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Was Golden Ratio the Ancient Greek Secret to Harmony?

Doryphoros roman copy of ancient Greek statue
Artists and architects from ancient Greece to the modern era have relied on the golden ratio to make their works of art beautiful. Credit: Sergey Sosnovskiy, Flickr, CC BY 2.0

Over the years, millions of people have explored ancient Greece’s golden ratio, a magical number that has fascinated the minds of experts and amateurs alike for centuries.

At approximately 1.618, the golden ratio is not just an abstract figure of mathematics. Rather, it is a symbol of deep beauty that has inspired artists, musicians, and architects throughout history.

The mathematical marvel of the golden ratio

The golden ratio is a uniquely special number. It is symbolized by the Greek letter phi (Φ). To understand it, imagine cutting a line into two pieces so that the large piece divided by the small piece is the same as the whole line divided by the big piece.

This special way of splitting a line exemplifies the golden ratio. As we can tell, it is not just like any other number. This 1.618 figure is a magic number that pops up everywhere we look into it.

Golden ratio rectangle
Imagine cutting a line into two pieces so that the big piece divided by the small piece is the same as the whole line divided by the big piece. Credit: Ahecht (Original); Pbroks13 (Derivative work), Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

The golden ratio in nature and art

You can see this captivating and mysterious magic of harmony in the swirling of galaxies or the way plants grow. You can even witness it in the shapes of animals and humans. It is in the sparkling structure of crystals, too, and it’s not just in nature, as you might think.

Artists and architects from ancient Greece all the way to the modern era have used the golden ratio to make their works more aesthetically pleasing. Think about the ancient Parthenon in Athens or the famous paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, such as the “Vitruvian Man” and the “Mona Lisa.” What do they have in common? You guessed it—phi.

This is why the concept of the golden ratio goes beyond mere mathematics. It’s about finding a perfect balance that simply feels right when you look or listen to it. It connects the real world with the world of ideas in a uniquely mysterious way and mixes science with art and feelings with reality. This blend makes the golden ratio unbelievably fascinating. What is it, and why is it there? Is it even real, or is it just a coincidence that fascinates our imaginations? The answers to these questions remind us of the search for beauty and perfection in the patterns that surround us. It shows us how everything is harmoniously connected in this world, regardless of human understanding.

The ancient Greeks and the golden ratio

The ancient Greeks, as with anything else they dealt with, were onto something special with this ratio. They didn’t just use random numbers whilst walking around on a sunny evening near the beaches of the Aegean Sea. Many believe they used it in their art and buildings, statues, temples, and many other things, creating masterpieces that still dazzle us today. One can claim that the golden ratio became a secret recipe for perfection for the ancient Greeks.

Pythagoras and Euclid: Pioneers of mathematical beauty

Can you fathom that Pythagoras and Euclid, two of the most influential ancient Greeks, were fascinated by this humble number? Pythagoras saw the golden ratio as a cosmic harmony, while Euclid called it the “extreme and mean ratio.” These two mathematicians weren’t just number nerds, as someone might call them today. They were visionaries who shaped our world with their mathematical logic.

Next time you see and admire an ancient Greek temple or work of art, remember—there’s so much more to it than meets the eye of the 21st-century man. This is the reason why we always need to remember that the golden ratio isn’t just a number that was calculated thousands of years ago. It is a gateway to a world where beauty and math dance together in perfect harmony, creating results that please the human senses.

The Parthenon, on the Acropolis, Athens.
Many believe that the Greeks used the golden ratio to build aesthetically pleasing temples. Depiction of the Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens, Greece. Credit: Arch_Sam, Flickr, CC BY 2.0

Tracing the footsteps of these ancient Greek mathematic masterminds, we see that the history of the golden ratio is deeply interconnected with the legacies of Pythagoras and Euclid. Pythagoras, an expert in both mathematics and philosophy, perceived this ratio as a key to the harmony of the universe. Conversely, Euclid thought of it as an extreme element of perfection.

These historical figures combined their mathematical genius with the arts and architecture, setting the foundations of Western mathematics as we know them today. Their groundbreaking work on the golden ratio helped insert a “divine” elegance into masterpieces of Greek music, sculpture, and architecture among many other artworks and constructions.

Far from mere academics, these two figures were true mathematic pioneers. They charted the course of Western mathematics and enhanced Greek artistic and architectural achievements with a…touch of golden ratio magic!

Hence, whenever someone examines the Greek world of mathematics and art, the myths around the golden ratio provide us with a better idea as to what the ancient Greeks thought of it.

However, it’s not all that simple. Recent studies suggest the ancients might not have been as precise with it as we previously thought, casting doubts in what we thought the Greeks knew about the golden ratio. Of course, one might argue that in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t matter. This is especially so when we consider the marvels that the Greeks created, regardless of whether they were based on this ratio or not.

The golden ratio in modern creativity

In today’s world, the golden ratio still captivates us. It continues to spark creativity in design, art, and science among other areas. Our fascination with patterns and proportions echoes the desire of the Greeks to find beauty and meaning through harmony.

The mystery surrounding the ancient origins of the golden ratio continues to inspire modern thinkers. Even as we uncover that its historical use might have been more intricate than we thought, its legacy continues to inspire us to this day.

Using the golden ratio is like a timeless dance between the past and present, wherein this figure continues to apply its magic across different fields, connecting us to a legacy that has inspired so many.

The golden ratio’s lasting legacy

The journey of the golden ratio from ancient calculations to modern fascination shows that our search for beauty and order is never ending. While some believe that its impact on Greek art may be more legend than fact, it makes us wonder about the blend of math and creativity when it comes to artistic expression.

