronic Lincoln (Los Angeles, 1992, director Susan Deitz)

Their Finest Hour–Churchill and Murrow (Woodstock, director Nicola Sheara)

The Kendo Master (Los Angeles, 1981, director Sab Shimono)

The Last Laugh (Los Angeles, 1999, director John Lant)

The Love Boutique (Los Angeles, 1989, director Walter Olkiewicz)

The Penis Monologues (Los Angeles, 2002, director Louis Fantasia)

The Yard

Man in the Sun

Porkchops

The Call (Los Angeles, 2006, director Gregory Crafts)

Reap the Whirlwind (Los Angeles, 2000, director Doug Lowry)

Walt-Sweet Bird of Freedom (Los Angeles, 1984, director Lonny Chapman)

Central Avenue–The Musical (Los Angeles, 2007, director Louis Fantasia).

“In My Father’s House”

“Berlin Cowboys”

“Bird Lives”

“Prez, the Lester Young Story”

Frank & Ava”

Joe & Marilyn, a Love Story”

“The Life and Loves of Marlene Dietrich:

The Wicked, Wicked, Mae West”

and other plays…..

Television
Boys Will Be Boys, Fox TV.

Secrets of Midland Heights, CBS-TV.

Shannon, CBS-TV.

Too Close For Comfort, ABC-TV.

Translations
Leka de hond (A dog called Leka), translated by Gerrit Brand, Uitgeverij Nobelman, 2012.

With Artistic Regards,

Cindy Marinangel

DietrichPlay.com
CindyMarinangel.com
EternalWaltzFilm.net

“Marinangel’s excellent performance made me catch myself many times thinking that I was watching the ‘real’ Marlene.”
— Petra Schuermann (Germanworldonline.com)

The post Playwright Willard Manus discusses the origins of his original play “Dietrich”, Starring Cindy Marinangel appeared first on Good News!.

For the video, please view below:

For the podcast, please listen below:

FAUX-BIA! is a brand new, fast-paced musical, written in the style of the father of ancient Greek comedy, Aristophanes, and stars the most renowned characters of Greek mythology. We speak to the producers Angelika Sandora and Sophia Dama. The story begins just after Aristophanes’ most famous heroine “Lysistrata”, announced an outrageous plan to blackmail the men of Greece, by withholding what men want most from women!

FAUX-BIA!’s subject matter is that which Aristophanes would definitely comment on if he was alive today: the WORLD CRISIS, in both politics and personal relationships, through the lens of Greek political satire. The solution, as in most of his plays, lies in the power of the female libido!

FAUX-BIA! features beautiful women, eccentric soothsayers,
mermaids, magical elixirs, exotic journeys, a bunch of sex-starved men (and women!), and a hilarious chorus of men and women who sing and dance and constantly brawl to the rhythm of lively music and primal drum beats from all over the world, proving that phobia is nothing but fake violence, a…FAUX-BIA!

The post FAUX-BIA! Vew musical at Carnegie Hall appeared first on Good News!.

JLUCE LEADERSHIP TRIP HELLAS 2017 – ITINERARY OUTLINE
Saturday – June 3rd, 2017
Departure from USA/ NEWARK to Athens- on Emirates at 11:55pm
Sunday – June 4th, 2017
Arrival in Athens and transfer to 5/star DIVANI PALACE ACROPOLIS HOTEL. Late
afternoon walk in the picturesque area of Plaka followed by dinner in one of
Plaka’s oldest restaurants “Taverna tou Psarra”(Fisherman’s Tavern).
Monday – June 5th, 2017
8:00 The Mysteries of the Great Gods (Acropolis, Acropolis Museum, Ancient Agora,
Pnyka, Areopagus)
13:00 Lunch at Archeon Gefsis (Ancient Tastes – <http://archeongefsis.gr/en/)
Free time-optional activities available
20:00 Sunset cocktail and Dinner at NALU Restaurant on the waterfront
Tuesday – June 6th, 2017
9:00 Visit to the Hatzikyriakio Childcare Institution in Piraeus & Elliniko Refugee Camp
13:00 Lunch in Vari – Traditional Taverna at the Vlachika area in Vari
15:30 Athens Riviera Tour – Visit the “Temple of Poseidon” in Sounion
20:00 Dinner in the coastal town of Vouliagmeni at EN PLO Restaurant
Wednesday – June 7th, 2017
8:00 One-Day Cruise to Aegina, Poros & Hydra with lunch. Visit to the Temple of Aphaia.
Free time-optional activities available
Thursday – June 8th, 2017
8:00 Delphi full day private tour with lunch at “To Patriko” Restaurant
20:00 Dinner in Athens – place to be decided locally upon group’s preference
Friday – June 9th, 2017
9:00 Speech at the Hellenic Parliament, visit the Old Parliament &
Meeting with the Minister of Culture or Rep. (Certificate available)
13:00 Lunch at AEGLI Restaurant
Free time-optional activities available
20:00 “Reception Dinner” Young Hellene Global Leaders Awards &
Launching of HelpHellasHeal Campaign – Complimentary by:
Georgia Nomikos-Orpheus Luxury Collection
Saturday – June 10th, 2017
Free day-optional activities available
16:00 Ancient Pathos performance and dinner
Sunday – June 11th, 2017
Departure from Athens to the USA/Newark on Emirates at 5:30pm
(Order of events may be subject to change without notice)
** BREAKFAST DAILY Hours 6:15am-10:00am – will coordinate as per daily schedule

The post Young Global Leadership Trip – Ideals of Hellas” appeared first on Good News!.

The post Orpheus Luxury Collection “Philanthropy Through Travel Initiative”.Hellas (Greece) & Cyprus Tourism. Peace Day Party is beneficiary. appeared first on Good News!.

6:00 P.M.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26
BROOKLYN BOROUGH HALL
209 JORALEMON STREET

This evening at 6:00 PM, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will join the Hellenic community of Brooklyn, including the Honorable Georgios Illiopoulus, Consul General of Greece in New York, and the Honorable Vasilios Philippou, Consul General of Cyprus, for a Greek heritage reception at Brooklyn Borough Hall. Entertainment will be provided by a variety of Brooklyn community dance groups, including the Greek school of Plato Dance Group and members of the Hellenic Classical Charter School of Dance.

Borough President Adams will present citations to a group of community honorees, including Stellene Argyriou, Antonio Brgianos, Tony Grigos, Nick Karkas, Jimmy Kokotas, Dimitrios Mallas, Joanna Vassilas, John Vorvolakos, Dennis and Steven Vourderis and Peter Yiatrakis.

The post BP ADAMS TO HOST GREEK HERITAGE RECEPTION WITH BROOKLYN’S HELLENIC COMMUNITY appeared first on Good News!.

Greece

Etymology

Main article: Name of Greece

The names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures.  Although the Greeks call the country Hellas orHellada (Greek: Ελλάς or Ελλάδα) and its official name is the Hellenic Republic, in English it is referred to as Greece, which comes from the Latin term Graecia as used by theRomans, which literally means ‘the land of the Greeks’, and derives from the Greek name Γραικός.  However, the name Hellas is sometimes used in English as well.

History

Main article: History of Greece

Earliest settlements to 3rd century BC

Main article: Ancient Greece

Greek territories and colonies during the Archaic period (750-550 BC). The earliest evidence of human presence in the Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, in the northern Greek province of Macedonia.^[28]  Neolithicsettlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC,^[28] are the oldest in Europe by several centuries, as Greece lies on the route via which farming spread from the Near East to Europe.^[29] Greece is home to the first advanced civilizations in Europe and is considered the birthplace of Western civilization,^{[30][31][32][33][34]} beginning with the Cycladic civilization on the islands of the Aegean Sea at around 3200 BC,^[35] the Minoan civilization in Crete (2700–1500 BC),^[34][36] and then the Mycenaean civilization on the mainland (1900–1100 BC).^[36]  These civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Myceneans in Linear B, an early form of Greek.  The Myceneans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC, during a time of regional upheaval known as the Bronze Age collapse.^[37]  This ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the year of the first Olympic Games.^[38]  The Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 8th or 7th centuries BC.^[39][40]  With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, which spread to the shores of the Black Sea, Southern Italy (Latin: Magna Graecia, or Greater Greece) and Asia Minor.  These states and their colonies reached great levels of prosperity that resulted in an unprecedented cultural boom, that of classical Greece, expressed in architecture, drama, science, mathematics and philosophy.  In 508 BC,Cleisthenes instituted the world’s first democratic system of government in Athens.^[41][42] By 500 BC, the Persian Empire controlled territories ranging from their home Iran all the way to what is now northern Greece and Turkey, and posed a threat to the Greek states.  Attempts by the Greek city-states of Asia Minor to overthrow Persian rule failed, and Persia invaded the states of mainland Greece in 492 BC, but was forced to withdraw after a defeat at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.  A second invasion followed in 480 BC.  Despite a heroic resistance at Thermopylae by Spartans and other Greeks, Persian forces sacked Athens. Following successive Greek victories in 480 and 479 BC at Salamis, Plataea and Mycale, the Persians were forced to withdraw for a second time.  The military conflicts, known as theGreco-Persian Wars, were led mostly by Athens and Sparta.  The fact that Greece was not a unified country meant that conflict between the Greek states was common. The most devastating intra-Greek war in classical antiquity was the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), which marked the demise of the Athenian Empire as the leading power in ancient Greece.  Both Athens and Sparta were later overshadowed by Thebes and eventually Macedon, with the latter uniting the Greek world in the League of Corinth (also known as the Hellenic League or Greek League) under the guidance of Phillip II, who was elected leader of the first unified Greek state in history. Following the assassination of Phillip II, his son Alexander III (“The Great”) assumed the leadership of the League of Corinth and launched an invasion of the Persian Empire with the combined forces of all Greek states in 334 BC.  Following Greek victories in the battles of Granicus, Issus and Gaugamela, the Greeks marched on Susa and Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of Persia, in 330 BC.  The Empire created by Alexander the Great stretched from Greece in the west and Pakistan in the east, and Egypt in the south. Before his sudden death in 323 BC, Alexander was also planning an invasion of Arabia.  His death marked the collapse of the vast empire, which was split into several kingdoms, the most famous of which were the Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic Egypt.  Other states founded by Greeks include the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Greco-Indian Kingdom in India. Many Greeks migrated to Alexandria, Antioch, Seleucia and the many other new Hellenistic cities in Asia and Africa.^[43] Although the political unity of Alexander’s empire could not be maintained, it brought about the dominance of Hellenistic civilization and the Greek language in the territories conquered by Alexander for at least two centuries, and, in the case of parts the Eastern Mediterranean, considerably longer.^[44]

