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| We are all Greek |
The
history of the Greeks goes way, way back, back to the time of the ancients, thousands
of years, thousands of Great Greeks, how do you choose only thirty of them?
The esteemed Greek philosophers alone cover
more than thirty.
The Greeks Who Made Us Who We Are, gave us civilization, they were the father’s of democracy, mathematics,
history, healing and much more, and they’re still at it, taking the world by
storm.
It
was a formidable task, choosing only thirty, but here is my list of great
Greeks.
As
the Olympian Gods were treated equally, they count as one, as with the wise,
old philosophers, Is any one of them, better than the others?
In no
particular order.
The
Ancients
1.
The Greek Gods and Goddesses.
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| Mount Olympus, where it all began. |
Here’s
where it all started, atop Mount Olympus, home of the twelve Greek Olympian
Gods;
Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite,
Hephaestus, Hermes, Hestia.
(Or Dionysus).
Ancient
Greeks worshipped the twelve Gods equally, and were terrified, that if they
angered the gods, or caused them jealousy, through favouring one over another,
they would be punished, and so, all twelve Gods had separate temples dedicated
to them.
Many
of these sacred temples, stood the test of time, and can still be seen, dotted
all around Greece.
2.
Greek Philosophers
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| Wise Old Greeks Left to right- Plato, Aristotle, Socrates |
“Inspirational”
quotes, which we hear and read today (Facebook loves them!) can all, in some
way, be traced back to the wise words of Greek Philosophers.
Here’s
a trick to remember who came before whom, with the most famous three, Socrates,
Plato, Aristotle, just remember the word Spa; Socrates taught Plato, Plato
taught Aristotle!
3.
Homer
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| Homer. |
Homer
is the name given by the ancient Greeks to the legendary author of The Iliad and The Odyssey
, two epic poems which are the
central works of Greek literature.
, two epic poems which are the
central works of Greek literature.
There are many accounts of Homer's life, the
most popular being that he was a blind, strolling minstrel from Ionia, a
region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey.
4.
Herodotos
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| Herodotus "Father of History" |
Herodotus
was a Greek historian, widely
referred to as "The Father of History", born in Halicarnassus, Caria
(modern-day Bodrum, Turkey) and lived in the fifth century BC (c. 484–c. 425
BC).
Homer
is thought to have only ever had a one hit wonder, but what a wonder: The Histories , a record of his inquisitiveness
over the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars, which includes geographical
and ethnographical information.
Some of his stories were fanciful and others
inaccurate; but, he states, he was reporting only what he was told.
The goings on though, noted down in Herodotos’
“The Histories", have been confirmed by historians and archaeologists.
My
attention was first brought to this book, while watching one of my top ten
films, “The English Patient”, Ralph Fiennes read this book, the whole way
through the film!
5.
Aesop
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| Aesop, teller of tales. |
620
– 564 BCE
Aesop was an Ancient Greek
story teller, who had a number of fables attributed to him, sadly,
none of which survive, most of us surely remember The Classic Aesop's Fables
.
.
What
wonderful tales they are, never without a moral to them, which help teach
children about the consequences of their actions.
Philostratus
(A teacher in ancient Greece) describes a painting of Aesop surrounded by
the animals of his fables. (None of these images have survived) and,
according to Philostratus;
“The Fables are gathering about Aesop,
being fond of him because he devotes himself to them. For... he checks greed
and rebukes insolence and deceit, and in this some entire animal is his
mouthpiece — a lion or a fox or a horse... and not even the tortoise is dumb —
that through them children may learn the business of life.”
The
first printed version of Aesop's Fables in English was published on
March 26, 1484, by William Caxton, many others, followed over the
centuries.
In
2002 a translation by Laura Gibbs titled “Aesop's Fables” was published by Oxford World's Classics, including
359 fables, and has selections from all the major Greek and Latin sources.
Leaders
6.
Alexander the Great
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| Alexander the Great |
Alexander III of Macedon (20/21
July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC
Alexander the Great,
a pupil of Aristotle, by the age of thirty had created the largest Empire in
the ancient world, he was never defeated in battle, and was one of the greatest
military commanders the world has ever known.
7.
King Leonides of Sparta
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| King Leonides and his Spartans "Come and get them!" |
Died
11 August 480 BC
In
August 480 BC, Leonidas led his men out of Sparta, to meet the mighty Persian
army, where in great Greek style, with only three hundred men, against
thousands, the Spartans showed what they were made of; This is Greece This is Sparta
Not to be daunted, the Spartans, when ordered
by the Persians to lay down their weapons, replied, with the famous words “Come
and get them”, and proceeded to defeat the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae.
8.
Cleopatra
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| Queen Cleopatra of Egypt Greek through and through |
Reign 51 – 12 August 30 BC (21 years)
Have I confused you?
