Several villages near the town of Ierapetra were evacuated on Saturday. File photo. Credit: AMNA
A major wildfire – the first of the summer season in Greece, rages on Saturday near Ierapetra, southern Crete.
Authorities have ordered the evacuation of several villages threatened by the flames aided by strong winds. Dozens of firefighters and fire-dousing helicopters are trying to control the spread of the wildfire.
A message has been sent via the emergency number 112 to the residents of Mavros Kolymbos, Achlia, Agia Fotia and Galini in order to move away from their village and head towards Koutsouras due to the ongoing forest fire.
Wildfires break earlier than expected as Greece records warm winter
Wildfires are already breaking out in Greece amid temperatures that reached 30 degrees Celsius in early April despite the fire season not being expected for another few weeks at least.
Volunteers and firefighters rapidly pulled the “victims” to safety through clouds of red smoke, as a drone whirring above sent live video of the rescue to a national coordination center.
“Due to climate, conditions have changed. Everything in nature is dry now and it’s very easy to catch fire. So we have to be ready to deal with it,” said Loukia Kefalogianni, the deputy regional government of the capital’s North Attica region.
Greece has experienced the warmest winter on record this year according to preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) analyzed by the scientific team of meteo.gr.
Specifically, the 2023-2024 winter, lasting from December 2023 to February 2024, in Greece was marked by extended periods of high temperatures, significantly surpassing seasonal norms.
Meteo reports that the winter of 2023-2024 was recorded as the warmest in Greek history, surpassing the winter of 2015-2016. The average maximum temperature in Greece during the winter period has risen by 1.8°C from 1960 to 2024.
Greece orders 7 firefighting aircraft from Canada
To better deal with the heightened risk of wildfires, Greece is fast-tracking a 2.1 billion euros ($2.3 billion) scheme to upgrade its fleet of water tankers and produce an artificial intelligence-driven sensor network to detect smoke in the early stages of a fire.
However, delivery of the new equipment won’t begin until next year, which leaves planners in a position of having to find alternatives to drive down response times.
Greece was once again at the center of Europe’s fire season during the summer last year. The nation experienced the most devastating wildfire in European Union records.
Fires destroyed an estimated 1,750 square kilometers (675 square miles) last year. Deliveries to the country of seven new Canadian-made DHC-515 firefighting aircraft, part of a wider European Union order by six member states, are set to begin in 2027.
Easter eggs at a market in Athens. Credit: Reinhard Kirchner /Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0
The dating of Greek Easter or Pascha has bedeviled theologians for centuries. While other Christians in the West are finishing off all their chocolate eggs, for some people Easter is happening—seemingly all over again.
By George Sapounidis
Orthodox Christians, in some countries, including Greece and Cyprus, celebrate Easter later than most in the Western world.
This may seem either banal or…bizarre. But this isn’t done to confuse everyone. It’s all for mathematical reasons.
Math, did you say? My ears just quivered. If you’re not a numbers guy like me, who has a PhD (Pizza Hut Delivery) in the subject, you could just as well say: Enough already! Why not just pick a day and be done with it!
The dating of Greek Easter is complicated
It mostly boils down to the fact that those who adhere to Greek Orthodoxy espouse the calendar devised by Julius Caesar—the Roman general turned dictator—versus the calendar tweaked by the Pope…Gregory, that is, then the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Hmm…come to think of it, they’re both Roman!
The fundamental problem that anyone making a calendar has to grapple with is the fact that it takes just a shade more than 365 days for Earth to make a full trip around the sun. More precisely, it takes 365.24219 days. Now we’re talking!
So if you construct a calendar with only 365 days, the seasons will fall ever so slowly out of whack with the months. Eventually, Christmas would show up in the middle of summer— chaos!
Enter Caesar! The Julian calendar was a reform of the previous Roman calendar, which was a messy hodgepodge. It took effect on January 1, 46 BC by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians (yes!) and Greek astronomers (yes!) such as Sosigenes of Alexandria.
But things were still a bit out of whack. It had a leap day every four years, which turned out to be an overcorrection. The average year now had 365.25 days in it—just a shade more than 365.24219. By the 1570s, those slight differences had added up. The calendar was now out of sync with the solar year by about ten days.
Enter Pope Gregory! In 1577 he appointed a commission to solve the problem. It took five years, but they finally came up with a fix: First, let’s just eliminate those extra 10 days and get back on schedule. Gone!
