Decorated Kostas Sarantidis meets with then Foreign Minister of Việt Nam Phạm Binh Minh in 2018. Credit: Vietnamese News Agency/VNA/VNS
Kostas Sarantidis was a Greek resistance fighter who escaped from the Nazi labor camps during the Second World War to become a national hero in Vietnam.
He was the sole foreigner who was honored with the title of Hero of the People’s Armed Forces of Vietnam.
“Kostas Sarantidis’s life is tied in with the heroic moments of the Vietnamese people,” said Vu Binh, Vietnamese Ambassador to Greece.
He was born in 1927 in Thessaloniki to Asia Minor refugees. In the autumn of 1943 and during the Axis occupation of Greece in World War II, he was arrested while selling smuggled tobacco and was sent on foot to Nazi forced labor camps in Germany.
He managed to escape to an area near Vienna and stole a military uniform which he used to disguise himself as a German until the end of the war.
After the end of the war, Sarantidis went to Rome and tried to be repatriated to Greece. This, however, proved impossible as he lacked any identity documents. Without any means of supporting himself, Sarantidis was lured into the French Foreign Legion by the prospect of living an adventurous life and meeting beautiful women.
Greek hero in Vietnam
After joining the legion, Sarantidis was initially moved to Algeria and landed in Indochina in 1946. While there, he and the other legionnaires were informed that the duration of their deployment would be short and that their mission would be to disarm the Japanese and restore order.
Sarantidis disliked the oppression of the local population by the French colonial troops. After two months with the Legion, he contacted Viet Minh spies and defected to them, carrying with him his rifle and a machine gun.
He was given the name Nguyễn Văn Lập and served in various posts, participating in many battles. Eventually, he rose to the rank of captain. In 1949, he was admitted to the Communist Party of Vietnam.
After the end of the war in 1954 and the division of Vietnam into northern and southern zones, Sarantidis moved to North Vietnam and retired from the army. At that time, he was married to a nurse who was accused of reactionism and was imprisoned.
Sarantidis worked as a German translator and later as a miner. He also remarried to a Vietnamese woman with whom he had three children.
From the day he was arrested in Thessaloniki until the early ’50s, Sarantidis had not communicated with his family who presumed him dead. Near the end of the war, he started to exchange letters with them and in 1965, he decided to return to Greece.
With the aid of one of his brothers, who helped the Sarantidis family attain passports, Sarantidis moved to Thessaloniki.
While in Greece, Sarantidis joined the Greek Communist Party and worked in helping Vietnam as well as promoting Greek-Vietnamese relations. Sarantidis has also been active in helping children in Vietnam who have been affected by the Agent Orange/dioxin toxicant.
Sarantidis (on the right) with the former Greek President Karolos Papoulias in Vietnam. Credit: AMNA
Sarantidis escorted the then Greek President Karolos Papoulias on his official visit to Vietnam in October 2008.
In 2010, Sarantidis was given Vietnamese citizenship and a passport. In 2013, he was named a Hero of the People’s Armed Forces. Additionally, he has been awarded several honorary titles by both the Vietnamese Party and State, including the Friendship Order in 2011, the Victory Medal, Third Class and the Resistance War Medal, Second Class.
Sarantidis passed away on June 25, 2021 in Athens. He was 94.
The original version was composed in Ancient Greek sometime before 338 CE. Credit: AMNA
The “Romance” of Alexander the Great is a unique illuminated manuscript on his life and was the most widely-read romance in the Middle Ages as it was translated into thirty languages.
The original version was composed in Ancient Greek sometime before 338 CE, when a Latin translation was made, although the exact date is unknown. It was subjected to various revisions during the Byzantine Empire, some of them recasting it into poetical form in Medieval Greek vernacular.
According to researchers, the manuscript is a romance based on the life of Alexander and gives a detailed account of the events before and during his campaign of conquest, which took him as far as India, where he also carried the ideals and values of Greek thought and science taught to him by his teacher, the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
Most of the content of the Romance is fantastical, including many miraculous tales and encounters with mythical creatures such as sirens or centaurs.
The priceless manuscript takes an almost “cinematic” approach to the life of the ancient Macedonian king, including more than 250 illuminated illustrations richly decorated in brilliant colors and gold leaf.
The codex has exceptional artistic value. Public Domain
The codex has now been fully digitized and has been sent to various exhibitions around the world.
The most richly illustrated version of Alexander the Great’s Romance
According to Christos Arabatzis, the president of the Venice Hellenic Institute‘s Supervisory Committee, Greek version is unique in the entire world, since it is the most richly illustrated version of the Alexander romance, and it also has exceptional artistic value in and of itself.
According to Byzantine expert Flora Karagianni, the Alexander Romance appears to be based on an account by the ancient historian Callisthenes who had accompanied Alexander on his campaign, which he had written shortly after Alexander’s death.