Whether rooted in history or myth, the golden ratio’s tale continues to inspire us to explore how balance and proportion shape our perception of the universe and our humble understanding of what is beautiful and what is not.

It prompts us to rethink how we define beauty and harmony today in a world so saturated with audio and visual stimuli.

Trump Unable to Get $464M Bond in New York Fraud Case

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Donald Trump is unable to find a private company to guarantee the full amount of his $464 million New York civil fraud judgment against him.
Donald Trump is unable to find a private company to guarantee the full amount of his $464 million New York civil fraud judgment against him. Credit: Gage Skidmore. CC BY 2.0/flickr

Former US President Donald Trump is unable to find a private company to guarantee the full amount of his $464 million New York civil fraud judgment against him, his lawyers have said in a court filing.

The filing today, Monday, March 18th, stated that obtaining a bond has proven to be “a practical impossibility,” adding that “diligent” efforts carried out to secure a bond have included “approaching about 30 surety companies through four separate brokers” and “countless hours negotiating with one of the largest insurance companies in the world.”

These efforts have shown that “obtaining an appeal bond in the full amount” of the judgement “is not possible under the circumstances presented,” the filing states.

Interest included, Trump owes $456.8 million. In total, he and co-defendants, which include his company and top executives, owe $467.3 million, according to the Associated Press. To get a bond, they would need to post collateral worth $557 million, Trump’s lawyers said. Trump’s two eldest sons must also pay millions of dollars in the case.

In addition to Trump’s fraud case payment

On top of ordering Trump to pay the penalty, New York Judge Arthur Engoron banned the former President from running any businesses in the state for three years. This was after he found Trump falsely inflated assets to secure better loan deals.

A judge paused Trump’s business ban last month but did not permit his bid to provide a smaller bond amount to cover the fine. In the latest fraud filing, Trump’s lawyers included an affidavit from a president of a private insurance firm who said that “simply put, a bond of this size is rarely, if ever, seen.”

“In the unusual circumstance that a bond of this size is issued, it is provided to the largest public companies in the world, not to individuals or privately held businesses,” the lawyers added.

Trump’s team also said that bond companies would not accept “hard assets such as real estate as collateral” for the bond but only cash or “cash equivalents,” such as investments that can be quickly liquidated, as reported by the BBC.

According to a Forbes estimate, Trump is worth around $2.6 billion, and he testified last year that he had $400 million in liquid assets. Yet, as his company is private, his finances are not clear. According to the Financial Times, “Some of the documents published on Monday by Trump’s legal team show that Deutsche Bank, one of his top lenders, had made drastic downward adjustments to his stated net worth and liquid assets in its own credit reports.”

However, the $464 million judgement is not the former President’s only expense. He was ordered to pay $83 million in January after losing a defamation case to E. Jean Carroll, a woman he was found to have sexually abused. Trump has already posted a bond in that case.

New York’s attorney general has vowed to seize Trump’s assets if he does not pay the fraud penalty. The fine will continue accruing interest by at least $112,000 per day until he makes the payment.

A GoFundMe page was also started in February to help Trump raise the money he has been ordered to pay, with the efforts being organized by Elena Cardone, the wife of property tycoon Grant Cardone. The MAGA fan has so far raised just $1.3 million towards the former President’s expenses.

Video of Mysterious ‘Giant Skull’ at Meteora, Greece Goes Viral

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Meteora, Greece, where the 'giant skull' was discovered by two hikers.
Meteora, Greece, where the ‘giant skull’ was discovered by two hikers. Credit: OneEighteen. CC BY 2.0/flickr

A video of a ‘giant skull,’ wedged between two stone pillars at Greece’s Meteora rock complex, a UNESCO-listed site at the northwest edge of the Thessaly Plain near the mountains of Pindos, has gone viral on social media.

The complex, featuring enormous stone pillars topped with ancient monasteries, has people believing there are age-old secrets yet to be revealed. In fact, the social media video, taken by unsuspecting hikers, claims to have uncovered one.

Mystery of the Meteora giant skull

The two hikers were exploring Meteora’s towering sandstone structures when they noticed an unusual sight. Squeezed within the dark crevice between two stony escarpments was an object that appeared to be a giant human skull.

The explorers took a video of their discovery, and the footage has since been circulating on social media, with viewers adamant the pair had stumbled upon the remains of a giant. Sharing it to her TikTok account, paranormal enthusiast Myra Moore said, “Now, I’ve zoomed in, I’ve zoomed out, changed the coloring and to me, it truly looks like a skull and not some sort of weird rock formation.”

@_theparanormalchic

Was a giant skull found in the rock formations of Meteora, Greece? #theparanormalchic #meteora #greece #giantskull #skull #ancients #nephilim #nephilimgiants #giants #giant #paranormales #supernatural #creature #monsters #cryptid #paranormal #paranormalinvestigator #investigate #rocks #rockformation #petrified #greecetravel #history #ancientbeings #secrets #truth #uncoveringthetruth #fyp

♬ original sound – Myra Moore-Official Account!

Others who commented on the Meteora skull video seemed to agree, with one writing: “You’re spot on. That is a giant humanoid skull. And the little bit underneath it could be the rest of the skeleton.” Another commenter posited that the alleged skull’s owner may have gone climbing and fallen. “Looks like it’s wearing clothes too,” they added.

Others rejected the suggestion that the object was a skull, making particular reference to the nature of decomposition. “It’s not a skull,” one commenter argued, as “the bottom jaw would have dropped off a long time ago.”