Next, let’s tweak the system of leap years. We’ll have leap years every four years except on centennial years that aren’t divisible by 400. So there’s a leap year in 2000, but not in 1900 or 1800 or 1700. In summary, the contemporary Pope decreed (not dictated … big difference) that the ten days following October 4th simply wouldn’t exist. The next day would be…October 15.
In other words, the decree was: “Pfft. Those 10 days? You’ll never miss ‘em.”
Thereafter, a new calendar would come into effect that would better align the months with Earth’s journey around the sun. This would correct a mismatch in the old Roman calendar, first set up by Caesar, that was causing the months to fall steadily out of line with the seasons.
The current Gregorian calendar, with its intricate dance of leap days and leap years, seems utterly banal to those of us in the Western world today. It has a bunch of oddities. Our months are uneven, some 31 days, some 30, plus the monstrosity that is February.
By the way, leap days aren’t the only hassle for timekeepers. We also have leap seconds to contend with. But that’s a story for another day.
Oh yes, the food! Greeks everywhere traditionally eat lamb roasted on a barbecue spit and tsoureki, a sweet Easter bread. They also break their fast with a traditional soup called magiritsa, which is made of lamb, rice and dill before the main feasting begins on Sunday.
All this to say Greek Easter can sometimes fall on the same day as Western Easter. This isn’t done on purpose and isn’t done to confuse anyone. But only by pure and unlikely coincidence.Don’t you love math?
George Sapounidis is a Greek-Canadian mathematician who is also a musician, bridging Greek and many other cultures in his work.
“You cannot possibly unite Cyprus,” said the Turkish Cypriot leader. Public Domain
Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar warned on Friday that “one tiny mistake” could turn Cyprus into “a new Gaza”.
Tatar, not recognized as a head of state by the international community, also suggested that Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan may soon recognize the north. Turkey is the only country that recognizes the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
in an interview with the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, said, “A mistake or a misunderstanding such as the shooting of a Turkish soldier on the Green Line… would provoke a bomb between the two populations.”
“If you shoot one Turkish soldier, you will have 10,000 soldiers on the ground,” he added.
To this end, he said “everyone should be calm and reasonable. Turkish Cypriots are not alone – we have got 85 million Turks behind us, and they are just 40 miles away.”
“A little flare-up, that is what people are fearing. Look at what happened in Gaza. And before that, Ukraine. Before that, Bosnia,” he said.
In the interview, he went on to describe potential efforts towards a federal solution to the Cyprus problem as “a waste of time,” and added, “That’s all past. All those opportunities have been exhausted.
“How can you unite an island like this after so many years? You cannot possibly unite Cyprus. You have to accept the facts and accept reality,” he said.
With this in mind, he said the “only way forward is a two-state solution,” and suggested that Azerbaijan, Bangladesh and Pakistan may soon recognize the north, though this has not yet come to fruition.
Following his meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York on Friday, Tatar said that on July 20, 2024, they will celebrate the anniversary of the “Turkish peacekeeping operation in Cyprus”, as he referred to the Turkish invasion.
He expressed the hope that the international community “will wake up” and see “the reality” that there are “two peoples, two democratic states, two authorities” in Cyprus and that for there to be a permanent solution, this should be done through the cooperation of “the two existing states in Cyprus”.
The Cyprus government responded to Tatar’s comments. Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said they “do not contribute positively and do not reflect the future of our common homeland.”
He advised that Tatar should do this “instead of making statements which do not contribute positively and do not reflect the future of our common homeland as a country in which its inhabitants will live together in peace, security and prosperity.”
To this end, he said President Nikos Christodoulides “will continue to make every possible effort in cooperation with [UN Secretary-General] Guterres and his envoy Maria Angela Holguin, to recommence negotiations and find a final solution to the Cyprus problem.
“We are looking to the future of Cyprus as a modern, reunited European country which will ensure the future of the next generations and the wellbeing of all Cypriots,” he said.
In addition to the aircraft, the procurement also includes personnel training and training equipment. Credit: Lockheed Martin
Greece signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) on Friday making official its intent to procure 35 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters built by Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, through an intergovernmental agreement with the US.
This transaction with Sikorsky was brokered by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) in December 2023 and is prized at $1.95 billion (€1.78 billion). Earlier this week the Greek Parliament approved the purchase.
“The latest generation UH-60M Black Hawk will support the Hellenic Ministry of Defense’s ongoing modernization and will serve as a dependable helicopter for vital national and allied security missions,” said Sikorsky president Paul Lemmo.
