Greek History Research Articles

Themis and Dike – Justice in Greek Myth and Tradition

The understanding of law in Ancient Greece was based on the religious interpretations of human nature and natural laws. Two Greek goddesses were representatives of justice and fairness. In the ancient sources Themis is presented as a goddess and prophetess, one of the Titans and the daughter of Gea and Uranus. She is a symbol of divine order, justice, natural law and good customs. Dike, the daughter of Themis, is the goddess of justice and truth, the protector of rights and courts of justice, the arbiter, the symbol of honor, the goddess of revenge and punishment. In early Greek culture and poetry, the terms themis and dike represented justice in the meaning of cosmic order, natural law, and legality. The paper analyses the Hellenic notions of justice, fairness and legality embodied in the phenomena of themis and dike. Nomos (law) is just only if it is in harmony with themis, and law is valid only if it is just. The paper presents the doctrines of Hellenic writers, poets and playwrights on justice and law, with special reference to the influence of mythology on Hellenic law. Publius Ovidius Naso’s work „Metamorphosis”, which speaks about Themis’ role in the creation of the world and the salvation of the human race is one of the greatest sources about this goddess. In Homer’s „Iliad” and „Odyssey”, epics that sing of the heroic spirit, justice is shown in the motives, intentions and behavior of the participants in the event, mostly heroes. The poet Hesiod, famous for the poems „Theogony” and „Works and Days”, moves away from the heroic virtues of people and portrays the gods as bearers of moral power and guardians of justice. In the light of legislative reforms, Solon’s dike represents the progress and well-being of society through economic reforms, which is why justice and injustice refer only to legal and illegal acquisition of wealth and its effect on the community. Aeschylus’ „Oresteia” shows the principle of justice based on talion, according to which the punishment has to be identical with the committed crime. One of the greatest Ancient Greek playwrights, Sophocles, based his play „Antigone” on the conflict between the laws of men and the laws of gods. According to Herodotus, the greatest Ancient Greek historian, the actions of the gods govern human destinies and historical events. The idea of justice in Ancient Greece was all throughout its transformation based of the universial concept of natural balance.

New findings of ancient Greek silver sources

Over the last 60 years, much analytical research has sought to determine the ore sources of ancient Greek silver artefacts. Lead isotopic analysis has played a key role in this endeavor. While most studies so far have limited their search to places mentioned in historical sources, the present study takes a different approach by first identifying Ag-bearing ore sources in the Aegean world based on their geological characteristics and then using Pb isotopes to determine whether they were exploited in antiquity. To this end, we have geolocated, sampled, and measured high-precision Pb isotopic compositions of 17 Ag-bearing mineralizations in Greece for which we have evidence of ancient mining activity, and a further 10 exhibiting minor Ag occurrences that may also have been exploited in ancient times. We found that Pb model ages provide better discrimination of ore sources than the more conventional plots of raw Pb isotope data.Our study establishes Lavrion, northeast Chalkidiki, Pangaeon, Thasos, Siphnos, Palaea Kavala, Angistron, and south Euboea as the most important ancient silver mining districts in Greece. Two previously undiscovered ancient mining areas in Pelion and in the Kroussia mountain range are also documented. The latter may be identified with ancient Mount Dysoron, from which King Alexander I of Macedon reportedly extracted the fabulous sum of a talent of silver per day. For the first time, we isotopically differentiate some of the mining districts in Thraco-Macedonia, and show that the mines of Thasos include geologically different silver-bearing ore sources. We further identify the hitherto unrealized importance of Euboean silver mines and demonstrate that they isotopically overlap those of Siphnos, with major implications for our understanding of ancient Greek history.

HTR for Greek Historical Handwritten Documents.

Offline handwritten text recognition (HTR) for historical documents aims for effective transcription by addressing challenges that originate from the low quality of manuscripts under study as well as from several particularities which are related to the historical period of writing. In this paper, the challenge in HTR is related to a focused goal of the transcription of Greek historical manuscripts that contain several particularities. To this end, in this paper, a convolutional recurrent neural network architecture is proposed that comprises octave convolution and recurrent units which use effective gated mechanisms. The proposed architecture has been evaluated on three newly created collections from Greek historical handwritten documents that will be made publicly available for research purposes as well as on standard datasets like IAM and RIMES. For evaluation we perform a concise study which shows that compared to state of the art architectures, the proposed one deals effectively with the challenging Greek historical manuscripts.