In the centuries that followed, this became the most widely-read romance of medieval times, spreading from Istanbul to the west and from the city of Trebizond east to Mongolia, Persia, Sumatra and China – even making its way into Islamic religious texts.
miniature illustrations depicting Alexander’s life and accomplishments. Public Domain
“For the Byzantines, especially, Alexander came to have almost mythical dimensions, fighting whole armies, mythical monsters and defeating many Roman and then Byzantine emperors… he was the model of a hero, warrior and hunter,” Karagianni said.
In the mid-14th century, Alexios III Megas Komnenos of Trebizond ordered a manuscript with the Alexander romance to be prepared for his library. This was then copied down and illustrated with four miniature illustrations depicting Alexander’s life and accomplishments, she added.
When the city of Trebizond was conquered in 1461, an unknown individual who was part of the new Turkish society there added notes to each illustration in Ottoman Turkish script.
Somehow, by some near-miraculous, still-unknown means, the manuscript resurfaced in the hands of Konstantinos Maroutsos, a Venetian merchant, in the early nineteenth century — and thanks to him, the priceless book was given back to the Greek community.
An inscribed gemstone with an ancient Greek love poem shows how the spoken language actually sounded, according to new research. Credit: Peter Komjathy/BHMAquincum Archaeological Museum and Park
Reading like the lyrics to a popular song or poem from modern times, two ancient Greek inscriptions in the form of rhyming poetry have prompted new insights into the way the language was spoken in those times.
Ultimately, it is not possible to determine exactly how any ancient language sounded when spoken. But one clue has always been the changing of spellings over time — especially in those writings and inscriptions from more ordinary people rather than professional scribes.
Classicist Tim Whitmarsh from the University of Cambridge sees patterns and tendencies in these writings that point to just how the ancient language must have sounded. “In popular texts, spelling is more likely to be adapted to the sound of the word and less likely to be tethered to some conservative idea of ‘proper’ spelling,” he states.
Ancient Greek love poem inscribed on the gemstone provides linguistic link to the past
“λέγουσιν They say
ἃ θέλουσιν What they like
λεγέτωσαν Let them say it
οὐ μέλι μοι I don’t care
σὺ φίλι με Go on, love me
συνφέρι σοι It does you good”
The jewel on which it is carved, which is in the collection of the BHM Aquincum Archaeological Museum in Budapest, Hungary is spectacular in so many respects, serving as not only a rich repository of linguistic information but a beautiful sculptural object as well.
But it is not the only artifact from the past that provides clues as to how ancient Greek sounded. Whitmarsh recently researched a number of artifacts found in areas that were once part of the Roman Empire, including nineteen other gemstones and even writing inscribed on a piece of plaster in a house in Cartagena, Spain.
Incredibly, all of these objects contain the very same popular short poem written in Greek. The researcher’s conclusions may provide the best evidence available as to how people actually spoke at the time, which is reflected in how we speak today.
“Before the Middle Ages, many poetic traditions of the ‘classical’ cultures, such as Greek and Latin in what is now Europe, and Arabic and Persian further east, used a form of verse that was entirely different from anything we know of as poetry today,” Whitmarsh explains.
Until that time, poems had been created using the rules of classical meter. This involves the meter, or rhythm, of a poem being determined by how long it takes to say the long and short syllables of the work. Whitmarsh says: “Think ‘hope’ versus ‘hop.’”
The pattern of short and long syllables is referred to as quantitative meter, setting it apart from the qualitative, stressed, meter that was common in the Middle Ages and afterward.
Stressed meter is fairly subtle in spoken English, which has very nuanced stresses, but can be heard in the verse “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” in which the initial syllables are stressed, with “twin” in “twinkle,” “li” in “little,” and “star.”
Before Whitmarsh’s research it had been settled theory that the earliest clear examples of stressed poetry were works created by the hymnist Romanos the Melodist in the mid-sixth century A.D.
Whitmarsh says, however, that the inscribed poem he has been studying, which dates back to the second or third century A.D., was recited using stressed meter, meaning people in the Greek-speaking Roman Empire actually used stressed speech centuries earlier than had been previously believed.
Whitmarsh says this written evidence must not have popped up all of a sudden. “This way of speaking must have been bubbling around in the oral tradition,” he notes. “Romanos wrote hymns using the stressed accent not to innovate spectacularly, but to plug in to the way normal people were speaking. This is a rare glimpse of how people actually sounded.”
The strikingly modernistic poem — which speaks to the universal human experience of loving someone whom perhaps they shouldn’t — is evidence of a cultural crossover from human experience to the written word.
And its attraction is likewise universal. “From Spain to Iraq, everyone wants this little gemstone and its poem,” Whitmarsh says.
