Greece’s Foreign Minister Addresses the UN Security Council

Greece UN Security Council
His speech comes as Greece is intensifying its efforts to win a seat as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2025-2026 term. Credit: AMNA

The Foreign Minister of Greece George Gerapetritis addressed the UN Security Council on Tuesday, stressing that the world needs a new vision of “global solidarity and intergenerational sustainability.”

His speech comes as Greece is intensifying its efforts to win a seat as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2025-2026 term.

In his address on threats to international peace and security, Gerapetritis said, “We need this type of new vision of global solidarity and intergenerational sustainability. Through ethical and rule-based global governance and fair burden sharing among states.”

The Greek FM placed particular emphasis on the effect of climate change on food insecurity, which, in turn with climate change, will threaten stability and social cohesion.

Higher temperatures have seriously damaged the environment, and the rise in sea levels is threatening the quality and reserves of fishing as well as the health and survival of many people. These are, emphasized the FM, problems not limited to a single region or country.

The Mediterranean Sea will not remain unaffected, as extensive forest fires and catastrophic flooding proved, he noted.

“Greece will take the initiative of the nexus climate-peace-security, making it a priority of its candidacy as a non-permanent member of the UΝ Security Council for 2025-26,” Gerapetritis said.

He also mentioned that Our Ocean Conference will take place in Athens on April 16th to 17th, serving as a bridge between the 28th UN Conference for Climate Change (COP28) last year and the UN Conference on Oceans in 2024, with the hope that countries will be committed and a clear roadmap be set out.

The complexity of the issues, however, cannot be resolved by a single government intervention that would bring spectacular results. It calls instead for a new way of thinking to protect the environment and food, like the World Trade Organization’s program ‘One Health’, an integrated, unifying approach considering the health of people, animals and ecosystems.

Wrapping up his speech, Gerapetritis said Greece seeks a universal alliance focused on sustainability, and supports a proposal for a special envoy of the UN for a sustainable future. “We owe it to future generations,” he said. “We must not forget we are not owners, but simple managers of the earth.”

Gerapetritis’ address wrapped up his high-level contacts in the United States, which included the joint opening with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken of the 5th Greece-US Strategic Dialog in Washington.

Greece launched candidacy for Security Council seat in 2023

In March 2023, Greece officially launched the campaign to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

The then-Foreign Affairs Minister Nikos Dendias launched the bid at an event organized by the Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN in New York.

In the presence of dozens of heads of permanent delegations from around the world, the Greek Foreign Minister noted that “Greece always supports dialogue and diplomacy as the only viable means to achieve the main goals of this Organization: international peace, development and the promotion of human rights.”

Dendias focused on the words democracy, dialogue, and diplomacy, which will form the road map for Greece’s candidacy.

Membership of the UΝ Security Council

Membership of the United Nations Security Council is held by five permanent members and ten elected, non-permanent members.

To ensure geographical continuity, a certain number of members is allocated for each of the five UN regional groupings.

Each year, the UN General Assembly elects five new members for a two-year term. These elections always begin in October and continue until the two-thirds majority for the number of countries for each region has been reached. Re-election is allowed, but the term must not be consecutive.

Top 5 Most Notorious Crimes of Passion

0
Top 5 most notorious crimes of passion for this Valentine's Day
Top 5 most notorious crimes of passion for this Valentine’s Day. Credit: VanDammeMaarten. CC BY 2.0/flickr

Crimes of passion, associated with the brutal act of murdering a loved one, are often driven by intense emotions such as sexual jealousy, revenge, or heartbreak. Among the many instances of such tragic events witnessed globally, these are particularly notorious.

The murder of Phil Hartman

Phil Hartman.
Phil Hartman. Credit: Paul Hartmann. CC BY-3.0/Wikimedia Commons/Phil Hartmann

Phil Hartman was a Canadian-born American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and graphic designer who featured on Saturday Night Live, voiced characters such as Troy McClure in The Simpsons and starred in a number of TV shows and films, including The Dana Carvey Show, 3rd Rock From the Sun, Coneheads, and Small Soldiers.

The Simpsons creator Matt Groening had always liked Phil’s work, having said, “I took Hartman for granted because he nailed the joke every time. His voice acting could produce the maximum amount of humor with any line.”

On May 28, 1998, at the age of 49, Phil was shot and killed by his wife, Brynn, who, hours later, went into their marital bedroom and committed suicide. The murder-suicide left the couple’s two children, Birgen and Sean, orphaned.

