It's all nonsense that the Spaniards invented the siesta. Definitely the Greeks. Exactly until one o'clock in the afternoon they greet each other - "Kalimera!" - “Good morning!”, And after about six in the evening - “Calispera!” - They want it to be as successful as possible.
It's like there is no day. All the more kind. Kotabaziliev’s “Children must sleep at night” here can be calmly paraphrased as “Greeks must sleep during the day!” In any case, rest. Crazy tourists, not attached to excursions or stupefied by the sea, hang out along quiet streets and stumble upon locked doors and shutters: “Quiet, there is no one, go ahead.” The birds are silent and the promised evil dogs are pinned to the fences of the farmlands in the form of pictures. By the way, it's not that hot - only +23-25 - why aren't they working? It's very simple - because they don't want to.
Dear Greek government, go make a Greek work! He has no time - he has fishing, a lot of beautiful women that are not yet available. He strikes, finally! A Greek wife is not far from her husband: from morning to night (with a siesta break, of course) she will cool off in a coffee shop, drink cup after cup of black drink and, lighting one cigarette after another, impulsively chat with her friend. All as one, puffy, in miniskirts and open tops, you meet them either sitting cross-legged or driving motorbikes.
Sellers in shops and shops diligently hide behind racks? Make no mistake, they are natives. They do not like to haggle and for each proposed price reduction they wearily answer: “Fix price” (fixed price). A rare Greek or Greek woman will drive you back to the shop at the exit and show you the wonders of the world that you have not discovered, and if you are going on a trip for souvenirs in the evening, God forbid you run into those shops where your friends gathered. They will laugh, chat incessantly, and not a single one will pay any attention to you. A very self-sufficient nation. Still, how many thousands of years are behind us, what kind of spirits do not roam the expanses of ancient Hellenica ... These spirits did everything so that Greece would not die of their own laziness, and they sent people from the former USSR here. I don’t know if Mr. Gorbachev is aware that Zeus and Sparta helped him, but as a result of the collapse of our once great Motherland, thousands and thousands of Ukrainians, Moldovans, Latvians, Lithuanians, especially Ukrainians settled here in Greece. True, they are all Russian. They rightly notice that there are already more of them here than locals, they rent or even buy real estate, get married, send their children to schools (I have traveled to several towns and have not seen a single one) and do not dream of returning back. They say that “it's good here, only it's warm all the time. Well, it’s impossible to keep it warm all the time!”
Let, let it be warm all the time, otherwise where should we go to rest so cheaply? But it's impossible to be SO collapsed? Whatever the town on the island (and there are about two thousand of them in Greece, it is unlikely that the unscrupulous Greeks counted everything), then their acropolis. The price for the happiness of seeing the freshly made ruins at the site of mythical glory costs from two to ten euros, but why pay, as they say, twice, if the amazing is nearby? Greece combines a non-strict half-destroyed-half-unfinished and at the same time lives beautifully.
On the territory of the museum, which has risen above the depths of the sea, there is an actively frozen construction site - cranes, mechanisms (maybe we find a permanent siesta?) and only young caretakers tired of the sun, making it clear where photography is allowed and where it is forbidden. Not a single sign with a crossed-out camera. Thank you. From afar, the views of the sea, houses dug into the rocks are incomparable. Closer ruins are also amazing. Chipped stone, garbage, wire, the devil knows what in general, and dust, dust, dust. Why, in the neighboring - at hand - Turkey (these comparisons are inevitable and invariable) at the orange trees standing along the road, we even broke the shiny leaves - we did not believe that they were not artificial, but here a dense layer of dust does not make it possible to distinguish where the fertile land is, and where it is simply road?!
Probably, the eternal siesta and spoiled Greeks, like that Khokhlushka Galya from the joke, are to blame for everything. Yes, let him. You marvel at this lordly laziness, acquired over millennia, and enjoy it. Greece is regularly visited by all of Europe, but they love only Russians. Because we are brothers and sisters, "orthodox" - Orthodox. A rare bartender did not want to treat us, from afar determining nationality. You can’t offend a Greek by dropping into his coffee shop for a cup of espresso at 11 in the morning, and refuse a glass or two of Baileys. At his expense, of course. Or metaxes. Or white or red wine. In the evening, a handsome hotel bartender pours glasses of ouzo (raki) to me and himself and winks: well, they say, let's have a glass? And without a twinge of conscience, he actually slams his own in front of the administrator. "You can't do this!" - I scream in horror, preventing, as I think, the inevitable dismissal. "Why?" - also in shock, choking, he asks. “Well, you are at work…” I mumble, already realizing that I look like a complete fool at this Greek holiday of general disobedience.
Well, really, they are terribly cute, these Greeks. In order to somehow apologize for the unwillingness to sit down at a table in a cafe at a time when we are full, we tried to teach them "Russian traditional about Gris" - something like a "Russian proverb about Greece." Well, you know: “I was driving a Greek across the river…” and so on. They repeated with pleasure, joyfully reproducing “crab for the hand of the Greek TsAP!” and always asked: "Wat of mines?" - "What does it mean?". I had to compose a terrible story in long-forgotten English about the fearless "elinos" ("Greek" in Greek), conquering the stormy "riva" (river) and fighting with the "big-big" (big-big) ... lobster (well, there was no school cancer program!). But the national Greek pride rose from incredible to unattainable heights and grateful waiters and bartenders let us go home, apparently feeling that they owe us something ... some same magical and heartbreaking story. From our Russian life.
Almost from it - cats. But not our fluffy Barsiki. In Greece there are an unimaginable number of them. Terribly thin, emaciated, absolutely not prone to flirting and begging. Not yelling at each other, like crazy, because of the division of the territory. Quiet, silent, often red or black, in groups of 7-8, cats sat where they could and abstractly looked at the life passing by. Only kittens looked lively, crawling right out of a crevice in the rock towards their mother. It is simply amazing how she managed to “put them aside” there and, most importantly, feed them to the delight of tourists?
There are no luxury hotels here: when you go out onto the balcony, it seems that you are in general. There is no Turkish importunity, no deceit, no haste. There is sincerity: for example, one waitress, constantly pressing her hands to her chest and rolling her eyes, talked about wedding chores and even showed a mock-up of the invitation, asking for advice if everything was fine in it. And so she did with everyone sitting in her tavern. There is Greek friendliness, slight naivete. Sea. Another. And after meeting with, the desire for a new date remains. And spit on this damn dust.
In Greece, in temples and monasteries, it is not forbidden to submit notes written in Latin or even in Russian, but still, out of respect for the Greeks, it is better to do this in their native language. Names in notes should be written in Greek in the genitive case. Feminine proper names ending in -α or -η in the genitive case will have the endings -ας and -ης. Masculine proper names ending in -ος, in Genus. case, will have the ending -ου. For convenience, we have compiled a table of Russian names and their Greek counterparts. To write a note, just find the name you want, tick it, and then print the note.
LIST OF NAMES
| Russian name | Greek counterpart in I.p | Pronunciation in Russian | Writing in Greek in R.p. so it should be written in notes |
| Alexander | Αλεξανδρος | Alexandros | Αλεξανδρου |
| Alexandra | Alexandra | ||
| Alexei | Αλεξιος | Alexios | Αλεξιου |
| Anastasia | Αναστασια | Anastasia | Αναστασις |
| Andrew | Ανδρεας | Andreas | Ανδρεαυ |
| Anna | Αννα | Anna | Αννας |
| Anton | Αντωνιος | Andonis | Αντωνιου |
| Valentine | Βαλεντινη | Valentini | Βαλεντινης |
| barbarian | Βαρβαρα | barbarian | Βαρβαρας |
| Victor | Βικτωρ, Βικτορας | Victor | Βικτορος |
| Vladimir | Βλαντιμιρ | Vladimir | Βλαντιμιρ |
| Galina | Γαλινη | Galini | Γαλινης |
| George | Γεωργιος | Georgios | Γεωργιου |
| Gerasim | Γερασιμος | Gerasimos | Γερασιμου |
| Hermann | Γκερμαν | Hermann | Γκερμαν |
| Gregory | Γρηγοριος | Grigorios | Γρηγοριου |
| Daniel | Δανιηλ | Daniel | Δανιηλ |
| Denis | Διονυσιος | Dionysios | Διονυσιου |
| Dmitry | Δημητριος | Dimitrios | Δημητριου |
| Evdokia | Ευδοκια | Evdokia | Ευδοκιας |
| Elena | Ελενη | Eleni | Ελενης |
| Elizabeth | Ελισσαβετ | Elisabeth | Ελισσαβετ |
| Catherine | Αικατερινη | Ekaterini | Αικατερινης |
| Zinaida | Ζηναιδα | Zinaida | Ζηναιδας |
| Jacob | Ιακωβος | Jacobos | Ιακωβου |
| Ilya | Ηλιας | Ilias | Ηλιου |
| John | Ιωαννης | Ioannis | Ιωαννου |
| Joseph | Ιωσηφ | Joseph | Ιωσηφ |
| Irina | Ειρηνη | Irini | Ειρηνης |
| Kseniya | Ξενια | Xenia | Ξενιας |
| Konstantin | Κωνσταντινος | constandinos | Κωνσταντινου |
| Kuzma | Κοαμας | Cosmas | Κοαμα |
| Lazarus | Λαζαρος | Lazaros | Λαζαρου |
| Leonid | Λεωνιδας | Leonidas | Λεωνιδου |
| Lydia | Λυδια | Lydia | Λυδιας |
| Luke | Λουκας | Lucas | Λουκα |
| Love | Aγαπη | Agapi | Αγαπης |
| Magdalena | Μαγδαληνη | Magdalene | Μαγδαληνης |
| margarita | Μαργαριτα | margarita | Μαργαριτας |
| Marina | Μαρινα | Marina | Μαρινας |
| Maria | Μαρια | Maria | Μαριας |
| Mark | Μαρκος | Marcos | Μαρκου |
| Martha | Μαρθα | Martha | Μαρθας |
| Michael | Μιχαλης | Michael | Μιχαλη |
| Hope | Ελπιδα (Ελπις) | Elpida | Ελπιδος |
| Nataliya | Ναταλια | Natalia | Ναταλιας |
| Nikita | Νικητας | Nikitas | Νικητου |
| Nicodemus | Νικοδημ | Nicodemus | Νικοδημου |
| Nicholas | Νικολαος | Nicholas | Νικολαου |
| Olga | Ολγα | Olga | Ολγας |
| Paul | Παυλος | Pavlos | Παυλου |
| Peter | Πετρος | petros | Πετρου |
| Seraphim | Σεραφειμ | Seraphim | Σεραφειμ |
| Sergius | Σεργιος | Sergios | Σεργιου |
| SvetlanaFotinia | Φωτεινη | Fotini | Φωτενης |
| Sofia | Σοφια | Sofia | Σοφιας |
| Stepan | Στεφανος | Stephanos | Στεφανου |
| Taisiya | Ταισια | Taisia | Ταισιας |
| Tamara | Ταμαρα | Tamara | Ταμαρας |
| TatianaTatiana | Τατιανα | Tatiana | Τατιανας |
| Philip | Φιλιππος | Philippos | Φιλιππου |
| Fedor | Θεοδωρος | Theodoros | Θεοδωρου |
| JuliaJulia | Ιουλια | Julia | Ιουλιας |
RUSSIAN VERSION GREEK VERSION
| About health | Υπερ Υγειας |
| About repose | Υπερ αναπαυσεως |
THE GREEKS ONLY MAKE A CROSS ON THE NOTES ON THE DEATH
- Notes should contain no more than 15 names
- The donation amount per note is approximately half a euro.
Next to the name, the Greeks do not write “baby”, “sick”, etc.,
believing that the Lord himself sees the soul of every person
- The Greeks rarely put candlesticks next to the icons, they are mostly located at the entrance to the temple on the street
In temples, only candles can be purchased; icons and books are sold in special stores
Unlike our temples, candles bought there cannot be taken out of Greek ones.
