Culture of Greece 1

Culture of Greece

The Parthenon is an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece and of Athenian democracy. It isregarded as one of the world's greatest cultural monuments.

The culture of Greece has evolvedover thousands of years, beginning inMycenaean Greece, continuing mostnotably into Classical Greece, throughthe influence of the Roman Empire andits successor the Byzantine Empire.Other cultures and states such as Latinand Frankish states, the OttomanEmpire, the Venetian Republic,Genoese Republic, and British Empirehave also left their influence onmodern Greek culture, but historianscredit the Greek War of Independencewith revitalising Greece and givingbirth to a single entity of itsmulti-faceted culture.

In ancient times, Greece was thebirthplace of Western culture.[1] Modern democracies owe a debt to Greek beliefs in government by the people, trialby jury, and equality under the law. The ancient Greeks pioneered in many fields that rely on systematic thought,including biology, geometry, history,[2] philosophy, and physics. They introduced such important literary forms asepic and lyric poetry, history, tragedy, and comedy. In their pursuit of order and proportion, the Greeks created anideal of beauty that strongly influenced Western art.[3]

A Greek legend tells that God sifted the earth through a strainer while making the world. He made one country afteranother with the good soil that sifted through. God threw away the stones left in the strainer. According to thelegend, these stones became Greece.

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Architecture

Doric Temple of Athena Lindia in Lindos,Rhodes.

The Byzantine church of Agii Theodori, Mystras.

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greek architecture is best known through its temples andtheatres.

Byzantine Greece

Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire.Byzantine architecture emphasized a Greek cross layout, theByzantine capitol style of column (a mixture of Ionic andCorinthian capitols) and a central dome surrounded by severalsmaller domes.

Modern Greece

Traditional style houses in Nafplion and Ermoupoli.

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Neoclassical buildings in Patras.

During the Ottoman conquest, the Greek architecture wasconcentrated mainly on the Greek Orthodox churches of the Greekdiaspora. These churches, such as other intellectual centres(foundations, schools etc.) built by Greeks in Diaspora, washeavily influenced by the western European architecture. After theindependence of Greece and during the nineteenth century, theNeoclassical architecture was heavily used for both public andprivate building.[4] Regarding the churches, Greece alsoexperienced the Neo-Byzantine revival.

In 1933 was signed the Athens Charter, a manifesto of themodernist movement which published later by Le Corbusier.Architects of this movement were among others: The Bauhaus-architect Ioannis Despotopoulos, Dimitris Pikionis,Patroklos Karantinos and Takis Zenetos. During the 1960s and 1970s, Xenia was a nation-wide hotel constructionprogram initiated by the Hellenic Tourism Organisation (Ελληνικός Οργανισμός Τουρισμού, EOT) to improve thecountry's tourism infrastructure. It constitutes one of the largest infrastructure projects in modern Greek history. Thefirst manager of the project was the architect Charalambos Sfaellos (from 1950 to 1958) and from 1957 the buildingswere designed by a team under Aris Konstantinidis.

Cinema

Press conference at the Thessaloniki InternationalFilm Festival.

Cinema first appeared in Greece in 1896 but the first actualcine-theatre was opened in 1907. In 1914 the Asty Films Company wasfounded and the production of long films begun. Golfo (Γκόλφω), awell known traditional love story, is the first Greek long movie,although there were several minor productions such as newscastsbefore this. In 1931 Orestis Laskos directed Daphnis and Chloe(Δάφνις και Χλόη), contained the first nude scene in the history ofEuropean cinema; it was also the first Greek movie which was playedabroad. In 1944 Katina Paxinou was honoured with the BestSupporting Actress Academy Award for For Whom the Bell Tolls.

The 1950s and early 1960s are considered by many as the GreekGolden age of Cinema. Directors and actors of this era were recognized as important historical figures in Greece andsome gained international acclaim: Mihalis Kakogiannis, Alekos Sakellarios, Melina Mercouri, Nikos Tsiforos,Iakovos Kambanelis, Katina Paxinou, Nikos Koundouros, Ellie Lambeti, Irene Papas etc. More than sixty films peryear 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 NikosKoundouros), Stella (1955 directed by Cacoyannis and written by Kampanellis). Cacoyannis also directed Zorba theGreek 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, Η Θεία από τοΣικάγο, Το ξύλο βγήκε από τον Παράδεισο and many more. During the 1970s and 1980s Theo Angelopoulosdirected a series of notable and appreciated movies. His film Eternity and a Day won the Palme d'Or and the Prize ofthe Ecumenical Jury at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.

There were also internationally renowned filmmakers in the Greek diaspora such as the Greek-American Elia Kazan.

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DanceGreece has a continuous history of native dances reaching from antiquity till the modern era. It began in theMycenean period.