The Hartmans had been married for ten years, but it was a troubled marriage, overcast by Phil’s busy work schedule and Brynn’s drug and alcohol abuse. On the night of the murder, Brynn, Phil’s third wife, came home intoxicated, and the couple engaged in a heated argument. Phil told Brynn he would leave her if she started taking drugs again, and that night, while Phil was sleeping, Brynn shot him three times with a handgun.

Afterwards, Brynn drove to a friend’s house and confessed her crime, but her friend did not believe her. When the pair went back to Brynn’s home, her friend called the police and the intoxicated wife went into her and her deceased husband’s bedroom, where she committed suicide.

Dismemberment of John Wayne Bobbitt

John Wayne Bobbitt.
John Wayne Bobbitt. Credit: Bob K. CC By 2.0/Wikimedia Commons/Bob K

John Wayne Bobbitt, a bar bouncer and former US Marine, and his then-wife Lorena, an Ecuadorian immigrant, made international headlines in June 1993 when Lorena severed John’s penis with a food knife while he was asleep in bed. She cut off approximately an inch (2.5 cm) of his penis, and, according to her testimony in court, she left the house and threw it along the side of the highway.

The seriousness of the incident hit Lorena, and she called 911. Surgeons were able to reattach John’s penis.

Lorena claimed that in the years leading up to this incident, John had repeatedly raped and abused her. John was charged with rape later that year but was acquitted and, after that, starred in two pornographic films. The following year, Lorena was acquitted of assault by reason of insanity and went on to create a foundation for domestic abuse victims and their children.

Murder of Marvin Gaye

The revered singer, known for his romantic soul-filled music, was also killed in a crime of passion.

American singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye, who helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s and brought the public classics like “Let’s Get It On” and “Sexual Healing” was murdered by his father, Marvin Sr., during a heated argument at his parents’ home in Los Angeles. The pair had a long history of disagreements and conflicts that were aggravated further by the singer’s personal problems, including bouts of depression and drug abuse.

Tensions mounted between the father and son, and Marvin Jr. started to collect guns to protect himself. On April 1, 1984, the two men got into one of their typical arguments, which quickly turned physical.

Marvin Gaye’s mother came between the two to stop the fighting, but Marvin Sr. left the room and came back with a .38 pistol that his son gave him and shot Marvin Jr. in the chest. He then fired again. The singer was pronounced dead on arrival at the California Hospital Medical Center.

The singer’s father was sentenced to five years of probation. Marvin Sr. was a Pentecostal minister married to Alberta Cooper. The couple had four children—daughters Jeanne and Zeola and sons Marvin Jr. and Frankie. Marvin Jr. also fathered another son named Antwaun Carey, whom he conceived with another woman following one of his extramarital affairs.

Marvin Sr. was known to be a very strict father, and according to his children, would question them on Biblical passages, and would beat them if they answered incorrectly.

The High School Lover

“My husband just killed someone,” Erin Mclean told the 911 dispatcher. The young woman was calling to tell the police that her husband, 31-year-old Eric, had shot her younger lover. It was 2007 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

While Mclean was working towards her PhD, she had met 17-year-old Sean Powell during an internship. She fell madly in love with him and even started tutoring him, letting him move into a spare room. “It was almost like she was regressing back to her teenager kind of emotions,” Eric said in his court testimony. “She just stopped talking to me all together in November. It was like there was no communication at all.” Erin and Sean began an affair and went as far as to taunt Eric with it.

The husband grabbed a rifle and initially claimed he was just trying to scare Sean, but then, according to him, Sean lunged forward and grabbed at the gun, which made it go off and kill the 17-year-old.

Eric was eventually found not guilty on all murder charges and on voluntary manslaughter charges. He was found guilty of reckless homicide and was sentenced to just ninety days in jail with credit for time served.

An Insurance Money Kill

This crime of passion was for love and money…

In 1991, Dan Willoughby and his family were vacationing in Las Conchas, Mexico when Dan and his three children went out for a walk, leaving wife Trish behind to take a nap. When Dan and the three kids came back, they found the 43-year-old mom’s skull crushed. She had been stabbed, bludgeoned, and strangled with a knife protruding from her head. She was still breathing when found but died later that day.

The crime was not random. Authorities discovered that Dan was having an affair with and was even engaged to a transgender woman named Yesenia Patino. Dan had convinced Yesenia to murder his wife, and, subsequently, he would only be with her, not to mention he stood to gain millions from his wife’s life insurance and business assets.

According to Yesenia’s court testimony, Dan had said to her, “Yesenia, I can’t do it myself. In order for us to be together forever you’re going to have to help me.” Yesenia admitted to the stabbing and was given 35 years in prison. Dan received two life terms.

