Category: Greece: ancient and modern

Heraion of Perahora - Ancient Greek Sanctuary of Goddess Hera

Heraion of Perachora – Sanctuary of Goddess Hera

    Located a short distance from the resort town of Loutraki, known for its natural spring waters and about 75 kilometers west of Athens is the Heraion of Perachora.  This sanctuary is dedicated...

The Unique Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae – Peloponnese

The Unique Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae

    The Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae is a unique, one-of-a-kind ancient Greek sanctuary, dedicated to the god Apollo Epicurius (“Apollo the helper”). It is located approximately 230 km south of Athens,...

Theodoros Stamos - Greek American Abstract expressionist artist - (1922-1997)

Theodoros Stamos – Important First Generation Abstract Expressionist Painter

    Greek-American Theodoros Stamos, the youngest member of the original group of abstract expressionist painters, the “Irascibles”, which included Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko, is recognised as one of the...

The Eiresione: The votive Olive Branch

Pyanepsion – 4th Month of the Ancient Greek Attic Calendar

    The Attic or Athenian calendar (one of many ancient Greek calendars), a Festival calendar (lunisolar), with twelve months, each named after a festival or a god, was exclusive to the goings on...

(Imagined) 1687 explosion in the Parthenon from ignition of stored powder - Parthenon by Costa-Gavras - Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Hellenic Culture Organization.

The 1687 Explosion That Destroyed The Parthenon

    Today, the Parthenon, built on the Acropolis of Athens between 447 and 438 B.CE, is more or less a collection of roofless pillars.  However, although over the years there had been many...

The Peripatetic School of Aristotle – The Wandering School of Philosophy

The Peripatetic School of Aristotle – The Wandering School of Philosophy

    Greek philosopher, Aristotle (384–322 BC), one of the greatest and most influential philosophers of all time, as well as being an important figure in the history of science, mathematics and theater, founded...

The Great Fire of Thessaloniki as seen from the Thermaic Gulf - Popular Mechanics Magazine Dec 1919.

The Great Fire of Thessaloniki – 1917

    On the 18th of August 1917, Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece, home to thousands of refugees and one of the largest and most modern cities in Europe at the time, went...

The ancient Greek Acanthus Motif – Anthemion

Acanthus Motif – Greek Origins and Meanings

    The Greeks have regarded the acanthus as a symbolic, medicinal and healing plant since the times of the ancients. The acanthus, a hardy flowering perennial plant, sometimes also referred to as “bear’s...

Fall of the Byzantine Empire

The Fall of the Byzantine Empire

    How did a small ancient Greek colony, located in an eastern corner of the Mediterranean, known to the Greeks as Byzantion, come to be the capital of the mighty Roman Empire? It’s...

Ancient Greek Mystery - Who Destroyed the Sacred Herms of Athens?

Ancient Greek Mystery – Who Destroyed the Sacred Herms of Athens?

    One bright and sunny morning in June, the seventh to be exact, in the year of 415 B.C., the citizens of Athens, awoke to the news, that during the night, all over...