Classical GreeceAncient Greeks believed that dancing was invented by the Gods and therefore associated it with religious ceremony.They believed that the gods offered this gift to select mortals only, who in turn taught dancing to their fellow-men.Periodic evidence in ancient texts indicates that dance was held in high regard, in particular for its educationalqualities. Dance, along with writting, music, and physical exercise, was fundamental to the commenced in a circleand ended with the dancers facing one another. When not dancing in a circle the dancers held their hands high orwaved them to left and right. They held cymbals (very like the zilia of today) or a kerchief in their hands, and theirmovements were emphasized by their long sleeves. As they danced, they sang, either set songs or extemporizedones, sometimes in unison, sometimes in refrain, repeating the verse sung by the lead dancer. The onlookers joinedin, clapping the rhythm or singing. Professional singers, often the musicians themselves, composed lyrics to suit theoccasion.Byzantine instruments included the guitar, single, double or multiple flute, sistrum, timpani (drum), psaltirio, Sirigs,lyre, cymbals, keras and kanonaki.Popular dances of this period included the Syrtos, Geranos, Mantilia, Saximos, Pyrichios, and Kordakas . Some ofthese dances have their origins in the ancient period and are still enacted in some form today.

Modern Greece

Dancers from Crete.

Greece is one of the few places in Europe where theday-to-day role of folk dance is sustained. Rather thanfunctioning as a museum piece preserved only forperformances and special events, it is a vivid expressionof everyday life. Occasions for dance are usuallyweddings, family celebrations, and paneyeria (PatronSaints' name days). Dance has its place in ceremonialcustoms that are still preserved in Greek villages, such asdancing the bride during a wedding and dancing thetrousseau of the bride during the wedding preparations.The carnival and Easter offer more opportunities forfamily gatherings and dancing. Greek taverns providing

live entertainment often include folk dances in their program.

Regional characteristics have developed over the years because of variances in climatic conditions, land morphologyand people's social lives. In later years, wars, international pacts and consequent movement of populations, and evenmovements of civil servants around the country, intermingled traditions. People learned new dances, adapted them totheir environment, and included them in their feasts. Kalamatianos and Syrtos are considered Pan-Hellenic dancesand are danced all over the world in diaspora communities. Others have also crossed boundaries and are knownbeyond the regions where they originated; these include the Pentozali from Crete, Hasapiko from Constantinople,Zonaradikos from Thrace, Pyrehios from Pontos and Balos from the Aegean islands.The avant-garde choreographer, director and dancer Dimitris Papaioannou was responsible for the criticallysuccessful Opening Ceremony of the 2004 Olympic Games, with a conception that reflected the classical influenceson modern and experimental Greek dance forms.

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Education

The Academy of Athens is Greece's nationalacademy and the highest research establishment

in the country.

Education in Greece is compulsory for all children 6–15 years old;namely, it includes Primary (Dimotiko) and Lower Secondary(Gymnasio) Education. The school life of the students, however, canstart from the age of 2.5 years (pre-school education) in institutions(private and public) called "Vrefonipiakoi Paidikoi Stathmi" (creches).In some Vrefonipiakoi Stathmoi there are also Nipiaka Tmimata(nursery classes) which operate along with the Nipiagogeia(kindergartens).

Post-compulsory Secondary Education, according to the reforms of1997 and 2006, consists of two main school types: Genika Lykeia(General Upper Secondary Schools) and the Epaggelmatika Lykeia(Vocational Upper Secondary Schools), as well as the Epaggelmatikes

Sxoles (Vocational Schools). Musical, Ecclesiastical and Physical Education Gymnasia and Lykeia are also inoperation.

Post-compulsory Secondary Education also includes the Vocational Training Institutes (IEK), which provide formalbut unclassified level of education. These Institutes are not classified as an educational level, because they acceptboth Gymnasio (lower secondary school) and Lykeio (upper secondary school) graduates according to the relevantspecializations they provide. Public higher education is divided into Universities and Technological EducationInstitutes (TEI). Students are admitted to these Institutes according to their performance at national levelexaminations taking place at the second and third grade of Lykeio. Additionally, students are admitted to theHellenic Open University upon the completion of the 22 year of age by drawing lots.Nea Dimokratia (New Democracy), the Greek conservative right political party, has claimed that it will change thelaw so that private universities gain recognition. Without official recognition, students who have an EES degree areunable to work in the public sector. PASOK took some action after EU intervention, namely the creation of a specialgovernment agency which certifies the vocational status of certain EES degree holders. However, their academicstatus still remains a problem. The issue of full recognition is still an issue of debate among Greek politicians.

Greek people

Alexander the Great also known as Alexander III, king of Macedon, was one of themost successful military commanders in history.