This latest discovery is not the first time “evidence” of so-called giants has been uncovered at an ancient site. In 1911, archaeologists unearthed mummies that apparently measured between eight and 10 feet tall in a cave in Nevada. They were subsequently dubbed the Lovelock Giants. Not long after this find, two skeletons measuring 8.5 and 10 feet in height, respectively, were reportedly discovered in a dry lake bed near the Lovelock site.

Local myths of Meteora

Meteora, however, is most commonly known not for giants (or their skulls) but for a different mythical beast. In such magnificent and surreal rocks, it is inevitable for the imagination to conjure up mythical creatures.

Thus, the Dragon’s Cave has earned its name. It is nestled at the southern base of the rock housing one of Meteora’s six remaining monasteries, the Varlaam Monastery. According to local lore, a terrifying dragon once dwelled there, subdued by a divine intervention—a lightning bolt that shattered part of its lair, entombing it beneath rock fragments.

This cave still exists today, penetrating the entirety of the rock’s thickness just like a tunnel. Nowhere else in the rocky expanse of Meteora will you find a cave quite like it. At its base lie scattered boulders, hindering passage from one opening to the next.

Similarly mysterious is the rock hosting another creature, situated in Rouxiori, a once-inhabited area of Meteora now deserted (with its residents assimilated into the area of Kastraki). The half-humanoid, half-beast apparition—with a beard trailing to the ground—would materialize and vanish within a darkened cavern.

Unlike the numerous accessible caves in Meteora, local legends recount how the elders of Kastraki refrained from utilizing this specific cave for their livestock. They often discovered slaughtered lambs with no visible signs of injury there. The terrifying creature was deemed responsible for this unexplainable phenomenon.

Trojan War: Unveiling the Truth About Warfare in Homer’s Iliad

Achilles fighting Memnon during the Trojan War, depicted on a vase from Vulci, 510 BCE.
Achilles fighting Memnon during the Trojan War, depicted on a vase from Vulci, 510 BCE. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

The Iliad, composed by Homer in c. 650 BCE, is a cornerstone of ancient Greek literature and contains numerous descriptions of warfare. For many years, scholars argued that its portrayal of warfare in the Trojan War comes from accurately preserved traditions originating in Bronze Age Mycenaean Greece.

However, although some current researchers still argue for this, it has mostly fallen out of favor within serious Homeric scholarship. What do scholars now understand about the way that warfare is depicted in Homer’s Iliad?

Supposed Mycenaean warfare

Firstly, consider why scholars came to the old conclusion about Mycenaean warfare in Homer’s Iliad in the first place. The most obvious reason for this is the fact that Homer describes many of the Greek weapons as being made of bronze.

It was predominantly the Bronze Age Greeks, of course, who used bronze for weapons. The Greeks of the Iron Age mostly used iron for their weapons. This would include the Greeks of Homer’s own time, even going back as far as before the turn of the first millennium BCE.

Another piece of evidence for this understanding was the apparent description of a tower shield in the Iliad. The Greeks of the Archaic Era, Homer’s time, did not use tower shields. However, the Mycenaean Greeks did regularly use this type of shield.

An additional reason for concluding that Homer’s Iliad depicts Mycenaean warfare comes from the spears. Homer describes them as being incredibly long – much longer than the spears used by the Greeks of his own era.

One additional reason for this conclusion is related to Homer’s depiction of chariot warfare in the Iliad. We know that the Mycenaean Greeks made extensive use of chariots in their battles. They used shock tactics, whereby large groups of charioteers would charge straight at the enemy. They also used chariots as mobile platforms from which to shoot arrows or attack with spears and javelins.

Contemporary armor in the Iliad

With this evidence in mind, one striking fact is that Homer’s descriptions of the armor of the Greeks is virtually a perfect description of the common armor from his own time.

The armor of each Greek soldier, including the greaves on his legs, the zoster on his waist, the cuirass on his torso, and the helmet with a plume of horsehair, is standard Greek hoplite armor of the eighth and seventh centuries BCE.

For this reason, scholars widely recognize that Homer was using descriptions of Greek warfare from his own era when composing the Iliad. This being the case, what can we conclude regarding those few aforementioned examples in which his descriptions of warfare seem more similar to that of the Mycenaean Era?

Professor Hans van Wees, the respected Homeric scholar, addressed this issue in profound detail in his two-part article The Homeric Way of War. In this example of more recent Homeric scholarship, we find a more logical and consistent interpretation of the warfare in Homer’s Iliad.

Exaggerations for the sake of heroic glory

One key issue that researchers have often ignored is the genre of the Iliad. Homer did not compose it to be a strictly realistic account of real-world warfare. No, rather, it presents a heavily mythologized version of events.

The gods get involved in the fighting and even the human characters perform completely superhuman feats. For example, one of his characters hurls a large boulder with one hand. Obviously, Homer did not compose the Iliad with real-world practicality in mind.

As Hans van Wees points out, correctly understanding the Iliad in this way singlehandedly addresses almost all the examples of supposed Mycenaean warfare in the poem.

The bronze weapons

Mycenaean sword
Mycenaean bronze sword with a gold hilt and featuring a lion motif, from Grave Circle B, Mycenae. Credit: Gary Todd / CC0 / Wikimedia Commons

For example, bronze was a more ‘glorious’ metal than iron. That is why the ancient Greeks generally used bronze more than iron as a decorative metal (we see this in Homer’s description of King Alcinous’ palace in the Odyssey, for instance).