Hellenistic and Roman periods (323 BC–4th century AD)

Main articles: Hellenistic Greece and Roman Greece

See also: Roman Empire

After a period of confusion following Alexander’s death, the Antigonid dynasty, descended from one of Alexander’s generals, established its control over Macedon by 276 BC, as well as hegemony over most of the Greek city-states.^[45]  From about 200 BC the Roman Republic became increasingly involved in Greek affairs and engaged in a series of wars with Macedon.^[46]  Macedon’s defeat at the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC signaled the end of Antigonid power in Greece.^[47]  In 146 BC Macedonia was annexed as a province by Rome, and the rest of Greece became a Roman protectorate.^[46][48] The process was completed in 27 BC when the Roman Emperor Augustus annexed the rest of Greece and constituted it as the senatorial province of Achaea.^[48]  Despite their military superiority, the Romans admired and became heavily influenced by the achievements of Greek culture, hence Horace‘s famous statement: Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit (“Greece, although captured, took its wild conqueror captive”).^[49]  Greek science, technology and mathematics are generally considered to have reached their peak during the Hellenistic period.^[50] Greek-speaking communities of the Hellenized East were instrumental in the spread of early Christianity in the 2nd and 3rd centuries,^[51] and Christianity’s early leaders and writers (notably St Paul) were generally Greek-speaking,^[52] though none were from Greece.  Greece itself had a tendency to cling on to paganism and was not one of the influential centers of early Christianity: in fact, some ancient Greek religious practices remained in vogue until the end of the 4th century,^[53] with some areas such as the southeastern Peloponnese remaining pagan until well into the 10th century AD.^[54]

Medieval period (4th century–1453)

Main articles: Byzantine Greece and Frankokratia

See also: Byzantine Empire

The Roman Empire in the east, following the fall of the Empire in the west in the 5th century, is conventionally known as the Byzantine Empire (but was simply called “Roman Empire” in its own time) and lasted until 1453.  With its capital in Constantinople, its language and literary culture was Greek and its religion was predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christian.^[55] From the 4th century, the Empire’s Balkan territories, including Greece, suffered from the dislocation of the Barbarian Invasions.  The raids and devastation of the Goths and Huns in the 4th and 5th centuries and the Slavic invasion of Greece in the 7th century resulted in a dramatic collapse in imperial authority in the Greek peninsula.^[56]  Following the Slavic invasion, the imperial government retained control of only the islands and coastal areas, particularly cities such as Athens, Corinth and Thessalonica, while some mountainous areas in the interior held out on their own and continued to recognize imperial authority.^[56]  Outside of these areas, a limited amount of Slavic settlement is generally thought to have occurred, although on a much smaller scale than previously thought.^[57][58] The Byzantine recovery of lost provinces began toward the end of the 8th century and most of the Greek peninsula came under imperial control again, in stages, during the 9th century.^[59][60]  This process was facilitated by a large influx of Greeks from Sicily and Asia Minor to the Greek peninsula, while at the same time many Slavs were captured and re-settled in Asia Minor and those that remained were assimilated.^[57]  During the 11th and 12th centuries the return of stability resulted in the Greek peninsula benefiting from strong economic growth – much stronger than that of the Anatolian territories of the Empire.^[59] Following the Fourth Crusade and the fall of Constantinople to the “Latins” in 1204 most of Greece quickly came under Frankish rule ^[61] (initiating the period known as theFrankokratia) or Venetian rule in the case of some of the islands.^[62]  The re-establishment of the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople in 1261 was accompanied by the recovery of much of the Greek peninsula, although the Frankish Principality of Achaea in the Peloponnese remained an important regional power into the 14th century, while the islands remained largely under Genoese and Venetian control.^[61] In the 14th century much of the Greek peninsula was lost by the Empire as first the Serbs and then the Ottomans seized imperial territory.^[63]  By the beginning of the 15th century, the Ottoman advance meant that Byzantine territory in Greece was limited mainly to the Despotate of the Morea in the Peloponnese.^[63]  After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, the Morea was the last remnant of the Byzantine Empire to hold out against the Ottomans.  However, this, too, fell to the Ottomans in 1460, completing the Ottoman conquest of mainland Greece.^[64]  With the Turkish conquest, many Byzantine Greek scholars, who up until then were largely responsible for preserving Classical Greek knowledge, fled to the West, taking with them a large body of literature and thereby significantly contributing to the Renaissance.^[65]

Ottoman period (15th century–1821)

Main article: Ottoman Greece

While most of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands was under Ottoman control by the end of the 15th century, Cyprus and Crete remained Venetian territory and did not fall to the Ottomans until 1571 and 1670 respectively.  The only part of the Greek-speaking world that escaped long-term Ottoman rule was the Ionian Islands, which remained Venetian until their capture by the First French Republic in 1797, then passed to the United Kingdom in 1809 until their unification with Greece in 1864.^{[67][page needed]} While Greeks in the Ionian Islands and Constantinople lived in prosperity, the latter achieving positions of power within the Ottoman administration,^{[67][page needed]} much of the population of mainland Greece suffered the economic consequences of the Ottoman conquest.  Heavy taxes were enforced, and in later years the Ottoman Empire enacted a policy of creation of hereditary estates, effectively turning the rural Greek populations into serfs.^[68] The Greek Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople were considered by the Ottoman governments as the ruling authorities of the entire Orthodox Christianpopulation of the Ottoman Empire, whether ethnically Greek or not.  Although the Ottoman state did not force non-Muslims to convert to Islam, Christians faced several types of discrimination intended to highlight their inferior status in the Ottoman Empire.  Discrimination against Christians, particularly when combined with harsh treatment by local Ottoman authorities, led to conversions to Islam, if only superficially.  In the nineteenth century, many “crypto-Christians” returned to their old religious allegiance.^{[67][page needed]} The nature of Ottoman administration of Greece varied, though it was invariably arbitrary and often harsh.^{[67][page needed]}  Some cities had governors appointed by the Sultan, while others (like Athens) were self-governed municipalities.  Mountains regions in the interior and many islands remained effectively autonomous from the central Ottoman state for many centuries.^{[67][page needed]} When military conflicts broke out between the Ottoman Empire and other states, Greeks usually took arms against the Empire, with few exceptions.  Prior to the Greek revolution, there had been a number of wars which saw Greeks fight against the Ottomans, such as the Greek participation in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the Epirus peasants’ revolts of 1600–1601, the Morean War of 1684–1699, and the Russian-instigated Orlov Revolt in 1770, which aimed at breaking up the Ottoman Empire in favor of Russian interests.^{[67][page needed]}  These uprisings were put down by the Ottomans with great bloodshed.^[69][70] The 16th and 17th centuries are regarded as something of a “dark age” in Greek history, with the prospect of overthrowing Ottoman rule appearing remote with only the Ionian islands remaining free of Turkish domination.  Corfu withstood three major sieges in 1537, 1571 and 1716 all of which resulted in the repulsion of the Ottomans.  However in the 18th century, there arose through shipping a wealthy and dispersed Greek merchant class.  These merchants came to dominate trade within the Ottoman Empire, establishing communities throughout the Mediterranean, the Balkans, and Western Europe.  Though the Ottoman conquest had cut Greece off from significant European intellectual movements such as the Reformation and the Enlightenment, these ideas together with the ideals of the French Revolution and romantic nationalism began to penetrate the Greek world via the mercantile diaspora.^{[67][page needed]}  In the late 18th century, Rigas Feraios, the first revolutionary to envision an independent Greek state, published a series of documents relating to Greek independence, including but not limited to a national anthem and the first detailed map of Greece, in Vienna, and was murdered by Ottoman agents in 1798.^{[67][page needed][71]}

Greek War of Independence (1821–1832)