The origins of Western literature and of themain branches of Western learning may betraced to the era of Greek greatness thatbegan before 700 BC with the epics ofHomer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Hesiod,the first didactic poet, put into epic verse hisdescriptions of pastoral life, includingpractical advice on farming, and allegoricalmyths. The poets Alcaeus of Mytilene,Sappho, Anacreon, and Bacchylides wroteof love, war, and death in lyrics of greatfeeling and beauty. Pindar celebrated thePanhellenic athletic festivals in vivid odes.The fables of the slave Aesop have been

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famous for more than 2,500 years. Three of the world's greatest dramatists were Aeschylus, author of the Oresteiatrilogy; Sophocles, author of the Theban plays; and Euripides, author of Medea, The Trojan Women, and TheBacchae. Aristophanes, the greatest author of comedies, satirized the mores of his day in a series of brilliant plays.Three great historians were Herodotus, regarded as the father of history, known for The Persian Wars; Thucydides,who generally avoided myth and legend and applied greater standards of historical accuracy in his History of thePeloponnesian War; and Xenophon, best known for his account of the Greek retreat from Persia, the Anabasis.Outstanding literary figures of the Hellenistic period were Menander, the chief representative of a newer type ofcomedy; the poets Callimachus, Theocritus, and Apollonius Rhodius, author of the Argonautica; and Polybius, whowrote a detailed history of the Mediterranean world. Noteworthy in the Roman period were Strabo, a writer ongeography; Plutarch, the father of biography, whose Parallel Lives of famous Greeks and Romans is a chief sourceof information about great figures of antiquity; Pausanias, a travel writer; and Lucian, a satirist.The leading philosophers of the period preceding Greece's golden age were Thales, Pythagoras, Heraclitus,Protagoras, and Democritus. Socrates investigated ethics and politics. His greatest pupil, Plato, used Socrates'question-and-answer method of investigating philosophical problems in his famous dialogues. Plato's pupil Aristotleestablished the rules of deductive reasoning but also used observation and inductive reasoning, applying himself tothe systematic study of almost every form of human endeavor. Outstanding in the Hellenistic period were Epicurus,the philosopher of moderation; Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism; and Diogenes of Sinope, the famous Cynic.The oath of Hippocrates, the father of medicine, is still recited by newly graduating physicians. Euclid evolved thesystem of geometry that bears his name. Archimedes discovered the principles of mechanics and hydrostatics.Eratosthenes calculated the earth's circumference with remarkable accuracy, and Hipparchus Founded scientificastronomy. Galen was an outstanding physician of ancient times.

The most famous artist born in Greece was probably Doménikos Theotokópoulos,better known as El Greco (The Greek) in Spain. He did most of his painting there

during the late 1500s and early 1600s.

The sculptor Phidias created the statue ofAthena and the figure of Zeus in the templeat Olympia and supervised the constructionand decoration of the Parthenon. Anotherrenowned sculptor was Praxiteles.

The legal reforms of Solon served as thebasis of Athenian democracy. The Atheniangeneral Miltiades the Younger led thevictory over the Persians at Marathon in 490BC, and Themistocles was chieflyresponsible for the victory at Salamis 10years later. Pericles, the virtual ruler ofAthens for more than 25 years, added to thepolitical power of that city, inaugurated theconstruction of the Parthenon and othernoteworthy buildings, and encouraged thearts of sculpture and painting. With thedecline of Athens, first Sparta and thenThebes, under the great military tacticianEpaminondas, gained the ascendancy; butsoon thereafter, two military geniuses,Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexanderthe Great, gained control over all of Greeceand formed a vast empire stretching as fareast as India. It was against Philip that Demosthenes, the greatest Greek orator, directed his diatribes, the Philippics.

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The most renowned Greek painter during the Renaissance was El Greco, born in Crete, whose major works, paintedin Spain, have influenced many 20th-century artists. An outstanding modern literary figure is Nikos Kazantzakis, anovelist and poet who composed a vast sequel to Homer's Odyssey. Leading modern poets are Kostis Palamas, andConstantine P. Cavafy, as well as George Seferis, and Odysseus Elytis, winners of the Nobel Prize for literature in1963 and 1979, respectively. The work of social theorist Cornelius Castoriadis is known for its multidisciplinarybreadth. Musicians of stature are the composers Nikos Skalkottas, Iannis Xenakis, and Mikis Theodorakis; theconductor Dmitri Mitropoulos; and the soprano Maria Callas. Filmmakers who have won international acclaim areGreek-Americans John Cassavetes and Elia Kazan, and Greeks Michael Cacoyannis and Costa-Gavras. Actresses ofnote are Katina Paxinou; Melina Mercouri, who was appointed minister of culture and science in the Socialistcabinet in 1981; and Irene Papas.Outstanding Greek public figures in the 20th century include Cretan-born Eleutherios Venizelos, prominentstatesman of the interwar period; Ioannis Metaxas, dictator from 1936 until his death; Constantine Karamanlis, primeminister (1955–63, 1974–80) and president (1980–85) of Greece; George Papandreou, head of the Center UnionParty and prime minister (1963–65); and his son Andreas Papandreou, the PASOK leader who became primeminister in 1981. Costas Simitis was leader of PASOK and prime minister from 1996–2004. He was succeeded byKostas Karamanlis.