The Egyptian queen, Cleopatra, may have been
born in Egypt, but, she was Greek through and through.
Her family
originated from Macedonian Greece, and Ptolemy I, one of Alexander the Great’s
generals.
Ptolemy ruled
Egypt after Alexander’s death in 323 B.C., and launched a dynasty of
Greek-speaking rulers that lasted for nearly three centuries.
The
Arts
9.
Maria Callas
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| Maria Callas Diva |
December 2, 1923 – September 16, 1977
Maria Callas, one of the best known opera singers of
the 20th century, also known for her passionate love affair with Aristotle
Onassis, which is said to have carried on even after he married Jackie Kennedy.
10.
Melina Mercouri
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| Melina Mercouri Greek Passion |
18 October 1920 – 6 March 1994
Passionate (Well she was Greek!), Greek actress (The
Film “Never on a Sunday” to name but one), singer and Politician, right up
until her death, she never stopped trying to have the Parthenon Marbles, stolen
by Lord Elgin, and now residing in The British Museum, returned to their rightful place; Greece.
11.
Irene Pappas
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| Irene Pappa Greek Beauty |
3 September 1926
Another wonderful Greek actress, a strong-minded,
Greek woman, known for her parts in the ancient Greek comedies and tragedies,
she has given many excellent performances at the ancient theatre of Epidaurus.
12. Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas ;
Kojak
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| Telly Savalas Kojak |
January 21, 1922 – January 22, 1994)
Although Telly Savalas has had parts in some great
films;
Battle
of the Bulge (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), The Scalp hunters (1968), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971), Inside Out (1975), and Escape to Athena (1979),
he’s best
known in the seventies for his role as Kojak, the lollipop-sucking detective,
with his catch phrase’ “Who loves you baby”, with his side kick, Stavros, who,
in real life, happened to be his brother.
13. Nana Mouskouri
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| Nana Mouskouri Timeless |
October 13, 1934
Nana Mouskouri, an international singer, is one of
the best selling artists in the world, with more than 200 best-selling albums,
in over ten languages, to her name.
Nana came to fame with her song ‘’The White Rose of
Athens” in 1969, her first record to sell over a million copies.
14.
Mikis Theodorakis
29 July 1925
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| Mikis Theodorakis Composer |
Mikis
Theodorakis, a songwriter and composer who has written over 1000 songs.
He is most famous for the music for the
films Zorba the Greek (1964), (1969),
and Serpico (1973),
and is Greece's best-known living composer.
15.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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| Nikos Kazantzakis Creator of Zorba the Greek |
18 February 1883 – 26 October 1957)
Well-loved
Greek author, with works including Zorba
the Greek,1946,, Christ
Recrucified 1948, Captain
Michalis 1950, translated 'Freedom or Death), and The Last Temptation of Christ, 1955.
He also
wrote plays, travel books, memoirs and philosophical essays such
as The Saviors of God: Spiritual
Exercises.
16.
Zorba the Greek
The character from the above Nikos
Kazantzakis, how could
I leave him out?
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| Zorba the Greek They couldn't have picked a better actor than Anthony Quinn! |
Zorba the Greek
is known and loved all over the world, a
larger than life persona, who lives life to the full.
is known and loved all over the world, a
larger than life persona, who lives life to the full.
This is also the only book I have read, from
beginning to end, in Greek!
17.
Elia Kazan
Born Elias Kazantzoglou, September 7, 1909
– September 28, 2003. Istanbul, Turkey.
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| Elia Kazan Legendary Film Director |
A
Greek-American director, producer, writer and actor, described by The New York Times as "one
of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood
history".
Elia Kazan’s iconic films include; A Streetcar Named
Desire, East of Eden, On the Waterfront, and America America.
18.
El Greco
1541 – 7 April 1614
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| El Greco No, not Spanish, Greek. |
Born Doménikos Theotokópoulos, El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of
the Spanish Renaissance.
Doménikos Theotokópoulos was nicknamed "El Greco" ("The Greek") owing
to his Greek origin.
Born in Chania, Crete, El Greco, after studying art
in Crete, moved to Europe, as did most artists of his time, first to Italy, and
later to Spain, where he lived until his death.
19.
Demis Roussos
15 June 1946 – 25 January 2015
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| Demis Roussos Kefi (Greek enthusiasm) in a Kaftan |
A Greek singer who had international hit
records as a solo performer in the 1970s, after having been a member
of Aphrodite's Child, a progressive Greek rock group that also
included Vangelis (Evangelos Papathanassiou).
Remembered, not only for his international hits,
such as “For Ever and Ever”, "My Friend the Wind", "Lovely
Lady of Arcadia", and his first UK hit in 1975, "Happy
to Be on an Island in the Sun", Demis Roussos was also remembered for his
kaftans and rather large figure.
20.