Main article: Greek War of Independence

In 1814, a secret organization called the Filiki Eteria (Society of Friends) was founded with the aim of liberating Greece.  The Filiki Eteria planned to launch revolution in thePeloponnese, the Danubian Principalities and Constantinople.  The first of these revolts began on 6 March 1821 in the Danubian Principalities under the leadership of Alexandros Ypsilantis, but it was soon put down by the Ottomans.  The events in the north spurred the Greeks of the Peloponnese into action and on 17 March 1821 the Maniots declared war on the Ottomans.^[72] By the end of the month, the Peloponnese was in open revolt against the Ottomans and by October 1821 the Greeks under Theodoros Kolokotronis had captured Tripolitsa.  The Peloponnesian revolt was quickly followed by revolts in Crete, Macedonia and Central Greece, which would soon be suppressed.  Meanwhile, the makeshift Greek navy was achieving success against the Ottoman navy in the Aegean Sea and prevented Ottoman reinforcements from arriving by sea.  In 1822 and 1824 the Turks and Egyptians ravaged the islands, including Chios and Psara, committing wholesale massacres of the population.^[72]  This had the effect of galvanizing public opinion in western Europe in favor of the Greek rebels.^{[67][page needed]} Tensions soon developed among different Greek factions, leading to two consecutive civil wars.  Meanwhile, the Ottoman Sultan negotiated with Mehmet Ali of Egypt, who agreed to send his son Ibrahim Pasha to Greece with an army to suppress the revolt in return for territorial gain.  Ibrahim landed in the Peloponnese in February 1825 and had immediate success: by the end of 1825, most of the Peloponnese was under Egyptian control, and the city of Missolonghi—put under siege by the Turks since April 1825—fell in April 1826.  Although Ibrahim was defeated in Mani, he had succeeded in suppressing most of the revolt in the Peloponnese and Athens had been retaken. After years of negotiation, three Great Powers, Russia, the United Kingdom and France, decided to intervene in the conflict and each nation sent a navy to Greece.  Following news that combined Ottoman–Egyptian fleets were going to attack the Greek island of Hydra, the allied fleet intercepted the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet at Navarino.  After a week-long standoff, a battle began which resulted in the destruction of the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet.  A French expeditionary force was dispatched to supervise the evacuation of the Egyptian army from the Peloponnese, while the Greeks proceeded to the captured part of Central Greece by 1828.  As a result of years of negotiation, the nascent Greek state was finally recognized under the London Protocol in 1830.

19th century

See also: Kingdom of Greece

In 1827 Ioannis Kapodistrias, from Corfu, was chosen as the first governor of the new Republic.  However, following his assassination in 1831, the Great Powers installed a monarchyunder Otto, of the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach.  In 1843 an uprising forced the king to grant a constitution and a representative assembly. Due to his unimpaired authoritarian rule he was eventually dethroned in 1862 and a year later replaced by Prince Wilhelm (William) of Denmark, who took the name George I and brought with him the Ionian Islands as a coronation gift from Britain.  In 1877 Charilaos Trikoupis, who is credited with significant improvement of the country’s infrastructure, curbed the power of the monarchy to interfere in the assembly by issuing the rule of vote of confidence to any potential prime minister. Corruption and Trikoupis’ increased spending to create necessary infrastructure like the Corinth Canal overtaxed the weak Greek economy, forcing the declaration of public insolvencyin 1893 and to accept the imposition of an International Financial Control authority to pay off the country’s debtors.  Another political issue in 19th-century Greece was uniquely Greek: the language question.  The Greek people spoke a form of Greek called Demotic.  Many of the educated elite saw this as a peasant dialect and were determined to restore the glories of Ancient Greek. Government documents and newspapers were consequently published in Katharevousa (purified) Greek, a form which few ordinary Greeks could read.  Liberals favoured recognising Demotic as the national language, but conservatives and the Orthodox Church resisted all such efforts, to the extent that, when the New Testament was translated into Demotic in 1901, riots erupted in Athens and the government fell (the Evangeliaka).  This issue would continue to plague Greek politics until the 1970s. All Greeks were united, however, in their determination to liberate the Greek-speaking provinces of the Ottoman Empire.  Especially in Crete, a prolonged revolt in 1866–1869 had raised nationalist fervour.  When war broke out between Russia and the Ottomans in 1877, Greek popular sentiment rallied to Russia’s side, but Greece was too poor, and too concerned of British intervention, to officially enter the war.  Nevertheless, in 1881, Thessaly and small parts of Epirus were ceded to Greece as part of the Treaty of Berlin, while frustrating Greek hopes of receiving Crete. Greeks in Crete continued to stage regular revolts, and in 1897, the Greek government under Theodoros Deligiannis, bowing to popular pressure, declared war on the Ottomans.  In the ensuing Greco-Turkish War of 1897 the badly trained and equipped Greek army was defeated by the Ottomans.  Through the intervention of the Great Powers however, Greece lost only a little territory along the border to Turkey, while Crete was established as an autonomous state under Prince George of Greece.

20th century to present

See also: Balkan Wars, National Schism, Asia Minor Campaign, 4th of August Regime, Axis occupation of Greece, Greek Civil War, and Greek military junta of 1967–74

At the end of the Balkan Wars, the extent of Greece’s territory and population had increased.  In the following years, the struggle between King Constantine I and charismatic Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos over the country’s foreign policy on the eve of World War I dominated the country’s political scene, and divided the country into two opposing groups.  During part of WWI, Greece had two governments; a royalist pro-German government in Athens and a Venizelist pro-Britain one in Thessaloniki.  The two governments were united in 1917, when Greece officially entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente. In the aftermath of the First World War, Greece attempted further expansion into Asia Minor, a region with a large Greek population at the time, but was defeated in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, which resulted in a massive population exchange between the two countries under the Treaty of Lausanne.^[73]  According to various sources,^[74] several hundred thousand Pontic Greeks died during this period, in what has sometimes been referred to as the Pontic Greek Genocide.^[75] The following era was marked by instability, overshadowed by the massive task of incorporating 1.5 million Greek refugees from Turkey into Greek society. The Greek population in Istanbul dropped from 300,000 at the turn of the 20th century to around 3,000 in the city today.^[76] Following the catastrophic events in Asia Minor, the monarchy was abolished via a referendum in 1924 and the Second Hellenic Republic was declared.  Premier Georgios Kondylistook power in 1935 and effectively abolished the republic by bringing back the monarchy via a referendum in 1935.  A coup d’état followed in 1936 and installed Ioannis Metaxas as the head of a dictatorial regime known as the 4th of August Regime.  Although a dictatorship, Greece remained on good terms with Britain and was not allied with the Axis. On 28 October 1940 Fascist Italy demanded the surrender of Greece, but the Greek administration refused and in the following Greco-Italian War, Greece repelled Italian forces into Albania, giving the Allies their first victory over Axis forces on land.  The country would eventually fall to urgently dispatched German forces during the Battle of Greece.  The German occupiers nevertheless met serious challenges from the Greek Resistance.  Over 100,000 civilians died of starvation during the winter of 1941–1942, and the great majority of Greek Jews were deported and murdered in Nazi concentration camps.^[77] After liberation, Greece experienced a polarising civil war between communist and anticommunist forces, which led to economic devastation and severe social tensions betweenrightists and largely communist leftists for the next thirty years.^[78]  The next twenty years were characterized by marginalisation of the left in the political and social spheres but also byrapid economic growth, propelled in part by the Marshall Plan. King Constantine II‘s dismissal of George Papandreou‘s centrist government in July 1965 prompted a prolonged period of political turbulence which culminated in a coup d’état on 21 April 1967 by the Regime of the Colonels.  The brutal suppression of the Athens Polytechnic uprising on 17 November 1973 sent shockwaves through the regime, and a counter-coup established Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis as dictator.  On 20 July 1974, as Turkey invaded the island of Cyprus, the regime collapsed. The former prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis was invited back from Paris where he had lived in self-exile since 1963, marking the beginning of the Metapolitefsi era.  The first multiparty elections since 1964 were held on the first anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising.  A democratic and republican constitution was promulgated on 11 June 1975 following areferendum which chose to not restore the monarchy. Meanwhile, Andreas Papandreou founded the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) in response to Karamanlis’s conservative New Democracy party, with the two political formations alternating in government ever since.  Greece rejoined NATO in 1980.^[79] Greece became the tenth member of the European Communities (subsequently subsumed by the European Union) on 1 January 1981, ushering in a period of sustained growth.  Widespread investments in industrial enterprises and heavy infrastructure, as well as funds from the European Union and growing revenues from tourism, shipping and a fast-growing service sector raised the country’s standard of living to unprecedented levels.  Traditionally strained relations with neighbouring Turkey improved when successive earthquakes hit both nations in 1999, leading to the lifting of the Greek veto against Turkey’s bid for EU membership.  The country adopted the euro in 2001 and successfully hosted the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens. More recently, Greece has suffered greatly from the late-2000s recession and has been central to the related European sovereign debt crisis.  The Greek government debt crisis, subsequent economic crisis and resultant protests have roiled domestic politics and have regularly threatened European and global financial markets since the crisis began in 2010.