Is This What Alexander the Great Really Looked Like?

0
alexander the great
The true face of Alexander the Great? Credit: Bas Uterwijk/Instagram

Dutch photographer and digital artist Bas Uterwijk has been shining a light on what iconic figures from history might have looked like in real life. One of his recent creations is Alexander the Great, the king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon, who famously conquered most of the known world of his time.

There is no definitive answer to what Alexander the Great looked like. Some ancient historians and writers left descriptions of Alexander’s appearance. For example, Plutarch wrote that he was “of fair complexion, with reddish hair which curled naturally,” while Arrian described him as having “a penetrating glance and a complexion more florid than fair.”

There are numerous sculptures and coins depicting Alexander, but these are all idealized representations and not necessarily accurate portraits. However, they can still provide some clues about his general appearance, such as his hairstyle and facial features.

 

By using various digital manipulation tools, Uterwijk is able to create photorealistic portraits of famous artists, leaders, mummies, philosophical thinkers, and even the models for paintings. Below is his reconstruction of the face of Jesus.

View this post on Instagram

I don't think I have posted this version on Instagram so for everyone interested here is a little info on the process of constructing it: I have been a professional photographer for the last 14 years but I have a background in Computer Generated images and Special Effects. A little over a year ago I stumbled upon the #artificialintelligence #Artbreeder software (formerly Ganbreeder) which utilizes a neural network trained on photographs and paintings of thousands human faces. This application makes it possible to combine multiple sources of faces and merge them in a synthesized version, guided by the artistic decisions of the user. I use it to create historical and fictional characters. When I was playing around with several cultural depictions of Jesus of Nazareth of Byzantine and Renaissance origin including Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi", and the Turin Shroud. Tweaking the ethnicity to a more convincing Middle-Eastern face. I was happy with the result as a representation of a collective cultural depiction but at the same time I felt it lacked any historical accuracy. So I changed the hair and beard to a more credible length and style for the time and region and I brought in elements found in some #Fayum mummy portraits, pushing the renaissance art to the background. The result is a artistic impression of how this man could have looked, more than it is a scientific search for an exact likeness.

A post shared by Bas Uterwijk (@ganbrood) on

Based in Amsterdam, Uterwijk has a background in computer graphics, 3D animation, and special effects. He uses a well-known image of each subject to transform them into a photographic portrait.

Alexander the Great’s life

Alexander III, the “Basileus of Macedon,” the “Hegemon of the Hellenic League,” the “Shahanshah” of Persia, the “Pharaoh” of Egypt, and the “Lord of Asia”—better known as Alexander the Great—was one of the most significant figures in human history.

Born in Pella in modern-day Central Macedonia in northern Greece in 356 B.C., he was the son of Philip II, the King of Macedon and his wife, Olympias. However, Alexander was no royal place-holder. He became renowned at a very early age for both for his military and political capabilities.

Alexander, whose name in Greek (Alexandros) means “defender of men,” knew as the son of a king that his destiny was already written, putting him at the forefront of history.

This was why while he was still a teenager, he began to be tutored by one of Greece’s most respected men, the giant of philosophy and science, Aristotle.

Since his education included philosophy, politics, ethics and science, Alexander was clearly not brought up to become just a warrior but a thoughtful leader of men and society.

Fate dictated that following his father’s assassination when Alexander was only twenty, he would take into his command not only the Kingdom of Macedon but also the generalship of the Hellenic League of Greece.

Several years prior to that, his father Philip II of Macedon had managed to unite most of Greece’s city-states, urging them to address the Persian threat as a united and solid front. Alexander fearlessly took on this enormous responsibility after the death of his father and began the great march of the Hellenes to the East.

By his own admission, Alexander endeavored to conquer all the way to the “ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea.” He and his legions invaded India in the year 326 BC, winning an important victory over the Pauravas at the Battle of the Hydaspes.

However, after years of never-ending war across the Near East, the mighty general finally turned back toward home at the demand of his homesick troops.

Alexander the Great died in Babylon in 323 BC, the city which he planned to establish as his capital, before he could execute a series of planned campaigns which would have begun with an invasion of Arabia.

Greece Assumes Command of EU’s Red Sea Security Operation

Greece Red Sea
Commanding the operation will be Vassilios Gryparis. File photo. Credit: Hellenic Navy

Greece assumed command of the EU’s Red Sea maritime security operation which would aim to prevent attacks against ships and ensure freedom of navigation.