This same Ancient Greek poem remained consistent through time and was copied verbatim across the Roman Empire from west to east, north to south. The Oxford University classicist says that the exquisite poem appears to have appealed to a literate, yet not high-status, demographic.
The “gemstones” in this jewelry are actually only glass paste. Added to that fact is that the language of the poem is vernacular, including no adjectives or nouns.
“It’s about as simple as you can get,” Whitmarsh explains, adding “It’s a kind of playground chat that starts in the middle of a conversation and has an easily reproducible rhythm that sounds like the main verse of Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B. Good.’”
Like the Greek world that inspired so much of Roman thought and material culture, the Empire’s vast breadth and wealth engendered the production of such jewelry. The Ancient Greek poem inscribed on it was surely one that was known by all educated people at the time.
“The Roman Empire produced wealth and opportunity that people had never had before and the chance to buy into culture and to travel and network in a way never before possible,” Whitmarsh points out. “This object spread like wildfire because the empire was an information superhighway.”
Athens and other Greek cities are becoming hubs of technology. Credit: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Technology giants, such as Amazon, Google, Digital Realty, and Microsoft have strengthened their presence in Greece in 2023 by investing in data centers, making the country a hub of innovation.
Investments in Greece are driven by the strategic geographical position of Greece, which is a hub connecting Europe with Africa, the Middle East, and, by extension, Asia, as well as economic and political stability after the ten-year economic crisis.
Furthermore, the improvement of infrastructure and especially the high-quality human resources of Greece are a key element that has put Greece on the radar of large companies.
Greek businesses are also making an effort to adapt their operations to new technological developments. According to a recent survey by Ernst and Young Greece, in the last five years, 86 percent of companies that participated in the survey have implemented at least one transformation project. At the same time, more than half of the companies in the survey (54 percent) said that they had completed more than two.
The technology giants that invest in Greece
Digital Realty
Digital Realty is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates and invests in carrier-neutral data centers across the world. The company acquired Lamda Hellix SA, Greece’s largest carrier and cloud-neutral colocation provider, in 2021. This acquisition gave Digital Realty a significant presence in the Greek data center market, with multiple data center campuses across the country.
Digital Realty’s presence in Greece includes data centers Athens 1, Athens 2 and the state-of-the-art Athens 3, which is the largest data center in the country, capable of supporting up to 6.8 MW.
Athens 4 whose construction has begun will have a similar capacity to Athens 3. At the same time, Athens 5 is in the planning process. In addition, investment has begun in Heraklion, Crete for the Heraklion 1 data center, the first phase of which is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
Amazon Web Services
Greece is among the 26 countries outside the US where Local Zones will be installed. Local Zones are a type of AWS infrastructure that places computing power, data storage, databases, and other services closer to major urban, industrial, and technology centers. They enable AWS customers to develop applications that require very fast sub-ten millisecond responses.
The company has already announced the creation of a Local Zone in Athens. At the same time, AWS has announced the Smart Island pilot program in Naxos with the primary objective of developing solutions that will respond to challenges related to infrastructure management and, service provision.
Recently, AWS also announced the opening of the first European Outpost Testing Lab (OTL) in Greece. AWS Outposts are a set of fully managed compute and storage solutions that allow users to operate AWS infrastructure within their premises.
Through this program, customers, partners and internal teams of the company will have remote access to AWS Outposts databases and servers, and will be able to perform short-term tests at no charge. The new AWS Outpost Testing Lab of Greece is the fifth in the world and the first to be created in Europe.
Google
The company has announced it will create the first Cloud Region in Greece, specifically in Athens, with the ultimate goal of accelerating the digital transformation of the country.
According to data from AlphaBeta Economics, by 2030, this project is estimated to contribute a total of $2.2 billion to the national GDP, while supporting the creation of more than 19,400 new jobs.
As the company points out, 2023 was an important year for Google in Greece and Artificial Intelligence. Google Bard “learned” Greek by providing new ways to creatively interact with Bard. Also, the Immersive View service on Google Maps has been updated with additions of Greek monuments, such as the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, the Theater of Dionysus, Hadrian’s Gate and the Temple of Olympian Zeus.
The Grow Greece with Google program launched in 2020 has resulted in the training of over 275,000 professionals and small and medium enterprises in Greece so far. In 2021, a year after its launch in the US and New Zealand, Android Earthquake Alerts began its pilot operation in Greece as well. In 2023, Google expanded its flood forecasting system to Greece.
NTT DATA
The Japanese technology giant has strengthened its presence in Greece stating that its goal for the Greek branch is to achieve a growth rate of 15 percent in 2023 through the service of international organizations.
The company is considering regional expansion beyond Athens, in cities such as Thessaloniki, Patras, Crete and Ioannina. NTT’s investments in the country are estimated to reach 25 million euros by 2026.