Vangelis Papathanassiou
29 March 1943, known professionally as Vangelis.
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| Vangelis Electronic music wizard |
Vangelis is a composer
of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz,
and orchestral music.
He is best known for his Academy
Award-winning score for the film Chariots
of Fire, composing scores for the films Blade Runner, Missing, Antarctica, 1492: Conquest of Paradise,
and Alexander.
21. Vassilis Tsitsanis
18 January 1915 – 18 January 1984
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| Vassilis Tsitsanis King of Rebetiko |
Vassilis Tsitsanis was a Greek songwriter
and bouzouki player.
Tsitsanis was
a leading Greek composer of his time who is regarded as one of the founders of
modern REBETIKO and Laiko music.
Tsitsanis
wrote more than 500 songs and is still remembered as an extraordinary composer
and bouzouki player.
In 1938, he moved to Thessaloniki, served his
military time, and stayed there throughout the German occupation, keeping up
the Greek moral, with his ever popular songs.
There, in Thessaloniki, Tsitsanis opened
an ouzeri, married and wrote many of his best songs, which were recorded
after the end of the War.
By the time
the Germans had shut down the record company’s occupation in 1941, he had
already recorded about 100 of his own songs and played on many recordings of
other composers.
Heroes and Patriots
22.
Manolis Gletzos & Apostolis Santas
In May 30, 1941, Apostolos Santas, nineteen, and
Manolis Glezos, eighteen, tore down a Nazi flag, erected on the Acropolis,
Athens, during the German occupation of Greece in World War II.
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| Gletzos & Santas Against Fascism |
The Gestapo
declared that the two young Greeks would be executed if caught, but their
identities remained a secret until after the war.
It was one of the first resistance acts that inspired
Greeks, to resist against the occupation, and established both Santas and
Gletzos as anti-Nazi heroes.
23.
The Brave and courageous men of Crete
I was about to say, “The brave men of Crete who helped
Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor”, (11 February
1915 – 10 June 2011, a British author, and soldier who played a prominent role
behind the lines in the Cretan resistance during
the Second World War), but I rather think it was the other way round, the
Cretans helped Fermor.
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| Courageous Cretans |
The Cretan resistance was a movement against the occupying
forces of Nazi Germany and Italy by the residents of
Crete during World War II.
Part of
the larger Greek Resistance, it lasted from May 20, 1941, when the Germans
invaded the island in the Battle of Crete, until the autumn of 1945 when
they surrendered to the British.
For the
first time during World War II, German forces faced resistance from the local population.
Cretan
civilians shot down paratroopers or attacked them with knives, axes, scythes, even
with bare hands.
As a
result, many casualties were inflicted upon the invading German paratroopers
during the battle.
24. Tsoliades, Evzones
The Evzones, or Evzoni,
is the name of several historical elite light infantry and mountain units
of the Greek Army.
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| Tsoliades Great Greeks in skirts |
Today, it refers to the Presidential Guard.
At the time of the Balkan Wars, there were
eight Evzone battalions.
They stood
out for their fighting spirit, and the terrible casualties they suffered,
especially among officers.
Subsequently the Evzone units were increased
to five regiments, which fought with distinction as elite shock troops in
the First World War, the Asia Minor Campaign and
the Greco-Italian War.
25. Greek Women
During the many wars Greece has endured; The
Balkan wars, The War of Independence, WWI, and WII, and then the Greek Civil
War, Greek women kept the home fires burning, kept the family together, despite
the everyday hardships they faced.
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| Greek women Never cross them! |
In many cases, they fought the enemy, along
with their men.
Greek women are truly a force to be reckoned
with; Greek women roar !
Business Moguls
26. Aristotle “Ari” Onassis
20 January 1906 – 15 March 1975
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| Ari Onassis The Greek Tycoon |
Ari Onassis was a Greek shipping
magnate, with the world's largest privately owned shipping fleet and one of the
world's richest and most famous men.
He was known for his business know-how,
his wealth and his personal life, including his marriage to Athina Mary
Livanos, daughter of shipping tycoon Stavros G. Livanos, his affair with
opera singer Maria Callas and his marriage in 1968 to Jacqueline
Kennedy, the widow of late American President John F. Kennedy.
Onassis was born in Smyrna, but fled,
with his family, to Greece in 1922 during the Greco-Turkish War.
He moved
to Argentina in 1923, where he set himself up himself as a tobacco trader and
later, during the Second World War, a ship owner.
Onassis
was the founder of Olympic Airways in 1957.
27.Stavros Niarchos
3 July 1909 – 16 April 1996
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| Stavros Niarchos Multi-Billionaire |
Stavros Niarchos was a
multi-billionaire Greek shipping tycoon, who, after 1952 had the the
world's biggest supertankers built for his fleet.