Geography and climate

Main article: Geography of Greece

Politics

Main articles: Politics of Greece and List of political parties in Greece     Nafplion, first capital of modern Greece.     The Hellenic Parliament in central Athens. Greece is a parliamentary republic.^[83]  The nominal head of state is the President of the Republic, who is elected by the Parliament for a five-year term.^[83]  The current Constitution was drawn up and adopted by the Fifth Revisionary Parliament of the Hellenes and entered into force in 1975 after the fall of the military junta of 1967–1974.  It has been revised three times since, in 1986, 2001 and 2008.  The Constitution, which consists of 120 articles, provides for a separation of powers intoexecutive, legislative, and judicial branches, and grants extensive specific guarantees (further reinforced in 2001) of civil libertiesand social rights.^[84][85]  Women’s suffrage was guaranteed with an amendment to the 1952 Constitution. According to the Constitution, executive power is exercised by the President of the Republic and the Government.^[83]  From the Constitutional amendment of 1986 the President’s duties were curtailed to a significant extent, and they are now largely ceremonial; most political power thus lies in the hands of the Prime Minister.^[86]  The position of Prime Minister, Greece’s head of government, belongs to the current leader of the political party that can obtain a vote of confidence by the Parliament.  The President of the Republic formally appoints the Prime Minister and, on his recommendation, appoints and dismisses the other members of the Cabinet.^[83]     Count Ioannis Kapodistrias (1776–1831), first head of state, governor of independent Greece and founder of the modern Greek state. Legislative powers are exercised by a 300-member elective unicameral Parliament.^[83]  Statutes passed by the Parliament are promulgated by the President of the Republic.^[83] Parliamentary elections are held every four years, but the President of the Republic is obliged to dissolve the Parliament earlier on the proposal of the Cabinet, in view of dealing with a national issue of exceptional importance.^[83]  The President is also obliged to dissolve the Parliament earlier, if the opposition manages to pass a motion of no confidence.^[83] The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature and comprises three Supreme Courts: the Court of Cassation (Άρειος Πάγος), the Council of State (Συμβούλιο της Επικρατείας) and the Court of Auditors (Ελεγκτικό Συνέδριο).  The Judiciary system is also composed of civil courts, which judge civil and penal cases and administrative courts, which judge disputes between the citizens and the Greek administrative authorities.

Political parties

Administrative divisions

Since the Kallikratis programme reform entered into effect on 1 January 2011, Greece has consisted of thirteen regions subdivided into a total of 325 municipalities.  The 54 old prefectures and prefecture-level administrations have been largely retained as sub-units of the regions.  Seven decentralized administrations group one to three regions for administrative purposes on a regional basis.  There is also one autonomous area, Mount Athos (Greek: Agio Oros, “Holy Mountain”), which borders the region of Central Macedonia.

Foreign relations

Greece’s foreign policy is conducted through the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and its head, the Minister for Foreign Affairs.  The current minister is Evangelos Venizelos of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PA.SO.K.) party.  According to the official website, the main aims of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs are to represent Greece before other states and international organizations;^[97] safeguarding the interests of the Greek state and of its citizens abroad;^[97] the promotion of Greek culture;^[97] the fostering of closer relations with the Greek diaspora;^[97] and the promotion of international cooperation.^[97]  Additionally, Greece has developed a regional policy to help promote peace and stability in the Balkans, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East.^[98] The Ministry identifies three issues as of particular importance to the Greek state: Turkish claims over what the Ministry defines as Greek sovereignty over the Aegean Sea and corresponding airspace;^[99] the legitimacy of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on the island of Cyprus;^[99] and the Macedonia naming dispute^[99] with the small Balkan country which shares a name with Greece’s largest and second-most-populous region, also called Macedonia. Greece is a member of numerous international organizations, including the Council of Europe, the European Union, the Union for the Mediterranean and the United Nations, of which it is a founding member.

Military

Main article: Military of Greece

The Hellenic Armed Forces are overseen by the Hellenic National Defense General Staff(Greek: Γενικό Επιτελείο Εθνικής Άμυνας – ΓΕΕΘΑ) and consists of three branches:

• Hellenic Army
• Hellenic Navy
• Hellenic Air Force

The civilian authority for the Greek military is the Ministry of National Defence.  Furthermore, Greece maintains the Hellenic Coast Guard for law enforcement in the sea and for search and rescue. Greece has universal compulsory military service for males, while females (who may serve in the military) are exempted from conscription.  As of 2009, Greece has mandatory military service of nine months for male citizens between the ages of 19 and 45.  However, as the armed forces had been gearing towards a complete professional army system, the government had promised that the mandatory military service would be cut or even abolished completely. Greek males between the age of 18 and 60 who live in strategically sensitive areas may be required to serve part-time in the National Guard.  Service in the Guard is paid.  As a member of NATO, the Greek military participates in exercises and deployments under the auspices of the alliance. Greece spends over 7 billion USD every year on its military, or 2.3% of GDP, ranked 24th in the world.

Economy

Main articles: Economy of Greece and List of Greek subdivisions by GDP

Introduction

GDP per capita of the List of Greek subdivisions by GDP in 2008 according to Eurostat.     Greece’s economic growth between 1961 and 2010, compared with Eurozone average from 1996. Greece entered recession in 2009. The economy of Greece is the 34th or 42nd largest in the world at $299^[100] or $304^[101] billion by nominal gross domestic product or purchasing power parity (PPP) respectively, according to World Bank statistics for the year 2011.  Additionally, Greece is the 15th largest economy in the 27-member European Union.^[102]  In terms of per capita income, Greece is ranked 29th or 33rd in the world at $27,875 and $27,624 for nominal GDP and PPP respectively. Greece is a developed country with high standards of living.  Its economy mainly comprises the service sector (85.0%) and industry (12.0%), while agriculture makes up 3.0% of the national economic output.^[103]  Important Greek industries include tourism (with 14.9 million^[104] international tourists in 2009, it is ranked as the 7th most visited country in the European Union^[104] and 16th in the world^[104] by the United Nations World Tourism Organization) and merchant shipping (at 16.2%^[105] of the world’s total capacity, the Greek merchant marine is the largest in the world^[105]), while the country is also a considerable agricultural producer (including fisheries) within the union. With an economy larger than all the Balkan economies combined, Greece is the largest economy in the Balkans,^[106][107] and an important regional investor.^[106][107]  Greece is the number-two foreign investor of capital in Albania, the number-three foreign investor in Bulgaria, at the top-three foreign investors in Romania and Serbia and the most important trading partner and largest foreign investor of the Republic of Macedonia.  Greek banks open a new branch somewhere in the Balkans on an almost weekly basis.^{[108][109][110]}  The Greek telecommunications company OTE has become a strong investor in Yugoslavia and other Balkan countries.^[108] The Greek economy is classified as advanced^[111] and high-income.^[112]  Greece was a founding member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).  In 1979 the accession of the country in the European Communities and the single market was signed, and the process was completed in 1982.  In January 2001 Greece adopted the Euro as its currency, replacing the Greek drachma at an exchange rate of 340.75 drachma to the Euro.^[113]  Greece is also a member of the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization, and is ranked 31st on the KOF Globalization Index for 2010.

Eurozone entry

Greece was accepted into the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union by the European Council on 19 June 2000, based on a number of criteria (inflation rate, budget deficit, public debt, long-term interest rates, exchange rate) using 1999 as the reference year.  After an audit commissioned by the incoming New Democracy government in 2004,Eurostat revealed that the statistics for the budget deficit had been under-reported.^[114] Most of the differences in the revised budget deficit numbers were due to a temporary change of accounting practices by the new government, i.e., recording expenses when military material was ordered rather than received.^[115]  However, it was the retroactive application of ESA95 methodology (applied since 2000) by Eurostat, that finally raised the reference year (1999) budget deficit to 3.38% of GDP, thus exceeding the 3% limit.  This led to claims that Greece (similar claims have been made about other European countries like Italy^{[116][117][118]}) had not actually met all five accession criteria, and the common perception that Greece entered the Eurozone through “falsified” deficit numbers. In the 2005 OECD report for Greece,^[119] it was clearly stated that “the impact of new accounting rules on the fiscal figures for the years 1997 to 1999 ranged from 0.7 to 1 percentage point of GDP; this retroactive change of methodology was responsible for the revised deficit exceeding 3% in 1999, the year of [Greece’s] EMU membership qualification”.  The above led the Greek minister of finance to clarify that the 1999 budget deficit was below the prescribed 3% limit when calculated with the ESA79 methodology in force at the time of Greece’s application, and thus the criteria had been met.^[120] The original accounting practice for military expenses was later restored in line with Eurostat recommendations, theoretically lowering even the ESA95-calculated 1999 Greek budget deficit to below 3% (an official Eurostat calculation is still pending for 1999). A frequent error is the confusion of the discussion regarding Greece’s Eurozone entry with the controversy regarding usage of derivatives’ deals with US banks by Greece and other Eurozone countries to artificially reduce their reported budget deficits^{[citation needed]}.  A currency swap arranged with Goldman Sachs allowed Greece to “hide” $1 billion of debt; however, this affected deficit values after 2001 (when Greece had already been admitted into the Eurozone) and is not related to Greece’s Eurozone entry.^[121] Forensic accountants found that data submitted by Greece to Eurostat had a statistical distribution indicative of manipulation.^[122][123]

Debt crisis (2010–)