“Trusted and operated by more than 35 nations, including a growing number of NATO allies, the multi-role Black Hawk helicopter provides unmatched global interoperability, significantly increasing Greece’s deterrent capability and that of all NATO member countries,” he said.
In addition to the aircraft, the procurement also includes personnel training and training equipment to ensure the helicopters’ smooth integration into the Hellenic Army.
“It depends on the specialization that they want in the aircraft,” the Sikorsky chief says. “Depending on the aircraft, sometimes we can accelerate that a little bit more.”
The Black Hawk will offer Greece “a range of operational capabilities”
“We are honored to expand our existing partnership with the Hellenic Armed Forces with the addition of the UH-60M Black Hawk to their growing fleet,” said Costas Papadopoulos, international business development director for Greece at Lockheed Martin.
“The Black Hawk is the best solution for Greece’s multi-mission requirements with capabilities enhancing the nation’s effectiveness in the 21st-century security battlespace,” he stressed.
With its existing S-70B fleet and newly acquired MH-60R maritime helicopters for the Grek Navy, Greece will operate several variants of the Hawk family and benefit from the operational and sustainment advantages of fleet commonality, Lockheed Martin said.
According to the company’s announcement, as the world’s premier multi-role utility helicopter with 5 million combat hours, the Black Hawk will offer Greece a range of operational capabilities and a global ecosystem of more than 5,000 Hawk aircraft.
The UH-60M/S-70M Black Hawk is the aircraft of choice for replacing legacy medium-lift utility helicopter fleets, with the flexibility to conduct a variety of missions at greater ranges and in the most challenging environments, and with increased survivability over other aircraft, according to Lockheed Martin.
Greece’s defense modernization
Greece aims to revamp its defense industry and boost its shipbuilding industry, as it recovers from a decade-long debt crisis that forced it to slash spending.
The government has drafted a multi-billion, 10-year purchasing plan, that includes acquiring up to 40 new F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. and three frigates from France.
Athens is also in talks with the United States to co-design and build Constellation-class frigates for the Greek Navy.
German artillery shelling Greek defenses. Credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-163-0319-07A / Bauer / CC BY-SA 3.0 de
On April 6, 1941, Germany launched a massive attack on Greece’s northern border after the Italian army had earlier failed miserably in its attempt to invade Greece.
Adolf Hitler’s original plan was to send his Italian allies to invade the “little country” on the Mediterranean so that he could gather his troops to prepare for the ambitious campaign to attack Russia in the spring.
The Italians tried to enter Greece without a fight on October 28, 1940, but they received a resounding “OXI” from Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas.
The Italians subsequently attacked from the Albanian border, but the outnumbered Greek Army not only managed to defend the country but pushed the attacking forces further back to Albania and occupied more territory, dealing a powerful blow to the Italian forces.
In the spring of 1941, the German war machine was preparing for a fierce attack against Russia.
Germany underestimated Greece
In the eyes of the Nazi generals, Greece was a minor detail that needed to be sorted out before the Russian campaign.
Little did they know about the Greek fighting spirit, which was soaring high after the victorious war on the Albanian front.
“Operation Marita.” as Germany called the attack on Greece. brought the Nazi forces to the Bulgarian border. They included entire Panzer divisions which were meant to move north to Russia soon afterward.
Meanwhile, Greece had asked for Britain’s help to stop the Germans. The kingdom sent 62,000 Commonwealth troops, who were put into position along the Haliacmon Line while the Greeks chose to occupy the well-fortified Metaxas Line.
However, the Greek First Army remained on the Albanian front in case the Italians might see their removal from Albania as a sign of weakness.
The Metaxas Line on the Greek-Bulgarian border. Public Domain
On April 6th, Field Marshal Wilhelm List led the German army to attack and the Battle of Greece began.
The Germans first hit Prilep with Panzer tanks, accompanied by bombing from the Luftwaffe, and cut the area off from the rest of the country. Then, they moved to Monastir, with a plan to attack Florina on April 9th.
This move was a major threat to the British flank and could have easily cut off the Greek troops in Albania. In the east, the Germans attacked Yugoslavia and made their advance through the Strimon Valley. To make matters worse, the northeastern region was weakened by a lack of sufficient numbers of troops.
Fort Roupel: The first line of Greece’s defense
Germany advanced quickly through Yugoslavia and headed toward Greece’s Thessaloniki, defeating Greek troops at Doiran Lake. They captured the city by April 9th.
