Category: Greece: ancient and modern

Heraion of Perachora - 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...

Anemoi - Wind Gods of Greek Mythology -Photo By SoulMyst

Anemoi – Greek Wind Gods and Turbulent Myths

    The Anemoi, in Greek mythology, are the four chief and the four minor wind gods, each one corresponding to the direction from whence they came. All are depicted as having large wings...

Located on a remote mountainside in the Peloponnese, the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae

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 (1922-1997) Greek-American Abstract Expresionist painter

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 of gratitude, an offering to Apollo on the feast of Pyanopsia

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 School of Aristotle - Gustav Adolph Spangenberg - c 1883 - 1888.

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 up...

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...

Constantinople “The refuge of strangers” - Once Capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Now Instanbul, Turkey

The Rise and Fall of Constantinople

    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...