See also: Greek government-debt crisis

Greek public debt 1999–2010 compared with Eurozone average By the end of 2009, as a result of a combination of international and local factors the Greek economy faced its most-severe crisis since the restoration of democracy in 1974 as the Greek government revised its deficit from an estimated 6% to 12.7% of gross domestic product (GDP).^[124][125] In early 2010, it was revealed that through the assistance of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and numerous other banks, financial products were developed which enabled the governments of Greece, Italy and many other European countries to hide their borrowing.^[126][127]  Dozens of similar agreements were concluded across Europe whereby banks supplied cash in advance in exchange for future payments by the governments involved; in turn, the liabilities of the involved countries were “kept off the books”.^{[127][128][129][130][131][132]}  According to Der Spiegel credits given to European governments were disguised as “swaps” and consequently did not get registered as debt.  As Eurostat at the time ignored statistics involving financial derivatives, a German derivatives dealer had commented to Der Spiegel that “The Maastricht rules can be circumvented quite legally through swaps,” and “In previous years, Italy used a similar trick to mask its true debt with the help of a different US bank.”^[132]  These conditions had enabled Greek as well as many other European governments to spend beyond their means, while meeting the deficit targets of the European Union.^[127][133]  In May 2010, the Greek government deficit was again revised and estimated to be 13.6%^[134] which was the second highest in the world relative to GDP with Iceland in first place at 15.7% and Great Britain third with 12.6%.^[135]  Public debt was forecast, according to some estimates, to hit 120% of GDP during 2010.^[136] As a consequence, there was a crisis in international confidence in Greece’s ability to repay its sovereign debt.  To avert such a default, in May 2010 the other Eurozone countries, and the IMF, agreed to a rescue package which involved giving Greece an immediate €45 billion in loans, with more funds to follow, totaling €110 billion.^[137][138]  To secure the funding, Greece was required to adopt harsh austerity measures to bring its deficit under control.^[139] On 15 November 2010 the EU’s statistics body Eurostat revised the public finance and debt figure for Greece following an excessive deficit procedure methodological mission in Athens, and put Greece’s 2009 government deficit at 15.4% of GDP and public debt at 126.8% of GDP making it the biggest deficit (as a percentage of GDP) among the EU member nations.^[140] In 2011 it became apparent that the bail-out would be insufficient and a second bail-out amounting to €130 billion ($173 billion) was agreed in 2012, subject to strict conditions, including financial reforms and further austerity measures.^[141]  As part of the deal, there was to be a 53% reduction in the Greek debt burden to private creditors and any profits made by eurozone central banks on their holdings of Greek debt are to be repatriated back to Greece.^[141]  A team of monitors will be based in Athens to ensure agreed reforms are put into place and three months worth of debt repayments are to be held in a special account.^[141]

Agriculture

Main article: Agriculture in Greece

In 2010, Greece was the European Union‘s largest producer of cotton (183,800 tons) and pistachios (8,000 tons)^[142] and ranked second in the production of rice (229,500 tons)^[142]and olives (147,500 tons),^[143] third in the production of figs (11,000 tons) and ^[143] almonds (44,000 tons),^[143] tomatoes (1,400,000 tons) ^[143] and watermelons (578,400 tons)^[143]and fourth in the production of tobacco (22,000 tons).^[142] Agriculture contributes 3.8% of the country’s GDP and employs 12.4% of the country’s labor force. Greece is a major beneficiary of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union. As a result of the country’s entry to the European Community, much of its agricultural infrastructure has been upgraded and agricultural output increased. Between 2000 and 2007 organic farming in Greece increased by 885%, the highest change percentage in the EU.

Maritime industry

Main articles: Greek shipping and List of ports in Greece

See also: Economy of Greece » Maritime industry

Greece controls 16.2% of the world’s total merchant fleet, making it the largest in the world.  Greece is ranked in the top 5 for all kinds of ships, including first for tankers and bulk carriers. The shipping industry is a key element of Greek economic activity dating back to ancient times.^[144]  Today, shipping is one of the country’s most important industries.  It accounts for 4.5% of GDP, employs about 160,000 people (4% of the workforce), and represents 1/3 of the country’s trade deficit.^[145] During the 1960s, the size of the Greek fleet nearly doubled, primarily through the investment undertaken by the shipping magnates, Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos.^[146]  The basis of the modern Greek maritime industry was formed after World War II when Greek shipping businessmen were able to amass surplus ships sold to them by the U.S. government through the Ship Sales Act of the 1940s.^[146] According to a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report in 2011, the Greek merchant navy is the largest in the world at 16.2% of the world’s total capacity,^[105]up from 15.96% in 2010.^[147]  This is a drop from the equivalent number in 2006, which was 18.2%.^[148]  The total tonnage of the country’s merchant fleet is 202 million dwt, ranked 1st in the world.^[105] In terms of total number of ships, the Greek Merchant Navy stands at 4th worldwide, with 3,150 ships (741 of which are registered in Greece whereas the rest 2,409 in other ports).^[147]  In terms of ship categories, Greece ranks first in both tankers and dry bulk carriers, fourth in the number of containers, and fifth in other ships.^[149]  However, today’s fleet roster is smaller than an all-time high of 5,000 ships in the late 1970s.^[144]  Additionally, the total number of ships flying a Greek flag (includes non-Greek fleets) is 1,517, or 5.3% of the world’s dwt (ranked 5th).^[147]

Tourism

Main article: Tourism in Greece

The Bay of Garitsa is to the left and the port of Corfu is just visible on the top right of the picture. Spianada is in the foreground.     Panorama of Santorini. An important percentage of Greece’s national income comes from tourism.  Tourism funds 16% of the gross domestic products which also includes the Tourism Council and the London-Based World Travel.^[150]  According to Eurostat statistics, Greece welcomed over 19.5 million tourists in 2009,^[151] which is an increase from the 17.7 million tourists it welcomed in 2007.^[152] The vast majority of visitors in Greece in 2007 came from the European continent, numbering 12.7 million,^[153] while the most visitors from a single nationality were those from the United Kingdom, (2.6 million), followed closely by those from Germany (2.3 million).^[153]  In 2010, the most visited region of Greece was that of Central Macedonia, with 18% of the country’s total tourist flow (amounting to 3.6 million tourists), followed by Attica with 2.6 million and the Peloponnese with 1.8 million.^[151]  Northern Greece is the country’s most-visited geographical region, with 6.5 million tourists, while Central Greece is second with 6.3 million.^[151] In 2010, Lonely Planet ranked Greece’s northern and second-largest city of Thessaloniki as the world’s fifth-best party town worldwide, comparable to other cities such as Dubai andMontreal.^[154]  In 2011, Santorini was voted as “The World’s Best Island” in Travel + Leisure.^[155]  Its neighboring island Mykonos, came in fifth in the European category.^[155]

Transport

Main article: Transport in Greece

The Rio-Antirio bridge (Charilaos Trikoupis) connects mainland Greece to the Peloponnese. Since the 1980s, the road and rail network of Greece has been significantly modernized.  Important works include the A2 (Egnatia Odos) motorway, that connects northwestern Greece (Igoumenitsa) with northern and northeastern Greece (Kipoi); and the Rio–Antirrio bridge, the longest suspension cable bridge in Europe (2,250 m (7,382 ft) long), connecting the Peloponnese from Rio (7 km (4 mi) from Patras) with Antirrio in Central Greece. Important projects that are currently underway include, the conversion of the GR-8A, connecting Athens with Patras and further towards Pyrgos in the western Peloponnese, into a modernised motorway throughout its length (scheduled to be completed by 2014); upgrading unfinished sections of motorway on the A1, connecting Athens to Thessaloniki; and the construction of the Thessaloniki Metro. The Athens Metropolitan Area in particular is served by some of the most modern and efficient transport infrastructure in Europe, such as the Athens International Airport, the privately run Attiki Odos motorway network and the expanded Athens Metro system. Most of the Greek islands and many main cities of Greece are connected by air mainly from the two major Greek airlines, Olympic Air and Aegean Airlines.  Maritime connections have been improved with modern high-speed craft, including hydrofoils and catamarans. Railway connections play a somewhat lesser role in Greece than in many other European countries, but they too have also been expanded, with new suburban/commuter rail connections, serviced by Proastiakos around Athens, towards its airport, Kiato and Chalkida; around Thessaloniki, towards the cities of Larissa and Edessa; and around Patras.  A modern intercity rail connection between Athens and Thessaloniki has also been established, while an upgrade to double lines in many parts of the 2,500 km (1,600 mi) network is underway.  International railway lines connect Greek cities with the rest of Europe, the Balkans and Turkey, although as of 2011 they have been suspended, due to the financial crisis.