Language

Ancient Greek Ostracon bearing the name ofCimon. Museum of the Ancient Agora, Athens.

The Greek language is the official language of the Hellenic Republicand has a total of 15 million speakers worldwide; it is anIndo-European language. It is particularly remarkable in the depth ofits continuity, beginning with the pre-historic Mycenaean Greek andthe Linear B script, and maybe the Linear A script associated withMinoan civilization, though Linear A is still undeciphered. Greeklanguage is clearly detected in the Mycenaean language and theCypriot syllabary, and eventually the dialects of Ancient Greek, ofwhich Attic Greek bears the most resemblance to Modern Greek. Thehistory of the language spans over 3400 years of written records.

Greek has had enormous impact on other languages both directly on the Romance languages, and indirectly throughits influence on the emerging Latin language during the early days of Rome. Signs of this influence, and its manydevelopments, can be seen throughout the family of Western European languages.

Internet and "Greeklish"More recently, the rise of internet-based communication services as well as cell phones have caused a distinctiveform of Greek written partially, and sometimes fully in Latin characters to emerge; this is known as Greeklish, aform that has spread across the Greek diaspora and even to the two countries with majority Greek population, Cyprusand Greece.

KatharevousaKatharévousa is a purified form of the Greek Language midway between modern and ancient forms set in trainduring the early nineteenth century by Greek intellectual and revolutionary leader Adamantios Korais, intended toreturn the Greek language closer to its ancient form. Its influence, in recent years, evolved toward a more formalrole, and it came to be used primarily for official purposes such as diplomacy, politics, and other forms of officialdocumentation. It has nevertheless had significant effects on the Greek language as it is still written and spokentoday, and both vocabulary and grammatical and syntactical forms have re-entered Modern Greek via Katharevousa.

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Dialects

Distribution of Greek dialects during the late Byzantine times (left) and areas in South Italy where Griko language is still spoken (right).

There are a variety of dialects of the Greek language; the most notable include Cappadocian, Cretan Greek (which isclosely related to most Aegean Islands' dialects), Cypriot Greek, Pontic Greek, the Griko language spoken inSouthern Italy, and Tsakonian, still spoken in the modern prefecture of Arcadia and widely noted as a survivingregional dialect of Doric Greek.

LiteratureGreece has a remarkably rich and resilient literary tradition, extending over 2800 years and through several eras. TheClassical era is that most commonly associated with Greek Literature, beginning in 800 BCE and maintaining itsinfluence through to the beginnings of Byzantine period, whereafter the influence of Christianity began to spawn anew development of the Greek written word. The many elements of a millennia-old tradition are reflected in ModernGreek literature, including the works of the Nobel laureates Odysseus Elytis and George Seferis.

Classical GreeceThe first recorded works in the western literary tradition are the epic poems of Homer and Hesiod. Early Greek lyricpoetry, as represented by poets such as Sappho and Pindar, was responsible for defining the lyric genre as it isunderstood today in western literature. Aesop wrote his Fables in the 6th century BC. These innovations were tohave a profound influence not only on Roman poets, most notably Virgil in his epic poem on the founding of Rome,The Aeneid, but one that flourished throughout Europe.Classical Greece is also judged the birthplace of theatre. Aeschylus introduced the ideas of dialogue and interactingcharacters to playwriting and in doing so, he effectively invented "drama": his Oresteia trilogy of plays is judged hiscrowning achievement. Other refiners of playwriting were Sophocles and Euripides. Aristophanes, a comicplaywright, defined and shaped the idea of comedy as a theatrical form.

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A page from a 16th-century edition of the10th century Byzantine encyclopaedia of

the ancient Mediterranean world, the Suda.

Herodotus and Thucydides are often attributed with developing the modernstudy of history into a field worthy of philosophical, literary, and scientificpursuit. Polybius first introduced into study the concept of military history.

Philosophy entered literature in the dialogues of Plato, while his pupilAristotle, in his work the Poetics, formulated the first set criteria for literarycriticism. Both these literary figures, in the context of the broadercontributions of Greek philosophy in the Classical and Hellenistic eras,were to give rise to idea of Political Science, the study of political evolutionand the critique of governmental systems.

Byzantine Greece

Basilios Bessarion.

The growth of Christianity throughout the Greco-Roman world in the 4th, 5th and 6thcenturies, together with the Hellenization of the Byzantine Empire of the period,would lead to the formation of a unique literary form, combining Christian, Greek,Roman and Oriental (such as the Persian Empire) influences. In its turn, this wouldpromote developments such as Cretan poetry, the growth of poetic satire in the GreekEast and the several pre-eminent historians of the period.