However, the Greek armed forces managed to inflict serious damage to the advancing Nazis from their strongly fortified mountain locations.
Fort Roupel, which was incorporated into the Metaxas Line, held out against the German attack and was only abandoned by its men after the surrender of the Greek army in Thessaloniki.
The valor of the outnumbered Greek soldiers who fought there was later praised even by German generals.
When the Germans had successfully cut them off from the rest of the country, the Greek Second Army surrendered to the attackers on April 9th, after which any real resistance on the east bank of the Axios River ceased.
Fort Roupel. Credit: Public Domain
Continuing their advance, the Germans made a push for Monastir Gap, where they attacked on April 10th. With no resistance from the Yugoslavs in the gap, they decided that it would be a good opportunity to attack the British near Vevi.
Once at Servia and the Olympus pass, the Germans were halted by the British. The British forces there had orders to hold Pineios Gorge at all costs until other British troops had an opportunity to move south.
At this point, the Greek First Army found itself cut off in Albania by the German forces. Instead of surrendering to the Italians, their commander decided to surrender to the Germans on April 20th. The following day, it was decided that the British would withdraw to Crete and Egypt.
Germany invades Athens
The Commonwealth troops were attacked on April 24th but managed to hold their position for that entire day until they were pushed back. On April 27th, German troops managed to bypass the flank, and they entered Athens.
After Germany conquered Athens, the battle of mainland Greece was over to all intents and purposes. The Allies evacuated, and during the evacuations, the German troops managed to capture seven to eight thousand of their soldiers.
At the end of the evacuation, the British had escaped with a total of some 50,000 men.
The Battle of Crete began on May 20th with Commonwealth troops and the Greek Army resisting the German parachutists in the first primarily airborne invasion in military history. By June 1st, the Germans conquered Crete, albeit after suffering a tremendous number of casualties.
German tanks entering the city of Athens
The aftermath of the Battle of Greece
Over 13,300 Greek soldiers were killed during the Battle of Greece, and another 62,660 were wounded, while 1,290 went missing.
In defending Greece against Germany, the British lost 903 soldiers with another 1,250 wounded and an astounding 13,900 captured.
After the Nazis had captured Greece, it was decided the nation would be split up between Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria. The Axis stopped their campaign in the Balkans when they captured Crete.
These victories, however, would come at a heavy price for the Germans. Because of the Battle of Greece and the other battles in the Balkans, the invasion of the Soviet Union had to be delayed. This meant that the German troops would probably end up fighting not only the Soviet Army but the brutal Russian winter as well.
Praise of Greek bravery
By any measure, Greece’s resistance to the Axis forces had been remarkable. Beginning from the time of the first Italian attack on October 28, 1940 through to June 1, 1941 when Crete fell, it took a total 216 days to conquer Greece militarily.
The much larger and militarily powerful nation of France fell to Germany in only forty-three days while Norway resisted for a total of sixty-one days. Poland put up fierce resistance for thirty days, Belgium eighteen, and Holland fell in only five days.
The nations of Denmark and Czechoslovakia, in contrast, surrendered without firing a shot against Germany.
German soldiers at Fort Roupel. Public Domain
The protagonists of World War II, both Allies and enemies, spoke highly of the valor shown by Greece in defending themselves against Germany.
Russian leader Joseph Stalin, in an open letter read on Radio Moscow during the war, said “the Russian people will always be grateful to the Greeks for delaying the German army long enough for winter to set in, thereby giving us the precious time we needed to prepare. We will never forget.”
Russian Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov wrote in his memoirs: “If the Russian Peoples succeeded in raising their tired bodies in front of the gates of Moscow, to contain and set back the German torrent, they owe it to the Greek People, who delayed the German Divisions all the time needed. The gigantomachy of Crete was the climax of the Greek contribution.”
Hitler’s chief of staff, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, stated during the Nuremberg trials: “The unbelievably strong resistance of the Greeks delayed by two or more vital months the German attack against Russia; if we did not have this long delay, the outcome of the war would have been different in the eastern front and in the war in general.”
Greek soldiers left the Metaxas Line after the defeat. Public Domain
Adolf Hitler himself spoke about the valour of the Greek fighters in 1944 to famous German photographer and cinematographer Leni Riefenstahl, as she related in her memoirs.
Hitler told her, “The entrance of Italy to the War was proven catastrophic for us. Had the Italians not attacked Greece and had they not needed our help, the war would have taken a different course. We would have had time to capture Leningrad and Moscow before the Russian cold weather set in.”
