30 of the Greatest Greeks – Ancient and Modern

 

 

The history of the Greeks goes way, way back, back to the time of the ancients, thousands of years, thousands of Great Greeks, how do you choose only thirty of them?

 The esteemed Greek philosophers alone cover more than thirty.

The Greeks made us who we are, they gave us civilization, they were the father’s of democracy, mathematics, history, healing and much more, and they’re still at it, taking the world by storm.

It was a formidable task, choosing only thirty but here is my list of great Greeks.

As the Olympian Gods were treated equally, they count as one, as with the wise, old philosophers, is any one of them better than the others?

  In no particular order; these great Greeks are perfect examples of :

What makes a Greek a Greek!

 

The Ancients

1. The Greek Gods and Goddesses

 

 

Here’s where it all started, atop Mount Olympus; home of the twelve Greek Olympian Gods;

Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite,

 Hephaestus, Hermes, Hestia. (Or Dionysus).

 Ancient Greeks worshiped the twelve Gods equally and were terrified that if they angered the gods, or caused them jealousy, through favouring one over another, they would be punished and so all twelve Gods had separate temples dedicated to them.

 Many of these sacred temples stood the test of time, and can still be seen dotted all around Greece.

By the way, do you have The blue blood of the Greek Gods?

 

2. Greek Philosophers –  Historians – Writers

 

 

Socrates (469 – 399 B.C.)  – Plato (427 – 347 B.C.) – Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C.)

 

“Inspirational” quotes, which we hear and read today (Facebook loves them!) can all, in some way, be traced back to the wise words of Greek Philosophers.

It’s all been said before, however, the Greeks said it first!

Here’s a trick to remember who came before whom, with “the big three”; Socrates; put to death for his beliefs, Plato, pupil of Socrates, who founded the world’s first university and Aristotle; famous for rejecting Plato’s theory of forms:

Just remember the word Spa; Socrates taught Plato, Plato taught Aristotle!

 

3. Homer

 

 

8th century B.C.

Homer is the name the legendary author of ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odessey’, two epic poems which are the central works of Greek literature.

  There are many accounts of Homer’s life, the most popular being that he was a blind, strolling minstrel from Smyrna, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey.

 

4. Herodotos

 

 

484–c. 425 B.C.

Herodotus was a Greek historian, widely referred to as “The Father of History”, born in Halicarnassus, Caria (modern-day Bodrum, Turkey).

 Homer is thought to have only ever had a one hit wonder but what a wonder, ‘The Histories’, a record of his inquisitiveness over the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars, which includes geographical and ethnographical information.

  Some of his stories were fanciful and others inaccurate but, he states, he was reporting only what he was told.

  The goings on though, noted down in Herodotos’ “The Histories”, have been confirmed by historians and archaeologists.

 My attention was first brought to this book, while watching one of my top ten films, “The English Patient”, Ralph Fiennes read this book, the whole way through the film!

 

5. Aesop

 

 

620 – 564 B.C.

Born in Delphi, Greece

Aesop was an Ancient Greek storyteller who had a number of fables attributed to him, sadly, none of which survive.

What wonderful tales they are, never without a moral to them, which help teach children about the consequences of their actions.

 Philostratus (A teacher in ancient Greece) describes a painting of Aesop surrounded by the animals of his fables. (None of these images have survived) and, according to Philostratus;

 “The Fables are gathering about Aesop, being fond of him because he devotes himself to them. For he checks greed and rebukes insolence and deceit, and in this some entire animal is his mouthpiece, a lion or a fox or a horse, and not even the tortoise is dumb, that through them children may learn the business of life.”

 

Leaders

 

6. Alexander the Great

 

 

 356 B.C. – 323 B.C.

 Alexander III of Macedon – Born Pella, Macedon

 Alexander the Great, a pupil of Aristotle, by the age of thirty had created the largest Empire in the ancient world.

He was never defeated in battle and was one of the greatest military commanders the world has ever known.

 

7. King Leonidas I of Sparta

 

 

540 B.C. – 480 B.C.

 In August 480 BC Leonidas led his men out of Sparta to meet the mighty Persian army, where in great Greek style, with only three hundred men against thousands, the Spartans showed what they were made of; This is Greece – This is Sparta

 Not to be daunted the Spartans, when ordered by the Persians to lay down their weapons, replied, with the famous words “Come and get them” and proceeded to defeat the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae, where he lost his life.