The EU announced that the operation dubbed “Aspides,” meaning “shields” or “protector” in Greek, will contribute to maritime security along the main sea lanes in an area including the Straits of Bab el-Madab, the Straits of Hormuz, and the international waters in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman, and Persian Gulf.

The strategic objective will be to escort ships in the area of operations, provide situational awareness, and protect ships from multi-dimensional attacks at sea “in full respect of international law, including the principles of necessity and proportionality” in a sub-area of the area of operations.

Vassilios Gryparis of Greece to command operations in the Red Sea

Commanding the operation will be Greek Commander in Chief Vassilios Gryparis, with the Aspides operational headquarters located in Larissa in Central Greece.

Aspides will also cooperate with the US-led operation “Prosperity Guardian,” as well as with states wishing to contribute to maritime security in its area of activity.

It is supported by the European Union Satellite Centre (SATCEN) and the EU’s Intelligence Analysis Centre to gather information as required for the fulfilment of its tasks.

Its initial mandate shall be twelve months from the date of its entry into operation with the possibility of a review before the end of its period of validity.

“Our goal is to establish and launch this mission, Aspides, at the latest on the 19 February, I hope, and I’m sure, we will,” Josep Borrell, the bloc’s top diplomat said recently.

So far, five member states have publicly indicated they will participate in the mission: Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, and Italy. Greece is expected to participate with the Hydra frigate.

In recent weeks, the dangers for shipping in the Red Sea region have increased dramatically, as Iranian-backed Houthi fighters have targeted commercial shipping with drone and missile attacks, as well as more brazen assaults by boat and helicopter.

Several Greek-owned vessels have been attacked by missiles suffering damage but there have been no casualties.

The Houthis, who control a large part of Yemen, have declared their backing for Hamas in its war with Israel. They say they are targeting commercial vessels with links to Israel.

Disruption of world trade

Much of the world’s oil and natural gas originates from the region, and the Red Sea is used to transport roughly fifteen percent of the world’s shipping traffic.

With Houthis attacking dozens of ships since the war in Gaza erupted, trade flows have been hit at a time when supply strains and low demand are putting pressure on prices globally.

There has been an “almost wholesale exodus” of larger container ships from the Red Sea and the adjoining Suez Canal, Richard Meade, editor-in-chief of shipping publication Lloyds List, told CNN.

Those ships, which ferry everything from trainers to mobile phones from manufacturers in Asia to customers in Europe have been taking longer routes to avoid the area.

Saint Yakinthos: Crete’s Valentine Equivalent

0
Valentines
The Greek island of Crete has its own saint connected to love, namely Saint Yakinthos, comparable to St. Valentine.Credit: Flickr / Marcu Ioachim Public Domain

February 14th is the globally-celebrated day of Saint Valentine, internationally known as the day of lovers. Millions of stores around the world are lavishly decorated in red and vast quantities of roses, chocolates, and stuffed animals are sold and consumed often at high prices.

However, few people know that the Greek island of Crete has its own saint associated with love, Saint Yakinthos, also known as St. Hyacinth, the patron saint of pure and noble sentiments, as well as creation and inspiration.

The commemoration of his life, however, unlike that of St. Valentine, who was also a martyr, has nothing to do with romantic love or “eros.” His memory concerns his total love for Christ, as evidenced by this young man’s sacrifice of his life for his beliefs.

Saint Yakinthos of Anogeia’s feast day is celebrated every year on July 3rd in the mountainous region of Anogeia in Rethymno.

The “Yakintheia,” as the martyr’s feast is called, is celebrated every summer and is the core of a series of cultural events which last for three days. The feast has grown in popularity both inside and outside of the country.

Local songwriter Loudovikos ton Anogion, one of the coordinators of the annual festival, has said poignantly that “Agios Yakinthos is not the saint of love but the saint of remembered and hoped-for emotion.”

Saint Yakinthos was a martyr

As part of Cretan tradition, people visit the temple of Saint Yakinthos, a small, round church made of stone which is located on Mount Psiloreitis at a height of 3,937 feet (1,200 meters).

The people of Anogeia had this new church built in 1998 to honor their beloved martyr. Constructed in the “mitato” style, it is a simple structure which resembles a typical shepherd’s hut.

According to the Orthodox Church, Saint Yakinthos, who was born in Cappadocia in the year 98, was a high-ranking courtier to Emperor Traianos (Trajan).

The Emperor Trajan asked Yakinthos to renounce his faith in Christ after he noticed that Yakinthos refused to partake in ceremonial pagan sacrifices.