The NTT Group is a global leader in providing technology and business solutions with revenues of $108 billion and more than 330,000 employees in more than 80 countries. It invests more than $3.6 billion in research and development.
Microsoft
Microsoft will create a complex of three Data Centers in Attica, putting the country on Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure map – the largest in the world – thus ensuring access to business-level “low latency” Cloud services.
At the same time, to support Greek citizens in their professional and personal goals, Microsoft will train a workforce of 100,000 citizens in digital skills by 2025.
The tech giant started its operations in Greece in 1992. In 2020, it launched the GRforGrowth initiative, a major technological commitment to private citizens, the public sector, and businesses of all sizes in Greece for technology and new resources that create additional growth opportunities.
Huawei
The Chinese technological giant Huawei has made a strategic decision to strengthen its presence in Europe by entering cloud services, while in Greece it focuses on infrastructure modernization, education, innovation and sustainability initiatives.
The company says is ready to introduce next-generation solutions with AI (artificial intelligence) algorithms in Data Center infrastructures, integrating photovoltaic systems with energy storage that promise resource savings, uninterrupted operation, scalability, security and efficiency.
This move, as the company estimates, not only strengthens Greece’s digital capabilities but also strengthens competition, pushing developments and cost efficiencies in the field of solutions and services offered.
Cisco
The American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate has established an international innovation and digital skills development center in Thessaloniki. This center focuses on developing and deploying new technologies, as well as training the Greek workforce in digital skills.
In 2023 it implemented an initiative which highlighted Rhodes as a hybrid work destination. It hosted 17 fully remote Cisco employees, from all over Europe, promoting Rhodes as a “smart” digital island and integrated destination for attracting remote workers.
Also in 2023, the ONEX group and Cisco announced their joint planning for the strategic development plan of the first “smart” shipyard in our country, but also in the wider region of the Eastern Mediterranean, with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on which foresees the collaboration of ONEX and CISCO in order to accelerate the digital transformation of the Elefsina Shipyards.
Cisco continued the digital skills development program in Greece named Cisco Networking Academy. The training of students that exceed 4,500 includes a wide range of courses, preparing participants for the challenges of their professional careers.
2023 marked, among other things, for Cisco, another year of operation of the International Center for Digital Transformation and Digital Skills in Thessaloniki, a multi-disciplinary innovation hub, attracting more than 13,500 visitors and delivering more than 20 digital transformation pilot projects to its customers and partners.
Tcreated housands of jobs in Greece
These investments are expected to create thousands of jobs in Greece and make the country a major hub for data center operations in Europe.
The Greek government has also recognized the importance of the data center industry and is taking steps to further support its growth. In 2022, the government announced a €1 billion investment plan for the development of the data center industry. This plan includes tax breaks, subsidies, and funding for research and development.
The growth of the data center industry in Greece is a significant development for the country’s economy and its role in the global digital economy. These investments are expected to create jobs, attract foreign investment, and improve Greece’s connectivity with the rest of the world.
Replicas of the original Caryatids holding up the Erechtheion in Athens atop the Acropolis. Five original Caryatids are now in the Acropolis Museum, but the sixth Caryatid was carted away by Lord Elgin back in 1802 when he made off with the rest of his spoils from the Acropolis, including the Elgin Marbles. Like the Marbles, the sixth original Caryatid is also still at the British Museum. Credit: Harrieta171 /CC BY-SA 3.0
The Erechtheion, the ancient Greek temple held up by statues known as Caryatids, was dedicated to the gods Athena and Poseidon; it still stands on the Athens Acropolis, much like the Parthenon just meters away, as a testament to the glory of ancient Greece.
The stunningly beautiful marble building, constructed along the lines of the Ionic order, was considered the most sacred part of the Acropolis.
The southern roof of the Erechtheion is supported by six statues of maidens known as the Caryatids, which were created from 421 BC to 406 BC. An ancient inscription of the Erechtheion refers to the Caryatids simply as Korai (maidens) but the term karyatides means “maidens of Karyai,” which is an ancient town of Peloponnese.
An alternate version of the story is that the derivation of their name is from the young women of Sparta who danced every year in honor of the goddess Artemis Karyatis (“Artemis of the Walnut Tree”).
Sixth “sister” Caryatid in British Museum in London
The Caryatids which can currently be seen at the Erechtheum are faithful copies, since the five remaining originals are in the Acropolis Museum for their protection, conservation, and restoration.
It was none other than he who was responsible for chipping off the frieze sculptures known as the Parthenon Marbles from the façade of the nearby Parthenon, shipping them off to his homeland where they remain today.