Therefore, it makes sense that he would want to depict the Greeks’ weapons as being bronze. His heroes needed to fight with weapons made of glorious metals, not common ones. Real-world warfare was not a consideration.

That is why we also see Homer describe some weapons as being made of gold, silver, and tin. These descriptions do not fit any historical era at all. Evidently, the metals of the weapons in the Iliad are simply not historical. Notably though, Homer does describe tools as being made of iron. Since these are just common items, not the weapons of mighty heroes, it makes sense that Homer felt no need to exaggerate when describing them.

The large weapons and armor

The same principle applies to the issue of the very long spears and the tower shield. The spears are depicted as being incredibly long simply because that fits the genre of the Iliad. Homer was exaggerating for dramatic effect. There is no reason to take these descriptions of long spears in Homer’s Iliad as being memories of the long spears of the Mycenaean Era.

Regarding the supposed tower shield, Homer never actually describes it as such. In fact, he only ever describes the shields as being circular. This fits the shields that the Greeks of his own time commonly used.

The supposed evidence for this tower shield is that, when describing Ajax’s equipment, Homer mentions that the shield went down to his feet. Again, let us understand this in context, in view of the genre of Homer’s poem. With all the shields only ever being presented as circular, it is evident that Ajax’s shield was also circular.

What is remarkable about it is not the shape, which Homer does not specifically comment on, but the size, which is the point of the description. While it would obviously be impractical to fight with a circular shield that large in real life, we have already seen that Homer was not concerned with real-world practicality. Otherwise, he would not have described weapons made of gold, silver and tin.

Chariot warfare in Homer’s Iliad

What about the argument that Homer’s descriptions of chariot warfare in the Iliad matches the Mycenaean Era? In reality, scholars widely recognize that the way in which the Greeks use chariots in the Iliad is completely different to the way that the Mycenaean Greeks historically used them.

The shock tactics and the role as mobile platforms for archers is virtually unseen in the Iliad. As a matter of fact, the characters essentially use them just for transport. The charioteer would charge into the battle lines, the warrior would jump off, and the charioteer would withdraw until the warrior needed to retreat for a time.

While this bears no relation to Mycenaean warfare, it is identical to how warfare on horseback is depicted in scenes contemporary with Homer’s life. A warrior would dismount while his squire would stay back with the horse.

While evidence for how chariots were used in Homer’s day is lacking, the important fact is that they were used. It is a misconception that they fell out of use at the end of the Mycenaean Era. In reality, everything indicates that Homer’s depiction of chariot warfare in the Iliad is essentially accurate to his own era.

‘Evdokia’ the 1200-Year-Old Olive Tree on Corfu, Greece

Olive tree Corfu Greece
The ‘Evdokia’ olive tree in Corf was planted around 928 AD. Credit: AMNA

An imposing olive tree on Corfu, known as “Evdokia” is among the oldest trees in Greece, estimated to be between 1086 and 1200 years old.

A recent study by German scientists from the Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden) determined that the tree is around 1086 years old (+/- 10 yrs). They believe it was planted sometime around 928 AD, before the island’s successive occupations by Saracens, Normans, and Venetians.

“Their study proved that the centuries-old olive tree is 1200 years old, with a margin of error of 10 percent,” Konofaou, founder of the Hellenic Union of Heptanesians (HUH) – a name referring to the hepta, or seven, main islands in the Ionian Sea explained to AMNA.

Konofaou said that the islanders decided to contact dendrochronology specialists at TU Dresden’s Institute of Forest Botany and Forest Zoology independently, after a series of failed attempts to attract the interest of academics and government officials in Athens.

The tree is one of three especially enormous olive trees on Corfu and part of the Heptanesians Union’s efforts to promote all three areas in which they are located as alternative tourist destinations.

Evdokia is considered one of the ten largest and oldest living trees in all of Europe.

Konofaou said that schools and tourists on Corfu have expressed interest in visiting the tree, while the owner of the parcel of land where the tree is located has conceded the rights for the tree’s promotion and exploitation by members of the HUH.

Oldest olive tree in Greece is on Crete

However, the olive tree in Corfu is not the oldest in Greece. The oldest olive tree in the world is believed to be located in the village of Ano Vouves of Kissamos in Chania, Crete.

Olive tree Greece
The most ancient olive tree in the world, in Crete, Greece. Credit: Dimitra Damian/Greek Reporter

The ancient tree is 3000 years old, as determined by the international scientific community.

The ancient olive tree in Vouves has a trunk with a circumference of 12.5 meters (41 feet), and a diameter of 4.6 meters (15 feet). It belongs to the local tree variety of tsounati and was grafted at a height of three meters onto a wild olive tree.

Because of the grafting, its trunk has been so beautifully shaped by nature that it resembles a sculpture. In 1990, after a unanimous decision in the prefecture of Chania, the Vouves Olive Tree was declared a Natural Monument of great importance due to its status as the world’s oldest tree of its kind.

The fruits of the  ancient olive tree produce the best olive oil in the world, making the area the cradle of olive cultivation on the island of Crete. The trunk of the tree is now hollow as there is no heartwood, so the olive is renewed outward and the heartwood gradually rots away.

Since the olive tree is constantly renewing its wood, it has served as a symbol of immortality since ancient times.

Another ancient olive tree on the island of Evia was destroyed during the wildfires of 2021. The 2,500-year-old tree was located in the olive grove of Rovia, and was such an enduring symbol of the landscape that the ancient geographer and philosopher Strabo featured it in his writings.

The tree was large, with a trunk so wide ten people could fit along its diameter. The tree was fertile with olives until it fell victim to the wildfire.