Yakinthos, who flatly refused to do so, was then thrown into a prison located 7 miles (12 kilometers) south of Anogeia in Crete. He was fed food which had been steeped in blood from animals that had been sacrificed to idols.

The saint, who thereafter refused to eat for forty days, subsequently starved to death at twenty years of age, becoming a martyr for Christ.

The guards then found Yakinthos in his cell surrounded by angels who were holding candles. Emperor Trajan, enraged, then ordered the martyr’s remains to be thrown to the wild animals, but his body remained untouched as the angels continued to guard it.

The Assumption Catholic Church in Bavaria, which was the site of a Cistercian Abbey, claims to possess the entire preserved body of Saint Yakinthos.

World’s Oldest Lipstick Discovered in Iran

0
Oldest Lipstick Ever Found
Mineralogical composition of the oldest lipstick ever found. Credit: F. Zorzi / Scientific Reports / CC BY 4.0

In southeastern Iran’s Jiroft region, archaeologists discovered a small vial made of chlorite. Inside it was a deep red substance thought to be ancient lipstick.

The discovery was detailed in the journal Scientific Reports. Analysis showed that the red material contained minerals such as hematite, manganite, and braunite.

It also had traces of galena and anglesite. These minerals were mixed with plant waxes and other organic materials much like modern lipstick recipes.

Dating back to the early 2nd millennium BCE, this discovery sheds light on the ancient Marḫaši civilization, referenced in cuneiform texts from Mesopotamia at the time.

Professor Massimo Vidale, an archaeology professor at the University of Padua in Italy and one of the study’s authors, shared insights with Bored Panda via email. He said that in the world of five thousand to four thousand years ago, we knew about makeup recipes, eyeliners, and eye shadows but not about lip paints.

Ancient knowledge of chemical processing

The ancient people of the region of Mesopotamia had advanced knowledge of chemical processing and used various metal ores, which probably made their cosmetic products more complex. The Jiroft civilization, possibly the ancient Marhasi, thrived in a valley abundant with different types of rocks, which likely helped in the production of advanced cosmetics.

Containers for cosmetics discovered in burial sites indicate the significance of displaying particular social statuses even after death in early city societies. Professor Vidale highlighted that cosmetics were vital in ceremonies and funerals, showing the social rankings of that era.

Previously, archaeological findings mostly centered on white or light-colored substances. However, the discovery of deep red lip pigments brings a fresh perspective to our knowledge of ancient cosmetics.

The birthplace of lipstick

Even though there are no historical records or images from the Jiroft region, this discovery hints that it might be where lipstick was first used. Professor Vidale warned against making firm statements about being the “earliest evidence,” recognizing that new findings could change our view of ancient cultures.

The slim design of the lipstick vial and its fit with ancient mirrors suggest similarities between old cosmetic habits and modern beauty routines.

The Jiroft civilization is still a puzzle because many of its graveyards were looted and damaged in 2000 to 2001.

In 2001, the archaeological remains of the Jiroft civilization were unearthed when the Halil River flooded its basin in Kerman, a region in southeastern Iran. Moreover, this flood exposed several graveyards dating back to the 3rd millennium BCE.

Following this discovery, locals engaged in extensive looting, leading to the loss of thousands of valuable artifacts to the antiquities market, according to a recent study.

Major Atlantic Ocean Current on the Verge of Collapse

Atlantic Ocean Current Collapse
A new study confirms that a major Atlantic ocean current is on the verge of collapse. Credit: Jaumellecha / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

A recent study raised alarms about a crucial ocean current’s potential collapse. Now, fresh data confirms these concerns.

In an article for The Conversation, the authors of the latest study caution that changes in temperature, sea level, and rainfall will greatly impact society. They stress that climate change is happening fast and won’t stop anytime soon.

The new study reveals a frightening possibility. One important aspect highlighted by René van Westen and colleagues from Utrecht University is an early warning system.

This foresight could offer the world a chance to brace itself for the future challenges ahead, as reported by ScienceAlert.

“We were able to develop a physics-based and observable early warning signal involving the salinity transport at the southern boundary of the Atlantic Ocean,” van Westen and team explained.

AMOC has been slowing down since the mid-1900s

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a massive system of ocean currents. It carries warm, salty water northward. As this water travels north, it cools down, becoming denser. Eventually, it sinks, pulling in water from other oceans to replace it at the surface, and the cycle begins again, moving southward.

Since the mid-1900s, the AMOC has been slowing down significantly. This slowdown is due to several factors. Melting glaciers and increased rainfall add more freshwater to the ocean.