 

8. Cleopatra

 

 

69 B.C. –30 B.C.

 Have I confused you?

 The Egyptian queen, Cleopatra may have been born in Egypt but she was Greek through and through.

 Her family originated from Macedonian Greece through Ptolemy I, one of Alexander the Great’s generals.

 Ptolemy ruled Egypt after Alexander’s death in 323 B.C. and launched a dynasty of Greek-speaking rulers that lasted for nearly three centuries.

 

The Arts

 

9. Maria Callas

 

 

1923 –1977

Born Maria Anna Cecilia Sophie Kalogeropoulou in Manhattan, New York, United States

Maria Callas is one of the best known opera singers of the 20th century; also known for her passionate love affair with Aristotle Onassis, which is said to have carried on even after he married Jackie Kennedy.

 

10. Melina Mercouri

 

 

1920 – 1994

Born Maria Amalia “Melina” Mercouri in Athens

 Passionate (Well she was Greek!) Greek actress (The Film “Never on a Sunday” to name but one), singer and Politician.

Right up until her death she never stopped trying to have the Parthenon Marbles, stolen by Lord Elgin and now residing in The British Museum, returned to their rightful home; Greece.

 

11. Irene Pappa

 

 

1929 – 2022

Born Eirini Lelekou in Chiliomodi, Corinthia

Another wonderful Greek actress, a strong-minded Greek woman, known for her parts in the ancient Greek comedies and tragedies.

She has given many excellent performances at the ancient theatre of Epidaurus.

 

12. Aristotelis “Telly” Savalas ; Kojak

 

 

1922 – 1994

Born Aristotelis Savalas in Garden City, New York U.S.A

 Telly Savalas has had parts in some great films:

Battle of the Bulge (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), The Scalp hunters (1968), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), Kelly’s Heroes (1970), Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971), Inside Out (1975), and Escape to Athena (1979).

He’s best known though for his role as Kojak which aired in the seventies.

Kojak; the lollipop-sucking detective with his catch phrase’ “Who loves you baby”and side kick; Stavros, who, in real life, happened to be his brother.

 

13. Nana Mouskouri

 

 

October 13, 1934 – Present

Born Ioanna Mouskouri in Chania, Crete, Greece

Nana Mouskouri, an international singer, is one of the best selling artists in the world.

She has more than 200 best-selling albums, in over ten languages, to her name.

 Nana came to fame with her song ‘’The White Rose of Athens” in 1969; her first record to sell over a million copies.

 

14. Mikis Theodorakis

 

 

1925 – 2021

Born on the Greek island of Chios

 Mikis Theodorakis, a songwriter and composer who has written over 1000 songs.

 He is most famous for the music for the films Zorba the Greek (1964), (1969) and Serpico (1973), and is Greece’s best-known composers.

 

15. Nikos Kazantzakis

 

 

1883 – 1957

Born in Kandiye, Crete, Ottoman Empire – now Heraklion, Greece

Well-loved Greek author with works including Zorba the Greek,1946, Christ Recrucified 1948, Captain Michalis 1950, translated ‘Freedom or Death) and The Last Temptation of Christ, 1955.

 He also wrote plays, travel books, memoirs and philosophical essays such as The Saviors of God: Spiritual Exercises.

 

16. Zorba the Greek (Anthony Quinn)

 

 

1915 –2001

Anthony Quinn – Born Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca in Chihuahua, Mexico

(Reborn in 1964 as Alexis Zorba)

The character from the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, not a real person, although some say he was!

How could I leave him out?

 Zorba the Greek is known and loved all over the world; a larger than life persona who lives life to the full.

 This is also the only book I have read from beginning to end in Greek!

 

17. Elia Kazan

 

 

1909 – 2003.

Born Elias Kazantzoglou in Istanbul, Turkey.

 A Greek-American director, producer, writer and actor, described by The New York Times as “one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history”.

 Elia Kazan’s iconic films include; A Streetcar Named Desire, East of Eden, On the Waterfront, and America America.

 

18. El Greco

 

 

1541 – 1614

Born in the Kingdom of Candia (modern Crete), then part of the Republic of Venice, Italy.

The innovative ancient Greek painters are still influencing and inspiring art today, how could I not include a great Greek artist in this list?

Born Doménikos Theotokópoulos, El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance.

 Doménikos Theotokópoulos was nicknamed “El Greco” (“The Greek”) owing to his Greek origin.