Modern Greece

Modern Greek literature refers to literature written in the Greek language from the11th century, with texts written in a language that is more familiar to the ears ofGreeks today than is the language of the early Byzantine times.

It is also influenced by the Greek Revolution (1821–1830) and the subsequent independence of Greece and as such,by revolutionary themes. The impact of the Modern Greek Enlightenment is also notable, as well as the influence ofthe Byzantine Empire's acritic songs, Byzantine novel and romance (Erotokritos etc.).Moving into the twentieth century, the modern Greek literary tradition spans the work of Constantine P. Cavafy,considered a key figure of twentieth century poetry, Giorgos Seferis (whose works and poems aimed to fuse theliterature of Ancient and Modern Greece) and Odysseas Elytis, both of whom won the Nobel Prize for Literature.Nikos Kazantzakis is also considered a dominant figure, with works such as The Last Temptation of Christ and TheGreek Passion receiving international recognition.

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MusicGreece has a diverse and highly influential musical tradition, with ancient music influencing the Roman Empire, andByzantine liturgical chants and secular music influencing the Renaissance. Modern Greek music combines theseelements, as well as influences from the Middle East, to carry Greeks' interpretation of a wide range of musicalforms.

Classical GreeceThe history of music in Greece begins once more, as one might expect, with the music of ancient Greece, largelystructured on the Lyre and other supporting string instruments of the era. Beyond the well-known structural legaciesof the Pythagorean scale, and the related mathematical developments it upheld to define western classical music,relatively little is understood about the precise character of music during this period; we do know, however, that itleft, as so often, a strong mark on the culture of Rome. What has been gleaned about the social role and character ofancient Greek music comes largely from pottery and other forms of Greek art.

Byzantine Greece

Earliest known depiction of lyra in aByzantine ivory casket. The ByzantineChurch music has a strong influence on

modern Greek music.

The Byzantine Music is also of major significance to the history anddevelopment of European music, as liturgical chants became the foundationand stepping stone for music of the Renaissance (see: Renaissance Music).It is also certain that Byzantine music included an extensive tradition ofinstrumental court music and dance; any other picture would be bothincongruous with the historically and archaeologically documentedopulence of the Eastern Roman Empire. There survive a few but explicitaccounts of secular music. A characteristic example is the accounts ofpneumatic organs, whose construction was further advanced in the easternempire prior to their development in the west following the Renaissance.

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Modern Greece

Mikis Theodorakis, popularcomposer, tried to introduce thebouzouki into the mainstream

culture.

A range of domestically and internationally known composers and performers acrossthe musical spectrum have found success in modern Greece, while traditional Greekmusic is noted as a mixture of influences from indigenous culture with those of westand east. A few Ottoman elements can be heard in the traditional songs, dhimotiká,as well as in the modern bluesy rembétika music. A well-known Greek musicalinstrument is the bouzouki. "Bouzouki" is a descriptive Turkish name, but theinstrument itself is probably of Greek origin (from the ancient Greek lute known aspandoura, a kind of guitar, clearly visible in ancient statues, especially femalefigurines of the "Tanagraies" playing cord instruments).

Famous Greek musicians and composers of modern era include the central figure of20th century European modernism Iannis Xenakis, a composer, architect andtheorist. Maria Callas, Nikos Skalkottas, Mikis Theodorakis, Dimitris Mitropoulos,Manos Hadjidakis and Vangelis also lead twentieth-century Greek contributions,alongside Demis Roussos, Nana Mouskouri, Yanni, Georges Moustaki, EleniKaraindrou and others.

The birth of the first School of modern Greek classical music (Heptanesean or Ionian School, Greek:ΕπτανησιακήΣχολή) came through the Ionian Islands (notable composers include Spyridon Samaras, Nikolaos Mantzaros andPavlos Carrer), while Manolis Kalomiris is considered the founder of the Greek National School.

Painting

Byzantine Greece

Example of Greek Orthodox visualhagiography.

Byzantine art is the term created for the Eastern Roman Empire from aboutthe 5th century until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The most salientfeature of this new aesthetic was its “abstract,” or anti-naturalistic character.If classical art was marked by the attempt to create representations thatmimicked reality as closely as possible, Byzantine art seems to haveabandoned this attempt in favor of a more symbolic approach. TheByzantine painting concentrated mainly on icons and hagiographies.

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Modern Greece

Nikolaos Gyzis (1842-1901),painter from Tinos. The island ofTinos has a significal contribution

to modern Greek painting andsculpture.

The term Cretan School describes an important school of icon painting, alsoknown as Post-Byzantine art, which flourished while Crete was under Venetianrule during the late Middle Ages, reaching its climax after the Fall ofConstantinople, becoming the central force in Greek painting during the 15th,16th and 17th centuries. The Cretan artists developed a particular style of paintingunder the influence of both Eastern and Western artistic traditions andmovements. The most famous product of the school, El Greco, was the mostsuccessful of the many artists who tried to build a career in Western Europe.