This extra freshwater dilutes the saltiness of the water, making it less dense. As a result, the sinking process is disrupted, weakening the entire circulation system.

Through modeling ocean systems, van Westen and his team have devised a method to spot when the AMOC is nearing a critical point. They found that the slowdown in salinity decline at the southernmost edge of the Atlantic is a key indicator.

The authors said that once this threshold is reached, the tipping point is expected to occur within one to four decades.

Tipping point is a lot closer than previously thought

Direct monitoring of the AMOC has only been happening since 2004. This isn’t long enough to fully grasp how the current slowing trend will unfold. Therefore, scientists rely on indirect indicators like salinity levels to gain insights.

Van Westen and his team haven’t combined all factors to precisely predict when the AMOC might collapse. However, they believe this critical event is much closer than many current simulations indicate.

The latest modeling delves into the freshwater-induced tipping point without attempting to forecast its timing. However, the findings indicate that the AMOC is much more responsive to changes than previously thought in many climate models.

Stefan Rahmstorf, a climatologist from Potsdam University not involved in the study, commented on RealClimate, stating that the new research reaffirms previous worries about climate models overestimating the stability of the AMOC.

When Did Ancient Egyptians Start Using Hieroglyphs?

Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs.
Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Credit: VdeX42. CC BY-2.0/flickr

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were commonly etched into stone and used in temples, tombs, and other monuments, with the first fully formed sentence found around 2800 BC. The word “hieroglyphs” comes from the Greek adjective “hieroglyphikos,” meaning “sacred carving.”

Early forms of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs existed before this time, however, with some experts claiming that the writing system may have its origins in artistic symbols used on Gerzean pottery from around 4000 BC. Some of this resemble the hieroglyphs we know today.

Gerzean pottery.
Gerzean pottery. Credit: kairoinfo4u. CC BY 2.0/flickr

Proto-hieroglyphic (the earliest form) symbol systems developed in the latter half of the 4th millennium BC. Examples of such can be seen on the clay labels of predynastic ruler Scorpion I, discovered at Abydos (modern-day Umm el-Qa’ab, Egypt) in 1988, and the Narmer Palette, which dates back to roughly 3100 BC.

The first full sentence etched in mature ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, thus far discovered, was found on a seal impression in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen at Umm el-Qa’ab. This has been carbon dated back to around 2800 BC.

Clay seal impression. Second Dynasty, about 2700 BC. From the tomb of Seth-Peribsen.
Clay seal impression. Second Dynasty about 2700 BC. From the tomb of Seth-Peribsen. Credit: akhenatenator. CC By 1.0/flickr.

Approximately eight hundred hieroglyphs are known to date back to the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom periods. By the Greco-Roman era, there were more than five thousand.

Why Were Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs Invented?

Although, approximately, it is known when ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs emerged as a writing system, there is still an immensely important question as to why they were invented. Some experts argue the reason for their invention had to do with Egypt’s unification into a single state and administration. This coincided with the emergence of the writing form.

“It is logical that a state of Egypt’s size and complexity required a flexible system of accounting that could keep information on the nature of goods, their quantities, provenance and destination, the people in charge of them and the date of transaction,” Marc Van De Mieroop, a history professor at Columbia University wrote in his book, A History of Ancient Egypt.

However, the author does also stress that ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs might well have been invented to help glorify gods and the king, pointing out that some of the earliest carvings depicting ancient Egyptian kings contain hieroglyphs. “The glorification of the king may have been one of the driving forces in the script’s invention,” he wrote.

Ancient Egypt’s contact with another ancient society, that of Sumerian Mesopotamia, may have been the origin of writing in the modern-day African country. Some experts believe that ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs came into existence not long after Sumerian script and thus were likely invented under the influence of the latter.

Sumarian cuneiform tablet at the Manchester Museum.
Sumarian cuneiform tablet at the Manchester Museum. Credit: purplemattfish. CC BY 2.0/flickr

It has also been suggested that the general idea of expressing words in writing came to Egypt from Sumerian Mesopotamia, given that there is lots of evidence for early Egypt-Mesopotamia contact. However, due to the lack of direct evidence for the transfer of writing, other researchers argue that no definitive conclusions can be made about the origin of hieroglyphs in ancient Egypt. Some maintain the writing form was developed independently by ancient Egyptians.

Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs Appeared Suddenly

Since the 1990s, many scholars have argued that the hieroglyphs discovered at Abydos, weaken the theory that the Mesopotamian symbol system predates the Egyptian one. The strangest part, however, is that ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs appeared suddenly at that time, whereas Mesopotamia had a long, gradual evolutionary history of sign usage for agriculture and accounting, mostly seen in tokens dating back as far as 8000 BC.