 Born in Chania, Crete, El Greco, after studying art in Crete, moved to Europe, as did most artists of his time, first to Italy and later to Spain, where he lived until his death.

 

19. Demis Roussos

 

 

1946 – 2015

Born Artemios “Demis” Ventouris-Roussos in Alexandria Egypt

A Greek singer who had international hit records as a solo performer in the 1970s, after having been a member of Aphrodite’s Child; a progressive Greek rock group that also included Vangelis (Evangelos Papathanassiou).

 Remembered not only for his international hits such as “For Ever and Ever”,  “My Friend the Wind”, “Lovely Lady of Arcadia” and his first UK hit in 1975,  “Happy to Be on an Island in the Sun”, Demis Roussos was also remembered for his kaftans and rather large figure.

 

20. Vangelis Papathanassiou

 

 

1943 – 2022

Born in Agria, a town in Magnesia, Thessaly, Greece,  known professionally as “Vangelis”.

 Vangelis was a composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz and orchestral music.

Best known for his Academy Award-winning score for the film Chariots of Fire.

He has also composed the scores for the films Blade Runner, Missing, Antarctica, 1492: Conquest of Paradise and Alexander.

 

21. Vassilis Tsitsanis

 

 

1915 – 1984

Born in Trikala, Thessaly, Greece

Vassilis Tsitsanis was a Greek songwriter and bouzouki player.

 Tsitsanis was a leading Greek composer of his time who is regarded as one of the founders of rebetiko; the Greek blues; the music of life.

  Tsitsanis wrote more than 500 songs and is still remembered as an extraordinary composer and bouzouki player.

 In 1938 he moved to Thessaloniki; served his military time and stayed there throughout the German occupation, keeping up the Greek moral with his ever popular songs.

 There in Thessaloniki, Tsitsanis opened an ouzeri, married and wrote many of his best songs, which were recorded after the end of the War.

  By the time his record company was shut down  in 1941, he had already recorded about 100 of his own songs and played on many recordings of other composers.

 

 Heroes and Patriots

 

22. Manolis Gletzos & Apostolis Santas

 

 

On May 3, 1941, Apostolos Santas, aged nineteen and Manolis Glezos aged  eighteen, tore down a Nazi flag erected on the Acropolis, Athens during the German occupation of Greece in World War II.

 The Gestapo declared that the two young Greeks would be executed if caught but their identities remained a secret until after the war.

 It was one of the first resistance acts that inspired Greeks to resist against the occupation and established both Santas and Gletzos as anti-Nazi heroes.

 

23.  The Brave and courageous men of Crete

 

 

I was about to say, “The brave men of Crete who helped Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor”, (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011, a British author and soldier who played a prominent role behind the lines in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War) but I rather think it was the other way round, the Cretans helped Fermor.

 The Cretan resistance was a movement against the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and Italy by the residents of Crete during World War II.

 Part of the larger Greek Resistance, it lasted from May 20, 1941, when the Germans invaded the island in the Battle of Crete, until the autumn of 1945 when they surrendered to the British.

 For the first time during World War II German forces faced resistance from the local population.

 Cretan civilians shot down paratroopers or attacked them with knives, axes, scythes, even with bare hands.

 As a result many casualties were inflicted upon the invading German paratroopers during the battle.

 

24. Tsoliades, Evzones

 

 

The Evzones, or Evzoni, is the name of several historical elite light infantry and mountain units of the Greek Army.

 Today it refers to the Presidential Guard.

 At the time of the Balkan Wars there were eight Evzone battalions.

 They stood out for their fighting spirit and the terrible casualties they suffered especially among officers.

 Subsequently the Evzone units were increased to five regiments, which fought with distinction as elite shock troops in the First World War, the Asia Minor Campaign and the Greco-Italian War.

 

25. Greek Women

 

 

During the many wars Greece has endured; The Balkan wars, The War of Independence, WWI, and WII and then the Greek Civil War, Greek women kept the home fires burning and kept the family together despite the everyday hardships they faced.

 In many cases they fought the enemy along with their men.

Greek women are truly a force to be reckoned with!

 

Business Moguls

 

26. Aristotle “Ari” Onassis

 

 

 1906 – 1975

Born in Smyrna but fled with his family to Greece in 1922 during the Greco-Turkish War.

 Ari Onassis was a Greek shipping magnate, with the world’s largest privately owned shipping fleet and one of the world’s richest and most famous men.