In 1941, in a speech made at the Reichstag, Hitler also paid tribute to the bravery of the Greeks: “It must be said, for the sake of historical truth, that amongst all our opponents, only the Greeks fought with such endless courage and defiance of death.”
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously said of the Greeks who fought the Germans: “Until now we would say that the Greeks fight like heroes. From now on, we will say that heroes fight like Greeks.”
Elon Musk claims OpenAI is poaching his Tesla engineers. Credit: OnInnovation. CC BY 2.0/flickr
Elon Musk claims he is going to raise salaries for Tesla engineers because Sam Altman’s OpenAI, the world leader in generative artificial intelligence, keeps trying to poach them.
Has OpenAI been poaching Tesla engineers from Elon Musk?
On Wednesday, news came out that Tesla’s Ethan Knight became the electric car maker’s fourth engineer to join Musk’s newest startup, xAI, which was followed by a post on X by the tech billionaire saying his employee was planning to leave and go to OpenAI anyway.
“It was either xAI or them,” wrote Musk, who lured his first AI director away from Altman in 2017. He added that OpenAI has “been aggressively recruiting Tesla engineers with massive compensation offers and have unfortunately been successful in a few cases.”
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, is in an ongoing feud with Altman and is actively suing his former business partner over an alleged breach of contract.
Board concerns over Elon Musk’s management
Knight’s departure has raised some concerns, particularly as growth at Tesla’s core car business has come to a complete halt, and investors are harboring uncertainty about Musk’s less traditional management methods, such as moving staff between his businesses.
Testimony in Musk’s recent pay package case showed that board members have very little oversight and weren’t able to come up with a ballpark figure for how many staff Musk reassigned from Tesla to help with his Twitter purchase. “Musk regularly uses Tesla resources to address projects at other companies he owns,” the court ruled, adding no one on the board challenged such decisions.
Alarm bells over Elon Musk’s treatment of his companies have rung louder since he threatened board members, saying he would develop AI technology outside of Tesla if they didn’t approve a compensation package granting him 25 percent control over the company.
“Is there a precedent for the CEO of a public company poaching talent to go over to his private company? Is he acting in shareholders’ best interests?” a writer on the Tesla investors’ club subreddit wondered on Wednesday. Another asked if “the board of directors are cool with this?” while a third joked, “Haha, Elon is brain-draining Tesla.”
One of Elon Musk’s main goals over the past twelve months has been to rebrand Tesla as an AI leader now that investors are willing to pay high multiples for such stocks. In this light, Fortune claims that investors should think of Tesla less as a manufacturer of EVs and energy storage and more as a robotics company – whether it “builds machines on two legs like Optimus or rolling on four wheels.”
By claiming that OpenAI’s Altman is attempting to steal his workers, Elon Musk not only has a convenient excuse for why Knight moved to xAI, but he also raises the reputation of his company.
Early depiction of Jesus Christ with a beard, Catacomb of Commodilla, fourth century. Credit: Public domain
When we think of prominent men from the ancient Near East, it is common to think of them as having beards. However, there is a school of thought that Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, did not have a beard. We even see this idea in some ancient sources. What is the basis for this idea, and what does the evidence really show?
Early depictions of Jesus without a beard
One of the primary reasons why some people think Jesus did not have a beard is because of early depictions of him. One example is a depiction on the Antioch Chalice. This is an ancient chalice or, possibly, standing lamp dating to the sixth century.
On this chalice, there are depictions of numerous people. Among other important people, it appears to show Jesus himself. Notably, Jesus is not shown with a beard. Although nowhere near contemporary, this is still earlier than the vast majority of medieval Christian artwork.
Prior to the early third century, images of Christian scenes are found on the walls of catacombs. Many of these show Jesus himself. One example is a scene depicting the resurrection of Lazarus. The risen Lazarus is seen coming out of his tomb with Jesus standing in front of it with his hand outstretched.
These early depictions always show Jesus as beardless. Essentially, he looks like a Roman. It is not until the late third century that we begin to see Jesus with a beard.
Earlier evidence
It is easy to see why the viewpoint that Jesus did not have a beard is so appealing. It is directly supported by the earliest depictions of him. Nonetheless, there is earlier evidence that we can use, just not in the form of actual depictions.
The gospels themselves provide an account of Jesus’ life that dates from long before even the earliest of those catacomb depictions. A fragment of the Gospel of John from the mid-second century in Egypt proves that it had already been written before then at the latest. Additionally, all evidence shows that John was the last gospel to be written.