It is impossible, in the presence of a group priest or a clergyman of a given temple, to independently place icons or other ecclesiastical items on the relics of saints for consecration. Everything you
If you want to consecrate, you must give it into the hands of a clergyman who is next to the shrine.
The Greeks do not have a separate prayer service for health. Christians buy prosphora in a bakery and in the morning, before the Liturgy, they serve it to the altar along with a note of health. In some churches, notes on health are read during the prayer service to the revered saint.
If you are going to receive communion, remember that when approaching the Chalice, do not fold your hands crosswise. Take the edge of the fee yourself, which the priest holds at the other end, and after receiving the Holy Gifts, wipe your lips. In no case do not apply to the Cup! The Greeks revere it as the greatest shrine, which is forbidden to touch.
If you want to ask a Greek priest for a blessing, say: Πατερ, ευλογειτε! (Pater, evlogite), which means "Father, bless." The priest will answer you "ο Κυριος" (O Kyrios), that is, "God bless."
58 important words to help you understand the ancient Greeks
Prepared by Oksana Kulishova , Ekaterina Shumilina , Vladimir Fire , Alena Chepel , Elizaveta Shcherbakova , Tatyana Ilyina , Nina Almazova , Ksenia Danilochkina
random word
Agon ἀγώνIn the broad sense of the word, any competition or dispute was called an agon in Ancient Greece. Most often, sports competitions were held (athletic competitions, horse races or chariot races), as well as musical and poetic competitions in the city.
Chariot racing. Fragment of painting of a Panathenaic amphora. About 520 B.C. e.Metropolitan Museum of Art
In addition, the word "agon" was used in a narrower sense: in ancient Greek drama, especially in ancient Attic, this was the name of the part of the play, during which an argument between the characters took place on the stage. The agon could unfold either between and or between two actors and two hemichoirs, each of which supported the point of view of the antagonist or protagonist. Such an agon is, for example, the dispute between the poets Aeschylus and Euripides in the afterlife in Aristophanes' comedy The Frogs.
In classical Athens, agon was an important part of not only theatrical competition, but also the debate about the structure of the universe that took place in. The structure of many of Plato's philosophical dialogues, where the opposing views of the participants in the symposium (mainly Socrates and his opponents) collide, resembles the structure of a theatrical agon.
Ancient Greek culture is often called “agonistic”, since it is believed that the “spirit of competition” in Ancient Greece permeated all spheres of human activity: agonalism was present in politics, on the battlefield, in court, and shaped everyday life. This term was first introduced in the 19th century by the scientist Jacob Burckhardt, who believed that it was customary for the Greeks to hold competitions in everything that included the possibility of a struggle. Agony really permeated all areas of the life of the ancient Greek, but it is important to understand that not everyone: initially, agon was an important part of the life of the Greek aristocracy, and commoners could not participate in competitions. Therefore, Friedrich Nietzsche called agon the highest achievement of the aristocratic spirit.
Agora and agora ἀγορά
Agora in Athens. Lithography. Around 1880
Bridgeman Images/Fotodom
The Athenians elected special officials - agoranomas (market keepers), who kept order in the square, collected trade duties from, levied fines for improper trade; the market police, which consisted of slaves, were subordinate to them. There were also positions of metronomes, whose duty it was to monitor the accuracy of weights and measures, and sitophilaks, who oversaw the grain trade.
Acropolis ἀκρόπολις
Athenian Acropolis at the beginning of the 20th century
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Translated from the ancient Greek akropolis - "upper city". This is a fortified part of the ancient Greek city, which, as a rule, was located on a hill and originally served as a refuge in wartime. On the acropolis there were city shrines, temples - the patrons of the city, and the city treasury was often kept.
The Athenian Acropolis has become a symbol of ancient Greek culture and history. Its founder, according to the mythological tradition, was the first king of Athens, Kekrops. The active development of the Acropolis as the center of the religious life of the city was carried out during the time of Peisistratus in the 6th century BC. e. In 480, it was destroyed by the Persians who captured Athens. In the middle of the 5th century BC. e., under the policy of Pericles, the Athenian Acropolis was rebuilt according to a single plan.
It was possible to climb the Acropolis by a wide marble staircase that led to the propylaea - the main entrance, built by the architect Mnesicles. At the top, there was a view of the Parthenon - the temple of Athena the Virgin (created by architects Iktin and Kallikrat). In the central part of the temple stood a 12-meter statue of Athena Parthenos, made by Phidias of gold and ivory; its appearance is known to us only from descriptions and later imitations. On the other hand, the sculptural decorations of the Parthenon have been preserved, a significant part of which was removed by the British ambassador to Constantinople, Lord Elgin, at the beginning of the 19th century, and now they are stored in the British Museum.
On the Acropolis there was also a temple of Nike Apteros - Wingless Victory (devoid of wings, she had to always remain with the Athenians), the Erechtheion temple (with the famous portico of caryatids), which included several independent sanctuaries to various deities, as well as other structures.
The Acropolis of Athens, badly damaged during the numerous wars of the following centuries, was restored as a result of restoration work that began at the end of the 19th century and became especially active in the last decades of the 20th century.
Actor ὑποκριτής
A scene from Euripides' tragedy Medea. Fragment of painting of a red-figure crater. 5th century BC e. Bridgeman Images/Fotodom
In an ancient Greek play, lines were distributed among three or two actors. This rule was violated and the number of actors could reach up to five. It was believed that the first role is the most important, and only the actor who played the first role, the protagonist, could receive payment from the state and participate in the competition for the acting prize. The word "tritagonist", which refers to the third actor, was given the meaning of "third-rate" and was used almost like a curse word. Actors, like poets, were strictly divided into comic and.
Initially, only one actor was involved in the plays - and that was the playwright himself. According to legend, Aeschylus introduced a second actor, and Sophocles was the first to refuse to play in his tragedies - because his voice was too weak. Since all roles in ancient Greek were performed in, the skill of the actor primarily consisted in the art of controlling voice and speech. The actor also had to sing well in order to perform solo arias in tragedies. The separation of actors into a separate profession was completed by the 4th century BC. e.
In IV-III centuries BC. e. acting troupes appeared, which were called "artisans of Dionysus." Formally, they were considered religious organizations dedicated to the god of the theater. In addition to the actors, they included dressers, mask makers and dancers. The leaders of such troupes could reach a high position in society.
The Greek word actor (hypokrites) in the new European languages acquired the meaning of "hypocrite" (for example, the English hypocrite).
Apotropey ἀποτρόπαιοςApotropey (from the ancient Greek verb apotrepo - “to turn away”) is a talisman that should ward off the evil eye and damage. Such a talisman can be an image, an amulet, or it can be a ritual or a gesture. For example, a kind of apotropaic magic that protects a person from trouble is the familiar triple tapping on wood.
Gorgonion. Fragment of black-figure vase painting. End of the 6th century BC e.
Wikimedia Commons
Among the ancient Greeks, the most popular apotropaic sign was the image of the head of the Gorgon Medusa with bulging eyes, protruding tongue and fangs: it was believed that a terrible face would scare away evil spirits. Such an image was called "gorgonion" (Gorgoneion), and it was, for example, an indispensable attribute of the shield of Athena.
The name could serve as a talisman: children were given “bad”, from our point of view, abusive names, since it was believed that this would make them unattractive to evil spirits and turn away the evil eye. So, the Greek name Aeschros comes from the adjective aiskhros - "ugly", "ugly". Apotropaic names were characteristic not only of ancient culture: probably the Slavic name Nekras (from which the common surname Nekrasov comes) was also an apotropaic.
The abusive iambic poetry, the ritual swearing from which the ancient Attic comedy arose, also served an apotropaic function: to avert misfortune from those whom it calls the last words.
God θεóς
Eros and Psyche in front of the Olympian gods. Drawing by Andrea Schiavone. Around 1540-1545
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The main gods of the ancient Greeks are called Olympian - by the name of Mount Olympus in Northern Greece, which was considered their habitat. We learn about the origin of the Olympian gods, their functions, relationships and customs from the earliest works of ancient literature - poems and Hesiod.
The Olympic gods belonged to the third generation of gods. First, Gaia-Earth and Uranus-Sky appeared from Chaos, which gave birth to the titans. One of them, Cron, having overthrown his father, seized power, but, fearing that children could threaten his throne, he swallowed his newborn offspring. His wife Rhea managed to save only the last baby - Zeus. Having matured, he overthrew Kron and established himself on Olympus as the supreme deity, sharing power with his brothers: Poseidon became the lord of the sea, and Hades - the underworld. There were twelve main Olympian gods, but their list could differ in different parts of the Greek world. Most often, in addition to the already named gods, the Olympic pantheon included, in addition to the already named gods, the wife of Zeus Hera - the patroness of marriage and family, as well as his children: Apollo - the god of divination and the patron of the muses, Artemis - the goddess of hunting, Athena - the patroness of crafts, Ares - the god of war, Hephaestus - the patron blacksmith skills and the herald of the gods Hermes. They were also joined by the goddess of love Aphrodite, the goddess of fertility Demeter, Dionysus - the patron saint of winemaking and Hestia - the goddess of the hearth.
In addition to the main gods, the Greeks also revered nymphs, satyrs and other mythological creatures that inhabited the entire world around them - forests, rivers, mountains. The Greeks represented their gods as immortal, having the appearance of beautiful, physically perfect people, often living with the same feelings, passions and desires as mere mortals.
Bacchanalia βακχεíαBacchus, or Bacchus, is one of the names of Dionysus. The Greeks believed that he sends ritual madness to his followers, because of which they start wild frenzied dances. The Greeks called this Dionysian ecstasy the word "bacchanalia" (bakkheia). There was also a Greek verb with the same root, bakkheuo, "to Bacchante," that is, to participate in the Dionysian mysteries.
Usually women who were called "Bacchantes" or "Maenads" (from the word mania - madness) were Bacchantes. They united in religious communities - fias and went to the mountains. There they took off their shoes, let their hair down and put on nonbrides - animal skins. The rites took place at night by the light of torches and were accompanied by cries.
Heroes of myth often have a close but conflicting relationship with the gods. For example, the name Hercules means “the glory of Hera”: Hera, the wife of Zeus and the queen of the gods, on the one hand, tormented Hercules all her life, because Zeus was jealous of Alcmene, but she also became an indirect cause of his fame. Hera sent madness to Hercules, because of which the hero killed his wife and children, and then, in order to atone for his guilt, he was forced to follow the orders of his cousin uncle Eurystheus - it was in the service of Eurystheus that Hercules performed his twelve labors.
Despite their dubious moral character, many Greek heroes, such as Hercules, Perseus and Achilles, were objects of worship: people brought gifts to them, prayed for health. It is difficult to say what appeared earlier - the myths about the exploits of the hero or his cult, there is no consensus among scientists on this matter, but the connection between heroic myths and cults is obvious. The cults of heroes differed from the cult of ancestors: people who revered this or that hero did not always trace their genealogy from him. Often the cult of the hero was tied to some ancient grave, the name of the buried in which was already forgotten: the tradition turned it into the grave of the hero, and they began to perform rituals on it and.
In some places, heroes quickly began to be revered at the state level: for example, the Athenians worshiped Theseus, who was considered the patron of the city; in Epidaurus there was a cult of Asclepius (originally a hero, the son of Apollo and a mortal woman, as a result of apotheosis - that is, deification - became the god of healing), since it was believed that he was born there; in Olympia, in the Peloponnese, Pelops was revered as the founder (Peloponnese literally means "island of Pelops"). The cult of Hercules was a state cult in several.
hybrid ὕβριςHybris, translated from ancient Greek, literally means "impudence", "out of the ordinary behavior." When a character of a myth shows hybrid in relation to, he will certainly undergo punishment: the concept of "hybris" reflects the idea of the Greeks that human arrogance and pride always lead to disaster.
Hercules frees Prometheus. Fragment of black-figure vase painting. 7th century BC e.