  He was known for his business know-how, his wealth and his personal life, including his marriage to Athina Mary Livanos, daughter of shipping tycoon Stavros G. Livanos, his affair with opera singer Maria Callas and his marriage in 1968 to Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of late American President John F. Kennedy.

 He moved to Argentina in 1923, where he set himself up himself as a tobacco trader and later, during the Second World War, as a ship owner.

  Onassis was the founder of Olympic Airways in 1957.

 

27. Stavros Niarchos

 

 

1909 – 1996

Born Stavros Spyrou Niarchos in Athens, Greece

 Stavros Niarchos was a multi-billionaire Greek shipping tycoon, who, after 1952 had the the world’s biggest supertankers built for his fleet.

  Set in motion by the Suez Crisis and an increasing demand for oil, he and his rival Aristotle Onassis, became giants in global petroleum shipping.

Niarchos married five times, two of his wives were daughters of shipping magnate Stavros G. Livanos; Eugenia Livanos in 1947 and Athina Livanos Onassis, his third wife Eugenia’s sister and first wife of his rival, Onassis, in 1971.

 Both sisters died from overdoses; Eugenia in 1970, and Athina in 1974.

 

28.  Stelios Haji-Ioannou

 

 

1967 – Present

Born a Greek Cypriot in Athens, Greece

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, is a greek cypriot entrepreneur from a wealthy shipping family.

 He is known for easyJet, a low-cost airline and the Stelmar shipping line, which he established with funds of £30 million, provided by his father.

  easyJet, founded in 1995 marked the beginning of a series of ventures marketed under the “easy” brand, managed by easy Group and run by Stelios Haji-Ioannou .

 

Pioneers

 

29. Georgios Papanikolaou

 

 

1883 – 1962

 

Born Georgios  Nikolaou Papanikolaou in Kymi, Euboea, Greece

Georgios Papanikolaou was a Greek pioneer in cytopathology and early cancer detection and inventor of the “Pap smear”.

 He discovered that uterine cancer could be diagnosed by means of a vaginal smear in 1928 but the significance of his work was not recognized until the publication, (with Herbert Frederick Traut) of “Diagnosis of Uterine Cancer by the Vaginal Smear” in 1943.

 He became known for his invention of the Papanikolaou test; the Pap smear or Pap test, which is used worldwide for the detection and prevention of cervical cancer.

 Papanikolaou received the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research in 1950.

Papanikolaou’s portrait appeared on the Greek 10,000 drachma banknote of 1995–2001.

In 1978 his work was honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a 13-cent stamp for early cancer detection.

 

30. Spiros Louis

 

 

1873 – 1940

Born Spyridon Louis in Marousi, Athens

Spiros Louis, a water-carrier, shot to fame and became a national hero after winning the first modern-day Olympic marathon at the 1896 Summer Olympics.

 The Marathon consisted of thirteen athletes from Greece and four from other nations.

 During the marathon Spiros made a stop at an inn for a glass of wine, while there, he declared he would overtake all contestants before the end and win.

Such was his confidence!

 Back In the stadium, the spectators were on tenterhooks, the atmosphere was tense and as word spread that it was a Greek in front, the cry Hellene, Hellene!;  ‘Greek a Greek!’ was shouted out by thousands.

 When Louis was the first to arrive the stadium broke into an uproar; two Greek princes; Crown Prince Constantine and Prince George, ran to meet him and accompanied him on his final lap for a finishing time of 2:58:50.

 It is said the king offered Louis any gift his heart desired; all good old  Louis could think of was a donkey-drawn carriage to help him in his water-carrying business.

In 1926 Louis was arrested on charges of falsifying military documents and was sent to prison

After spending more than a year in jail he was found not guilty and was acquitted.

 I suspect there must have been quite a to do about that!

 His last public appearance came in 1936 when he was invited to be a guest of honour at the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin.

 After bearing the flag of the Greek team during the opening ceremonies he was received by Adolf Hitler and offered him an olive branch from Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, as a symbol of peace.

 Four years before he died, Louis recalled the moments after his victory:

  “That hour was something unimaginable and it still appears to me in my memory like a dream … Twigs and flowers were raining down on me. Everybody was calling out my name and throwing their hats in the air”

My very own Great Greek!

 

These are my top thirty Great Greeks.

What do you think, who have I missed?

I’m sure as soon as I publish this post I shall think of more:

I can feel a “Part two” coming on, be warned!

Here’s a bonus for you; the thirty first Great Greek:

MGG – My Greek God!

 

 

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