The Heptanese School of painting succeeded the Cretan school as the leadingschool of Greek post-Byzantine painting after Crete fell to the Ottomans in 1669.Like the Cretan school it combined Byzantine traditions with an increasingWestern European artistic influence, and also saw the first significant depiction ofsecular subjects. The school was based in the Ionian islands, which were not partof Ottoman Greece, from the middle of the 17th century until the middle of the19th century.

Modern Greek painting, after the independence and the creation of the modernGreek state, began to be developed around the time of Romanticism and the Greekartists absorbed many elements from their European colleagues, resulting in theculmination of the distinctive style of Greek Romantic art.

Philosophy, science and mathematics

The Greek world is widely regarded as having given birth to scientific thought by means of observation, thought, anddevelopment of a theory without the intervention of a supernatural force. Thales, Anaximander and Democritus wereamongst those contributing significantly to the establishment of this tradition. It is also, and perhaps more commonlyin the western imagination, identified with the dawn of Western Philosophy, as well as a mapping out of the NaturalSciences. Greek developments of mathematics continued well up until the decline of the Byzantine Empire. In themodern era Greeks continue to contribute to the fields of Science, Mathematics and Philosophy.

Classical Greece

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Marble bust of Aristotle.

The tradition of philosophy in Ancient Greece accompanied its literarydevelopment. Greek learning had a profound influence on Western andMiddle Eastern civilizations. The works of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, andother Greek philosophers profoundly influenced Classical thought, theIslamic Golden Age, and the Renaissance.

In medicine, doctors still refer to the Hippocratic oath, instituted byHippocrates, regarded as foremost in laying the foundations of medicine as ascience. Galen built on Hippocrates' theory of the four humours, and hiswritings became the foundation of medicine in Europe and the Middle Eastfor centuries. The physicians Herophilos and Paulus Aegineta were pioneersin the study of anatomy, while Pedanius Dioscorides wrote an extensivetreatise on the practice of pharmacology.

The period of Classical Greece (from 800BC until the rise of Macedon, aGreek state in the north) is that most often associated with Greek advances inscience. Thales of Miletus is regarded by many as the father of science; he was the first of the ancient philosophersto seek to explain the physical world in terms of natural rather than supernatural causes. Pythagoras was amathematician often described as the "father of numbers"; it is believed that he had the pioneering insight into thenumerical ratios that determine the musical scale, and the Pythagorean theorem is commonly attributed to him.Diophantus of Alexandria, in turn, was the "father of algebra". Many parts of modern geometry are based on thework of Euclid, while Eratosthenes was one of the first scientific geographers, calculating the circumference of theearth and conceiving the first maps based on scientific principles.

The Hellenistic period, following Alexander's conquests, continued and built upon this knowledge. Hipparchus isconsidered the pre-eminent astronomical observer of the ancient world, and was probably the first to develop anaccurate method for the prediction of solar eclipse, while Aristarchus of Samos was the first known astronomer topropose a heliocentric model of the solar system, though the geocentric model of Ptolemy was more commonlyaccepted until the seventeenth century. Ptolemy also contributed substantially to cartography and to the science ofoptics. For his part Archimedes was the first to calculate the value of π and a geometric series, and also the earliestknown mathematical physicist discovering the law of buoyancy, as well as conceiving the irrigation device known asArchimedes' screw.

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Byzantine Greece

An original early 15th century manuscript inthe hand of Georgios Gemistos Plethon.

The Byzantine period remained largely a period of preservation in terms ofclassical Greco-Roman texts; there were, however, significant advancesmade in the fields of medicine and historical scholarship. Theologicalphilosophy also remained an area of study, and there was, while notmatching the achievements of preceding ages, a certain increase in theprofessionalism of study of these subjects, epitomized by the founding ofthe University of Constantinople.

Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles, the architects of the famousHagia Sophia in Constantinople, also contributed towards mathematicaltheories concerning architectural form, and the perceived mathematicalharmony needed to create a multi-domed structure. These ideas were toprove a heavy influence on the Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan in hiscreation of the Blue Mosque, also in Constantinople. Tralles in particularproduced several treatises on the Natural Sciences, as well as his otherforays into mathematics such as Conic Sections.

The gradual migration of Greeks from Byzantium to the Italian city statesfollowing the decline of the Byzantine Empire, and the texts they broughtwith them combined with the academic positions they held, was a majorfactor in lighting the first sparks of the Italian Renaissance.

Modern Greece

Constantin Carathéodory.