Therefore, the evidence from the four gospels themselves is far weightier than the evidence from even the earliest of the catacomb depictions. So, what does the evidence from those contemporary or near-contemporary accounts reveal about Jesus’ appearance?
Jewish law
One important factor to bear in mind is that it was actually Jewish law for men to keep a respectable beard. In the Mosaic Law, we find the following command:
“You must not shave the hair on the side of your head or disfigure the edges of your beard.” – Leviticus 19:27.
Of course, this does not mean that the Jews were not allowed to cut their beards at all. Other Biblical texts show that it was normal to attend to one’s beard. They did not leave them unkempt. Nonetheless, they were not to shave their beard entirely, nor ‘disfigure’ it.
The Jews still followed the Mosaic Law in the time of Jesus. Some groups, in fact, were even stricter about it than the Jews had originally been when they first received the Law. Therefore, we can be confident that this law about beards was still relevant.
Jesus followed the law about having a beard
If Jesus followed the Mosaic Law, then he obviously must have had a beard. Is there any evidence concerning Jesus’ views on the Mosaic Law? There certainly is. Jesus spoke about the Law on a number of occasions. During his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said the following:
“Do not think I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I came, not to destroy, but to fulfill.” – Matthew 5:17
Later, in one of his letters, the Apostle Paul described Jesus as being “under law.” That is, Jesus was obedient to the Mosaic Law. Therefore, based on this early evidence, we can be sure that Jesus highly respected the Law and followed it in all its details.
With this being the case, Jesus obviously would have obeyed the law about not shaving one’s beard. If he had shaved his beard, then his opposers would have criticized him for it. On several occasions, the Pharisees, a strict Jewish religious group, criticized Jesus for perceived violations of the Law.
Yet, there is no record that anyone ever criticized Jesus for not having a beard. This, again, supports the conclusion that he did indeed have one.
Greek mythology is the most influential source for many popular expressions. Credit: Carole Raddato, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Have you ever wondered about the origins of many common English phrases like “Achilles’ heel” or “Pandora’s box?” Many of these expressions that are used quite often in English have deep roots in the rich language, culture, and mythology of ancient Greece.
Knowing and understanding their stories and how they ended up being used by English speakers gives us great insight into the way the English language evolved over the centuries and also deepens our common appreciation for the influence of the Greek civilization in shaping the Western world as we know it today.
Achilles and the body of Patroclus, by Nikolai Ge, 1855. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
1. “Achilles’ heel”
When we speak of an “Achilles’ heel” today, we mean that a weakness or vulnerable point in someone or something is bothering a person or situation. This person or situation, however, is in an otherwise advantageous position or state.
The phrase comes from the legendary Greek hero Achilles, who was invincible and totally invulnerable except for his…heel.
The Iliad, Homer’s epic poem, which has been read by hundreds of millions of people around the world, tells us about the way the mother of Achilles dipped him in the River Styx as a baby. According to this tale, Achille’s mother held her son by his heel, which remained dry and therefore exceptionally susceptible to injury. Achilles was eventually killed by an arrow to his heel during the Trojan War, providing us with this famous expression that we continue to use to this day.
Midas’ Daughter Turned to Gold, 1893. Credit: Walter Crane, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
2. “The Midas touch”
To have “the Midas touch” means to have an unmatched and uncanny ability to succeed and be great at anything one undertakes. This is particularly true in relation to financial matters, as it involves gold.
The expression goes back to ancient times and refers to King Midas from Greek mythology. King Midas was granted the rare power to turn anything he touched into gold. This sounds like the perfect superpower one might ask for. Unfortunately, it is not quite.
The myth aims to teach us a lesson. It is a cautionary tale about the multiple dangers unrestrained greed can bring to humans, as Midas soon discovered the downside of his golden touch.
This dark side of his gift became clear to him when he accidentally transformed his beloved daughter into a golden statue, realizing that his gift was nothing but a curse.
Pandora’s box. Credit: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
3. “Pandora’s box”
The phrase “open Pandora’s box” refers to freeing and unleashing a source of great and unexpected troubles in one’s life. According to Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman created by Hephaestus as per Zeus’ instructions.
She was given a simple jar, mistranslated as a “box.” This jar contained all the evils of the world, so, understandably, she was ordered to keep it closed. However, driven by human curiosity, Pandora eventually made the decision to open it, releasing untold suffering, death, and numerous other ills to plague the entirety of humankind forever.