The Different Types of ‘Glyph’

Hieroglyphs contain three different types of ‘glyph.’ These include phonetic glyphs, which include single-consonant characters that function like an alphabet; logographs, which represent morphemes (the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression); and determinatives, which narrow down the meaning of logographic or phonetic words.

The Evolution of the Symbolic Writing System Over the Centuries

As writing was popularized throughout ancient Egypt, with its adoption by more and more people, more simple glyph forms began to develop. These resulted in the hieratic (priestly) and demotic (popular) scripts.

It could be said that these new forms were more suitable for writing on papyrus. The rise of more simplistic forms did not spell the end of hieroglyphs. Rather, all forms existed alongside each other. The Rosetta Stone is made up of three parallel scripts for instance, hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek.

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were even still in use during the era of Alexander the Great and under Persian rule (intermittent in the 6th and 5th centuries BC). Many comments and writings about ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs by ancient Greek and Roman writers have been misleading, and it is believed this happened as a response to the changing political situation. Some ancient thinkers claimed that the function of hieroglyphs was to distinguish between true Egyptians and foreign conquerors.

A different reason for the misleading comments around ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs may have sprung from the refusal of ancient Greeks and Romans to take ancient Egyptian culture on its own terms, Having discovered that hieroglyphs were sacred writings, Greco-Roman authors believed the symbol system to be magical, capable of transmitting mystical knowledge.

The Ancient Lemnian Language and Its Connection to Etruscan

0
Lost Lemnian, Etruscan and Raetic language were all closely related.
Lost Lemnian, Etruscan, and Raetic language were all closely related under the banner of the Tyrrhenian language group. Credit: Curious Expeditions. CC BY 2.0/flickr

The ancient language of Lemnian, which was spoken on the Greek island of Lemnos in the first millennium BC, was very closely connected with the Etruscan language, as uncovered inscriptions have found.

There have been sixteen inscription remnants found that display Lemnian, a now-extinct language thought to have some relation to the Raetic language of the Alps and the Etruscan language of northern, central, and southwestern Italy, which all formed part of the Tyrrhenian language group.

Area of Tyrrhenian languages (Rhaetian, Etruscan, Lemnian), Paleo-Corsican and Paleo-Sardinian languages.
Area of Tyrrhenian languages (Rhaetian, Etruscan, Lemnian), Paleo-Corsican, and Paleo-Sardinian languages. Credit: Nunziu Poggi. CC BY-4.0/Wikimedia Commons/Nunziu Poggi

The Tyrrhenian language group is generally considered to be formed of Paleo-European and non-Indo-European languages.

The Lemnos Stele

In use on the island of Lemnos in ancient Greece in the latter half of the 6th century BC, Lemnian first came to be known by the inscription on a funerary stone called the Lemnos Stele, which was discovered in 1884 embedded in a church near Kaminia, a village in the north of Lemnos.

The funerary stone is considered to be the most significant Lemnian artifact discovered to date because its decoding has helped later scholars in their translations of the Etruscan language, which still presents some challenges.

The stele displays seven rows of letters on its front with an additional three rows of letters on its right side, and, although most of the inscription cannot be understood, there are a couple of passages which match phrases found on the funerary artifacts of the Etruscans.

Lemnos Stele.
Lemnos Stele. Credit: diffendale. CC BY-2.0/flickr

In fact, one researcher who translated the intelligible parts of the Lemnian Stele wrote, “Although the inscriptions cannot be translated in their entirety, several phrases are intelligible, all of which point to funerary texts in honor of a Greek named Holaie Phokias.”

Holaie died at the age of forty and held an official position known as maras, according to the researcher. However, it has been argued that because of the baldness of the deceased man etched onto the stele, he may have been much older than forty when he died.

Lemnian is preserved on a total of sixteen inscriptions with most of them just a single word painted onto ceramic vessels. The inscriptions of the Lemnian language were written in an alphabet which had its origins in Phyrgia (a Kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia). However, a handful of letters—theta, phi, and khi—were borrowed from Greek.

Words in the Lemnian inscriptions were separated by colons and tri-colons with the writing being read from left to right and some lines in longer inscriptions written in boustrophedon style (right to left).

The Genetic Association Between Lemnian and Etruscan

One inscription, found by the Italian Archaeological School of Athens in the 1990s at the site of Efestia, uncovered a stone altar base. The front portion of the artifact was incised with four words arranged in two lines or right-to-left writing.