REPRESENTING THE DEMOS: ADAPTING INSIGHTS FROM THE CONSTRUCTIVIST TURN IN POLITICAL REPRESENTATION

One of the commonest clichés in the study of ancient and modern democracy is the claim that the former is ‘direct’, the latter ‘representative’. A few scholars have recently explored areas in which the Classical Athenian democracy had representative features, particularly the magistracies. These studies continue, however, to understand ‘political representation’ according to the definition proposed by the political scientist Hanna Pitkin, that is, as ‘acting [on the part of the political representative] in the interest of the represented, in a manner responsive to them’. In this paper I introduce the insights of the recent ‘constructivist turn’ in studies of political representation to the analysis of Athenian politics in the hope of suggesting, in what will necessarily be a brief and incomplete exercise, how productive this exciting new paradigm can be for understanding the dynamics of ancient democracy. I first lay out the basic tenets of constructivist representation, particularly the notion of the ‘representative claim’ as developed by the political theorist Michael Saward, and argue for their suitability for studying ancient Greek history and political thought. Next, I adapt the model of the representative claim to two episodes of Athenian democratic deliberation, showing how it illuminates processes of demotic will- and identity-formation. I conclude by briefly underscoring how approaching Athenian politics in terms of constructivist notions of representation restores an aesthetic dimension to ancient democratic debate, one that allows us to compare more productively the ‘demos’ of symbouleutic oratory with its counterparts in poetry, sculpture, and other media, namely as a represented object fashioned for creative and rhetorical purposes.

Proto-Indo-European Initial *r Revisited

The ante-rhotic vocalic prothesis has been postulated for the history of Hittite, Greek, Armenian, and Albanian—languages, which are often believed to have no inherited PIE words beginning with a rhotic. With the advance of the laryngeal theory, the existence of the ante-rhotic prothesis has been critically revised for Hittite, Greek, and Albanian. However, a closer look at the available evidence leaves one with a wide scale of possibilities of analysis not limited to postulating laryngeals before any PIE initial rhotic. Given that all of the aforementioned branches are primarily localized in Asia Minor or adjacent territories and that they most likely had split from the proto-language at different periods, the hypothesis of the ante-rhotic vocalic prothesis as an aerial feature may prove to be the most economic explanation of facts.

The Name ‘Palestine’ in Classical Greek Texts

This article provides a contextualised exposition of classical Greek texts, in chronological order, from Herodotus to Eusebius of Caesarea (5th century BC-4th century AD), with brief biographical reviews and in which the name ‘Palestine’ appears. A Latin text by Pomponius Mela is also included for its reference to Gaza which, with the exception of the Septuagint texts, predates Arrian, Arrian of Nicomedia, a Greek historian of the Roman period, by nearly a century. The selection of classical texts explored in this article is not intended to be exhaustive; however, the exploration of these texts in connection with Palestine has never been attempted before. While avoiding historical, philosophical or literary criticism of these texts, this article focuses on the specific considerations of the name ‘Palestine’ in the classical literature.

고대] 서양고대사 회고와 전망(2019~2020년) - 팬데믹 시대의 전환점에 서서: 코로나19와 코로나블루 치유를 위하여 -

As can be seen in the fields of Oriental history, Greek history, and Roman history, this 2019-2020 session shows various aspects including politics, religion, society, and culture in the subject of the thesis, and the quality of the thesis is also very good. It showed the aspect of reproducing ‘the period of diversity and maturity’ of the 2011-2012 session. In the field of Western ancient history, 22 books and translations for general readers have been published, and various excellent books have been published in various fields. This phenomenon can be found in the fact that it responded to communication with the general public, that is, the general audience, which is the ultimate characteristic of science. For the past 10 years, the authors of 〈Retrospects and Prospects〉 have unanimously emphasized the necessity and importance of publishing books that are neglected compared to writing papers. This corresponds to the common emphasis on writing a book. However, the phenomenon that has appeared in these research achievements is that almost all cases are independent research results rather than collaboration, raising concerns that this may eventually lead to narrowing the academic circle of Western ancient history. As pointed out in the 2013-2014 session 〈Retrospects and Prospects〉, there is an urgent need to broaden the horizon of Western ancient history by promoting collaboration with sociology, economics, and medicine beyond the boundaries of classical studies, philosophy, archaeology, and other disciplines as well as other Western Histories.

