The Greek islands are famed throughout the world for their incredible beauty and relaxed lifestyle, but have you ever wondered how they got their names?

To find the etymology behind the names of Greek islands, we need to take a few different factors into account - things like spelling and grammar, but also Greek mythology and the geomorphology of each island. Here is how some of the Greek islands were named:

Cephalonia (Kefalonia)

The island got its name from the hero Cephalus, the island’s first ruler, an Athenian leader and son of Dionysus. Cephalus was exiled from Athens for committing murder and settled on the island.

Chios

The Greek island acquired its name from Chioni (snow), daughter of Poseidon. When she was born on the island it was snowing, and thus the island was named Chios. According to legend, the island used to be a desert. After the snowfall, the land became fertile.

Lefkada

Homer named this Greek island from the Greek word “lefkas” (which means white) because the soil used to be white.

Kos

The name derives from “kofos,” an island with many caves. The word “cave” also comes from the Greek word “kofos.”

Tinos

The island’s name comes from the Greek word “tanaos”, which means long and perfectly describes the island’s shape.

Ithaca

The name derives from the Greek word “ithys” meaning straight or long - the elongated island.

Zakynthos

The name comes from Zakynthos, son of King Dardanos of Troy. When the Trojan expedition ended, Zakynthos and his people fled from Troy and lived on the island.

Skiathos

The name derives from the word “skia” (meaning shade). Due to the large number of trees, the island is very shady. However, it is also said that it was given its name because it's located in the shade of Mount Athos.

To read this article in full, please visit: Greek Reporter

The Council of State, Greece’s supreme court on administrative and environmental interest matters, has issued two court decisions in favour of Hellas Gold SA, Eldorado’s subsidiary in Greece, announced the company.

Both decisions concern Hellas Gold’s rights to the use of woodland and site clearing rights for the implementation and construction of Eldorado’s gold/copper mining project in Skouries, Chalkidiki, northern Greece.

“The Council of State decisions confirm once again the legality of our activities in northern Greece. This will allow Eldorado to accelerate construction activities at our Skouries Project in Chalkidiki, generating additional long term employment opportunities for the Greek people and taxes to the Greek government. Mining is one of the industries that can help kickstart the Greek economy and support the beginnings of a recovery,” said Eldorado CEO Paul Wright.

To read more, please visit: Greek Reporter

 

Keeping in the tradition of ‘staying local’ this August, I’ve been reminded that Athens can be both blistering hot and blissfully quiet. If you can manage to stay cool, this is a great time to see the city. If you’re a fan of photography, an early morning walk around the neighbourhoods of the city in August can be magical… You may even get a sunset seat on a rooftop terrace…!

 

With some out-of-town friends visiting Athens for the first time (it really never ends…) I decided to forego my usual ‘Jack’s Low-Budget City Tour’ and actually pay for a professional guide.

 

Big Olive City Walks is a start-up provider of ‘alternative’ city walks. This young team of ‘actual’ Athenians loves to share their knowledge and passion for the city – this is more than ‘just a job’ for them, and it makes all the difference. Our friendly guide Nikos narrated the walk, with insights and stories and anecdotes that made the city (even the parts I know well) come alive.

 

Big Olive offers a really interesting range of themed walks – including 19th century Athens, Gastrononomy, Photography, LGBT Athens and ‘Anatolian’ Athens. We did their ‘Athens Grand Tour’, as a broad introduction to the city. My guests loved it – and so did I. Big Olive offers organized group walks, as well as bespoke/custom walks, private themed tours and custom corporate/educational programs.

 

For dinner, I had noticed a new taverna on the Herakleidon pedestrian strip in Thiseio. The newly re-opened Abibayio takes the place of the previous café on this popular strip that (in my humble view) is over-due for an update. Abibayio was worth the wait. This is a modern taverna, with a lovely outdoor patio and familiar, friendly service that makes you feel at home. The menu is a delicious twist on classic taverna fare – our group gave unanimous rave reviews. I’ve already been back within the past week – that says it all…

 

Cheers to a continuing August staycation!