The four words were “heloke,” “hektaonosi,” “soroms,” and “aslas.” Researchers have deduced the meaning of the Lemnian verb “heloke” by comparing it to the Etruscan word “helu,” meaning “constructed.”

Hektaonosi is believed to be the beneficiary for whom the altar base was created, while the meaning of the remaining two words is uncertain. Researchers posit that they may represent the names of the two people who donated the monument.

Etruscan boundary cippus from Fiesole.
Etruscan boundary cippus from Fiesole. Credit: diffendale. CC BY 2.0/flickr

Among scholars, the Lemnian language surfaces during discussions on the origins of the Etruscans. There is a theory that the ancestors of the Etruscans arrived in Italy from the northern Aegean, possibly somewhere around the Black Sea in the latter half of the second millennium.

The discovery of Lemnian—linguistically related to Etruscan—in this geographical region is often used as evidence to support this theory and is, to some extent, in line with the writings of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who said the Etruscans were descendants of the Lydians, the inhabitants of Anatolia.

Nonetheless, there is no archaeological evidence to support the theory that prehistoric speakers of Etruscan made their way from the Northern Aegean. Moreover, the linguistic evidence, although pointing to a close relation between Lemnian and Etruscan, does not answer the question of origins, which is further muddied by the addition of Raetic to this family of languages.

King Charles Calls Greek Monk for Prayers After Cancer Diagnosis

King Charles Greek Monk
King Charles sought spiritual support from a Greek Orthodox monk. Credit: Catholic Church (England and Wales). CC BY-2.0/Flickr

After being diagnosed with cancer, King Charles called a Greek Orthodox monk on Mount Athos and asked him to pray for his health, as revealed on Tuesday.

Elder Ephraim who is currently Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Vatopedi at Mount Athos told Cyprus TV that King Charles called him to receive consolation.

“When reaching out to a monk, you seek his prayers and consoling words for strength to overcome difficulties.”

He added that King Charles is a spiritual person with whom he has kept a close relationship over the years. “I believe he will overcome cancer.”

Ephraim also revealed that King Charles has visited the monastic community of Mount Athos eight times, and Ephraim himself has also visited King Charles several times, where he was always welcomed.

“We have developed a very good relationship with King Charles. He is interested in spiritual life and has spiritual concerns. Despite being Anglican and the protector of his church, he is still interested in our church” Ephraim said, adding that “his contemplation and the questions he asked always moved me.”

When the journalist asked Abbot Ephraim how King Charles feels after being diagnosed with cancer, he replied, “He knows what spiritual life is… Every person tries to bear their own cross.”

Relationship between Greek monk and King Charles

In 1998 he visited the Vatopedi Monastery, where he met Abbot Ephraim for the first time. Since then, his visits to Athos increased. From spring 2003 to May 2004 he visited Mount Athos three times. Always accompanied by bodyguards and politely refusing the presence of Greek officials.

A report by the Guardian newspaper in 2004 suggested that the then Prince Charles had become enamored of the Orthodox faith to the point that he adorned a section of his home at Highgrove with prized Byzantine icons. Many are believed to originate from Mount Athos, the Orthodox world’s holiest site.

“There is no question that the British royal is Orthodox in his heart,” a monk confided to the Guardian as Charles was making a secret visit to Mount Athos. “Sadly, he is very constrained by his position,” the monk added.

The British newspaper reported that when the prince arrived in Athos days after the death of Princess Diana, it was Abbot Ephraim who induced him to join the faith. Closeted in a chamber alone with the abbot, Charles is believed to have made a “spiritual commitment” to Christian Orthodoxy.

King Charles, has been diagnosed with a still undisclosed type of cancer for which he began regular treatments on Monday, February 5th.  Public duties have been postponed during treatment, Buckingham Palace has said.

According to the Palace, the king, 75, “remains wholly positive about his treatment and looks forward to returning to full public duty as soon as possible.”

The King and his relationship with Greece

Charles III is a well-known lover of Greece, a philhellene, and a regular visitor. He was present at and gave a speech during, the events to mark the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution.

When King Charles—then Prince Charles—said that Greece is in his blood upon his first official visit to the country, he was not just speaking metaphorically, as both his father and grandfather were born in Greece.

The grandfather of the Prince of Wales, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, was born at Tatoi Palace, on the outskirts of Athens in 1882. His father, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was born on the island of Corfu at Mon Repos Palace in 1921.

Related: King Charles’ Mysterious Links to the Greek Orthodox Faith