 

When Is Greek Orthodox Easter and Dates Leading Up to It

dormition of virgin mary 15 august
Greek Easter is the most important religious feast of the year. Credit: Wikimedia Commons/ Public Domain

The period leading up to the Greek Orthodox Easter, or Pascha, the most important religious feast of the year, is called Sarakosti, signifying 40 days of Great Lent.

It started on Monday 18 March when Greek Orthodox celebrate “Kathara Deftera,” Greek for “Clean Monday.”

Clean Monday also puts an end to the riotous Carnival celebrations that preceded it, inviting all Orthodox Christians to leave behind the sinful attitudes associated with Carnival festivities — and non-fasting foods, which were largely consumed during the three weeks of the Carnival.

Important dates in the countdown to Greek Orthodox Easter

Sarakosti, 18 March- 3 May 2024

Sarakosti is considered one of the most important annual feasts in Greece, commencing the 40-day period of Great Lent for the Greek Orthodox Church.

The feast begins on the first day of the 7th week before the Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday. During the Sarakosti people refrain from eating meat, dairy or fish but they are allowed to eat seafood.

It concludes on May 3 with the Presanctified Liturgy on Friday of the Sixth Week.

The purpose of Great Lent is to prepare the faithful not only to commemorate but to enter into the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus.

mediterranean diet depression
A traditional Great Lent spread. Credit: Kyriakos Persidis / Greek Reporter

Lent is not for the sake of Lent itself, as fasting is not for the sake of fasting. Rather, these are means by which and for which the individual believer prepares himself to reach for, accept and attain the calling of their Savior.

Therefore, the significance of Great Lent is highly appraised, not only by the monks who gradually increased the length of the period, but also by the lay people themselves.

The Akathist Hymn

The Akathist Hymn, which is chanted on the first five successive Fridays of Lent in the Eastern Orthodox Church, is a profound devotional poem dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

The first part of the hymn (Friday, March 22) is about the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary by the Angel. It describes Mary’s surprise at the news, her visit to her mother and Joseph’s doubts as to her innocence.

The second part (Friday, March 29) is about the birth of Christ, the worship of the Shepherds and Magi, the flight to Egypt and the visit to Saint Simeon in the Temple.

In the third part (Friday, April 5) the hymn directs our attention to the renewal of the world by Christ’s coming, and the amazement of the Angels and the wise men at the sight of the Incarnation of God’s Son.

The fourth (Friday, April 12) and the last part (Friday, March 19) is once more a lyric and rhetorical praise of the Virgin Mary, whom the poet adorns with the most beautiful of adjectives, asking her to accept his poetical offering and to intercede for the salvation of the human race from earthly sin.

Saturday of Lazarus and Palm Sunday 27-28 April 2024 

Lazarus Saturday is counted among the major feasts of the Church. It refers to the moveable feast before Palm Sunday to which it is liturgically linked. It celebrates the raising of Lazarus of Bethany. Bethany is recorded in the New Testament as a small village in Judaea, the home of the siblings Mary of Bethany, Martha, and Lazarus, as well as that of Simon the Leper.

Greek Orthodox Easter
Entry into Jerusalem by Pietro Lorenzetti. Public Domain

John’s gospel reports that “Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.”

The hymnography of the feast interprets the theological significance of the event. Accordingly, the resurrection of Lazarus is viewed as a prophecy in action. It prefigures both the resurrection of Christ, as well as the general resurrection of all the dead at the end of the age.

Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels.

Palm Sunday marks the first day of Holy Week.

Holly Week 28 April-4 May 2024

This year, Orthodox Holy Week will be observed from April 28 to May 4.

In Holy Week, also called Passion Week, the church’s liturgies run for hours and hours. The gospels read in church during this time recount the Passion of Christ, the painful days that led Him to the Cross and finally to the Resurrection.

Holy Monday’s liturgy commemorates the blessed and noble Joseph and the fig tree which was cursed and withered by the Lord, followed by the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday and the Passion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. Orthodox Holy Week concludes with Christ’s death and descent into Hades. The week-long observation celebrates and honors the life of Christ.

Liturgy on the Tuesday of Holy Week commemorates the parable of the Ten Virgins. It is about the preparation of the soul and wakefulness.

On Holy Wednesday, Orthodox churches hold the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. This very ancient Liturgy is a Vesper Service held during the evening.

Holy Thursday liturgies are the most heartbreaking of all, as Jesus Christ’s betrayal is recalled, and he is led to his death at the end of the day.

Greek Easter traditions
The procession of the Epitaphios on Good Friday. Credit:  Maggas, CC BY 3.0/Wikipedia Commons

On Holy Friday, church bells throughout Greece ring mournfully all day long, and in the evening there is the Procession of the Epitaphios—a recreation of the tomb of Christ—in each parish.

On Holy Saturday, psalms are read and Resurrection hymns are sung, telling of Christ’s descent into Hades: “Today Hades cried out groaning,” the psalmist says.

Easter Sunday, May 5, 2024

Greek Orthodox Easter 2023 is on May, 5.

Orthodox Easter Day, which takes place on the Sunday after the first full moon after Passover, is a sacred season and the most significant celebration of the Eastern Christian churches or Orthodox churches.

Every Easter, Greeks thank and honor Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins, and we celebrate the miracle of the Resurrection, the rise of Jesus Christ from the dead, and the promise of an afterlife.