The Caryatid, which was separated from her sisters in Athens, is on display at the British Museum. Credit: Sailko/CC BY-SA 3.0
The enormity of this cultural theft was so apparent even back in the very different world of 1802 that Elgin’s “gift” to the British government was hotly debated in Parliament, with many saying he had no moral grounds to remove these sculptures from their rightful place in Greece.
Eventually, however, they ended up in the British Museum where they remain in their windowless gallery even to this day.
Despite the heated protestations of a long string of government ministers, historians, and other experts from around the world, British Museum officials state they have every legal right to own the Marbles despite the fact that they were chipped off a building that is the embodiment of Greek history itself and they were taken at a time when Greece was occupied by a foreign power.
At a time when the “Decolonization” movement in museums is growing all over the world, it seems almost incomprehensible today that any of the Marbles, or the lone Caryatid, are still at the British Museum, separated from the illustrious homeland of their creation.
Caryatids’ grace, beauty unparalleled in art of sculpture
Caryatid at the Acropolis Museum in Athens. The great attention to detail by the sculptor is apparent in his treatment of their intricate braids. Credit: Odysses/CC BY-SA 3.0
The beauty and grace of the Caryatids is truly something that must be witnessed in person, although photographs have been taken of them since the beginning of photography, and paintings were made by European artists after the modern nation of Greece was formed in the early 1800s.
The women, who appear to hold up the building by baskets on their heads to form the capitals of their columnar bodies, wear peplos, a simple tunic pinned on each shoulder. Their hair, as can be seen more easily close up on the statues in the Museum, is intricately braided, falling in luxuriant plaits down their backs.
The weight of the building appears to be borne on one leg of each of the Caryatids, encased in perpendicular folds arranged like the fluting of a column shaft. The other leg is flexed, creating a graceful, natural stance.
The Caryatids, made from Pentelic marble, resemble the women depicted in the east frieze of the Parthenon, which had just been completed when work on the Erechtheion began.
Carl Friedrich Werner’s “Prostasis of the Caryatids on the Erechtheion,” 1877. Benaki Museum. Credit: Google Art Project/ public domain
The nascent Greek state undertook the clearing away of Turkish dwellings from the sacred rock of the Acropolis, revealing the classical monuments of antiquity, in the early 1830s.
Of course, their fame had already spread in antiquity, and by Roman times the Caryatids were copied routinely, with almost identical sculptures placed in the Forum of Augustus and the Roman Pantheon, as well as at Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli.
By the 16th century, caryatids became a fixture in the decorative arts in northern Europe as part of Northern Mannerism; by the early 17th century, Caryatid likenesses appeared in Jacobean interiors in England.
There are four terracotta caryatids on the porch of St. Pancras New Church, London, which was constructed in 1822.
How is the British Museum’s Caryatid sister faring?
According to Greek experts, the British Museum’s Caryatid sister is not faring well. Some say that the cleaning of the Caryatid in their possession was faulty, resulting in a change in her coloring. Naturally, neither she nor the Parthenon sculptures, made of pentelic marble, appear with their natural glow that was once imparted by the strong Greek sun.
But shown under the harsh fluorescent glare of the British Museum’s lighting, she looks not only out of place but darkly discolored as well, with none of the glow that is normally imparted by the marble, making for a resemblance that is akin to actual skin.
Measuring just over life size, at 2.28 meters (7.4 feet) she most likely held a sacrificial vessel in one of her missing hands. But what is in store for her in the future? Can the British Museum keep resisting all the clarion calls for her and the Parthenon Marbles’ return to their rightful home from where they were brutally stripped centuries ago?
That remains to be seen. But the tide may be turning for the repatriation of the missing Caryatid “sister” and her compatriots who once graced the façade of the Parthenon beside her.
Athens’ gleaming, state-of-the-art Acropolis Museum has left a space for the missing sister, hoping that the British Museum will return the lonely artifact.
As the creators of this short film, produced by JA Productions, say: “The weeping of the sixth marble daughter still echoes in the ears of the Greeks.”
Cast members of “Maestro in Blue”. Credit: Maestro in Blue
The acclaimed Greek television series, Maestro in Blue, returns to Netflix for its second season on May 16th.
When Netflix first picked up the series in March 2023, it became the first-ever exclusive worldwide distribution deal for a Greek scripted television series on the streaming platform.
Maestro in Blue was created for Mega TV by Christoforos Papakaliatis, who also stars in the series.
“In May 2024 we will have the opportunity to travel once again to the deep blue waters of Paxos, which, however, hide many guilty secrets,” Mega TV announced on Tuesday.
The second season consists of six episodes, while the series will conclude with a four-episode third season, which is expected to air in the fall of 2024 on Mega TV and Netflix.
Papakaliatis has hinted at season two’s release before. In a recent interview with Alpha TV, he stated that the filming of the second series of Maestro in Blue started in April 2023 and took place in Athens and Paxos. He also revealed that there will be some new faces in the cast.