Hybris and the punishment for it are present, for example, in the myth of the titan Prometheus, who stole fire from Olympus and was chained to a rock for this, and of Sisyphus, who in the afterlife always rolls a heavy stone uphill for deceiving the gods (there are different versions of his hybrid, in the most common one he deceived and chained the god of death Thanatos, so that people stopped dying for a while).
The hybrid element is contained in almost every Greek myth and is an integral element of the behavior of heroes and: the tragic hero must go through several emotional stages: koros (koros - "excess", "satiation"), hybrid and ate (ate - "madness", "woe" ).
We can say that there is no hero without a hybrid: going beyond what is permitted is the main act of a heroic character. The duality of Greek myth and Greek tragedy lies precisely in the fact that the feat of the hero and his punished insolence are often one and the same.
The second meaning of the word "hybris" is fixed in legal practice. In the Athenian court, the hybris was defined as " an attack on the Athenians". The hybrid included any form of violence and violation of boundaries, as well as an unholy attitude towards deities.
gymnasium γυμνάσιον
Athletes in the gymnasium. Athens, 6th century BC e.
Bridgeman Images/Fotodom
Initially, this was the name of places for physical exercises, where young men prepared for military service and sports, which were an indispensable attribute of most public ones. But pretty soon the gymnasiums turned into real educational centers, where physical education was combined with education and intellectual communication. Gradually, some of the gymnasiums (especially in Athens under the influence of Plato, Aristotle, Antisthenes and others) became, in fact, the prototypes of universities.
The word "gymnasium", apparently, comes from the ancient Greek gymnos - "naked", as they trained naked in the gymnasiums. In ancient Greek culture, the athletic male body was seen as aesthetically pleasing; physical activities were considered acceptable, gymnasiums were under their patronage (primarily Hercules and Hermes) and were often located next to the sanctuaries.
At first, gymnasiums were simple courtyards surrounded by porticos, but over time they grew into whole complexes of indoor premises (which contained changing rooms, baths, etc.), united by an inner courtyard. Gymnasiums were an important part of the way of life of the ancient Greeks and were the concern of the state; supervision of them was entrusted to a special official - the gymnasiarch.
Citizen πολίτηςA citizen was considered a member of the community, who had the full political, legal and other rights. We owe the ancient Greeks the development of the very concept of “citizen” (in the ancient Eastern monarchies there were only “subjects”, whose rights could be infringed upon by the ruler at any moment).
In Athens, where the concept of citizenship was especially well developed in political thought, a full citizen, according to the law adopted under Pericles in the middle of the 5th century BC. e., could only be a man (although the concept of citizenship with various restrictions extended to women), a resident of Attica, the son of Athenian citizens. His name, upon reaching the age of eighteen and after a thorough check of the origin, was entered in the list of citizens, which was maintained by. However, in fact, the full rights of the Athenian received after the end of the service.
An Athenian citizen had rights and duties closely related to each other, the most important of which were the following:
- the right to freedom and personal independence;
- the right to own a piece of land - associated with the obligation to cultivate it, since the community endowed each of its members with land so that he could feed himself and his family;
- the right to participate in the militia, while protecting the native with weapons in their hands was also the duty of a citizen;
Athenian citizens valued their privileges, so it was very difficult to obtain citizenship: it was given only in exceptional cases, for some special merit to the policy.
Homer Ὅμηρος
Homer (center) on Raphael's Parnassus fresco. Vatican, 1511
Wikimedia Commons
They joke that the Iliad was not written by Homer, but by "another blind ancient Greek." According to Herodotus, the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey lived "not earlier than 400 years before me", that is, in the VIII, or even in the IX century BC. e. The German philologist Friedrich August Wolf argued in 1795 that the Homeric poems were created later, already in the written era, from scattered folk tales. It turned out that Homer is a conditional legendary figure like the Slavic Boyan, and the real author of masterpieces is a completely “different ancient Greek”, an editor-compiler from Athens at the turn of the 6th-5th centuries BC. e. The customer could be Pisistratus, who made the singers envy of others at the Athenian holidays. The problem of the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey was called the Homeric question, and the followers of Wolf, who sought to identify heterogeneous elements in these poems, were called analysts.
The era of speculative theories about Homer ended in the 1930s, when the American philologist Milman Parry organized an expedition to compare the Iliad and the Odyssey with the epic of Bosnian storytellers. It turned out that the art of illiterate Balkan singers is built on improvisation: the poem is created anew each time and never repeated word for word. Improvisation is made possible by formulas - repetitive combinations that can be changed a little on the go, adapting to a changing context. Parry and his student Albert Lord proved that the formulaic structures of the Homeric text are very similar to the Balkan material, which means that the Iliad and the Odyssey should be considered oral poems that were dictated at the dawn of the invention of the Greek alphabet by one or two improvising storytellers.
Greeklanguage ἑλληνικὴ γλῶσσα
Greek is considered to be much more difficult than Latin. This is true if only because it breaks up into several dialects (from five to a dozen - depending on the goals of the classification). From some (Mycenaean and Arcado-Cypriot) works of art have not been preserved - they are known from inscriptions. The dialect, on the contrary, was never spoken: it was an artificial language of storytellers, combining the features of several regional variants of Greek at once. Other dialects in their literary dimension were also tied to genres and. For example, the poet Pindar, whose native dialect was Aeolian, wrote his works in the Dorian dialect. The recipients of his praise songs were winners from different parts of Greece, but their dialect, like his own, did not influence the language of the works.
Dem δῆμος
Tablets with the full names of the citizens of Athens and the indication of the deme. 4th century BC e.
Wikimedia Commons
Deme in ancient Greece was called the territorial district, and sometimes the inhabitants who lived there. At the end of the VI century BC. e., after the reforms of the Athenian statesman Cleisthenes, dem became the most important economic, political and administrative unit in Attica. It is believed that the number of demes under Cleisthenes reached a hundred, and later increased significantly. The demos varied in population; the largest Attic demes were Acharnae and Eleusis.
The canon of Polykleitos dominated Greek art for about a hundred years. At the end of the 5th century BC. e., after the war with Sparta and the plague, a new attitude to the world was born - it ceased to seem so simple and clear. Then the figures created by Polykleitos began to seem too heavy, and the refined, individualistic works of the sculptors Praxiteles and Lysippus replaced the universal canon.
In the era of Hellenism (IV-I centuries BC), with the formation of the idea of art in the 5th century BC. e. as about ideal, classical antiquity, the word "canon" began to mean, in principle, any set of immutable norms and rules.
Catharsis κάθαρσιςThis term comes from the Greek verb kathairo (to purify) and is one of the most important, but at the same time controversial and difficult to understand, terms of Aristotelian aesthetics. It is traditionally believed that Aristotle sees the goal of the Greek precisely in catharsis, while he mentions this concept in the Poetics only once and does not give it any formal definition: according to Aristotle, tragedy "with the help of compassion and fear" carries out "catharsis ( purification) of such affects. Researchers and commentators have been struggling with this short phrase for hundreds of years: by affects, Aristotle means fear and compassion, but what does “purification” mean? Some believe that we are talking about the purification of the affects themselves, others - about the purification of the soul from them.
Those who believe that catharsis is the purification of affects explain that the viewer, who has experienced catharsis at the end of the tragedy, experiences relief (and pleasure), since the experienced fear and compassion are cleansed of the pain that they inevitably bring. The most important objection to this interpretation is that fear and compassion are inherently painful, so pain cannot be their "impurity".
Another - and perhaps the most influential - interpretation of catharsis belongs to the German classical philologist Jacob Bernays (1824-1881). He drew attention to the fact that the concept of "catharsis" is most often found in ancient medical literature and means cleansing in the physiological sense, that is, getting rid of pathogenic substances in the body. Thus, in Aristotle, catharsis is a medical metaphor, apparently of a psychotherapeutic nature, and it is not about purifying fear and compassion itself, but about purifying the soul from these experiences. In addition, Bernays found another mention of catharsis in Aristotle - in Politics. There we are talking about a medical cleansing effect: sacred chants heal people prone to extreme religious excitement. Here the principle is akin to homeopathic: people who are prone to strong affects (for example, to fear) are healed by experiencing these affects in small safe doses - for example, in where they can feel fear, being completely safe.
Ceramics κεραμικόςThe word "ceramics" comes from the ancient Greek keramos ("river clay"). This was the name of clay products made under the influence of high temperature with subsequent cooling: vessels (made by hand or on a potter's wheel), flat painted or embossed ceramic slabs that lined the walls of buildings, sculpture, stamps, seals and weights.
Pottery was used for storing and eating, as well as in rituals and; it was brought as a gift to temples and invested in burials. On many vessels, in addition to figurative images, there are inscriptions scratched or applied with liquid clay - this could be the name of the owner, a dedication to a deity, a trade mark, or the signature of a potter and vase painter.
In the VI century BC. e. The most widespread was the so-called black-figure technique: the reddish surface of the vessel was painted with black lacquer, and individual details were scratched or highlighted with white paint and purple. About 530 B.C. e. red-figure vessels spread: all the figures and ornaments on them were left in the color of clay, and the background around was covered with black lacquer, which was used to make the internal drawing.
Since ceramic vessels are very resistant to environmental influences due to strong firing, tens of thousands of their fragments have been preserved. Therefore, ancient Greek pottery is indispensable in determining the age of archaeological finds. In addition, in their work, vase painters reproduced common mythological and historical subjects, as well as genre and everyday scenes, which makes ceramics an important source on the history of everyday life and ideas of the ancient Greeks.
Comedy κωμῳδία
Comedy actor. Fragment of the crater painting. Around 350-325 BC. e. A krater is a vessel with a wide neck, two handles on the sides and a foot. Used to mix wine with water. Metropolitan Museum of Art
The word "comedy" consists of two parts: komos ("merry procession"), and ode ("song"). In Greece, this was the name given to the genre of dramatic productions, between which they took place in Athens at the annual in honor of Dionysus. Three to five comedians participated in the competition, each representing one play. The most famous comic poets of Athens were Aristophanes, Cratinus and Eupolis.
The plot of the ancient Athenian comedy is a mixture of fairy tale, obscene farce and political satire. The action usually takes place in Athens and (or) in some fantastic place where the protagonist goes to fulfill his grandiose idea: for example, an Athenian flies on a huge dung beetle (a parody of Pegasus) to the sky to free and bring the goddess back to the city peace (such a comedy was staged in the year when a truce was concluded in the Peloponnesian War); or the theater god Dionysus goes to the underworld and judges there the duel between the playwrights Aeschylus and Euripides - whose tragedies are parodied in the text.
The ancient comedy genre has been compared to the karnival culture, in which everything is turned upside down: women are involved in politics, seize the Acropolis” and refuse to have sex, demanding an end to the war; Dionysus dresses up in the lion skin of Hercules; the father instead of the son goes to study in Socrates; the gods send ambassadors to the people to agree on the resumption of the interrupted ones. Jokes about genitals and bowel movements are side by side with subtle allusions to the scientific ideas and intellectual disputes of their time. Comedy makes fun of everyday life, political, social and religious institutions, as well as literature, especially high style and symbolism. Historical figures can become the characters of comedy: politicians, generals, poets, philosophers, musicians, priests, in general, any prominent figures of Athenian society. The comic consists of twenty-four people and often depicts animals ("Birds", "Frogs"), personified natural phenomena ("Clouds", "Islands") or geographical objects ("Cities", "Dems").
In comedy, the so-called fourth wall is easily broken: the performers on stage can come into direct contact with the audience. For this, in the middle of the play there is a special moment - a parabasis - when the choir, on behalf of the poet, addresses the audience and the jury, explaining why this comedy is the best and it needs to be voted for.
Space κόσμοςThe word "cosmos" among the ancient Greeks meant "universe", "world order", "universe", as well as "decoration", "beauty": the cosmos was opposed to chaos and was closely associated with the idea of harmony, order and beauty.
The cosmos consists of the upper (sky), middle (earth) and lower (underworld) worlds. live on Olympus - a mountain that in real geography is located in Northern Greece, but in mythology it often turns out to be synonymous with the sky. On Olympus, according to the Greeks, there is the throne of Zeus, as well as the palaces of the gods, built and decorated by the god Hephaestus. There the gods spend their time enjoying feasts and eating nectar and ambrosia, the drink and food of the gods.