Related: Why Orthodox and Catholic Easter Are on Different Dates

When the Acropolis and Athens Were Burned by the Persians

persian destruction athens acropolis burned
The Parthenon was built decades after the Persian destruction of Athens and the Acropolis. Credit: Gary Bembridge/Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-2.0

In 480 BC, Persian forces led by King Xerxes I burned down the city of Athens, as well as the Acropolis, in what is called “the Persian Destruction of Athens.”

The destruction of the great city took place during the Persian Wars, a series of conflicts which began in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC.

Amidst the clashes during the fifty-year war, there was an interbellum period from 490 to 480 during which both sides accumulated forces and began plotting their next moves.

One of the key battles which took place after this interbellum period was the famed Battle of Thermopylae in which the vastly outnumbered Spartan forces fought and eventually fell to the massive Persian army in the summer of 480 BC.

After defeating the Spartans at Thermopylae, Xerxes and his army had a clear path to invading Attica by way of Boeotia.

Sensing the coming invasion, Athenian citizens were evacuated to the nearby island of Salamis, which is located just off the coast of the city in the Saronic Gulf.

Acropolis home to archaic temples, sculptures before the Persians burned Athens

When the Persians entered Athens, they were instructed to burn and destroy the city, which included all of the archaic structures on the Acropolis.

As the ancient Greek historian Herodotus described, some Athenians decided to stay behind in the city, hoping to protect their sacred temples, and were killed.

“Those Persians who had come up first betook themselves to the gates, which they opened, and slew the suppliants,” said Herodotus, “and when they had laid all the Athenians low, they plundered the temple and burnt the whole of the acropolis.”

At the time of the invasion, the Acropolis was home to two magnificent temples, the Hecatompedon, named for its massive size of one hundred feet in length (its feet were called “podes”), and a smaller ancient temple dedicated to Athena Polias.

The Hecatompedon, which stood in the same place where the Parthenon stands today, was built out of limestone around 550 BC.

It was adorned with pediment sculptures that featured lions eating a bull, Hercules slaying the Triton, a mysterious three-bodied, three-headed creature whose identity still inspires controversy amongst art historians and archaeologists to this day. The surviving fragments of these sculptures are housed in the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

The smaller temple was built alongside the Hecatompedon around 520 BC, and its pedimentary sculptures depicted the “Gigantomachy,” or the battle between the giants and the Olympian gods.

While scholars know about the existence of these structures and their sculptural elements due both to descriptions of the sites before the invasion in ancient sources, they also owe much to the ancient Athenians themselves.

When they returned to their city after it was pillaged, the Athenians first went to the Acropolis, the holiest site in the city, to help preserve what remained of the holy temples.

What they found there was complete destruction. The invading forces had burned, looted, and vandalized the temples.

In a religious ceremony, the Athenians dug out deep holes on the Acropolis and filled them with whatever survived the Persian invasion, namely whatever was considered desecrated—thus allowing archaeologists to uncover these remnants centuries later.

The first person to excavate these buried masterpieces was French archaeologist Charles Ernest Beule, who worked on the site from 1863 to 1866.

athens acropolis burned persian destruction
The Calf Bearer and other ancient masterpieces that miraculously survived the Persian destruction of Athens when the Acropolis was burned. Credit: Public Domain

Archaeologists uncovered treasures in pits dug after Acropolis and Athens burned during Persian invasion

Greek archaeologist Panagiotis Kavvadias, with the assistance of architects Wilhelm Dörpfeld and Georg Kawerau, discovered some of the most famous archaic and early classical Greek sculptures in history—the Kritios Boy, the Calf Bearer, and the Angelitos Athena—amongst the items buried on the Acropolis during excavations conducted from 1885 to 1890.

German archaeologists also uncovered countless masterpieces in these incredible holes filled with ancient artifacts. The finds were so abundant that the Germans coined all the sculptures, architectural fragments, and other objects found on the Acropolis “Perserschutt,” or “Persian debris.”

Archaeologists were able to determine that the artifacts found in the holes were likely placed there in the wake of the Persian destruction of the city, as there were clear signs that they had been burned and struck forcefully.

In addition to destroying and damaging countless sculptures, the Persian forces also took some masterworks back with them. Xerxes himself is said to have taken back a bronze sculpture of the “Tyrant Slayers,” Harmodius and Aristogeiton, and displayed it in the city of Susa.

When Alexander the Great invaded the city two hundred years later, he was able to bring back the bronze statue to Greece.

After the city was burned, the Persian forces faced a stunning loss in the Battle of Salamis, and much of the army retreated back to Persia. The only forces that stayed in Greece were under the control of Mardonius, who left Attica and camped out with his troops in northern Greece.

Thus, the Athenians were able to safely return to their city, which is when they buried the desecrated items on the Acropolis and began to plan the reconstruction of their city.

This relative peace did not last long, however, as Mardonius commenced a second invasion of the city in 479 BC after a peace deal between the Greeks and the Persians fell through.

Once again, Athenians evacuated the city, and the Persians completely demolished anything they had managed to rebuild and whatever survived the first destruction of the city.

Herodotus describes massive destruction in the wake of the second invasion, writing that Mardonius “burnt Athens, and utterly overthrew and demolished whatever wall or house or temple was left standing.”

After the Greeks won the Battle of Plataea later that year, they were able to move back to Athens and begin rebuilding the city once again under the guidance of Themistocles.

The great Athenian leader used the remnants of the Hectompedon and the temple to Athena to build the North Wall of the Acropolis, and spolia, or pieces of other older structures, were also used to build the famous Themistoclean Wall, which surrounded ancient Athens.

The Parthenon that stands on the Acropolis to this day was built decades later in 438 BC under the leadership of Pericles.