Greeks continue to contribute to science and technology in the modernworld. John Argyris, a Greek mathematician and engineer, was among thecreators of the finite element analysis and the direct stiffness method,relative to physics. Mathematician Constantin Carathéodory worked in thefields of real analysis, the calculus of variations, and measure theory in theearly 20th century. Biologist Fotis Kafatos pioneers in the field ofmolecular cloning and genomics. In medicine, Georgios Papanikolaoucontributed heavily to the development of cancer screening with his Papsmear. The Greek car designer Alec Issigonis created the iconic Miniautomobile, while the computer scientist Michael Dertouzos was amongstthe pioneers of the internet. Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of theMassachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, is one of the founders ofthe program One Laptop Per Child, a non-profit organisation aiming toextend Internet access in developing countries.

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Politics

The building of the Hellenic Parliament wasdesigned as a Royal Palace for Otto of Greece.

Greece is a Parliamentary Republic with a president assuming a moreceremonial role than in some other republics, and the Prime Ministerchosen from the leader of the majority party in the parliament. Greecehas a codified constitution and a written Bill of Rights embeddedwithin it. The current Prime Minister is Antonis Samaras.

The politics of the third Hellenic Republic have been dominated bytwo main political parties, the self proclaimed socialists of PASOK andthe conservative New Democracy. Until recently PASOK haddominated the political scene, presiding over favourable growth rateseconomically but in the eyes of critics failing to deliver whereunemployment and structural issues such as market liberalization wereconcerned.

New Democracy's election to government in 2004 has led to variousinitiatives to modernize the country, such as the education universityscheme above as well as labour market liberalization. Politically therehas been massive opposition to some of these moves owing to a large,well organized workers' movement in Greece, which distrusts the rightwing administration and neo-liberal ideas. The population in general appears to accept many of the initiatives,reflected in governmental support; on the economic front many are so far warming to the reforms made by theadministration, which have been largely rewarded with above average Eurozone growth rates. New Democracy werere-elected in September 2007.A number of other smaller political parties exist. They include the third largest party (the Communist Party), whichstill commands large support from many rural working areas as well as some of the immigrant population in Greece,as well as the far-right Popular Orthodox Rally, with the latter, while commanding a mere three and a half per centof votes, seeking to capitalise on opposition in some quarters regarding Turkey's EU accession and any tension in theAegean. There is also a relatively small, but well organized anarchist movement, though its status in Greece has beensomewhat exaggerated by media overseas.The political process is energetically and openly participated in by the people of Greece, while public demonstrationsare a continual feature of Athenian life; however, there have been criticisms of a governmental failure to sufficientlyinvolve minorities in political debate and hence a sidelining of their opinions. In general, politics is regarded as anacceptable subject to broach on almost every social occasion, and Greeks are often very vocal about their support (orlack of it) for certain policy proposals, or political parties themselves - this is perhaps reflected in what manyconsider the rather sensationalist media on both sides of the political spectrum; although this is a feature of mostEuropean tabloids.

Culture of Greece 16

ReligionMain articles: Religion in Greece, Eastern Orthodox Church

Classical Greece

The Temple of Hephaestus in Athens is thebest-preserved of all ancient Greek temples.

Classical Athens may be suggested to have heralded some of thesame religious ideas that would later be promoted by Christianity,such as Aristotle's invocation of a perfect God, and Heraclitus'Logos. Plato considered there were rewards for the virtuous in theheavens and punishment for the wicked under the earth; the soulwas valued more highly than the material body, and the materialworld was understood to be imperfect and not fully real (illustratedin Socrates's allegory of the cave).

Hellenistic Greece

Alexander's conquests spread classical concepts about the divine,the afterlife, and much else across the eastern Mediterranean area. Jews and early Christians alike adopted the name"hades" when writing about "sheol" in Greek. Greco-Buddhism was the cultural syncretism between Hellenisticculture and Buddhism, which developed in the Indo-Greek Kingdoms. By the advent of Christianity, the fouroriginal patriarchates beyond Rome used Greek as their church language.

Modern Greece

Agios Minas, Santorini.

The Greek Orthodox Church, largely because of the importance ofByzantium in Greek history, as well as its role in the revolution, is amajor institution in modern Greece. Its roles in society and larger rolein overarching Greek culture are very important; a number of Greeksattend Church at least once a month or more and the Orthodox Easterholiday holds special significance.

The Church of Greece also retains limited political influence throughthe fact the Greek constitution does not have an explicit separation ofChurch and State; a debate suggested by more conservative elementsof the church in the early 2000s about identification cards and whether

religious affiliation might be added to them highlights the friction between state and church on some issues; theproposal unsurprisingly was not accepted. A widely publicised set of corruption scandals in 2004 implicating a smallgroup of senior churchmen also increased national debate on introducing a greater transparency to the church-staterelationship.

Greek Orthodox Churches dot both the villages and towns of Greece and come in a variety of architectural forms,from older Byzantine churches, to more modern white brick churches, to newer cathedral-like structures with evidentByzantine influence. Greece (as well as Cyprus), also polled as, ostensibly, one of the most religious

Culture of Greece 17

Shards of pottery vases on the street, after beingthrown from the windows of nearby houses. A

Holy Saturday tradition in Corfu.

countries in Europe, according to Eurostat; however, while the churchhas wide respect as a moral and cultural institution, a contrast inreligious belief with Protestant northern Europe is more obvious thanone with Catholic Mediterranean Europe.