Аrhitektura v izkustvoto—izkustvo v arhitekturata

<i>Аrhitektura v izkustvoto—izkustvo v arhitekturata</i>

Importance of Diakonoff’s Research in Recognition of the Median Period in Iran

The history of the Median period written by Igor Mikhailovich Diakonoff (published in 1956) was translated to Persian by Karim Keshavarz in 1345 Solar year. This book was the product of profound and insightful research of this author that had been done by the request of Azerbaijan Science Academy in that time and its importance at the time of its publication and translation was immense as there had been no single book or other research publication directly covering this period in the Persian literature before. The available historical or archeological information on this period was only limited to the notes of Greek historians and some new western resources. Although those sources were valuable, they could not fill the vacant place of rigidly and accurately written resources for other researchers of this period because they were not based on direct data i.e. scripts, tablets and other archaeological data found during relevant excavations. The difference between Diakonoff’s research and other resources is that he first gives comprehensive information concerning resources from this period, then fully assesses them, and additionally describes the geographical and historical aspects. This makes Diakonoff’s Median book an exceptionally accurate resource in this regard and therefore even after several decades it still remains so important in Iranology and cognition of Iranians. In fact, one can see the immense impact of Diakonoff’s research on the field of the Median history since the translation time until the present time. It has always been one of the main sources cited in historical, linguistic, ethnological, archaeological and interdisciplinary studies by Iranian researchers.

THE ARCHAIC ROOTS OF PATERNALISM: CONTINUITY IN ATTITUDES TOWARDS SLAVES AND SLAVERY IN THE ODYSSEY, XENOPHON'S OECONOMICUS, AND BEYOND

This article discusses differences and continuity in responses to issues of slave management in two texts from different periods of Greek history (Xenophon's Oeconomicus and the Odyssey) and compares these responses to those of slave owners in the Antebellum South, ancient Rome, and the ancient Near East. In particular, it examines different expressions of paternalistic attitudes towards slaves (a well-studied feature of slave-owning classes throughout history) that it finds are present in both of these examples. The article explores the possibility that intertextual links were responsible for these similarities but suggests instead that they are reflective of real Greek slaveholding ideology across hundreds of years, which primarily served to justify an exploitative system and disguise the cruelty and violence inherent in maintaining it.

Quelques observations sur ce qu’est la grammatialisation et ce qu’elle n’est pas

The notion of ‘grammaticalization’ — the embedding of once non- (or less-) grammatical phenomena into the grammar of a language — has enjoyed broad acceptance over the past 30 years as a new paradigm for describing and accounting for linguistic change. Despite its appeal, my contention is that there are some issues with ‘grammaticalization’ as it is conventionally described and discussed in the literature. My goal here is to explore what some of those problems are and to focus on what grammaticalization has to offer as a methodology for studying language change. Drawing on case studies from the history of English and the history of Greek, I reach a characterization of how much of grammatical change can legitimately be called “grammaticalization” and how much is something else. In this way, I work to achieve a sense of what grammaticalization is and what it is not.

The Historiography of the Greek Revolution of 1821: From Memoirs to National Scholarly History, 1821–1922

This study discusses the historiography of the Greek Revolution of 1821, what in Greek is often referred to as “Twenty-One” (Eikosiena) or the “Struggle” (Agon). Since 1821 constitutes the founding condition of the Greek state and autonomous existence of the Greek nation, it can be considered as the main historiographical field of modern Greek history. Throughout most of the twentieth century it represented a field of conflict between opposing historiographical but also ideological and political currents. Opposing ideological environments and collective identities formed different readings of Greek history in which the Greek Revolution played a central role. Its reading and interpretation served as the compass for reading and interpreting the whole process of modern Greek historical development. Opposing collectives also made selective use of the history of 1821 by searching for their “ancestors” in the revolutionary past; thus they formed historical genealogies through which they could claim authentic continuity with leading social groups and figures of the revolution. Consequently, 1821 obtained exemplary power. Accordingly each of its readings functioned as the starting point in shaping the political practice in the present. In other words, each and every reading of 1821 formed or supported directional guides of political practices in the present.