According to the myth, it was only “hope” that remained in the jar after this perilous decision to be opened.
Hercules and the Amazon Queen Hippolyte by Vincenzo de’ Rossi, Salone dei Cinquecento, Palazzo Vecchio. Credit: ER’s Eyes – Our planet is beautiful, Flickr, CC BY 2.0
4. “Herculean task”
Another popular expression that we use in English to this day is the “Herculean task.” This phrase refers to an extremely difficult, lengthy, and arduous undertaking or a task that someone has agreed to complete.
The expression refers to the “Twelve Labours of Heracles” as we know them from Greek mythology. As penance for a crime, the famous Greek hero, Heracles (Hercules in Latin), had to complete a series of unimaginably challenging tasks that had been assigned to him by King Eurystheus.
These included, among others, slaying the Nemean Lion, capturing the Erymanthian Boar, and cleaning the Augean Stables all in a single day.
“Ulysses and the Sirens,” Credit: John William Waterhouse, 1891, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
5. “Siren song”
The seductive and highly attractive but also dangerous appeal of something is very often compared to a “siren song” in English.
In the most famous epic work of Homer, the Odyssey, the Sirens were supposedly beautiful, and attractive, but also extremely treacherous creatures. They were part woman and part bird, whose main task was to lure sailors closer to their doom with hauntingly enchanting music. This music would eventually disorient them and lead them straight to their place.
To resist this fatal path, the popular hero Odysseus had his men plug their ears completely with beeswax and tie him to the mast of his ship. This was done so he could hear their dangerously attractive song without succumbing to it with the devastating results that this would entail.
Attic plate depicting Ajax and Cassandra, circa 440-430 BCE. Credit: Wikipedia/Public domain.
6. “Cassandra complex”
In the field of psychology, the “Cassandra complex” refers to a situation or phenomenon in which one’s accurate prophecies, predictions, or warnings are disbelieved or dismissed by others.
The expression comes from the tragic figure of Cassandra. In Greek mythology, Cassandra was infamously cursed by the Greek god Apollo with the gift of prophecy. However, this gift went hand-in-hand with the fate of never being believed by others.
The constant warnings of Cassandra about the Trojan Horse and the fact that she was never actually believed, led to the final catastrophic fall of Troy.
Oedipus Cursing His Son, Polynices. Credit: Henry Fuseli, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
7. “Oedipus complex”
Finally, the “Oedipus complex” is a Freudian psychological concept that has been widely used in the last century. It involves an unknown and unconscious sexual desire in a child for their opposite-sex parent. This, according to Freud, is combined with an inherent rivalry with the same-sex parent.
The term derives from the Greek mythological King Oedipus, who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother, Jocasta. The ancient tragedian Sophocles immortalized this particularly disturbing tale in his play Oedipus Rex, bringing it to our modern world, with many people admiring it to this day.
These expressions are only a small sample of the many ways the ancient Greek language and culture have shaped modern English. Besides these expressions, countless English words—from “alphabet” and “academy” to “zoology” and “xylophone”—also have Greek roots either directly borrowed from Greek or indirectly through Latin and French.
Greek is consistently present in an English speaker’s language use. Understanding the mythological and historical background of these popular and widely used terms helps our overall understanding and appreciation for both languages.
Ptolemaic-Roman mummy portrait displayed at the Allard Museum in Amsterdam. Credit: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
A new exhibition at the Allard Museum in Amsterdam displays Greek mummy portraits discovered in Fayoum, Egypt. These were found in a monumental funerary building dating back to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.
Having been uncovered in December 2022 at the Garza village archaeological site, it was the first time in 110 years that such a significant discovery was made in the region. The collection of post-Ptolemaic Egyptian funerary paintings is known as “the Fayum portraits.” These are now being shown at the museum in Amsterdam in an exhibition titled Face to Face: The People Behind Mummy Portraits.
Why are Egypt’s mummy portraits from the Ptolemaic-Roman period so rare?
These portraits are believed to be an extremely rare Classical art form. They are unique because they diverge from the typical art, consisting of statues and monuments, produced during Classical antiquity. The portraits have managed to survive all this time as paintings on canvas rather than blocks of stone.
As the frescoes from the ash-covered ruins of Pompeii were preserved by the volcanic eruption, so the Fayum portraits survived as a result of Egypt’s desert climate.