Alexander the Great burned down palace of Persepolis in retaliation

The Persians were not the only ancient forces to burn down important sites during war. In fact, Greek forces under Alexander the Great razed the palace of Persepolis in 330 BC while conquering the Middle East.

According to ancient historians, such as Plutarch, Arrian of Nicodema, and Diodorus Siculus, the magnificent palace of Persepolis was burned as retribution for the Persian destruction of Athens over a century earlier.

They describe a scene in which Alexander burned the site after drinking and reveling with his troops and his courtesan Thaïs, who traveled with him throughout Asia.

In many sources, Thaïs seems to push Alexander to do it, and Diodorus even claims she was one of the first to set the fire. He wrote:

Thaïs the courtesan was leading the whole performance. She was the first, after the king, to hurl her blazing torch into the palace. As the others all did the same, immediately the entire palace area was consumed, so great was the conflagration…

It was remarkable that the impious act of Xerxes, king of the Persians, against the acropolis at Athens should have been repaid in kind after many years by one woman, a citizen of the land which had suffered it, and in sport.

According to Diodorus, one of Alexander’s generals Parmenion had previously advised his ruler not to burn the palace but to preserve it, as it was not truly his property to destroy. He also believed that it would give the Persians the idea that Alexander was an unjust conqueror.

Demetrios: The Ancient Greek Who Traveled to England

Demetrios England
The ancient votive plaque at the Yorkshire Museum which was inscribed by Demetrios almost 2,000 years ago ‘to Oceanus and Tethys’. Credit: Yorkshire Museum

A man called Demetrios was among the first of the ancient Greeks to have traveled to England more than two millennia ago.

Two small copper-alloy tablets almost two thousand years old in the Yorkshire Museum in Central England have provided evidence of his travel to the far-flung outpost at the edge of the known world.

They date from the first century AD, when the Romans had only just arrived to found the Roman city of Eboracum (York).

Demetrios dedicated something to two other men. His inscription, which was found under the railway station in today’s city of York, reads:

”ΩΚΕΑΝΟΙ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΘΥΙ ΔΕΜΗΤΡΙΟΣ,” which is Greek for ”Demetrios (dedicates this) to Oceanus and Tethys.”

It has long been thought that Demetrios might be the very Demetrius of Tarsus, who, according to the Roman historian Plutarch, had been sent to Britain by the Roman emperor to observe for himself how the empire’s newest and most far-flung province was getting on.

That inscription certainly looks suspiciously like a vote of thanks to the gods for a safe arrival across the sea to these far-flung shores, admits York archaeologist Peter Addyman.

Speaking to York Press, Addyman said: “It’s quite extraordinary,” he said. “There’s this chap from way, way across the empire, sent by the emperor, and he must have come to York, and he is thanking the gods for crossing the ocean!”

Demetrios England
The second of the tablets at the Yorkshire Museum, this one inscribed by Demetrios 2,000 years ago to ‘the gods of the hegemon’s headquarters’. Credit: Yorkshire Museum

Ancient Greek Demetrios inscribed the tablets in England

But is the Demetrios who inscribed those tablets nearly two thousand years ago really the same one who was sent by the emperor on a mission to Britain?

A scholarly article by academic Kelsey Koon in the latest edition of The Archaeological Journal concludes that he probably was.

The tablets were discovered in 1840 during archaeological investigations connected with the building of the old railway station inside York’s city walls.

They appear to be of about the right age to have been dedicated by Demetrios of Tarsus, a man who, according to Plutarch, had “by the emperor’s order…made voyage for inquiry and observation” and who had recently journeyed “homeward to Tarsus from Britain.”

The debate over whether they were inscribed by Demetrios of Tarsus himself has aged in scholarly circles for over a century.

But in her paper in The Archaeological Journal, Koon marshals impressive evidence to conclude that they were. “The use of the Greek language, the military-style inscription format…bring to mind a native Greek speaker embedded in the military enclave of York,” she writes.

“Demetrios of Tarsus, an educated scholar with Greek roots on an official imperial mission… would certainly fit the bill,” she added. Further evidence lies in the punched dots used for the Greek inscription.

The York plaques are the only known examples of this in Britain, but the style is similar to that used in tablets found in the Near Eastfrom where Demetrios hailed.

As a Greek, Demetrios would also have been familiar with Alexander the Great’s alters in India, which bore similar inscriptions.

He “perhaps saw himself doing the same thing at the western edge of the known world that Alexander had done at its eastern limit,” Koon writes.

“Given the uniqueness of these votives…it seems that these tablets can in fact be attributed to Demitrius of Tarsus.”

Pytheas of Massalia considered the first Greek to visit England

Despite the fact that Great Britain is on the opposite end of the European continent from the nation of Greece, it has always been a place where Greeks had their own presence. For centuries, their numbers were relatively small, but their influence was quite significant throughout history.

Pytheas of Massalia, a geographer from the Greek colony of Massalia, the modern-day city of Marseille in southern France, was the first Greek to have been known to visit Great Britain.

He was also the first-ever Mediterranean to reach and explore the totality of Britain, including the wilderness and coasts of what is now Ireland in the early third century BC.

Pytheas is believed to be the man who first used the term ”Britain.”

In his work ”Periplous” (”Circumnavigation”), he is quoted using the term ”Bretannike,” which is Greek for Britannic.

This was a Greek transliteration of what some of the Celts who lived on the island during these years called their land: ”Ynys Prydein,” most likely from Welsh for ”the island of Britain.”