Telecommunications

Modern digital information and communication networks reach all areas.  There are over 35,000 km (21,748 mi) of fiber optics and an extensive open-wire network.  Broadband internet availability is widespread in Greece: there were a total of 2,252,653 broadband connections as of early 2011, translating to 20% broadband penetration.[156] 

According to 2012 ELSTAT data, 53,6% of the households used the internet regularly and of which 94,8% of them had broadband connection^[157]Internet cafés that provide net access, office applications and multiplayer gaming are also a common sight in the country, while mobile internet on 3G cellphone networks and Wi-Ficonnections can be found almost everywhere.^[158]  3G mobile internet usage has been on a sharp increase in recent years, with a 340% increase between August 2011 and August 2012.^[159]  The United Nations International Telecommunication Union ranks Greece among the top 30 countries with a highly developed information and communications infrastructure.^[160]

Science and technology

The General Secretariat for Research and Technology of the Ministry of Development is responsible for designing, implementing and supervising national research and technological policy.  In 2003, public spending on research and development (R&D) was 456.37 million euros (12.6% increase from 2002).  Total R&D spending (both public and private) as a percentage of GDP had increased considerably since the beginning of the past decade, from 0.38% in 1989, to 0.65% in 2001.  R&D spending in Greece remained lower than the EU average of 1.93%, but, according to Research DC, based on OECD and Eurostat data, between 1990 and 1998, total R&D expenditure in Greece enjoyed the third-highest increase in Europe, after Finland and Ireland.  Because of its strategic location, qualified workforce and political and economic stability, many multinational companies such as Ericsson,Siemens, Motorola and Coca-Cola have their regional research and development headquarters in Greece. Greece’s technology parks with incubator facilities include the Science and Technology Park of Crete (Heraklion), the Thessaloniki Technology Park, the Lavrio Technology Park and the Patras Science Park, the Science and Technology Park of Epirus (Ioannina).  Greece has been a member of the European Space Agency (ESA) since 2005.^[161]  Cooperation between ESA and the Hellenic National Space Committee began in the early 1990s.  In 1994 Greece and ESA signed their first cooperation agreement.  Having formally applied for full membership in 2003, Greece became the ESA’s sixteenth member on 16 March 2005.  As member of the ESA, Greece participates in the agency’s telecommunication and technology activities, and the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security Initiative.

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of Greece and Greeks

Hermoupolis, on the island of Syros, is the capital of the Cyclades. The official statistical body of Greece is the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), according to which Greece’s total population in 2011 was 10,815,197.^[162] Greek society is fairly homogenous, with 94 percent of the population being ethnic Greeks who speak the Greek language. The birth rate in 2003 stood 9.5 per 1,000 inhabitants, significantly lower than the rate of 14.5 per 1,000 in 1981. At the same time, the mortality rate increased slightly from 8.9 per 1,000 inhabitants in 1981 to 9.6 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2003. Greek society has rapidly changed over the last several decades. Its declining fertility rate has led to an increase in the median age, which coincides with the overall aging of Europe. In 2001, 16.71 percent of the population were 65 years old and older, 68.12 percent between the ages of 15 and 64 years old, and 15.18 percent were 14 years old and younger.^[163]Marriage rates kept falling from almost 71 per 1,000 inhabitants in 1981 until 2002, only to increase slightly in 2003 to 61 per 1,000 and then fall again to 51 in 2004.^[163] Moreover, divorce rates have seen an increase – from 191.2 per 1,000 marriages in 1991 to 239.5 per 1,000 marriages in 2004.^[163] Subsequently, the average Greek family is smaller and older than in previous generations.

Cities

See also: List of cities in Greece

Almost two-thirds of the Greek people live in urban areas. Greece’s largest and most influential metropolitan centres are those of Athens and Thessaloniki, with metropolitan populations of approximately 4 million and 1 million inhabitants respectively. Other prominent cities with urban populations above 100,000 inhabitants include those of Patras,Heraklion, Larissa, Volos, Rhodes, Ioannina, Chania and Chalcis.^[164] The table below lists the largest cities in Greece, by population contained in their respective contiguous built up urban areas; which are either made up of many municipalities, evident in the cases of Athens and Thessaloniki, or are contained within a larger single municipality, case evident in most of the smaller cities of the country. The results come from the preliminary figures of the population census that took place in Greece in May 2011.

Migration

Main articles: Greek Diaspora and Immigration to Greece

A map of the top fifty countries with the largest Greek diaspora communities. Throughout the 20th century, millions of Greeks migrated to the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Germany, creating a thriving Greek diaspora. Net migration started to show positive numbers from the 1970s, but until the beginning of the 1990s, the main influx was that of returning Greek migrants.^[165] In 1986 legal and unauthorized immigrants totaled approximately 90,000. A study from the mmo.gr Mediterranean Migration Observatory maintains that the 2001 census recorded 762,191 persons residing in Greece without Greek citizenship, constituting around 7% of total population. Of the non-citizen residents, 48,560 were EU or European Free Trade Association nationals and 17,426 were Cypriots with privileged status. The majority come from Eastern European countries: Albania (56%), Bulgaria (5%) and Romania (3%), while migrants from the former Soviet Union (Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, etc.) comprise 10% of the total.^[166] The greatest cluster of non-EU immigrant population are the larger urban centers, especially the Municipality of Athens, with 132,000 immigrants comprising 17% of the local population, and then Thessaloniki, with 27,000 immigrants reaching 7% of the local population. There is also a considerable number of co-ethnics that came from the Greek communities of Albania and the former Soviet Union.^[165] Greece, together with Italy and Spain, faces a large influx of illegal immigrants trying to enter the EU.  Illegal immigrants entering Greece mostly do so from the border with Turkey at the Evros River. In 2012, the majority of illegal immigrants entering Greece came from Afghanistan, followed by Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.^[167] Since 2012, extensive day-to-day police operations (called “Xenios Zeus”) take place in Athens and other major Greek cities for the detention of illegal immigrants. So far more than 15,000 illegal immigrants have been detained and thousands have been checked for their country residence status. Illegal immigrants are detained and then are sent back to their countries of origin.^{[citation needed]}

Religion

Main article: Religion in Greece

The Greek Constitution recognizes the Orthodox Christian faith as the “prevailing” faith of the country, while guaranteeing freedom of religious belief for all.^[83]  The Greek government does not keep statistics on religious groups and censuses do not ask for religious affiliation.  According to the U.S. State Department, an estimated 97% of Greek citizens identify themselves as Orthodox Christians, belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church.^[168] In a Eurostat – Eurobarometer 2010 poll, 79% of Greek citizens responded that they “believe there is a God”.^[169]  According to other sources, 15.8% of Greeks describe themselves as “very religious”, which is the highest among all European countries.  The survey also found that just 3.5% never attend a church, compared to 4.9% in Poland and 59.1% in the Czech Republic.^[170] Estimates of the recognized Greek Muslim minority, which is mostly located in Thrace, range from 98,000 to 140,000,^[168][171] (between 0.9% and 1.2%) while the immigrant Muslim community numbers between 200,000 and 300,000.  Albanian immigrants to Greece are usually associated with the Muslim religion, although most are secular in orientation.^[172]  Following the 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish War and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, Greece and Turkey agreed to a population transfer based on cultural and religious identity.  About 500,000 Muslims from Greece, predominantly Turks, but also other Muslims, were exchanged with approximately 1,500,000 Greeks from Asia Minor (now Turkey).^[173]

Judaism has existed in Greece for more than 2,000 years.  Sephardi Jews used to have a large presence in the city of Thessaloniki (by 1900, some 80,000, or more than half of the population, were Jews),^[175] but nowadays the Greek-Jewish community who survived German occupation and the Holocaust, during World War II, is estimated to number around 5,500 people.^[168][171] Greek citizens who are Roman Catholic are estimated to be at around 50,000^[168][171] with the Roman Catholic immigrant community in the country approximately 200,000.^[168]  Old Calendarists account for 500,000 followers.^[171]  Protestants, including Greek Evangelical Church and Free Evangelical Churches, stand at about 30,000.^[168][171]  Assemblies of God, International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and other Pentecostal churches of the Greek Synod of Apostolic Church have 12,000 members.^[176]  Independent Free Apostolic Church of Pentecost is the biggest Protestant denomination in Greece with 120 churches.^[177]  There are not official statistics about Free Apostolic Church of Pentecost, but the Orthodox Church estimates the followers as 20,000.^[178]  The Jehovah’s Witnesses report having 28,859 active members.^{[168][171][179]} Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism has also been reportedly practiced by thousands of Greeks.