The first season debuted on Netflix on Friday, March 17, 2023. The television series has had a very strong reception with audiences and holds a 97 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.4 rating on IMDB.
Following the release of the first season on Netflix, it featured in the global top 10s for two weeks, picking up 20.56 million viewing hours. The show featured in the TV top 10s in 53 countries according to FlixPatrol, with the show doing best in countries like Greece (featured in the top 10s for 97 days), Cyprus (42 days), Malta (15 days), Israel (14 days), Serbia (13 days), Romania (12 days), and Turkey (12 days).
Further data from the Netflix Engagement Report covering January through June suggests the show was watched globally for 41.10 million viewing hours. Naturally, as the only show from Greece currently on Netflix, it remains the country’s most-watched Original title to date.
At the time of season one’s release, Papakaliatis said: ”I hold Maestro very close to my heart and I feel deeply honored and happy that this story will travel around the world through Netflix. I’m looking forward to this journey.”
Credit: Maestro in Blue
Story and production
Maestro in Blue is set in Greece on the island of Paxos. The island has an interesting history, which includes naval battles, pirates, and a succession of foreign rulers. Even though it is smaller than and not as well-known as Corfu and Lefkada, which are also in the Ionian Sea, Paxos is very beautiful.
It follows a musician named Orestis, played by Papakaliatis, who travels to the small Greek island during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to set up a music festival from scratch.
Confronted with the small society of the island, he finds himself involved in a passionate love story that acts as a catalyst for the manifestation of all the social problems that plague an entire group of people. The characters, being connected to one another, are therefore complicit in the developments.
Speaking about the series, Papakaliatis recently said, “I am very proud of this project because I think that artistically it is a unique moment, not only for me, but for everyone who was involved.”
“I am extremely lucky, because thanks to these actors, the story of ‘Maestro’ acquired meaning and substance. To me that matters. To be able to tell your story in the best possible way and for it to make sense,” Papakaliatis further added.
“The photography, the music, the editing, the cameras and all the collaborators, have all given their best in order to make a project in our language, which will also be able to stand worldwide,” he said.
A Liberty ship crossing the Atlantic. Public Domain
The mass-produced Liberty ships that played a significant role during WWII eventually helped Greece become the world’s leading maritime power.
Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass-produced on an unprecedented scale, the Liberty ship came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output.
The class was created in response to British requests for transport to take the place of lost ships. Between 1941 and 1945, eighteen American shipyards constructed 2,710 Liberty ships, or an average of three ships every two days. This is undoubtedly the greatest number of ships ever built to a single design.
After the end of the war, the American government decided to sell the ships. A few far-sighted Greek entrepreneurs took the opportunity to buy 98 of them.
Shipping tycoons such as John Theodoracopoulos, Aristotle Onassis, Stavros Niarchos, Stavros George Livanos, the Goulandris brothers and the Andreadis family bought dozens of them each, building a Greek fleet that soon ruled global waters.
Onassis, in particular, was known for his keen business acumen in the shipping industry. He acquired numerous Liberty ships and converted them for commercial use. These ships were utilized in various ways, including transporting goods such as oil, grain, and other commodities across the globe.
Onassis and other Greek businessmen leveraged the versatility and affordability of Liberty ships to build their shipping empires. They played a crucial role in the post-war reconstruction efforts and the expansion of global trade by providing vital transportation infrastructure.
Greeks called them “blessed ships” because thanks to the American Liberty ships the Greek economy received a much-needed kiss of life. Around 4,000 Greek seafarers found employment in those vessels and were not forced to emigrate during these difficult times.
Along with the Greek-flagged ships, more Liberty ships were bought with the flags of Honduras, Panama and the United Kingdom, which were acquired by Onassis.
Liberty ships enhance Greece-US relationship
Marine historian and researcher Giorgos M. Foustanos who founded the greekshippingmiracle.org online museum, said recently that a unique relationship was formed between Greece and the US, thanks to the acquisition of the Liberty ships.
Foustanos claimed that the selling of the Liberty ships to Greece by the US at the specific time (1946), was for reasons of geopolitical balance. It was the time the Greek Civil War was about to erupt and no one knew what the outcome would be.
Beyond that, the author said, the relationship between shipowners and the US government was a two-way street, because the Greek shipowners contributed not only to the Greek but also to the American economy; since from 1948 until 1960 they made large tanker orders from US shipyards.
One of them cost the shipowner 20 million dollars, an amount almost equivalent to half of the total money the Americans received for the sale of 98 Liberty ships.
Furthermore; Foustanos said, that while many of them were bought by French, Italian, British and Norwegian shipowners, only the Greeks were able to build a fleet, that within a few decades, dominated and still dominates the seas, today.