Oikumene - a part of the earth inhabited by man - at the borders of the inhabited world is washed on all sides by a single river Ocean. The center of the inhabited world is at Delphi, in the sanctuary of the Pythian Apollo; this place is marked with a sacred stone omphalos (“navel of the earth”) - to determine this point, Zeus sent two eagles from different parts of the earth, and they met exactly there. Another myth was associated with the Delphic omphalos: Rhea gave this stone to Kron, who was devouring his offspring, instead of the baby Zeus, and it was Zeus who placed it in Delphi, thus marking the center of the earth. Mythological ideas about Delphi as the center of the world were also reflected in the first geographical maps.
In the bowels of the earth there is a kingdom where the god Hades rules (after his name the kingdom was called Hades) and the shadows of the dead live, over which the sons of Zeus, distinguished by special wisdom and justice, Minos, Aeacus and Rhadamanthus, judge.
The entrance to the underworld, guarded by the terrible three-headed dog Cerberus, is located in the extreme west, beyond the Ocean River. Several rivers flow in Hades itself. The most important among them are Lethe, whose waters give the souls of the dead oblivion of their earthly life, Styx, whose waters the gods swear by, Acheron, through which Charon transports the souls of the dead, the “river of weeping” Kokit and the fiery Piriflegeton (or Phlegeton).
Mask πρόσωπον
Comedian Menander with comedy masks. Roman copy of an ancient Greek relief. 1st century BC e.
Bridgeman Images/Fotodom
We know that in ancient Greece they played with masks (in Greek, prosopon - literally “face”), although the masks themselves of the 5th century BC e. not found in any of the excavations. It can be assumed from the images on the masks that the masks depicted human faces, distorted for the sake of comic effect; in the comedies of Aristophanes "Wasps", "Birds" and "Frogs" animal masks could be involved. Changing masks, the actor could appear on the stage in different roles in the same play. The actors were only men, but the masks allowed them to play female roles.
The masks were in the form of helmets with holes for the eyes and mouth, so that when the actor put on the mask, his entire head was hidden. Masks were made from light materials: starched linen, cork, leather; they were accompanied by wigs.
Meter μέτρονModern Russian versification is usually built on the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Greek verse looked different: long and short syllables alternated in it. For example, not the sequence "stressed - unstressed - unstressed", but "long - short - short" was called dactyl. The first meaning of the word daktylos is "finger" (cf. "dactyloscopy"), and the index finger consists of one long phalanx and two shorter ones. The most common size - hexameter ("six-dimensional") - consisted of six dactyls. The main size of the drama was iambic - a two-syllable foot with a short first syllable and a long second. At the same time, substitutions were possible in most sizes: for example, in hexameter, instead of two short syllables, a long one was often encountered.
Mimesis μίμησιςThe word "mimesis" (from the Greek verb mimeomai - "to imitate") is usually translated as "imitation", but such a translation is not entirely correct; in most cases, it would be more accurate to say not “imitation” or “imitation”, but “image” or “representation” - in particular, it is important that in most Greek texts the word “mimesis” does not have a negative connotation that the word “imitation” has ".
The concept of "mimesis" is usually associated with the aesthetic theories of Plato and Aristotle, but, apparently, it originally arose in the context of early Greek cosmological theories based on the parallelism of the microcosm and macrocosm: it was assumed that the processes in and processes in the human body are in mimetic similarity relationships. By the 5th century BC e. this concept is firmly rooted in the field of art and aesthetics - to such an extent that any educated Greek would most likely answer the question "What is a work of art?" - mimemata, that is, "images". Nevertheless, it retained - in particular in Plato and Aristotle - some metaphysical connotations.
In the dialogue The State, Plato argues that art should be banished from the ideal state, in part because it is based on mimesis. His first argument is that every object that exists in the sensible world is only an imperfect likeness of its ideal prototype in the world of ideas. Plato's reasoning is arranged as follows: the carpenter creates a bed by turning his gaze to the idea of a bed; but every bed he makes will always be only an imperfect likeness of his ideal prototype. Therefore, any image of this bed - for example, a picture or a sculpture - will be only an imperfect copy of an imperfect likeness. That is, art that imitates the sensible world further distances us from true knowledge (which can only be about ideas, but not about their similarities) and, therefore, is harmful. Plato's second argument is that art (for example, the ancient theater) through mimesis makes the audience identify with the characters and sympathize with them. , caused moreover not by a real event, but by mimesis, stimulates the irrational part of the soul and takes the soul out of the control of the mind. Such an experience is also harmful for the entire collective: Plato's ideal state is based on a rigid caste system, where the social role and occupation of each are strictly defined. The fact that in the theater the viewer identifies with different characters, often "socially alien", undermines this system, where everyone should know their place.
Aristotle responded to Plato in his essay "Poetics" (or "On the Art of Poetry"). Firstly, man, as a biological species, is by nature prone to mimesis, so art cannot be expelled from an ideal state - this would be violence against human nature. Mimesis is the most important way of knowing and mastering the surrounding world: for example, with the help of mimesis in its simplest form, a child learns a language. Painful sensations experienced by the viewer while watching lead to psychological relaxation and, therefore, have a psychotherapeutic effect. The emotions that art evokes also contribute to cognition: “poetry is more philosophical than history,” since the former refers to universals, while the latter considers only special cases. Thus, a tragic poet, in order to plausibly portray his characters and evoke in the viewer the emotions suitable for the occasion, must always reflect on how this or that character would behave in certain circumstances; thus tragedy is a reflection on human character and human nature in general. Therefore, one of the most important goals of mimetic art is intellectual: it is the study of human nature.
Mysteries μυστήριαMysteries are religious with rites of initiation or mystical union with. They were also called orgies (orgia). The most famous mysteries - Eleusinian - took place in the temple of Demeter and Persephone in Eleusis, not far from Athens.
The Eleusinian mysteries were associated with the myth of the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone, whom Hades took to the underworld and made his wife. The inconsolable Demeter achieved the return of her daughter - but temporary: Persephone spends part of the year on earth, and part - in the underworld. The story of how Demeter, in search of Persephone, reached Eleusis and herself established the mysteries there, is detailed in a hymn to Demeter. Since the myth tells of a journey leading to and returning from there, the mysteries associated with it were supposed to provide the initiates with a more favorable afterlife than that that awaited the uninitiated:
“Happy are those of the earthly people who have seen the sacrament. / The one who is not involved in them, after death will never be / Have a share like this in the many-gloomy kingdom of the underworld, ”the hymn says. What exactly is meant by "similar share" is not very clear.
The main thing that is known about the Eleusinian mysteries themselves is their secrecy: the initiates were strictly forbidden to divulge what exactly happened during the sacred actions. However, Aristotle tells something about the mysteries. According to him, the initiates, or mystai, "gained experience" during the mysteries. At the beginning of the ritual, the participants were somehow deprived of the ability to see. The word "myst" (literally "closed") can be understood as "with closed eyes" - perhaps the "experience" received was associated with a feeling of blindness and being in darkness. During the second stage of initiation, the participants were already called “epopts”, that is, “those who saw”.
The Eleusinian mysteries were incredibly popular among the Greeks and attracted numerous people to Athens who wanted to be ordained. In The Frog, the god Dionysus meets the initiates in the underworld, who spend their time in blissful fun on the Champs Elysees.
The ancient theory of music is well known from special treatises that have come down to us. Some of them also describe the notation system (which was owned only by a narrow circle of professionals). In addition, there are several monuments with musical notation. But, firstly, we are talking about short and often poorly preserved passages. Secondly, we lack a lot of details necessary for performance, concerning intonation, tempo, method of sound extraction, accompaniment. Thirdly, the musical language itself has changed, certain melodic moves do not evoke in us the same associations that the Greeks had. Therefore, existing musical fragments are hardly capable of resurrecting ancient Greek music as an aesthetic phenomenon.
not a citizen
Slaves picking olives. Black-figure amphora. Attica, circa 520 B.C. e.
The Trustees of the British Museum
The basis of the order is a column standing on three steps of the foundation. Its trunk ends with a capital supporting the entablature. The entablature consists of three parts: a stone beam - an architrave; above it is a frieze, decorated with sculpture or painting, and, finally, a cornice - an overhanging slab that protects the building from rain. The dimensions of these parts are strictly coordinated with each other. The unit of measure is the radius of the column - therefore, knowing it, you can restore the dimensions of the entire temple.
According to myths, the simple and courageous Doric order was calculated by the architect Ion during the construction of the temple of Apollo of Panionia. The Ionian type, lighter in proportion, appeared at the end of the 7th - 6th centuries BC. e. in Asia Minor. All elements of such a building are richly decorated, and the capital is decorated with spiral curls - volutes. The Corinthian order was first used in the temple of Apollo at Bassae (second half of the 5th century BC). A sad legend is connected with his invention about a nurse who brought a basket with her favorite things to the grave of her pupil. After some time, the basket sprouted with the leaves of a plant called acanthus. This view inspired the Athenian artist Callimachus to create an elegant capital with floral decoration.
Ostracism ὀστρακισμός
Ostraka for voting. Athens, circa 482 B.C. e.
Wikimedia Commons
The word "ostracism" comes from the Greek ostrakon - a shard, a shard used for writing. In classical Athens, this was the name given to a special vote of the people's assembly, with the help of which a decision was made to expel a person who posed a threat to the foundations of the state system.
Most researchers believe that the law on ostracism was adopted in Athens under Cleisthenes, a statesman who in 508-507 BC. e., after the overthrow, he carried out a number of reforms in the city. However, the first known act of ostracism occurred only in 487 BC. e. - then Hipparchus, the son of Harmas, a relative was expelled from Athens.
Every year, the people's assembly decided whether ostracism should be carried out. If it was recognized that there was such a need, each voting participant arrived at a specially fenced part of the agora, where ten entrances led - one for each Athenian phylum (after the reforms of Cleisthenes in the 6th century BC, the territorial districts were called so) , - and left there the shard he brought with him, on which was written the name of the person whom, in his opinion, should have been sent into exile. The one who received the most votes went into exile for ten years. At the same time, his property was not confiscated, he was not deprived, but temporarily excluded from political life (although sometimes an exile could be returned to his homeland ahead of schedule).
Initially, ostracism was intended to prevent the resurgence of tyrannical power, but soon turned into a means of struggle for power and eventually ceased to be used. The last time ostracism took place was in 415 BC. e. Then the rival politicians Nicias and Alcibiades managed to agree with each other and the demagogue Hyperbole was sent into exile.
Policy πόλιςThe Greek policy could be relatively small in territory and population, although exceptions are known, such as Athens or Sparta. The formation of the policy fell on the era of the archaic (VIII-VI centuries BC), V century BC. e. is considered the heyday of the Greek policies, and in the first half of the 4th century BC. e. the classical Greek polis survived the crisis - which, however, did not prevent it from continuing to remain one of the most important forms of organizing life.
Holiday ἑορτήAll holidays in ancient Greece were associated with worship. Most of the holidays were held on certain dates, which formed the basis of the ancient Greek calendar.
In addition to local holidays, there were pan-Hellenic holidays common to all Greeks - they originated in the archaic era (that is, in the 8th-6th centuries BC) and played a crucial role in shaping the idea of \u200b\u200bgeneral Greek unity, which in one form or another existed in throughout the history of independent Greece, despite the political independence of the policies. All these holidays were accompanied by various kinds. In the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia (in the Peloponnese) every four years were held. In the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi (in Phocis), the Pythian Games were also held once every four years, the central event of which was the so-called musical agons - competitions. In the region of the Isthmian Isthmus, near Corinth, the Isthmian Games were held in honor of Poseidon and Melikertes, and in the Nemean Valley in Argolis, the Nemean Games, at which Zeus was venerated; both of them - every two years.