Bridge Renamed in Memory of Greek-American Officer Pavlos Pallas

Pavlos Pallas
Pavlos Pallas’ responding to the World Trade Center attack resulted in cancer that took his life in 2011. Credit: Port Authority Police

Greek-American police officer Pavlos Pallas who died from 9/11-related cancer will forever be remembered in Queens.

Last week, the 94th Street/Grand Central overpass to LaGuardia Airport was named after him.

His courageous work responding to the World Trade Center attack resulted in cancer that took his life in 2011. Family members remembered the late officer at the ceremony.

“For him, it came down to this: do the right thing toward your fellow men, take care of your community, and do it all with a smile without taking yourself too seriously,” said Margarita Loukas, Pallas’ widow.

Pallas’s family members, including his wife Margarita Loukas, his parents Dino and Georgia, his brother Andrew, his godmother Anna, and his nieces Konstantina and Eleni, attended the renaming ceremony.

Also present was retired NYPD K-9 Unit officer John Pappas, who had named his police dog partner after Pallas as a tribute to their close friendship.

Pallas joined the NYPD in 1998 and policed some of New York’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods. When the terror attacks happened on September 11, 2001, he spent a considerable amount of time in the rescue and recovery efforts.

Shortly after that, he joined the Port Authority Police Department, where he patrolled some of the busiest transportation facilities in the world. Unfortunately, as a result of his time helping others at the World Trade Center, he developed brain cancer and passed away on March 14, 2011.

Pavlos Pallas among more than 50,000 who suffered from cancer

As of 2023, the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund has paid over $12 billion in compensation to victims suffering or who have died as a result of 9/11-related cancers and illnesses.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, government funds have compensated more than 53,531 people for cancer and other serious illnesses resulting from 9/11 toxic dust that included chemicals, pulverized glass, asbestos, and concrete among other things at Ground Zero.

The dust from Ground Zero, which spread throughout Lower Manhattan and to certain areas of Brooklyn, New Jersey, and even Staten Island, contained many known carcinogens. These included soot, benzene, cement, asbestos, heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and dioxins.

Inhaling the toxic dust from Ground Zero is linked to more concerns than decreased lung capacity, lung cancers, and trouble breathing. Ground Zero exposure may have created a damaging cycle of inflammatory T-cell production for those who spent extended time near Ground Zero.

However, an increased risk of cancer does not just affect first responders. Anyone who spent a significant amount of time south of Houston Street in the year following September 11, 2001 may have been exposed to the cancer-causing dust.

The 9/11 cancer rates also aren’t the only vital metric needing research, as other illnesses and health conditions continue to plague survivors.

New York Fire Department research shows that about nine percent of firefighters exposed to the dust at Ground Zero during the first response still report a persistent cough twenty years later. About twenty-two percent experience shortness of breath and forty percent have chronic sinus problems or acid reflux.

Related: The Greek-American Victims of 9/11

Turkish Anger as Man Unfurls Greek Flag in Hagia Sophia

Greek flag Hagia Sophia
The Greek visitor wrote on Instagram: “My beloved city, forever Greek.” Credit: Apostolos Papatheodorou/Instagram

A man unfurled the Greek flag inside the historic site of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul causing anger in Turkey.

Apostolos Papatheodorou, a Greek visitor, caused a stir when he proudly displayed the Greek flag and captioned his Instagram post with the words, “My beloved city, forever Greek.”

Wave of reactions in Turkey over Greek flag in Hagia Sophia

The image quickly spread across Turkish media platforms, triggering a wave of reactions. Many Turks denounced the act as provocative, questioning how such an action could be permitted within a symbolically significant location.

Some even directed their ire towards Turkish authorities for allegedly allowing the incident to occur unchecked.

Among the responses, some took a more aggressive tone, resorting to veiled threats and references to historical events. Comments such as “I hope you know how to swim” and “The sea is cold, my love” drew implicit parallels to the tragic Smyrna disaster, a dark chapter in Greek-Turkish relations.

Hagia Sophia, the symbolic center of the Greek Orthodox faith

Hagia Sophia in Istanbul remains the symbolic center of the Greek Orthodox faith even almost six centuries after its fall to the Ottomans and its conversion to a mosque.

From 537 to 1453, the “Great Church,” as the Byzantines called it, was the Eastern heart of Christianity.

The massive temple held a total of twenty-three thousand worshipers, and 525 priests, deacons, and chanters served its liturgies.

It is commonly believed that the last Orthodox liturgy in Hagia Sophia in Constantinople took place on May 28, 1453, just one day before the fateful moment that the beacon of Orthodoxy fell into Ottoman hands.

A brave Greek priest managed to hold an Orthodox liturgy in Hagia Sophia in 1919 at a time when the iconic cathedral functioned as a mosque.

Eleftherios Noufrakis (1872-1941) from Rethymno, Crete was the man who performed this act of heroism out of his love for God and his country. Inexplicably, Father Noufrakis’ name is not even a footnote in the modern history of Greece.

Thanks to a book, Archimandritis Eleftherios Noufrakis: An Emblematic Figure of Hellenism, by Antonios Stivaktakis, the fascinating story of “Papa Lefteris” has now come to light.

Despite the ravages of time, Hagia Sophia remains universally acknowledged as one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. It was pronounced a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

In early July 2020, the Turkish Council of State annulled the Cabinet’s 1934 decision to establish the museum, revoking the monument’s status, and a subsequent decree by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the reclassification of Hagia Sophia to a mosque.

This redesignation is controversial, invoking condemnation from the Turkish opposition, UNESCO, the World Council of Churches, and many international leaders.

Related: Hagia Sophia: The Center of Greek Orthodox Faith Through the Ages