The biggest town and capital of the island is Argostoli. Credit: IDS.photos , CC BY-SA 2.0/Wikipedia
Kefalonia, the largest of the Ionian islands, with its emerald-colored mountains, secluded coves and underground lakes, has recently been crowned the best Greek island by Which? magazine.
Abundant sandy beaches, scenery uninterrupted by high-rise buildings and access to much-sought-after solitude sealed the deal for the island, off the west coast of mainland Greece, in the consumer body’s annual survey.
Which? asked more than 1,000 visitors to rate the 10 main Greek islands on factors including beaches, attractions, scenery and value for money.
Kefalonia, the setting for Louis de Bernières’ novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and a major location for the 2001 film starring Nicolas Cage and Penélope Cruz, was the only island to score five stars in the peace and quiet category, gaining an overall 85%.
The Greek island has a rich history and a long cultural tradition. The green of its mountains blends with the blue of the water making it truly unique and a beloved destination. Pine, cypress, and olive trees cover Mt. Ainos’ peak, while at its foot you’ll come across vineyards where the popular Kefalonian Robola wine variety is produced.
The biggest town and capital of the island is Argostoli. It is a town built around a hill, with a city-like life, filled with various types of entertainment: shops for you shopping lovers, cafes to sit back and relax, bars and beaches nearby. Although Argostoli was totally ruined by the earthquake in 1953, there are still sites that depict the old Venetian architecture.
Lixouri is the second biggest town of the island. It is a peaceful town that is ideal for those who love peace and quiet. You can enjoy your coffee, your pastry sweets and the local cuisine at the port and at the square with the famous ficus plant.
Enchanting Fiscardo. Public Domain
Fiscardo survived the destructive earthquake of 1953. Most of the buildings preserve their traditional local color that transports you back in time: the grand mansions with their elegant balconies, the old two-storey houses, the dark red-tiled rooftops, the green mountainsides, the blue of the sea and the overall scenery is enchanting.
In the north of the island, the picturesque Assos village is built above cliffs, among pine trees and cypresses. Sparsely built with traditional color, in an impressive landscape, Assos fascinates with its peace and simplicity.
Apart from the wonderful waters of Assos, at a nearby distance don’t miss Myrtos beach as well as many other picturesque small bays that wait to be discovered.
Kefalonia has some of the best beaches in Greece, with the likes of Myrtos regularly cracking top lists worldwide for their crystal-clear, blue-green water and dramatic settings.
There are so many, in fact, that choosing one can seem daunting. Some are long and sandy, others have crunchy, fine pebbles; some are fully organized with facilities and tavernas and others are totally remote; and some are easy to get to and others more challenging.
The Cave Lake of Melissani
Credit: Matt Sims, CC-by-2.0/Wikipedia
The cave lake of Melissani is a wonder of nature and one of the most impressive sights on Kefalonia. It is located in Karavomylos, an area close to Sami town.
Melissani was discovered in 1951 and following construction works in order to make it accessible, it has become one of the most famous tourist attractions.
The magic of the landscape is partly because the roof of the cave has collapsed opening up a view of the sky. If you visit during the day when the sun is high, it shines down on the lake and makes the light blue waters luminesce, giving off a magical soothing feeling.
Ainos National Park
The highest mountain in Kefalonia is Ainos, whose peak reaches 1.628 meters, and is the only national park to be found on a Greek Island.
The fir tree grows natively on this mountain on Kefalonia. The black needles of the Kefalonian fir tree give an impressive dark color to the mountain. On the cliffs of the mountain, you might also be lucky enough to see small wild horses. The mountain is ideal for excursions and hiking amid verdant nature, with paths that vary in difficulty.
Gastronomy of Kefalonia
Kefalonian cuisine is renowned. The island produces yellow cheese, feta cheese, olive oil, honey and local meats. It is also home to a large number of delicious recipes; native cookbooks that were passed down from one generation to the next.
Kefalonian meat pie is a perennial favorite for its rich, well-spiced flavors, using bay leaf, garlic, cinnamon, nutmeg and marjoram. Usually, it’s prepared with a mixture of veal and lamb, which are cooked in a tomato wine sauce with vegetables like carrots, potato, and leeks, then it’s all baked into a pie.
Chicken tserepa is another local favorite. The tserepa is a traditional clay cooking vessel used over charcoal. Customarily the chicken for the dish is marinated overnight in a heady brew of oregano, smashed garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil. Then it’s baked in the tserepa with tomato sauce, wine, lemon juice and potatoes, and comes out tender and delicious.
Many of his victories took the form of a “come from behind” crossing of the finish line at the last possible moment. Credit: AI-generated image
Gaius Appuleius Diocles, a man from the area of what is now Spain and Portugal, is the highest-paid athlete the world has ever known.