Languages

Main articles: Greek language, Languages of Greece, and Minorities in Greece

Regions with a traditional presence of languages other than Greek.  Today, Greek is the dominant language throughout the country.^{[180][181][182][183][184][185]} The first textual evidence of the Greek language dates back to 15th century BC and the Linear B script which is associated with the Mycenaean Civilization.  Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and beyond during Classical Antiquity, and would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire. During the 19th and 20th centuries there was a major dispute known as the Greek language question, on whether the official language of Greece should be the archaic Katharevousa, created in the 19th century and used as the state and scholarly language, or the Dimotiki, the form of the Greek language which evolved naturally from Byzantine Greek and was the language of the people.  The dispute was finally resolved in 1976, when Dimotiki was made the only official variation of the Greek language, and Katharevousa fell to disuse. Greece is today relatively homogeneous in linguistic terms, with a large majority of the native population using Greek as their first or only language.  Among the Greek-speaking population, speakers of the distinctive Pontic dialect came to Greece from Asia Minor after the Greek genocide and constitute a sizable group. The Muslim minority in Thrace, which amounts to approximately 0.95% of the total population, consists of speakers of Turkish, Bulgarian (Pomaks)^[185] and Romani.  Romani is also spoken by Christian Roma in other parts of the country.  Further minority languages have traditionally been spoken by regional population groups in various parts of the country.  Their use has decreased radically in the course of the 20th century through assimilation with the Greek-speaking majority.  Today they are only maintained by the older generations and are on the verge of extinction.  This goes for the Arvanites, an Albanian-speaking group mostly located in the rural areas around the capital Athens, and for the Aromanians andMoglenites, also known as Vlachs, whose language is closely related to Romanian and who used to live scattered across several areas of mountainous central Greece.  Members of these groups ethnically identify as Greeks^[186] and are today all at least bilingual in Greek. Near the northern Greek borders there are also some Slavic–speaking groups, locally known as Slavomacedonian-speaking, most of whose members identify ethnically as Greeks.  Their dialects can be linguistically classified as forms of either Macedonian Slavic or Bulgarian.^[187][188]  It is estimated that in the aftermath of the population exchanges of 1923 there were somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000 Slavic speakers in Macedonia.^[76]  The Jewish community in Greece traditionally spoke Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), today maintained only by a small group of a few thousand speakers.^{[citation needed]}

Education

Main article: Education in Greece

The Academy of Athens is Greece’s national academy and the highest research establishment in the country.     The Ionian Academy in Corfu, the first academic institution of modern Greece. Compulsory education in Greece comprises primary schools (Δημοτικό Σχολείο, Dimotikó Scholeio) and gymnasium (Γυμνάσιο).  Nursery schools (Παιδικός σταθμός, Paidikós Stathmós) are popular but not compulsory.  Kindergartens (Νηπιαγωγείο, Nipiagogeío) are now compulsory for any child above 4 years of age.  Children start primary school aged 6 and remain there for six years.  Attendance at gymnasia starts at age 12 and lasts for three years. Greece’s post-compulsory secondary education consists of two school types: unified upper secondary schools (Γενικό Λύκειο, Genikό Lykeiό) and technical–vocational educational schools (Τεχνικά και Επαγγελματικά Εκπαιδευτήρια, “TEE”).  Post-compulsory secondary education also includes vocational training institutes (Ινστιτούτα Επαγγελματικής Κατάρτισης, “IEK”) which provide a formal but unclassified level of education.  As they can accept both Gymnasio (lower secondary school) and Lykeio (upper secondary school) graduates, these institutes are not classified as offering a particular level of education. According to the Framework Law (3549/2007), Public higher education “Highest Educational Institutions” (Ανώτατα Εκπαιδευτικά Ιδρύματα, Anótata Ekpaideytiká Idrýmata, “ΑΕΙ”) consists of two parallel sectors:the University sector (Universities,Polytechnics,Fine Arts Schools,the Open University) and the Technological sector (Technological Education Institutions (TEI) and the School of Pedagogic and Technological Education).  There are also State Non-University Tertiary Institutes offering vocationally oriented courses of shorter duration (2 to 3 years) which operate under the authority of other Ministries.  Students are admitted to these Institutes according to their performance at national level examinations taking place after completion of the third grade of Lykeio.  Additionally, students over twenty-two years old may be admitted to the Hellenic Open University through a form of lottery.  The Capodistrian University of Athens is the oldest university in the eastern Mediterranean. The Greek education system also provides special kindergartens, primary and secondary schools for people with special needs or difficulties in learning.  Specialist gymnasia and high schools offering musical, theological and physical education also exist.

Health

Main article: Health care in Greece

Greece has universal health care.  In a 2000 World Health Organization report, its health care system ranked 14th in overall performance of 191 countries surveyed.^[189]  In a 2013Save the Children report, Greece was ranked the 19th best country (out of 176 countries surveyed) for the state of mothers and newborn babies.^[190]  In 2010, there were 138 hospitals with 31,000 beds in the country, but on 1 July 2011, the Ministry for Health and Social Solidarity announced its plans to decrease the number to 77 hospitals with 36,035 beds, as a necessary reform to reduce expenses and further enhance healthcare standards.^{[191][disputed – discuss]}  Greece’s healthcare expenditures as a percentage of GDP were 9.6% in 2007 according to a 2011 OECD report, just above the OECD average of 9.5%.^[192]  The country has the largest number of doctors-to-population ratio of any OECD country.^[192] Life expectancy in Greece is 80.3 years, above the OECD average of 79.5,^[192] and among the highest in the world.  The island of Icaria has the highest percentage of 90-year-olds in the world; approximately 33% of the islanders make it to 90 (and beyond).^[193]  Blue Zones author Dan Buettner wrote an article in The New York Times about the longevity of Icarians under the title “The Island Where People Forget to Die”.^[194]  The 2011 OECD report showed that Greece had the largest percentage of adult daily smokers of any of the 34 OECD members.^[192]  The country’s obesity rate is 18.1%, which is above the OECD average of 15.1%, but considerably lower than the American rate of 27.7%.^[192]  In 2008, Greece had the highest rate of perceived good health in the OECD, at 98.5%.^[195]  Infant mortality is one of the lowest in the developed world, with a rate of 3.1 deaths per 1,000 live births.^[192]

Culture

Main articles: Culture of Greece and List of Greeks

The ancient theatre of Epidaurus continues to be used for staging ancient Greek plays. The culture of Greece has evolved over thousands of years, beginning in Mycenaean Greece and continuing most notably into Classical Greece, through the influence of the Roman Empire and its Greek Eastern continuation, the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire.  Other cultures and nations, such as the Latin and Frankish states, the Ottoman Empire, the Venetian Republic, the Genoese Republic, and the British Empire have also left their influence on modern Greek culture, although historians credit the Greek War of Independence with revitalising Greece and giving birth to a single, cohesive entity of its multi-faceted culture.

Philosophy

Main articles: Ancient Greek philosophy and Modern Greek Enlightenment

Most western philosophical traditions began in Ancient Greece in the 6th century BC.  The first philosophers are called “Presocratics,” which designates that they came beforeSocrates, whose contributions mark a turning point in western thought.  The Presocratics were from the western or the eastern colonies of Greece and only fragments of their original writings survive, in some cases merely a single sentence. A new period of philosophy started with Socrates.  Like the Sophists, he rejected entirely the physical speculations in which his predecessors had indulged, and made the thoughts and opinions of people his starting-point.  Aspects of Socrates were first united from Plato, who also combined with them many of the principles established by earlier philosophers, and developed the whole of this material into the unity of a comprehensive system. Aristotle of Stagira, the most important disciple of Plato, shared with his teacher the title of the greatest philosopher of antiquity.  But while Plato had sought to elucidate and explain things from the supra-sensual standpoint of the forms, his pupil preferred to start from the facts given us by experience.  Except from these three most significant Greek philosophers other known schools of Greek philosophy from other founders during ancient times were Stoicism, epicureanism, Skepticism and Neoplatonism.^[196] Byzantine philosophy refers to the distinctive philosophical ideas of the philosophers and scholars of the Byzantine Empire, especially between the 8th and 15th centuries. It was characterised by a Christian world-view, but one which could draw ideas directly from the Greek texts of Plato, Aristotle, and the Neoplatonists. In modern period, Diafotismos (Greek: Διαφωτισμός, “enlightenment”, “illumination”) was the Greek expression of the Age of Enlightenment and its philosophical and political ideas. Some notable representatives were Adamantios Korais, Rigas Feraios and Theophilos Kairis.

Literature

Main articles: Greek Literature and Modern Greek literature

Giorgos Seferis, Nobel Prize in Literature (1963). Greek literature can be divided into three main categories: Ancient, Byzantine and modern Greek literature. At the beginning of Greek literature stand the two monumental works of Homer: the Iliad and the Odyssey.  Though dates of composition vary, these works were fixed around 800 BC or after.  In the classical period many of the genres of western literature became more prominent.  Lyrical poetry, odes, pastorals, elegies, epigrams; dramatic presentations of comedy and tragedy; historiography, rhetorical treatises, philosophical dialectics, and philosophical treatises all arose in this period.The two major lyrical poets were Sappho andPindar.  The Classical era also saw the dawn of drama. Of the hundreds of tragedies written and performed during the classical age, only a limited number of plays by three authors have survived: those of Aeschylus, Sophocles, andEuripides.  The surviving plays by Aristophanes are also a treasure trove of comic presentation, while Herodotus and Thucydides are two of the most influential historians in this period.  The greatest prose achievement of the 4th century was in philosophy with the works of the three great philosophers. Byzantine literature refers to literature of the Byzantine Empire written in Atticizing, Medieval and early Modern Greek, and it is the expression of the intellectual life of the Byzantine Greeks during the Christian Middle Ages. Modern Greek literature refers to literature written in common Modern Greek, emerging from late Byzantine times in the 11th century.  The Cretan Renaissance poem Erotokritos is undoubtedly the masterpiece of this period of Greek literature.  It is a verse romance written around 1600 by Vitsentzos Kornaros (1553–1613).  Later, during the period of Greek enlightenment (Diafotismos), writers such as Adamantios Korais and Rigas Feraios prepared with their works the Greek Revolution (1821–1830). Leading literary figures of modern Greece include Dionysios Solomos, Andreas Kalvos, Angelos Sikelianos, Emmanuel Rhoides, Kostis Palamas, Penelope Delta, Yannis Ritsos,Alexandros Papadiamantis, Nikos Kazantzakis, Andreas Embeirikos, Kostas Karyotakis, Gregorios Xenopoulos, Constantine P. Cavafy, and Demetrius Vikelas.  Two Greek authors have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature: George Seferis in 1963 and Odysseas Elytis in 1979.