Who is the Historian? The Formation of Modern Greek History and the Historical Community in the Short Twentieth Century

The position of historian emerged as a distinct academic and professional field in Greece in the last quarter of the 20th century. In an attempt to explore this “delay” in comparison to Western European countries, this article offers an overview of the making of the field of modern Greek history during the twentieth century. Starting from the gradual acknowledgment of the autonomy of modern Greek history in relation to classical and Byzantine studies, the article traces its evolution and its close ties to political and social developments. The prevalence of historical positivism and philological principles, along with the dominance of the ideology of national continuity – the latter enriched through the postwar ideologies of national-mindedness and anticommunism – led to the persistence of the “historian-philologist” until 1974. The fall of the military dictatorship in 1974, which marked the end of the post-Greek Civil War era, was a catalyst for the flowering of modern Greek studies and the formation of a small but distinct community of historians, who regularly intervened in the public sphere.

Chapter FiveDidymus and the Greek historians

Abstract We lack positive evidence that Didymus composed scholarly works specifically devoted to Greek historians. Even more, the very origins and characteristics of the Alexandrian interest in the historiographic genre, not to say in literary prose, represent open issues for the historian of Hellenistic scholarship. In this chapter, the rare and sparse pieces of information are gathered, in order to obtain a possibly systematic and organic overview on the very defective puzzle of the Didymean approach in this field. In the first part, clues from testimonies and fragments directly concerning historians (Herodotus, Thucydides) and antiquarian subjects (Solon’s axones) are taken into special consideration. The second part deals with the use and abuse of history and historical sources detectable in fragments from Didymean works which were devoted to fields and genres other than historiography. As a result, the testimony of the Pindar scholia and of the writing On Demosthenes attested to by P.Berol. inv. 9780 recto (second century ad) proves to be especially decisive for a reassessment of Didymus’ approach to historiography and history.

Research Study in Two Unpublished Artworks of the Important Greek Artist, Theofilos Hadjimichael (1870-1934)

The purpose of this research is to highlight, study and publish two very important signed works of the Greek folk painter - hagiographer of modern Greek art, Theofilos Hatzimichael (1870-1934), which belong to a private collection. These are the works: 1. "New type of rural Mytilene with its coexistence that weaves in rocket", wood painting, time: 1931. 2. "The young Hercules Panais Koutalianos in England", wood painting, time: 1932. The dominant element in Theofilos' work is Greekness and the illustration of the Greek folk tradition and history. He spent most of his life in Pelion, while in 1927 he returned to Mytilene. In Mytilene, despite the mockery and teasing of the people, he continues to paint, making several murals in villages, for a fee, usually for a plate of food and a little wine. Many of the works of this period have been lost, either due to physical damage or destruction by their owners. In Mytilene, he was met by the renowned art critic and publisher Stratis Eleftheriadis (Tériade), who lived in Paris. Eleftheriadis owes much to the recognition of the value of Theophilos' work and its international promotion, which, however, took place after his death. Through the present study of the aforementioned works, we will highlight unknown aspects of the last phase of Theophilos' artistic creation, a period particularly important for the thorough and kaleidoscopic knowledge of his work, since it is the period that is visible through his color palette and His stylistic choices are the optimism and security conveyed to him by the acquaintance and support he receives from Eleftheriadis. Finally, the present work for the study of Theophilos' two unpublished works will be scientifically strengthened by utilizing the achievements of technology. Specifically, in the context of current study, the portable non-destructive techniques of the Non-Destructive Techniques Laboratory of the University of West Attica will be used. In particular, the techniques will be used: 1) portable Raman spectroscopy, for the authenticity test of the paintings 2) portable XRF spectroscopy, for the qualitative analysis of the data concerning the colour palette of the creator, compared to other identified paintings by NTUA.

Greek History

This is the first review of books in Greek history after a year, as the Coronavirus crisis last spring made it impossible to submit a review for the G&amp;R volume of autumn 2020. I apologize to readers and editors for the resulting delay in reviewing two books published in 2018. The multi-volume Lexicon of Greek Personal Names has been a tremendous tool of research that one day could hopefully revolutionize the study of Greek history. The volume under review is the eighth in the series; edited by Jean-Sébastien Balzat, Richard Catling, Édouard Chiricat, and Thomas Corsten, it is devoted to inland Asia Minor, covering Pisidia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, Galatia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, Pontus, and Armenia. The onomastics of these areas are complex owing to the various historical processes in which they were enmeshed: centuries of migration, conquest, and cultural change meant that, in addition to the ‘native’ cultural traditions of inland Asia Minor, the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman empires, as well as migratory movements like that of the Celts, left a deep onomastic impact. The issue is further complicated because the majority of the evidence comes from the Roman Imperial period, making diachronic comparison more difficult. This excellent volume offers a new documentary basis for studying social, cultural, and economic processes of change in these important areas of the ancient world: the full collection of the evidence makes it easier to classify names into different linguistic groups, an issue that has bedevilled the study of onomastics in Asia Minor for a very long time; it will also be possible to study regional divergences in the onomastics of different areas.