The Roman chariot racer‘s career earnings, marked down with admirable permanence in a stone inscription, totaled 35,863,120 sesterces, the ancient Roman coins.
Dr. Peter Struck, associate professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, using a comparative method, extrapolated recently a modern-day net worth of something around 15 billion dollars.
Struck said: “Twenty-four years of winnings brought Diocles — likely an illiterate man whose signature move was the strong final dash — the staggering sum of 35,863,120 sesterces in prize money.
“The figure is recorded in a monumental inscription erected in Rome by his fellow charioteers and admirers in 146, which hails him fulsomely on his retirement at the age of ’42 years, 7 months, and 23 days’ as ‘champion of all charioteers’.”
Diocles is believed to have started racing at the age of 18 in Ilerda (modern-day Catalonia) and quickly gained a reputation good enough to get himself called up to the big leagues in Rome.
Diocles changed teams in ancient Rome
He had a nomadic career, starting at 18 with the Whites, before moving on for a brief stint with great rivals the Greens. But he had the most success with the Reds, with whom he remained until his retirement at the ripe old age of 42 years, seven months and 23 days.
Once in Rome, Diocles began driving for the White team. In Rome at this time, “competitors were affiliated to teams – not dissimilar to those of today’s Formula 1 – which invested in training and development of horses and equipment” with the players of the lowest team, the White team, “usually drawn from the lower orders of society”, Professor Professor Bryan Ward-Perkins of Oxford University said.
Being a natural charioteer, Diocles was called up to the Green team at age 24. He then transferred to the Red Team at age 27. This was a bold move because of the popularity of the Greens, but Diocles suffered no apparent damage.
Some historians speculate that Diocles switch from the popular Greens to the Reds had a simple motivation: wealth and glory. The Greens were undoubtedly the most popular and attracted the greatest racers.
By switching to the Red team, he ensured that he would stand out as the greatest of the Reds – and reap the financial benefits that went along with it. Being the best in the field also seems to have allowed Diocles to perfect his showmanship.
Many of his victories took the form of a “come from behind” crossing of the finish line at the last possible moment. The crowds loved it. Any race with Diocles quickly became the ‘featured event’ of the day. This naturally helped Diocles make even more money.
His monumental income was five times that of the highest-paid provincial governors of the time and would have been enough to buy grain for the entire population of Rome for a year.
Such was his fame that on his retirement fans and fellow charioteers erected a huge monument in Rome, hailing him as the “champion of all charioteers.”
In an agreement sponsored by the US Embassy in Greece, Greek environmental organization Ecogenia will collaborate with California Conservation Corps. Credit: Ecogenia
Greek and US environmental groups recently announced their collaboration in a project to protect Mt. Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece where the ancient Gods resided.
Established in 2021, Ecogenia’s goal is to become a national youth corps, where thousands of young Greeks are empowered to contribute to climate action and build a resilient Greek society.
“From California to Olympus” project
The “From California to Olympus” project, is focusing on mobilizing young people to build it climate resilience at local level in the country, in a period when the climate crisis and natural disasters are a matter of the highest priority for Greece
The program has as its central pillar the two-month educational mission of a group of volunteers from the California Conservation Corps, to exchange knowhow and obtain training on preparedness in the field, such as creating fire protection zones, cleaning flammable biomass and education of the local community regarding prevention in the areas around the Olympus National Park, in central Macedonia.
The project includes the creation and dissemination of a practical manual for how municipal and regional authorities can utilize the model of “social service” and in turn create local project teams for project resilience, specifically around prevention and relief from disasters.
The Olympus National Park, in central Macedonia, will be the focus of Greek and US volunteers. Credit: Ecogenia
With an emphasis on the new generation and the acquisition of green skills that meet the needs of the labor market for the green transition, the program will culminate in a Green Jobs Fair, in collaboration with Deree, the American College of Greece, where companies from the private sector and agencies will have the opportunity to chat with new talent in the field of sustainable development.
“In a particularly difficult period, such as the one we are going through in the wake of the disasters of last summer, the cooperation with the US Embassy will strengthen both the programmatic and strategic work of Ecogenia so that it continues to empower local communities through climate resilience, and of including the new generation at the forefront of climate action,” said co-founder of the organization, Erika Spagakou.
In an era of successive crises, the fight against the climate crisis is a significant opportunity for global strategic partnerships that drive innovation, attract new jobs and investments, and improve everyone’s quality of life, Ecogenia noted.
Many people come to visit Greece with a mission in mind – to visit Olympus, the mountain of the ancient Greek gods — and tour the nearby town of Litochoro and the sights nearby.
Mount Olympus is one of the great treasures of Greece. It is famous not only because of Greek mythology but because of its great beauty and the challenging climbs it offers to adventurers.
For untold thousands of years, it has inspired hundreds of stories and myths.