Cinema

Main article: Greek cinema

Cinema first appeared in Greece in 1896 but the first actual cine-theatre was opened in 1907. In 1914 the Asty Films Company was founded and the production of long films began. Golfo (Γκόλφω), a well known traditional love story, is considered the first Greek feature film, although there were several minor productions such as newscasts before this. In 1931 Orestis Laskos directed Daphnis and Chloe (Δάφνις και Χλόη), containing the first nude scene in the history of European cinema; it was also the first Greek movie which was played abroad. In 1944 Katina Paxinou was honoured with the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for For Whom the Bell Tolls. The 1950s and early 1960s are considered by many to be a golden age of Greek cinema.  Directors and actors of this era were recognized as important historical figures in Greece and some gained international acclaim: Irene Papas, Melina Mercouri, Mihalis Kakogiannis, Alekos Sakellarios, Nikos Tsiforos, Iakovos Kambanelis, Katina Paxinou, Nikos Koundouros, Ellie Lambeti, and others.  More than sixty films per year were made, with the majority having film noir elements.  Notable films were Η κάλπικη λίρα (1955 directed byGiorgos Tzavellas), Πικρό Ψωμί (1951, directed by Grigoris Grigoriou), O Drakos (1956 directed by Nikos Koundouros), Stella (1955 directed by Cacoyannis and written by Kampanellis). Cacoyannis also directed Zorba the Greek with Anthony Quinn which received Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film nominations.  Finos Film also contributed to this period with movies such as Λατέρνα, Φτώχεια και Φιλότιμο, Madalena, Η Θεία από το Σικάγο, Το ξύλο βγήκε από τον Παράδεισο and many more.  During the 1970s and 1980s Theo Angelopoulos directed a series of notable and appreciated movies.  His film Eternity and a Day won the Palme d’Or and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. There were also internationally renowned filmmakers in the Greek diaspora, such as the Greek-French Costa-Gavras and the Greek-Americans John Cassavetes and Elia Kazan.

Cuisine

Main article: Greek cuisine

Greek cuisine is characteristic of the healthy Mediterranean diet, which is epitomized by dishes of Crete .^[197]  Greek cuisine incorporates fresh ingredients into a variety of local dishes such as moussaka, stifado, Greek salad, fasolada, spanakopita and souvlaki.  Some dishes can be traced back to ancient Greece like skordalia^{[citation needed]} (a thick purée of walnuts, almonds, crushed garlic and olive oil), lentil soup, retsina (white or rosé wine sealed with pine resin) and pasteli (candy bar with sesame seeds baked with honey).  Throughout Greece people often enjoy eating from small dishes such as meze with various dips such as tzatziki, grilled octopus and small fish, feta cheese, dolmades (rice, currants and pine kernels wrapped in vine leaves), various pulses, olives and cheese. Olive oil is added to almost every dish. Sweet desserts such as galaktoboureko, and drinks such as ouzo, metaxa and a variety of wines including retsina.  Greek cuisine differs widely from different parts of the mainland and from island to island. It uses some flavorings more often than other Mediterranean cuisines: oregano, mint, garlic, onion, dill and bay laurel leaves. Other common herbs and spices include basil, thyme and fennel seed. Many Greek recipes, especially in the northern parts of the country, use “sweet” spices in combination with meat, for example cinnamon and cloves in stews.

Music

Main article: Music of Greece

Greek vocal music extends far back into ancient times where mixed-gender choruses performed for entertainment, celebration and spiritual reasons. Instruments during that period included the double-reed aulos and the plucked string instrument, the lyre, especially the special kind called a kithara. Music played an important role in the education system during ancient times.  Boys were taught music from the age of six. Later influences from the Roman Empire, Middle East, and the Byzantine Empire also had effect on Greek music. While the new technique of polyphony was developing in the West, the Eastern Orthodox Church resisted any type of change.  Therefore, Byzantine music remained monophonic and without any form of instrumental accompaniment. As a result, and despite certain attempts by certain Greek chanters (such as Manouel Gazis, Ioannis Plousiadinos or the Cypriot Ieronimos o Tragoudistis), Byzantine music was deprived of elements of which in the West encouraged an unimpeded development of art.  However, this method which kept music away from polyphony, along with centuries of continuous culture, enabled monophonic music to develop to the greatest heights of perfection. Byzantium presented the monophonicByzantine chant; a melodic treasury of inestimable value for its rhythmical variety and expressive power. Along with the Byzantine (Church) chant and music, the Greek people also cultivated the Greek folk song which is divided into two cycles, the akritic and klephtic. The akritic was created between the 9th and 10th centuries and expressed the life and struggles of the akrites (frontier guards) of the Byzantine empire, the most well known being the stories associated with Digenes Akritas. The klephtic cycle came into being between the late Byzantine period and the start of the Greek War of Independence. The klephtic cycle, together with historical songs, paraloghes (narrative song or ballad), love songs, mantinades, wedding songs, songs of exile and dirges express the life of the Greeks. There is a unity between the Greek people’s struggles for freedom, their joys and sorrow and attitudes towards love and death.     Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù, the first theatre and opera house of modern Greece and the place where the first Greek opera, Spyridon Xyndas‘ “The Parliamentary Candidate” based on an exclusively Greek libretto was performed. The Heptanesean kantádhes (καντάδες ‘serenades‘; sing.: καντάδα) became the forerunners of the Greek modern song, influencing its development to a considerable degree. For the first part of the next century, several Greek composers continued to borrow elements from the Heptanesean style. The most successful songs during the period 1870–1930 were the so-called Athenian serenades, and the songs performed on stage (επιθεωρησιακά τραγούδια ‘theatrical revue songs’) in revue, operettas and nocturnes that were dominating Athens’ theater scene. Rebetiko, initially a music associated with the lower classes, later (and especially after the population exchange between Greece and Turkey) reached greater general acceptance as the rough edges of its overt subcultural character were softened and polished, sometimes to the point of unrecognizability. It was the base of the later laïkó (song of the people). The leading performers of the genre include Apostolos Kaldaras, Grigoris Bithikotsis, Stelios Kazantzidis, George Dalaras, Haris Alexiou and Glykeria. Regarding the classical music, it was through the Ionian islands (which were under western rule and influence) that all the major advances of the western European classical music were introduced to mainland Greeks. The region is notable for the birth of the first School of modern Greek classical music (Heptanesean or Ionian School, Greek: Επτανησιακή Σχολή), established in 1815. Prominent representatives of this genre include Nikolaos Mantzaros, Spyridon Xyndas, Spyridon Samaras and Pavlos Carrer. Manolis Kalomiris is considered the founder of the Greek National School of Music. In the 20th century, Greek composers have had a significant impact on the development of avant garde and modern classical music, with figures such as Iannis Xenakis, Nikos Skalkottas, and Dimitri Mitropoulos achieving international prominence. At the same time, composers and musicians such as Mikis Theodorakis, Manos Hatzidakis, Eleni Karaindrou,Vangelis and Demis Roussos garnered an international following for their music, which include famous film scores such as Zorba the Greek, Serpico, Never on Sunday, America America, Eternity and a Day, Chariots of Fire, among others. Greek American composers known for their film scores include Yanni and Basil Poledouris. Notable Greek opera singers and classical musicians of the 20th and 21st century include Maria Callas, Nana Mouskouri, Mario Frangoulis, Leonidas Kavakos, Dimitris Sgouros and others.

Sports

Main article: Sport in Greece

Greece is the birthplace of the Olympic Games, first recorded in 776 BC.  The ancient Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, which was essentially rebuilt in 1895, hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.  It had also hosted Olympic Games in 1870 and 1875 (see Evangelis Zappas).  The Panathenaic stadium also hosted the Games in 1906 and was used to host events at the 2004 Summer Olympics. The Greek national football team, ranked 14th in the world in 2012,^[198] won the UEFA Euro 2004 in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the sport and became one of only nine national teams to have won the European Championship in football.^[199]  The Greek Super League is the highest professional football league in the country comprising eighteen teams.  The most successful are Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens. The Greek national basketball team has a decades-long tradition of excellence in the sport, being considered among the world’s top basketball powers.  As of 2012, it ranked 4th in the world and 2nd in Europe.^[200]  They have won the European Championship twice in 1987 and 2005,^[201] and have reached the final four in two of the last four FIBA World Championships, taking the second place in the world in 2006 FIBA World Championship, after a spectacular 101–95 win against Team USA in the tournament’s semifinal.  The domestic top basketball league, A1 Ethniki, is composed of fourteen teams.  The most successful Greek teams are Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Aris Thessaloniki and AEK Athens.  Greek basketball teams are the most successful in European basketball the last 25 years, having won 9 Euroleagues since the establishment of the modern era Euroleague Final Fourformat in 1988 (no other nation has won more than four Euroleague championships in this period). After the 2005 European Championship triumph of the Greek national basketball team, Greece became the reigning European Champion in both football and basketball. Water polo and volleyball are also practiced widely in Greece while cricket and handball are relatively popular in Corfu and Veria respectively.

The post Greece appeared first on Good News!.