Greek, Tamil and Sanskrit: Comparison between the Myths of Herakles (related with Iole and Deianira) and Rama in Hinduism

The Greek Historian Arrian has said that the Indians worshipped Greek Herakles. So the myths related with Greek Herakles need to be compared with the myths of the Indian Gods. There are many myths related with Herakles. The myth related with Iole and Deianira has resemblance with the myth of Rama in Hinduism and Buddhism. The word Rama which is connected with sea is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. This word came into existence in the ancient Tamil literature called Sanga Ilakkiam through the trade that happened among the people of Greek, Hebrew and Tamil. The myths of Rama that occurred in the Tamil Sangam literature later developed as epics in Sanskrit, Tamil and other languages. Further the myths of Rama also found place in religions such as the Hinduism and the Buddhism. The resemblance between Herakles, in connection with Iole and Deianira, and Rama are synonymous. Hence the Greek Herakles is portrayed as Rama in Hinduism and Buddhism. Keywords: Arrian, Buddhism, Herakles, Rama, Tamil Sangam

‘We need to talk about the hegemony of the left’

Abstract This article seeks to explore the discursive rediscovery of the left menace and the ideological relevance between the far right and the right wing in Greece in times of political turmoil. Drawing on some historical aspects of modern Greece, first, I intend to explain the resurgence of Greece’s divided past. By emphasising references to Gramsci and the ‘hegemony of the left’, the article investigates the discursive construction of ingroups and outgroups on the basis of haunted memories of modern Greek history. By synthesising the Discourse Historical Approach and the concept of Aristotelian topos, I explicate how Gramsci has been re-utilised in an extreme right context by Greek far-right figures in order to stigmatise their ideological opponents. In a second step, my aim is to study the normalisation of political enmity by highlighting far-right discourses’ resemblance to New Democracy’s members’ rhetoric through references to Greek culture and economic imaginaries.

Genetic history of Calabrian Greeks reveals ancient events and long term isolation in the Aspromonte area of Southern Italy

Calabrian Greeks are an enigmatic population that have preserved and evolved a unique variety of language, Greco, survived in the isolated Aspromonte mountain area of Southern Italy. To understand their genetic ancestry and explore possible effects of geographic and cultural isolation, we genome-wide genotyped a large set of South Italian samples including both communities that still speak Greco nowadays and those that lost the use of this language earlier in time. Comparisons with modern and ancient populations highlighted ancient, long-lasting genetic links with Eastern Mediterranean and Caucasian/Near-Eastern groups as ancestral sources of Southern Italians. Our results suggest that the Aspromonte communities might be interpreted as genetically drifted remnants that departed from such ancient genetic background as a consequence of long-term isolation. Specific patterns of population structuring and higher levels of genetic drift were indeed observed in these populations, reflecting geographic isolation amplified by cultural differences in the groups that still conserve the Greco language. Isolation and drift also affected the current genetic differentiation at specific gene pathways, prompting for future genome-wide association studies aimed at exploring trait-related loci that have drifted up in frequency in these isolated groups.

Cultural Resistances in Post-Authoritarian Greece: Protesting the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus in 1974

The July 1974 invasion of Cyprus by Turkey caught the Greek Colonels (1967–74) off guard, as they proved entirely incapable of responding to the casus belli, partly provoked by their own actions. Greece remained technically in the state of military mobilisation for about four months and with the democratic transition well underway. This article catalogues the ways in which this conflict mobilised Greek civil society in unprecedented ways. Using oral testimonies, press clippings and three major documentaries of the time (Nikos Koundouros’ The Songs of Fire, Michael Cacoyannis’ Attila 74, and Nikos Kavoukidis’ Testimonials), the article dissects the cultural resistances against the war in one of the most traumatic moments in contemporary Greek history. It analyses the gigantic concerts that took place in the largest stadiums of Athens to protest the war, next to mass demonstrations and popular films protesting the invasion. It argues that these cultural events and artifacts re-enacted facets of the anti-Vietnam War movement and the respective countercultural scene in the US of the late 1960s. The article concludes that these modes of cultural and political resistance activated post-authoritarian Greek civil society, renegotiating the parameters of political participation and partly resetting the agenda of the country’s foreign policy following popular demand.