 

Until next week,

 

Jack

 

+30 215 540 2986

 

Herakleidon 3, Thiseio

+30 210 342 6794

The Municipal Gallery of Athens is one of a number of museums in Athens which are housed in more than one building.  This can make it quite confusing in the sense of defining exactly what the museum and its exhibits are about.  In the sense of the Municipal Gallery of Athens, it has both temporary and permanent exhibits featuring mainly Greek artists and work connected to Greece.

This can be found at 51 Piraios Street on Eleftharias (Koumoundourou) Square. This was the original building of the Municipal Gallery of Athens and although it was closed down a few years ago when the new ones opened, it has re-opened again.  The building itself is something of an architectural gem; dating back to the late 1800s.

At the time of the author's visit, the exhibition entitled "Athens - 180 years Capital of the Greek State" was showing.  This was originally due to finish in May 2015, but was extended due to popularity.  Inside were numerous paintings, some depicting modern art interpretations of the city with other more original ones.

To read more, please visit: Dave's Travel Pages

395 Greek beaches and 9 marinas won the international quality Blue Flag award this year, putting Greece in third place worldwide among 50 countries, according to the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature (EEPF).

The announcement was made during an EEPF press conference in Katerini. EEPF is the national operator of the International Blue Flags program in Greece, in cooperation with the Pieria Hoteliers Association.

According to EEPF, the Blue Flag is the most recognizable and popular international symbol of quality in the world. Since 1987 the award has been given to beaches and marinas that meet the strict award criteria. The beaches not only need to have excellent quality bathing waters. They also need to meet 32 criteria, which refer to cleanliness, organization, information, swimmer and visitor safety, protection of the natural wealth of the beach and coastal area, as well as environmental awareness.

The founder and international coordinator of the program is the Denmark-based Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), with 63 member-countries from all continents. In Greece, FEE is represented by EEPF, the oldest environmental organization in the country, founded in 1951, which organizes active environmental interventions, actions and nature conservation projects.

To read more and see a list of Blue Flag beaches, please visit Greek Reporter.

Serendipity Magazine explores artist expression. In this fifth issue, Serendipity explores how various media is utilized by artists. Inside you'll discover interviews with authors, artists and sculptors as well as a variety of interesting guest articles.

Click HERE to read this issue of Serendipity Magazine.

With loans from 34 museums in 12 countries, this exhibition at the Getty Center in Los Angeles includes ancient treasures never before assembled in one place.

On the Greek Isle of Rhodes a 30-meter bronze statue of their patron god Helios, famously known as the Colossus, watched over the harbor for more than 50 years, until it was felled by an earthquake in 226BC. Ptolemy III offered to rebuild it, but the oracle of Delphi said the people had offended Helios, and the bronze fragments remained where they lay for 800 years before they were hauled away.

No one knows where the Colossus stood or what it even looked like, which can be said of the vast majority of Greek bronzes from the period marked by the end of Alexander’s reign in 323BC to the beginning of the Roman empire. Colossus sculptor Chares of Lindos was a student of Lysippos – Alexander’s court sculptor –and was regarded as the finest in the medium, yet of his 1,500 works, none have survived.

Today, fewer than 200 large-scale bronzes of the era remain, and 47 of them are on display in Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World, at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. With loans from 34 museums in 12 countries, this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition includes numerous national treasures never before assembled in one place. The show stops in three cities only: it went to Florence in March, and travels to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC this December.

“It’s two terms that are meant to distill what Hellenistic sculpture is about. Ruler culture emerges as a genre in this period,” is how Getty curator of antiquities Jens Daehner explains the show’s title. Co-curator Kenneth Lapatin adds: “Pathos in Greek means a kind of lived experience, as opposed to the ideal figures.”

That last remark is part of what separates Hellenistic bronzes from their predecessors. Where earlier archaic and classical subjects were mainly mythical figures and demigods presented in idealized form, the Getty show features everyday people, noblemen, artisans and athletes, reflecting a new political reality framed by Alexander and his successors. Most finds are in secondary and tertiary locations, separate from their original bases describing the work. As such, the figures represented are mostly anonymous civic leaders, wealthy patrons, fellow citizens and the deceased.

To read more, please visit: The Guardian