The subject matter of these portraits is also of great interest because, unlike most archaeological discoveries of Greco-Roman artwork which served to immortalize gods, mythological heroes, and godly rulers, these works of art shine a light on ordinary people of the era.
The style of these depictions is also of note with curator Ben van den Bercken suggesting it represents a variety of cultural influences. “They were made to be placed on top of mummified bodies. That’s the Egyptian component: a means of keeping the diseases recognizable for the gods as well as their loved ones,” as reported by Artnet.
Hellenistic stylings, brought to Egypt through the rule of the Ptolemaic pharaohs, whose lineage can be traced back to Alexander the Great, are seen in the clothing of the subjects as well as materials used to mount them onto canvas. Tempera, an Egyptian practice whereby pigment is mixed with water-soluble binders such as egg yolk, is combined with encaustic or hot wax painting, a tradition which Van den Bercken posits may have been taught in Egypt’s Hellenistic schooling systems.
“The interesting thing about encaustic painting is the skill involved,” he said. “Since you cannot make adjustments once the wax has cooled, portraits were constructed layer by layer, giving them an almost Impressionistic quality. It’s reminiscent of what we find in the 17th century with artists like Rembrandt.”
Portraits like these decorated the burials of mummies in Fayoum. Credit: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
The quality of realism evident in Egypt’s Fayum mummy portraits was also an import, mostly from Rome, which officially annexed Egypt in 30 AD, and indirectly from Greece. Their fine detail demonstrates a considerable understanding and appreciation for human anatomy, which contrasts somewhat with the more abstract and symbolic language associated with Egypt today.
However, it is still debatable whether the portraits were entirely true to life. “It’s difficult to judge the extent to which the paintings reflect what these people actually looked like,” Van den Bercken told Artnet. “If, for instance, they really owned the jewelry we see in the images. It’s possible people were presented a bit wealthier than they actually were.”
It is also worth noting that funeral portraits would have been expensive. “Look at the wood panels on which they were painted. Many of these are made of basswood, which came from outside Egypt. The same goes for some of the pigments.” This, Von den Bercken said, suggests the subjects were members of society’s upper class: men and women of considerable means.
The tradition of funeral painting emerged during the first century BC but gradually died out during the fourth century AD with a possible explanation for the adoption of the practice being the rise of Christianity.
When the religion made its way from Rome to Egypt, mummification rituals gave way to Christian burial ceremonies.
Stone tools dating back to the Lower Palaeolithic period, estimated to be around 3.3 million to 300,000 years old, were discovered deep in an open coal mine in the Megalopolis area.
The Greek site was one of five investigated in the Megalopolis area during a five-year project involving an international team of experts.
It contained rough stone tools from the Lower Palaeolithic period and the remains of an extinct species of giant deer, elephants, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and a macaque monkey.
This skull from a member of the deer family was also discovered at the dig site Megalopolis, southern Greece. Credit: Ministry of Culture
According to a statement by the Greek Ministry of Culture the site “offers a unique opportunity to investigate human behavior over time, for an important period in the history of human evolution and in an area that has so far been little investigated.”
The discovery makes Ancient Greek history part of human evolution
The Megalopolis Basin in the Peloponnese was among the southernmost ecological refuges in Europe during the glacial periods of the Middle Pleistocene, according to the results of a five-year program of surface and geoarchaeological research recently completed by the Culture Ministry and the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (ASCSA).
The project was directed by Panagiotis Karkanas of ASCSA, Eleni Panagopoulou from the Greek Culture Ministry and Katerina Harvati, a professor of paleoanthropology at the University of Tübingen in Germany.
“With this discovery, we put Greece in the game of human evolution and the colonization of Europe by hominids, something Greece was not associated with until recently,” said Panagiotis Karkanas.
The artifacts are “simple tools, like sharp stone flakes, belonging to the Lower Paleolithic stone tool industry,” the co-directors told the Associated Press.
They said it’s possible the items were produced by Homo ancestor, the hominin species dating from that period in other parts of Europe. Homo antecessor is believed to have been the last common ancestor of modern humans and their extinct Neanderthal cousins, who diverged about 800,000 years ago.
This coal mine in Megalopolis, southern Greece is where researchers found the oldest-known archaeological site in the country. Credit: Ministry of Culture
“However, we will not be able to be sure until hominin fossil remains are recovered,” the project directors said. “(The site) is the oldest currently known hominin presence in Greece, and it pushes back the known archaeological record in the country by up to 250,000 years.”