Prose πεζὸς λόγοςInitially, prose did not exist: only one type of artistic speech was opposed to the spoken language - poetry. However, with the advent of writing in the 8th century BC. e. narratives began to appear about distant countries or events of the past. Social conditions favored the development of eloquence: speakers sought not only to convince, but also to please the listeners. Already the first surviving books of historians and rhetoricians (History by Herodotus and the speeches of Lysias of the 5th century BC) can be called artistic prose. Unfortunately, it is difficult to understand from Russian translations how aesthetically perfect were the philosophical dialogues of Plato or the historical works of Xenophon (4th century BC). The Greek prose of this period is striking in its non-coincidence with modern genres: there is no novel, no story, no essay; however, later, in the era of Hellenism, an ancient novel will appear. A common name for prose did not appear immediately: Dionysius of Halicarnassus in the 1st century BC. e. uses the expression "foot speeches" - the adjective "foot" could also mean "(most) ordinary."
Satyr drama δρα̃μα σατυρικόν
Dionysus and the satyr. Painting of a red-figure jug. Attica, circa 430-420 B.C. e.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dramatic genre, which consists of satyrs, mythological characters from the retinue of Dionysus. In the tragic competitions that took place on, each tragedian represented three, which ended with a short and cheerful satyr play.
Sphinx Σφίγξ
Two sphinxes. Ceramic pixida. Around 590-570 BC. e. A pixida is a round box or box with a lid. Metropolitan Museum of Art
We meet this mythological creature among many nations, but its image was especially widespread in the beliefs and art of the ancient Egyptians. In ancient Greek mythology, the sphinx (or “sphinx”, because the ancient Greek word “sphinx” is feminine) is the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, a monster with the face and chest of a woman, the paws and body of a lion and the wings of a bird. Among the Greeks, the sphinx is most often a bloodthirsty monster.
Among the legends associated with the Sphinx, in antiquity, the myth of was especially popular. The Sphinx lay in wait for travelers near Thebes in Boeotia, asked them an unsolvable riddle and, having received no answer, killed them - according to different versions, either devoured or threw them off a cliff. The riddle of the Sphinx was as follows: “Who walks on four legs in the morning, on two in the afternoon, and on three in the evening?” Oedipus managed to give the correct answer to this riddle: this is a man who crawls in infancy, walks on two legs in his prime, and leans on a stick in old age. After that, as the myth tells, the Sphinx threw himself off the cliff and crashed to death.
The riddle and the ability to solve it are important attributes and a frequent designation in ancient literature. This is exactly the image of Oedipus in ancient Greek mythology. Another example is the sayings of the Pythia, the servant of the famous Apollo in Delphi: the Delphic prophecies often contained riddles, allusions and ambiguities, which, according to many ancient writers, are characteristic of the speech of the prophets and sages.
Theatre θέατρον
Theater in Epidaurus. Built around 360 BC. e.
According to some researchers, the rule to return money was introduced by the politician Pericles in the 5th century BC. e., others associate it with the name Aguirria and date it to the beginning of the 4th century BC. e. In the middle of the 4th century, "spectacle money" constituted a special fund, to which the state attached great importance: in Athens for some time there was a law on the death penalty for a proposal to use the money of the spectacular fund for other needs (it is associated with the name of Eubulus, who was in charge of this fund from 354). BC.).
Tyranny τυραννίςThe word "tyranny" is not of Greek origin, in the ancient tradition it was first found by the poet Archilochus in the 7th century BC. e. This was the name of the one-man rule, established illegally and, as a rule, by force.
For the first time, tyranny arose among the Greeks in the era of the formation of the Greek - this period was called the early, or older, tyranny (VII-V centuries BC). Some of the older tyrants became famous as outstanding and wise rulers - and Periander from Corinth and Peisistratus from Athens were even named among the "". But basically, the ancient tradition has preserved evidence of the ambition, cruelty and arbitrariness of tyrants. A particularly noteworthy example is Falaris, the tyrant of Acragas, who was said to roast people in a copper bull as punishment. The tyrants brutally dealt with the tribal nobility, destroying its most active leaders - their rivals in the struggle for power.
The danger of tyranny - the regime of personal power - was soon understood by the Greek communities, and they got rid of the tyrants. Nevertheless, tyranny had an important historical significance: it weakened the aristocracy and thus made it easier for the demos to fight for further political life and the triumph of the principles of the policy.
In the 5th century BC e., in the era of the heyday of democracy, the attitude towards tyranny in Greek society was unambiguously negative. However, in the IV century BC. e., in an era of new social upheavals, Greece experienced a revival of tyranny, which is called late, or younger.
Tyrannicide τυραννοκτόνοι
Harmodius and Aristogeiton. Fragment of painting of a red-figure jug. Attica, around 400 BC. e.
Bridgeman Images/Fotodom
The Athenian Harmodius and Aristogeiton were called tyrant-killers, who, prompted by personal resentment, in 514 BC. e. led a conspiracy to overthrow the Peisistratids (sons of the tyrant Peisistratus) Hippias and Hipparchus. They managed to kill only the youngest of the brothers - Hipparchus. Harmodius died immediately at the hands of the bodyguards of the Peisistratids, and Aristogeiton was captured, tortured and executed.
In the 5th century BC e., in the heyday of the Athenian, when anti-tyrannical sentiments were especially strong there, Harmodius and Aristogeiton began to be considered the greatest heroes and surrounded their images with special honor. They were given statues made by the sculptor Antenor, and their descendants received various privileges from the state. In 480 BC. e., during the Greco-Persian wars, when Athens was captured by the army of the Persian king Xerxes, the statues of Antenor were taken to Persia. Some time later, new ones were installed in their place, the works of Critias and Nesiotus, which have come down to us in Roman copies. The statues of the tyrant-fighters are believed to have influenced the ideological design of the sculptural group "Worker and Collective Farm Girl", which belonged to the architect Boris Iofan; this sculpture was made by Vera Mukhina for the Soviet pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937.
Tragedy τραγῳδίαThe word "tragedy" consists of two parts: "goat" (tragos) and "song" (ode), why -. In Athens, this was the name of the genre of dramatic productions, between which competitions were held at other holidays. The festival, held in Dionysus, was attended by three tragic poets, each of whom had to present a tetralogy (three tragedies and one) - as a result, the audience watched nine tragedies in three days.
Most of the tragedies have not come down to us - only their names and sometimes small fragments are known. The full text of the seven tragedies of Aeschylus has been preserved (in total he wrote about 60 of them), seven tragedies of Sophocles (out of 120) and nineteen tragedies of Euripides (out of 90). In addition to these three tragedians, who entered the classical canon, about 30 other poets composed tragedies in Athens in the 5th century.
Usually, the tragedies in the tetralogy were interconnected in meaning. The stories of the heroes of the mythical past served as the basis for the plots, from which the most shocking episodes were selected related to war, incest, cannibalism, murder and betrayal, which often took place within the same family: a wife kills her husband, and then her own son kills her (“Oresteia” Aeschylus), the son learns that he is married to his own mother ("Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles), the mother kills her children to avenge her husband's betrayal ("Medea" by Euripides). Poets experimented with myths: they added new characters, changed the storyline, brought in themes relevant to the Athenian society of their time.
All tragedies were necessarily written in verse. Some parts were sung as solo arias or lyrical choir parts to accompaniment, and could also be accompanied by dance. The maximum number on stage in a tragedy is three. Each of them played several roles during the production, as there were usually more actors.
Phalanx φάλαγξ
Phalanx. Modern illustration
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A phalanx is a combat formation of the ancient Greek infantry, which was a dense formation of heavily armed infantrymen - hoplites in several lines (from 8 to 25).
Hoplites were the most important part of the ancient Greek militia. A complete set of military equipment (panoplia) of the hoplites included a shell, a helmet, greaves, a round shield, a spear and a sword. The hoplites fought in close ranks. The shield, which each warrior of the phalanx held in his hand, covered the left side of his body and the right side of the warrior standing next to him, so that the most important condition for success was the coordination of actions and the integrity of the phalanx. The most vulnerable in such a battle formation were the flanks, so the cavalry was placed on the wings of the phalanx.
The phalanx is believed to have appeared in Greece in the first half of the 7th century BC. e. In the VI-V centuries BC. e. The phalanx was the main battle formation of the ancient Greeks. In the middle of the IV century BC. e. The king of Macedonia, Philip II, created the famous Macedonian phalanx, adding some innovations to it: he increased the number of lines in the system and adopted long spears - saris. Thanks to the successes of the army of his son Alexander the Great, the Macedonian phalanx was considered an invincible striking force.
philosophical school σχολήAny Athenian who had reached the age of twenty and had served could take part in the work of the Athenian ekklesia, including proposing laws and seeking their repeal. In Athens during the heyday, attendance at the national assembly, as well as the performance of public office, was paid; the amount of the payment varied, but it is known that in the time of Aristotle it was equal to the minimum daily wage. They usually voted by a show of hands or (more rarely) with special stones, and in case of ostracism - with shards.
Initially, public meetings in Athens were held on, from the 5th century BC. e. - on the Pnyx hill, 400 meters southeast of the agora, and somewhere after 300 BC. e. they were transferred to Dionysus.
epic ἔποςSpeaking about the epic, we first of all recall the poems about and: "Iliad" and "Odyssey" or a poem about the campaign of the Argonauts of Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BC). But along with the heroic epic there was a didactic one. The Greeks liked to clothe books of useful and informative content in the same sublimely poetic form. Hesiod wrote a poem about how to run a peasant economy (“Works and Days”, VII century BC), Arat devoted his work to astronomy (“Phenomena”, III century BC), Nicander wrote about poisons (II century BC), and Oppian - about hunting and fishing (II-III centuries AD). In these works, the Iliad and Odyssey - hexameter - were strictly observed, and there were signs of Homeric poetic language, although some of their authors are a millennium away from Homer.
ephebe ἔφηβος
Ephebe with a hunting spear. Roman relief. About 180 AD. e.
Bridgeman Images/Fotodom
After 305 B.C. e. the institution of the ephebia was transformed: the service ceased to be obligatory, and its term was reduced to a year. Now the number of ephebes included mainly noble and wealthy young people.
Greeks are very fond of languages. This is not even so much a tribute to fashion as a necessity. Tourism accounts for 20% of the Greek economy, and another 20% for navigation: every Greek father is sure that knowledge of foreign languages is the key to a bright future for his child. As a result, in tourist places, knowledge of the words of the Greek language may not be useful to you at all. Nevertheless, the Greeks love and appreciate it very much when tourists try to speak Greek at least a little. And in a rare tavern, the owner will not please you with at least dessert for this attempt.
Together with Anya, our Greek tutor, Grekoblog compiled a list of 30 words/phrases that seemed to us the most popular on the trip. To make it easier to perceive unfamiliar words, we have given Russian and Latin transcriptions next to each phrase. The same letters that are not found in the Latin alphabet were left "as is".
It should also be borne in mind that stress is of great importance in the words of the Greek language. Unlike Russian, the stress in Greek almost always falls on the last, penultimate, or third syllable from the end of a word. To simplify, in Russian transcription, we have highlighted stressed vowels in capital letters.
In Greek, stress is of great importance: it almost always falls on the last or penultimate syllable.
Greeting words:
1. Γειά σου (I am su) - hello, hello (literally translated “health to you”). So you can say hello at any time of the day, if you are “on you” with the interlocutor. The form of politeness completely coincides with the Russian language. If you want to politely greet a stranger or older person, we say:
Γειά Σας (I am sas) - hello.
The phrases Γειά σου and Γειά Σας can also say goodbye. They will also come in handy if someone near you sneezed: Γειά σου and Γειά Σας will mean in this case "Be healthy" or "Be healthy", respectively.
2. Καλημέρα (kalimEra) - good morning. So you can say hello until about 13.00, but the boundaries here are blurred. For someone, καλημέρα is also relevant until 15.00 - who woke up at what time :).
Καλησπέρα (kalispEra) - Good evening. Actual, as a rule, after 16-17 hours.
You can say goodbye at night by wishing "good night" - Καληνύχτα (kalinIkhta).