Greece also has a significant minority of Muslims in Eastern Thrace(numbering around 100-150,000), with their places of worshipguaranteed since the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. The Greek state hasfully approved the construction a main mosque for the more recentMuslim community of Athens under the freedom of religion provisionsof the Greek constitution.

References[1] Mazlish, Bruce. Civilization And Its Contents. (http:/ / books. google. it/

books?id=AmacbFXUTEoC& pg=PA3& dq#v=onepage& q& f=false) StanfordUniversity Press, 2004. p. 3. Web. 25 Jun. 2012.

[2] Myres, John. Herodotus, Father of History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953. Web. 25 Jun. 2012.[3] Peter Krentz, Ph.D., W. R. Grey Professor of History, Davidson College.

"Greece, Ancient." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2012. Web. 8 July 2012.[4] Manos G. Birēs, Marō Kardamitsē-Adamē, Neoclassical architecture in Greece

Further reading• Bruce Thornton, Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization, Encounter Books, 2002• Hart, Laurie Kain (1999). "Culture, Civilization, and Demarcation at the Northwest Borders of Greece". American

Ethnologist 26 (1): 196–220. doi:10.1525/ae.1999.26.1.196. ISSN 0094-0496.• Simon Goldhill, Who Needs Greek?: Contests in the Cultural History of Hellenism, Cambridge University Press,

2002• Victor Davis Hanson, John Heath, Who Killed Homer: The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of

Greek Wisdom, Encounter Books, 2001

External links• Hellenism Network - Greek Culture (http:/ / www. hellenism. net)• Sketch of the History of Greek Literature from the Earliest Times to the Reign of Alexander the Great by William

Smith (http:/ / www. ellopos. net/ elpenor/ greek-texts/ ancient-greece/ history-of-ancient-greece-22-literature.asp)

• Anagnosis Books Modern Greek Culture Pages (http:/ / www. anagnosis. gr/ index. php?pageID=106& la=eng)• The Impact of Greek Culture on Normative Judaism from the Hellenistic Period through the Middle Ages c. 330

BCE- 1250 CE (http:/ / www. adath-shalom. ca/ greek_influence. htm)• The Greek diet and its relationship to health (http:/ / www. seve. gr/ sevedetrop/ defaulten. htm)• Greece a cultural profile (http:/ / www. cp-pc. ca/ english/ greece/ index. html)

Article Sources and Contributors 18

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Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:The Parthenon in Athens.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:The_Parthenon_in_Athens.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0  Contributors: SteveSwayneFile:Doric Temple of Athena Lindia in Lindos, Greece.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Doric_Temple_of_Athena_Lindia_in_Lindos,_Greece.jpg  License: CreativeCommons Attribution 2.0  Contributors: Marco RaaphorstFile:Mystras église.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Mystras_église.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0  Contributors: AnnesovImage:20090728 palamidi96.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:20090728_palamidi96.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0  Contributors: JeanhousenImage:Syros ermoupolis 140707.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Syros_ermoupolis_140707.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors: Hans Peter Schaefer, http://www.reserv-a-rt.deFile:Kolokotronistr.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Kolokotronistr.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported  Contributors: ConudrumFile:John Malkovich press conference, TIFF 2007.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:John_Malkovich_press_conference,_TIFF_2007.jpg  License: Creative CommonsAttribution 2.0  Contributors: tom.tzirosFile:Sfakia-dance.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sfakia-dance.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Kilom691, Malo, Man vyi, Oniros, OnrevWFile:Athens academy.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Athens_academy.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0  Contributors: Dimboukas (talk)File:BattleofIssus333BC-mosaic-detail1.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:BattleofIssus333BC-mosaic-detail1.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors:user:RuthvenFile:El greco.JPG  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:El_greco.JPG  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Docu, Ecummenic, Er Komandante, Kürschner, Lily15, Shakko,Spiritia, Zzyzx11, 3 anonymous editsFile:AGMA Ostrakon Cimon.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:AGMA_Ostrakon_Cimon.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.5  Contributors:MarsyasImage:Distribution of Greek dialects in late Byzantine Empire en.png  Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Distribution_of_Greek_dialects_in_late_Byzantine_Empire_en.png  License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Contributors: ru:User:Ivanchay derivative work: İnfoCan (talk)Image:GrikoSpeakingCommunitiesTodayV4.png  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:GrikoSpeakingCommunitiesTodayV4.png  License: GNU Free DocumentationLicense  Contributors: User:Etz HaimFile:Suda.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Suda.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Bkmd, Cirt, Deadstar, Martin H., R. 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LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/