Set in
motion by the Suez Crisis and an increasing demand for oil, he and his
rival Aristotle Onassis became giants in global petroleum shipping.
Niarchos married five times, two of his wives
were daughters of shipping magnate Stavros G. Livanos; Eugenia Livanos in
1947, and Athina Livanos Onassis, his third wife Eugenia's sister and first wife of his
rival, Onassis, in 1971.
Both sisters died from overdoses, Eugenia in
1970, and Athina in 1974.
28. Stelios Haji-Ioannou
Sir Stelios
Haji-Ioannou, born in Athens,
Greece, 14 February 1967, is a British entrepreneur of Greek origin.
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| Stelios Haji-Ioannnou Easy Money |
He comes from a wealthy ship owning family, and
is known for easyJet, a low-cost airline and the Stelmar
shipping line, which he established with funds of £30 million, provided
by his father.
easyJet,
founded in 1995 marked the beginning of a series of ventures marketed under the
"easy" brand, managed by easyGroup and run by Stelios Haji-Ioannou .
Pioneers
29. Georgios Papanikolaou
13 May 1883 – 19 February 1962
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| Georgios Papanikolaou Saved countless lives |
Georgios Papanikolaou was
a Greek pioneer in cytopathology and early cancer
detection, and inventor of the "Pap smear".
He discovered that uterine cancer could be
diagnosed by means of a vaginal smear in 1928, but the significance of his work
was not recognized until the publication, (with Herbert Frederick Traut)
of “Diagnosis of Uterine Cancer
by the Vaginal Smear” in 1943.
He became known for his invention of the
Papanikolaou test; the Pap smear or Pap test, which is used
worldwide for the detection and prevention of cervical cancer.
Papanikolaou received the Albert Lasker
Award for Clinical Medical Research in 1950.
Papanikolaou's portrait appeared on the Greek
10,000 drachma banknote of 1995–2001.
In 1978 his work was honored by the U.S.
Postal Service with a 13-cent stamp for early cancer detection.
30. Spiros Louis
12 January 1873 – 26 March 1940
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| Spiros Louis Ran Like the Wind |
Spiros Louis, a water-carrier, shot to fame,
and became a national hero, after winning the first modern-day Olympic
marathon at the 1896 Summer Olympics.
The Marathon consisted of thirteen athletes
from Greece and four from other nations.
During
the marathon, Spiros made a stop at an inn for a glass of wine, while there, he
declared he would overtake all contestants before the end, and win.
Such was his confidence!
Back In the stadium, the spectators were on tenterhooks,
the atmosphere was tense, and as word spread that it was a Greek in front, the
cry "Hellene, Hellene!" was shouted out by thousands.
When
Louiswas the first to arrive, the stadium went into an uproar, two Greek
princes; Crown Prince Constantine and Prince George, ran to meet
him and accompanied him on his final lap for a finishing time of 2:58:50.
It is said the king offered Louis any gift his
heart desired, all good old Louis could
think of was a donkey-drawn carriage to help him in his water-carrying
business.
In 1926, Louis was arrested on charges of
falsifying military documents and was sent to prison
After spending more than a year in jail, he was
found not guilty, and was acquitted, I suspect there must have been quite a to
do about that!
His last public appearance came in 1936, when
he was invited to be a guest of honour at the 1936 Summer Olympics, held
in Berlin.
. After bearing the flag of the Greek team
during the opening ceremonies, he was received by Adolf Hitler and
offered him an olive branch from Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic
Games, as a symbol of peace.
Four years before he died, Louis recalled the
moments after his victory:
"That hour was something unimaginable and
it still appears to me in my memory like a dream … Twigs and flowers were
raining down on me. Everybody was calling out my name and throwing their hats
in the air"
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These are my top thirty Great Greeks, what do
you think, who have I missed?
I’m sure, as soon as I publish this post, I
shall think of more, I can feel a “Part two” coming on, be warned!
See more "Great Greek Stuff" below;
20 Weird, Crazy and Incredible Facts About Greece and the Greeks
The Greeks Did it First: 20 Amazing Ancient Greek Inventions Still in Use Today
26 Famous Movies Filmed in Greece and the Greek Islands
25 of the Most Famous Ancient Greek Statues and Sculptures; Where Are They Now?
40 things I've learnt about the Greeks in 40 years
21 Weird Greek Superstitions
Top Ten Greek New Year's Customs and Traditions
20 Weird, Crazy and Incredible Facts About Greece and the Greeks
The Greeks Did it First: 20 Amazing Ancient Greek Inventions Still in Use Today
26 Famous Movies Filmed in Greece and the Greek Islands
25 of the Most Famous Ancient Greek Statues and Sculptures; Where Are They Now?
40 things I've learnt about the Greeks in 40 years
21 Weird Greek Superstitions
Top Ten Greek New Year's Customs and Traditions