3. Τι κάνεις / κάνετε (ti kanis / kanete) - Literally, these words of the Greek language are translated as “what you do / do”. But in everyday life it means "how are you" (you / you). With the same meaning, you can use the phrase:
Πως είσαι / είστε (pos. Ise / pos. Iste) - how are you / how are you.
You can answer the question "how are you" in different ways:
4. Μια χαρά (mya hara) or καλά (kalA), which means "good";
Another option: πολύ καλά (poly kala) - very good.
5. Έτσι κι έτσι (Etsy k'Etsy) - so-so.
Acquaintance:
You can find out the name of the interlocutor using the following phrases:
6. Πως σε λένε; (pos se lene) - what is your name?
Πως Σας λένε; (pos sas lene) - what is your name?
You can answer this like this:
Με λένε…… (me lene) - my name is (name)
After the exchange of names, it is customary to say:
7. Χαίρω πολύ (hero poly) or χαίρομαι (herome) - - glad to meet you.
The Greeks really appreciate it when a tourist, at the very least, tries to speak their language
Polite words:
8. Ευχαριστώ (eucharistO) - thank you;
9. Παρακαλώ (parakalO) - please;
10. Τίποτα (tipota) - nothing, nothing;
11. Δεν πειράζει (zen pirazi) [δen pirazi] – no big deal;
12.Καλώς όρισες (kalOs Orises) - welcome (you);
Καλώς ορίσατε (kalos orIsate) - welcome (you);
13. Εντάξει (endAxi) - good, ok;
The words "yes" and "no" in Greek are different from the usual no, yes or si, etc. We are used to the negative word beginning with the letter "n", but in Greek the opposite is true - the word "yes" begins with the letter "n":
14. Ναι (nE) - yes
Όχι (Ohy) - no
Words for market and shop
15. Θέλω (sElo) [θelo] - I want;
16. Ορίστε (orIste) - here you are, similar to the English here you are (for example, they give you change and say oρίστε or brought and say oρίστε). When you give money, you can also say (here you are) oρίστε). This is also relevant as a reaction to someone calling you by name or when answering a call instead of “Hello”.
17. Πόσο κάνει (poso kani) - how much does it cost;
18. Ακριβό (akrivo) - expensive;
19. Φτηνό (ftinO) - cheap;
20. Τον λογαριασμό παρακαλώ (tone logariismo parakalO) - “count, please”;
Words for orienteering
21. Που είναι…….; (pu Ying) – where is……?
22. Αριστερά (aristerA) - left, left;
23. Δεξιά (dexА) [δeksia] – to the right, to the right;
24. Το ΚΤΕΛ (that KTEL) - this abbreviation is the name of the Greek bus operator, but everyone understands it as "bus station";
25. Το αεροδρόμειο (airfield Omio) - airport;
26. Σιδηροδρομικός σταθμός (sidirodromikOs stasmOs) - railway station;
27. Καταλαβαίνω (katalavEno) - I understand;
Δεν καταλαβαίνω (zen katalaveno) [δen katalaveno] - I don't understand;
28. Ξέρω (ksEro) - I know;
Δεν ξέρω (zen ksEro) [δen ksero] - I don't know;
And finally congratulations:
29. Χρόνια πολλά (hronya pollA) - so you can congratulate on any holiday: birthday, angel's day, etc. Literally, it means "long years".
30. Στην υγεία μας (stin Ya mas) is a toast that means "to our health."
I hope these words will help you in your journey and communication with the Greeks. I am grateful to Anya, our Greek teacher, for her help in writing the material and I remind you that since 2010, on Grekoblog, Anya has been working with everyone who wants to learn from scratch or improve their level of Greek. We wrote in more detail about language lessons via Skype in articles and.
KALYMERA - KALISPER, good morning - good afternoon, these words are heard everywhere when you get to GREECE! So I ended up on Greek soil - I am fulfilling the dream of my father, who did not have time to get here, did not have time in his whole life, although our ancestors once lived here.
The trip turned out to be spontaneous, initially they were going to go to Egypt, but due to the turbulent situation, the choice fell on Greece, the country of olives, sirtaki and my historical homeland. We flew with a Greek airline, I was impressed by the uniform of the Greek stewardesses, very beautiful, dark blue dresses with a frill on the back and a handkerchief in the colors of the Greek flag around the neck. All, as if by choice, swarthy, thin, black-haired and very smiling. On the plane, in the usual economy class, they drank dry Greek wine and fed meatballs with mashed potatoes, with an amazing sauce that smelled of delicious herbs. The entire flight on the TVs displayed our movement in the air, with the time until the end of the flight and the territory that we are currently flying over. As usual, applause to the crew for a professional flight and an instant ladder.
We went out and it felt like we were in a sauna, no breath of breeze, no sea breeze - dense heat, after rainy and cold St. Petersburg weather somehow unusual. I immediately realized that half of the things from the suitcase could not be taken ...
As you know, the island of Rhodes, to which this time our love of travel has brought us, is washed by two seas: the Mediterranean and the Aegean. Our hotel
Marianna Palas 4 *, located on the Mediterranean Sea, a 30-minute drive from the airport of Rhodes, in the village of Kolymbia. Yes, it was in the village, because in the morning we woke up to the cry of roosters. Hotels are located on the seashore interspersed with private houses, shops, taverns, a kind of immersion in local life.
Some background information about the hotel...
Upon arrival, we immediately noticed a sound, it came from everywhere, did not stop for a minute, then it dawned on me - these are cicadas! Exactly, I heard them at home, in Anapa, so, a single crackle, but so collectively these insects sang all day long! I wonder where in their body they make this sound? We observed when the cicada crackles, its body and wings all tremble, probably, after all, not in the throat, no ligaments can withstand this!
A person gets used to everything and we, of course, got used to it, on the second day it seemed that it could not be otherwise!
The hotel is located 400 meters from the sea, the path is not tiring, passes through flat terrain and takes no more than 10 minutes if you walk in a waddle. You go and see how the local population lives. In general, the nature and climate are very similar to our Anapa: the same mountains, rocks, scorched grass in places, it felt like I was on the Black Sea coast, somewhere in the Sukko or Utrish area. It seems to me that we have even more vegetation, greenery and nature is more picturesque. But these are first impressions, let's see what will happen in other parts of the island. The hotel is small, as well as its territory, three 2 - 3-storey buildings, two swimming pools with clean and warm water - for adults and children, a bar where from 12 noon to 12 night you can drink various cocktails without restrictions, dry red and white wine, beer, coffee. They didn’t even try to try strong drinks, because in the heat it’s impossible, even in the evening I didn’t want to. There is no food in the bar, this is unusual, since our Russian people are used to carrying out the process of drinking with deliciously laid tables, to be honest, we love to eat! And not even because they are hungry, but for order: with a glass, there should be a plate! Well, that's my opinion, some may disagree.
In general, they fed well, breakfasts, like breakfasts, we eat like this at home: scrambled eggs -
fried eggs, scrambled eggs, sausages, fried bacon, fruit and natural yoghurts, various types of cereals with milk, sausage cheese, pastries are just the sea, any and tasty (this is for the sweet tooth). Tea, coffee - anyone brews a coffee machine, alcohol for lunch and dinner and all day long, juices, fantas, sprites, Pepsi, plain ice water. Soup is served for dinner, such is their tradition, mashed, tasty soups are also good, they rested from our borscht, pickle soup. I wouldn’t eat them all the time, but on vacation, for the sake of diversity, it’s very acceptable and good for the stomach. Just enough for lunch, several types of side dishes: rice in all its variations, fried-stewed-boiled potatoes, pasta, two or three types of meat, fish, different salads, baldela from Greek Tzatziki sauce (a combination of natural yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice and fresh cucumbers, garlic, spices), it is very good to fill them with vegetable salads. Fruits: watermelons, melons, peaches, bananas, apples, oranges. So far, only mussels have been eaten from seafood, cooked directly in shells, poured with lemon juice and washed down with white, dry wine.
I was pleased with the work of the hotel staff in serving breakfasts, lunches and dinners, the dishes sparkled, you don’t have to look for spoons, forks, knives (it happened in other hotels), the tablecloths are snow-white. Moreover, when cleaning the table after the departed guests in anticipation of new ones and upon detection of even the slightest speck, the tablecloth was immediately changed to a new one. I would like to note the excellent work of air conditioners in the restaurant, we ate at a very comfortable temperature, given the incredible heat outside.
Our vacation will last two weeks, we are quite satisfied with the hotel cuisine, and what is not here, we will try in local taverns, they are here at every turn.
There is no entertainment in the hotel, it is intended for a calm, measured rest. This time we were looking for one, as the year was very busy.
Who is sunbathing by the pool, who goes to the sea, and who is sipping cocktails in the bar.
The staff is very nice, they work like bees from morning to evening and are always ready to help, no one speaks Russian, but my English, which has not yet been completely forgotten, was enough. The rooms are cleaned cleanly, towels are changed every day, linen, it seems that too. The safe was paid, we did not use it, there was nothing to hide, all things were in plain sight, nothing was missing. Air conditioning worked silently, with water and hot and cold, too, everything is in order.
A bathroom with a bathtub itself, not a shower, shampoo gels are reported as needed, there is a hair dryer - I didn’t use it, in such a heat my hair dried out instantly and without it.
The beach of our hotel is pebbly, small pebbles - foot massage, special slippers are sold for especially fastidious people. From the hotel, for those who are too lazy to walk, there is a bus 3 times a day. The water is clear, warm, without any algae and mud. A noticeable disadvantage of the beach is the lack of changing cabins and toilets. We found one shower, next to the rental point for catamarans, cheesecakes, closer to Mount Tsambika. Umbrellas and sun loungers are paid, beach towels at the reception on a deposit of 10 euros, then returned (we took our own for the beach, from home). They changed clothes behind huge stones near the mountain under the surprised and uncomprehending glances of wild goats, there are an incredible number of them, crawling along sheer cliffs-mountains, held by some incomprehensible force of attraction, a person would have flown head down long ago.
There are catamarans, cheesecakes, canoes - you won't get bored!
There are no accidents in our family, and this time was no exception - two minutes before arriving at the hotel, it turned out that my husband FORGOT THE RIGHTS! It’s not difficult to imagine my reaction, I thought I’d tear off the skin from him with a stocking and without anesthesia! The whole vacation was planned by me, routes were drawn up, when and what to visit, which bays, beaches, sights. Well, after thinking, I decided, apparently, God saved them from an accident in this way, it is not known what would have happened if he had not forgotten them! After all, the main thing is to be able to calm yourself, convincingly decompose the situation in your head. Immediately there was a bunch of defensive arguments in favor of Seryoga: poor thing, he was so tired in a year, he’s driving all the time anyway at work, a man won’t be able to drink, is that really the case, and in general the Greeks drive cars without any rules, so try not to make an accident . In general, while he sat pressed into the seat of the transfer bus, horrified by what he had done, I found how to calm myself, pouted for only ten minutes, then changed my anger to mercy: summer, heat, we are in Greece, cheers! Can't we find something to do? The next day, with the hotel guide Lena, they developed a new scenario for our holiday, took four excursions: a sightseeing tour of the island, to Rhodes, to Lindos and on a yacht to the island of Symi. Someone will say that we could have traveled ourselves, the bus stop is two minutes from the hotel, sit down and go for two or three euros. But! When it's hot, + 37 , it's just unrealistic, buses run outside of any schedule, sheer hassle, maybe we were just unlucky?
FEATURES OF LIFE IN A HOTEL - additions
Do not forget to take fumigators, Greek mosquitoes, of course, are not as aggressive as ours. They do not rush like Messerschmitts and do not attack with a nasty squeak, they bite slowly, sadly and silently, apparently corresponding to the motto of Greek life - SEGA-SEGA (slowly, slowly). And the bites from them, even for me - an allergic person, were almost not noticeable the very next day, although I still took FENISTIL.
There are no clotheslines and clothespins in the rooms, washing machines, as you understand, there are no washing machines in a 4-star hotel either. And for two weeks of rest, and with such heat, washing is inevitable, so we took the powder, clothespins and a structure for drying clothes with us (any
I want to live comfortably, like at home). T
Internet only at the reception and by the pool, paid, costs 15 euros for the entire stay, they give out an individual login and password, write it down on the check - do not lose it, this is only your password, not the general one at the hotel. If you lose (as was the case with me), you will have to ask for a new one.
Breakfast from 7-10, lunch from 13-15, dinner from 19-22
Do not rush to rent a car at the hotel, there are a lot of places in the area where you can do it and cheaper.
They say you can do the same with excursions, but we decided not to risk it and bought all the excursions from a hotel guide.
You need comfortable shoes with low heels or no shoes at all, as you have to walk and walk, and the streets in the old cities are cobbled. Moreover, the pebbles are laid in such an interesting way - not flat, as usual, but edgewise.
Who smokes, take cigarettes, they are much more expensive here, a pack of winston - light - 3.5 euros.
EAT PRAY LOVE...
SEGA-SEGA, which in Greek means SLOWLY-SLOWLY, this is the life motto of the Greeks. Someone says that they are slow and slow, lazy, but this is not true. People work hard, but they also know a lot about rest, they know how to do it from the heart ....
Our first excursion was a sightseeing tour of the island and was called "EAT, Pray, Love", after the book of the same name by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Thematically, it, respectively, consisted of three parts, namely, in its first part we visited the villages: tomato, honey and wine, where we tasted freshly squeezed juices from watermelon to cucumber, tried different types of olive oil, dry wine, excellent homemade cheeses, dried tomatoes and olives, pine and thyme honey (heals throat and vocal cords). At the end, we were taken to a Greek tavern for lunch, where the owner Sava himself treated us to Moussaka, Tzatziki sauce, incredibly soft and tasty lamb and many other national dishes. Everything is cooked with soul and at home, so we completed the first part of the "EAT" program one hundred percent and at the same time got acquainted with the national Greek cuisine.
In the second part - "PRAY", we visited the Church of Panteleimon, who cares and prays for our health. The church is located on a mountain, in a very picturesque place, stone steps lead to it, which, from time (since knightly times) and from the number of people who climbed them, have become smooth and slippery, like ice. Therefore, it was necessary to go up and down very carefully. The views from above are breathtaking!
In general, the Greeks are a very religious nation, they do not earn money on religion, and it is enough to leave any amount of money in the church, at least one cent, and you can take as many candles as you need, leave notes for the health of loved ones and for the rest of people dear to you. After this part of the tour, there was some kind of peace and warmth in the soul ....
A visit to Cape Prasonisi was the final stage of our excursion and was called "LOVE"!
Prasonisi - the kiss of two seas, the place where the Mediterranean and Aegean seas merge, the southernmost point of the island. In summer, in hot weather, they are separated by a narrow strip of land, a sandy spit. And in winter, both seas merge into one. According to legend, if you kiss your soul mate on a spit, family life will be long and happy.
From the observation deck, on a hill, in front of the cape, photographs were taken, where the quiet and calm Mediterranean Sea is clearly visible on the left, the Aegean is seething on the right, in curly lambs. There is some touching in the desire of the two seas to unite in a kiss ....
Already returning to the bus, after swimming in both seas, when it will still be, in a local tavern, on the shore they tried freshly caught (they are caught right here, on Prasonisi) and grilled octopuses, tentacles are fried, poured over with lemon and served with dry white wine . TASTY! Would recommend to anyone who loves seafood to try. We ate octopus for the first time, so we made a wish...
Well, our surprisingly informative-informative-wonderful excursion has come to an end. This is an ideal solution for those who have not rented a car, and indeed for anyone who would like to explore the island, immerse themselves in local life. We traveled all over the perimeter of Rhodes in one day, visited many beautiful places, sights, visited two seas, the highest mountain of the island of Ataviros, touched the saint, visited the chapel of Panteleimon, got acquainted with Greek cuisine, what else is needed for happiness? I recommend this tour to everyone, you won't regret it!
RHODES - THE MAGIC OF THE AGES
That was the name of our next excursion, it was conducted by the same guide Nadia from St. Petersburg. The girl is in love with the island, she has been living here for 4 years, she works from the Bibleo Globus tour operator.
This time we went to the very North of the island of Rhodes, to the capital city of Rhodes of the same name. Along the way, we visited Mount Fileromos, where the icon of the 15th century is located, or rather a list from it. A LIST is the name of a copy of the icon, the original is kept in Montenegro. The mountain is named after the monk Filerim, who, having fled from Israel, saved the icon. Its miraculousness lies in the fact that it was written from the Mother of God during her lifetime ...
The mountain is crowned with a huge cross and from the observation deck, from a bird's eye view, breathtaking views open up - the incredible color of the sea, mountains and islands full of greenery ...
On Filerimos there is a wonderful alley where peacocks walk, proud and beautiful. Nadia told a funny story...
Once upon a time, some guide had the imprudence to tell one of the tourist groups that if someone finds a peacock tail feather on this mountain, they will inevitably become incredibly rich! This bike has taken root, is passed from group to group, and it is not difficult to guess how the first thing tourists do when they set foot on this holy land! Of course, they go to inspect the old icon, you might think. No, and no again, they are chasing the unfortunate peacocks in droves, hoping to find this coveted feather! Peacocks are already used to seeing another group of tourists, they immediately take to their heels! To watch from the side - you will laugh! But we also could not resist and did the same, herd feeling, nothing can be done about it. As a result, I did not find the pen myself, but our second Greek guide Stefanos gave it to me! Happiness knew no bounds, now we are waiting with my husband, when untold wealth will fall upon us!
Joking aside, the tour was serious and informative.
The city of Rhodes arose in 408 BC, as a result of the merger of three ancient city-states, namely Kameros, Lindos and Ialyssos, it turned into a powerful single state, who just didn’t rule it, who just didn’t conquer, but it lives and prospers on this day, delighting everyone with its beauty.
We all know from the school curriculum that, according to legend, at the entrance to the city from the sea there was a huge statue of the Colossus of Rhodes, a monument to God Helios. It was 32 meters high and made of pure bronze, built for 12 years, stood for 65 years and lay in ruins for another 600 years, then disappeared to no one knows where and not a single fragment has been found to this day.
It collapsed as a result of a strong earthquake, the Colossus buckled at the knees and fell into the sea from all its height, crumbling into pieces. The ancient Greeks considered this a curse of God, they got scared and were afraid to restore the statue, fearing retribution.
So she lay for many years, for six whole centuries. But copper was a very expensive metal in those days, and one enterprising Egyptian merchant, again according to legend, bought the fragments of the statue, equipped a huge caravan of 900 camels and sent it home through the desert. But God Helios did not like this idea and he sent a sandstorm into the desert, which wiped the caravan off the face of the earth,
burying the remains of the statue in the abyss of sand! Here is such a story - neither ours nor yours, don’t open your mouth at someone else’s loaf, what else can I say!
In fact, as our Nadyusha said, the statue of the Colossus could not have stood in this place, at the entrance to the port of Mandraki from the sea, then he would have simply sat on a twine, she joked, since the pedestals are too far apart - the pedestals are widely located, on which supposedly stood the legs of a giant.
This is the secret of the ages, let it remain a secret, awakens our imagination!
Now, on the supposed site of the statue, on the pedestals where the Colossus of Rhodes stood, a deer and a deer, the symbols of Rhodes, are comfortably located. According to another legend, the island was originally flooded with poisonous snakes and no one could live here for a long time. But these beautiful deer trampled all the snakes with their hooves and Rhodes found a new life, blossomed! Myths, legends, legends... This is the incredible Greece shrouded in secrets....
Finally, we are at the gates to the Old City, people still live there, consider living in the museum under the open sky. The city-fortress of the time of the knights of the Ionites, the walls are three rows, you can’t drive through, no one could take this fortress in knightly times, and only Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (who didn’t sob over the series The Magnificent Age, are there any?) managed to negotiate with the knights, they gave up the fortress without fighting in exchange for life and the opportunity to leave in peace, and not because they were cowards and did not want to fight, but because they had a higher goal - to spread Christianity around the world. Does it mean that everyone will die?
The old city made an indelible impression on us, I just fell in love with it. It feels like they were transported in time, I wanted to close my eyes and open again - where am I, in what century? Narrow, cobbled streets, centuries-old walls of houses, some ghostly spirit of antiquity hovers everywhere. We walked and walked, there was so little time. We will definitely come here one of these days again, already without a tour.
It was time for dinner, and the same Nadyusha took us to the home tavern, where she always dine herself. Again, we ordered grilled octopuses, steamed mussels in some amazing lemon-wine sauce, all this only from the sea, I would have eaten such food for a century, you will lick your fingers. You could still order delicious dishes, but it’s impossible to eat so much, we left it for the next time. Very friendly hosts, these Greeks, not only served food, but asked a hundred times whether we liked it or not. As a compliment, we were treated to Greek anise liqueur and coffee. The bill was brought in a mirror box (the inside of the candy is a trifle, but nice), it is felt that people live and love this life, the beauty around them. Didn't want to leave, will definitely be back and would recommend to anyone!
I forgot an important fact from the excursion - in the North of the island there is also a confluence of the seas, not as obvious, visible as in the South, but there is! Living in the city of Rhodes, you can swim in two seas at the same time - the Mediterranean and the Aegean.
The tour ended, leaving exciting memories, a desire to return and, as a reminder, a peacock tail feather and Greek leather sandals that I bought in one of the shops in the Old City...
LINDOS MAGIC
A visit to Magical Lindos and the Seven Springs (Epta Piges, as this place is called in Greek) was the third excursion in our program.
Lindos, one of the three ancient city-states that merged into the single state of Rhodes. The city is located on a mountain, at the top is the Acropolis and a serpentine of narrow, cobbled streets with snow-white houses leads to it. The bus stopped at a special parking area, further, to the foot of the mountain, we walked, as the transport could not pass, not turn around, it was very narrow. And then there was a surprise, a local taxi-donkeys, they are the ones who carry tourists exhausted from the heat to the top of the mountain, to the Acropolis. The pleasure costs 5 euros, but we were warned to climb only up, because down from the mountain, donkeys run very fast and this is too extreme a journey, not everyone will dare. My Seryozhka, like a real man, flatly refused to use these donkeys as a taxi, with sad eyes, apparently also very tired from the endless ups and downs. And I, a fragile woman (this is how I described myself to calm my own conscience), nevertheless stepped on pity and decided to go, I really wanted to, when else would I have to? Donkeys go in pairs, in a bunch and are accompanied by their guide. I have already ridden camels, donkeys are more comfortable and not so scary, I tell you.
Seryozhka stood upstairs with a camera to capture this historic moment: LENA ON A DONkey! Further, we broke away from the tour and decided to explore the city and the Acropolis on our own, since the heat was unbearable, my melted brain refused to perceive any historical facts. And to be honest, I didn’t get a very good guide, well, not everyone is able to keep the attention of the group, to present information in a lively and interesting way. Ours, picturesquely shone with erudition, admiring herself, inserted annoying Eee through the word and figured with an unthinkable number of historical dates and names that no one will remember anyway. A hundred times they remembered with a kind word Nadenka, the previous guide, who conducted the first two excursions, now a man in his place! As a result, such people, imperceptibly dissolved in the narrow streets of the city, who left the group, were not alone.
From the heights of the mountains, the views of indescribable beauty that have already become familiar, St. Paul's Bay in the shape of a heart, the magnificent beaches of Lindos, a cobweb of streets with shops, taverns and private houses. Comfort and calm, measured life - that's the feeling of the city. But for some reason, Rhodes fell on my soul more, it is a more comfortable city for life, not so mountainous and somehow warmer in my opinion.
Exhausted by the scorching sun, the group flocked to the bus and we set off on our way to the protected park area - Seven Springs, to the underground tunnel into which the streams merged. This structure was built by the Italians during their rule of the island, in order to deliver water to the other side of the mountain, where it was not. I didn’t understand how it works, apparently tiredness affected, but I believed the legend and remembered it very well, because it is useful and gives hope for the fulfillment of a dream!
According to legend, if you go through the tunnel where seven streams merge in complete darkness (without lighting any lanterns), in complete silence and ankle-deep in cold (+16 degrees) water, you will be cleansed of all your earthly sins and your wish will come true! Who would refuse such prospects? I cannot say that it is comfortable to move through the tunnel, it is very narrow, dark, without any flashes of light, there is only one light window in the middle of the path. The bottom is unknown, chilling coolness and frightening uncertainty. Our group followed the instructions in full, they walked in a chain, one after another, in deathly silence, without making a sound, that's the discipline, I thought, we can, after all, when we want and when they beckon with a sweet roll! That is why our Russian people are strong - we unite in extreme situations, we go, as they say, on the ONE LEG, with our inherent sentimentality and gullibility in our souls. For example, the Italians and Germans who followed us were not imbued with this legend at all, then from the light window, when we were already walking back along the top of the tunnel, we heard them screaming underground, laughing, apparently they had neither sins nor cherished desires and they are not as gullible as we are.
We walked, it seemed, for an eternity, an unpleasant thought drilled through the brain - what if it collapses and we find ourselves in a stone bag! But it turned out that only 180 meters passed, finally the long-awaited light at the end of the tunnel dawned, we are free, cheers !!!
Yes, it was also promised that we would be 7 years younger and lose weight (on the nerves, not otherwise).
I immediately rushed to the mountain stream, to look at my reflection in the water, maybe I’m already slender, like a cypress and young ???? But alas, I did not find a noticeable difference in appearance ... Probably, these transformations do not occur immediately, I reassured myself again, the main thing is to believe!
So another day of life in Greece has come to an end, the box of impressions and sensations has noticeably replenished, there is a sea voyage to the island of Symi, we are looking forward to it.
TALES OF SIMI ISLAND
A truly fabulous island, which is part of one of the Greek Dodecanese archipelagos and located in the Aegean Sea. The tour was for the whole day, picked up from the hotel by bus at 7 am, and returned at 7 pm.
From the city of Rhodes we sailed on a boat for 1.5 hours, looking at the islands and islets passing by, there are actually a lot of them, more than 2000 islands are included in the Greek archipelagos, more than 120 in the Dodecanese.
The first stop is Panormitis Bay and the Monastery of the Archangel Michael. Archangel means the first angel and his day is November 8th. On this day, something incredible happens... Thousands of pilgrims from all over Greece and other countries sail to the island to bow to the miraculous icon, right from the pier, on their knees, they move towards it. Steps lead to the entrance to the church and they also pass them on their knees.
The monastery lives its own, isolated life, even bread is still baked in wood-fired ovens. The bread is very tasty, consecrated, you can take and try it from large wicker baskets. Candles, again, for a nominal fee, or you can pay nothing at all. Everyone who takes a candle is given an icon and oil. I like the policy of the Greeks in the field of religion - faith and money, in my opinion, are not compatible concepts. Several ships can sail to the island at the same time, there are a lot of people, and therefore we had to stand in line to the church where the icon is located, right, just like we do in St. Petersburg, to the Blessed Xenia.
The next stop on the island, after a half-hour swim, in fact, its administrative center, went around the rock and a simply bewitching view opened up ... Multi-colored houses, as if suspended in many tiers on rocks-mountains, narrow stone stairs lead to them. How do people live here? And they live well, as the guide told us, they have practically no cardiovascular diseases due to daily physical activity! I imagined, like this I climbed home after work, stretched out on the couch and then you remember that you forgot to buy something in the store, you no longer run away for one or two, you think ten times whether you really need it. For this reason, the locals are all slender, they have not seen fat people.
Symi Island is famous for its sponges, an incredible variety of types and colors are mined and sold here, there are silk, woolen sponges, there are in the shape of an elephant's ear (they are cut into pieces and used for face peeling). It is believed that the sponge is mined from a greater depth, the better it is and, accordingly, more expensive. This is now a mass of devices and technologies for catching sponges, and earlier, it was a rather laborious and dangerous process, in order to get to the depth, a diver hung a stone weighing up to 15 kilograms around his neck!
Then we visited the leather workshop of Mr. Takis, he is both a designer and manufacturer of various leather products in one person. His leather paintings measuring 1.7 by 2.0 meters are included in the Guinness Book of Records. Takis, in person, held a master class on how to recognize genuine leather, distinguish it from artificial, and then, those who wish could buy for themselves whatever their heart desires: bags, wallets, business card holders, shoes.
After the tour, there were three hours of free time to walk around the island, swim in the emerald-sapphire, incredibly transparent sea, dine in local taverns, try the famous Sim shrimp.
Walking, of course, is loudly said, moving in the heat of + 42 (according to the guide, the temperature in Symi is 5-6 degrees higher than in Rhodes), under the scorching sun, is very problematic. Therefore, we limited ourselves to a walk along the lower tier, along the embankment, contemplating all the surrounding beauty from the bottom up, and everything is perfectly visible. And in the meantime, legs, unconsciously, headed towards a cool tavern (the guide also recommended it to us).
Greek taverns, not those that have taken their course towards mass, catering services to tourists and making money on it, namely Greek, family taverns, where the Greeks themselves have lunch and dinner, this is where you should definitely go. Only here you will truly feel the flavor of local life and national cuisine. The feeling that you came to visit friends, where they were waiting for you and you are really welcome. We were lucky, in Rhodes we were on such a visit and now we are in a very cozy and nice place. Walking along the narrow streets, between fabulous miniature houses, we found ourselves on a small square covered with grapes, where the tavern was located.
The tables are set outdoors, blown by two huge fans, very comfortable and fresh. The owner himself came out or one of them, as they say, with open arms and a smile on his face, seated at a table and gave out a menu in Russian with a description of the dishes. There are not many people here, since the institution is not designed for a massive tourist flow and each guest is greeted, therefore, as a guest at home, it is very pleasant. And in general, in Greece it is very pleasant, warm for both the soul and the body.
Having had time to get hungry, we punished, of course, everything that our eyes fell on. First of all, assorted grilled seafood: octopus, mussels, squid, red mullet (red mullet under lemon juice with a fried crust, almost boneless - just a song). This grilled dish - a mix of seafood, I called FISH SIRTAKI. Sim shrimp, very similar to our Anapa shrimp, are just as small in size, but they are not boiled, but deep-fried and then eaten right with the skin on.
The next dish is lamb skewers with baked vegetables and a huge plate of Greek salad and a side dish (fried potatoes and rice mixed with wild rice). We arranged a belly feast for ourselves, once in a lifetime we live (so I, always striving to lose weight, reassured myself)!
The portions in Greece are huge, I advise you to order one for two, we, who do not suffer from poor appetite, could barely manage even that.
Saying goodbye to the hospitable hosts, we decided to go to the beach for a swim, it is impossible not to dive into this color of the sea! Yes, and the calories I had gained had to be burned, how tired I was of fighting them!
On the way, as the guide advised, on the old bridge they fed fish with bread, there are whole flocks of them, you throw a piece and they pounce on it like piranha torpedoes, jumping out of the water.
The sea refreshed, invigorated, but not for long, hot and very hot! We gladly plopped down on the sofas on our boat, departure in five minutes ...
We were seated on the first deck, which was air conditioned and the windows were covered with sunblinds. The people, exhausted, fell on armchairs and sofas in such unthinkable positions and fell asleep: some have their heads thrown back, some have their arms dangling like a whip, some have their legs in the aisle - sleep and fatigue overcame everyone. There was a feeling that an evil wizard had bewitched those traveling to a fabulous island and turned the ship into a sleepy kingdom. My Seryozhka also passed out, resting his head on the pillers (the column in our opinion, it was he - the sailor taught me the correct terms). Well, I, having decided to use the possibilities of peace and quiet, the romantic atmosphere, swaying on the waves along with the boat, sat down to write this report...
We arrived at the hotel at 19-00, well at least they delivered it right to the entrance, immediately dived into the coolness of our lobby, KALISPER - greeted the staff at the reception and found out the good news - today is GREEK EVENING! That's the way things are, but there is no strength! Running to the room, cold shower, changing clothes and to the restaurant. And there is a holiday, waiters in Greek, national clothes, tables are bursting with Greek food, Greek music is playing. A second wind opened up and we joined the process! After dinner, chairs and tables were placed in front of the pool bar by the hotel staff, musicians, dancers came and it started! Greece is the birthplace of the word DEMOCRACY, such a country is, everything is possible and everything is there and no crises are terrible for it! If you want to drink at the table, if you want to smoke, if you want to dance, no one will shush you and look askance! People of all nationalities: Greeks, Italians, Poles, Russians - all spun in one big circle of SIRTAKI, putting their hands on each other's shoulders. Here, I thought, politicians are causing confusion, they are dividing something, they are in conflict, but the common people have nothing to do with it!
I already wrote that our hotel is run by a Greek family, I don’t know who is who and who is responsible for it, and whether it’s really true (information from the reviews of tourists), but the feeling that it was a family, it was painfully businesslike, the staff does their job, they try as for yourself. So, in a restaurant and a bar we were served by two Greeks, we decided for ourselves that they were father and son. One is somewhere up to 35, and the other is already of a respectable age, with gray hair, but an incredible lively. From 12 noon until 12 midnight they constantly mix cocktails in the bar, pour alcohol, serve guests in the restaurant and at the same time smile and not forcedly, but sincerely.
And these guys, suddenly, at the Greek evening turned into artists! The father turned out to have a very beautiful voice, he sang, and his son, girded with a red belt, danced, and so it was all professional! A dance will dance and again pour another cocktail at the bar, we were simply amazed
energy and kindness. It was impressive and, already in the dark, it looked very unexpectedly beautiful when one of the hotel employees poured some kind of flammable liquid around and then set it on fire, and the bartender danced an incendiary Greek dance in the middle of this circle.
The next dance was for the ladies, they brought out the table, and each woman invited from the vacationers danced up to this table, and our favorite bartender showered her with flower petals from a basket! All the men, having left their places at the tables, stood around and applauded!
The fact is that in Greece they treat women with great respect, here the order of things is somewhat different - a girl was born, parents immediately begin to build a house (well, ideally, of course, who can afford it, but it’s supposed to be). Because it is not the wife who goes to the house to her husband, but the husband to his wife!
The evening continued until late at night, we left early, tiredness had an effect, and I wanted to sit a little more on the balcony, discuss the impressions of the day, looking at the starry sky. Such a finale during a holiday in Rhodes has already become a tradition....
TSAMBIKA BEACH
On one of the days free from excursions, we independently went to the sandy beach of Tsambika, it is from our pebble beach behind the mountain, a 10-minute drive. The bus never came, we waited for half an hour in the sun, as a result we caught a taxi for 10 euros. The beach did not disappoint, just gorgeous and the sea, and the sand, and the views around. Perfectly equipped with cafes, cabins, showers, toilets. The way back was even more fun, the bus again did not wait, the taxi was not found and we went on foot uphill, then down the mountain! In the heat, which is called "tongue on side", we somehow dragged ourselves to the main road and there, lo and behold, we got on the bus, but not to the hotel itself, it seemed to be painfully long, my husband brought me to the hotel almost for shoulder. The goal of climbing a tall mountain, to the monastery of Tsambika, was not achieved, maybe there are some trails, a shorter way, but we did not find it. I decided that if there were not enough impressions from the island, then we would take another tour of the churches. Issue price: overview of the island - 50 euros, Rhodes - 35, Lindos - 35, Symi island - 45. The bus is served directly to the hotel, comfortable, with air conditioning, a guide and full support for the tour.
If it's a relaxing holiday, then yes, if you're looking for entertainment and adventure, then look elsewhere. Almost only foreigners have a rest, but we still heard Russian speech, mostly people over 40, there are few young people. For children, only a small pool, a couple of swings, no slides. I will say one thing for sure, the car must be taken unambiguously! This is comfort, mobility, a more complete impression of the island and, of course, freedom of movement and choice.