The Acropolis of Athens is one of the most famous and influential landmarks in history. The naturally fortified site houses the greatest architectural influence of modern civilisation and symbolises the birthplace of democracy. While there is evidence that the Acropolis was inhabited as far back as 3,500 BC, it was Pericles, the democratic leader of Athens in the 4th century BC, who oversaw an ambitious construction program of the buildings and monuments that exist on the Acropolis today. And now, Why Athens shares the secrets of the Acropolis you may not have known until now!

The Temple of Athena Nike overlooks the entrance to the Acropolis and was constructed during Pericles’ building program in 426BC. The temple was a replacement for a 6th century BC dedication to Athena Nike which was constructed of wood but destroyed by the Persians. It survived virtually intact for 2,000 years, until 1686 when the Ottomans demolished the temple to use the marble as a fortification wall on the Propylaea. The wall was removed and the temple reconstructed to its former glory in 1834 after the Greeks regained their independence.

When the ancients first saw the rocky land mass which we know as the Acropolis, they must have been amazed by the perfection of its oval top. Measuring 350 metres long and 150 metres wide (52,500 square metres), it must be visited and walked to understand the true scale and uniqueness of the ancient site. Each year over 2 million people climb the Acropolis.

To read this article in full, please visit: Why Athens

Next time you see the waves crashing onto the beach, think of the goddesses of the oceans, rivers, lakes, fountains, streams, and underworld sea monsters noted in Greek mythology who create those swells.

There are two deities in particular who love to play in the sea and surf the waves, Benthesikyme and Kymopoleia, the daughters of the famed god of the sea, Poseidon.

Known as the 'lady of the deep swells' Benthesikyme was nymph of the African sea and later went on to become the first known queen of Ethiopia.

Kymopoleia was a goddess of the waves and was known as a ‘haliae,’ or nymph of the sea who made waves, violent sea storms and earthquakes.

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

Komboskini is a prayer tool that is used by Orthodox Christians dating back to the 5th and 6th century. Usually, they are handmade in monasteries, by wool (symbolising the flock of Christ) or silk and they are made up of complex knots, beads and a cross (either handmade or metallic). These prayer ropes are used by many religious Orthodox people when they pray.

 

You will find them in various sizes, but the bracelet style is the most common. The prayer ropes are blessed on the relics of specific Saints so people may wear more than one. The traditional colour is black but nowadays, coloured komboskinis have also become fashionable.

There are also long prayer ropes that have a tassel at the end of the cross. The tassel can also be said to represent the glory of the Heavenly Kingdom, which one can only enter through the Cross.

To read this article in full, please visit: Greece by a Greek

Photo Source: Greece by a Greek, hristospanagiablog

Whether you’re traveling through Greece or have recently moved, it’s important to know a few Greek phrases, especially when it comes to saying ‘Hello’ or ‘thank you!’ Why Athens has put a list together of useful phrases for tourists (or expats) to use while you’re in Greece, along with spelling and pronunciation!

 

The Greek language is not an easy one to learn or pronounce. We’ve put together a quick guide with audio clips to help you along. Learning to say a few words like ‘hello’, ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ is always a nice gesture when travelling anywhere in the world and the Greeks do appreciate the effort, however good or bad the attempt.

You would say ‘kalimera’ (good morning) up until 12:00pm, from here onwards ‘yia sas’ (hello) will be the standard greeting. You will hear ‘kalispera’ (good afternoon/evening) from late afternoon right through to the end of the day. If you are leaving a restaurant or passing by the hotel reception desk to walk back to your room, you would say ‘kalinihta’ (good night).

To read this article in full, and for spelling and pronunciation of popular Greek phrases, please visit: Why Athens

It’s one of those words that comes with too much emotion and can’t be translated into any other language. It refers to a lifestyle, a person’s values, morals, and so much more. Even Greeks can’t agree on the meaning! Here, BBC travels to Greece and shares what they learned about the Greek word ‘Philotimo.’

‘In his second summer in the lonesome Greek village of Tolo on the east coast of the Peloponnese, German senior civil servant and writer Andreas Deffner committed a cultural blunder that led him to the celebrated concept of Greek philotimo.’

 

‘The exact meaning of philotimo is hotly debated, given that the word belongs to the pantheon of Greek lexical items that defy easy explanation. ‘Love of honour’, its official translation, is a utilitarian yet insufficient attempt to convey the constellation of virtues squeezed into the word’s four syllables. When I asked various Greeks about their own perception of philotimo, I received very different responses.’

To read this article in full, please visit: BBC Travel

For Greeks, any form of alcohol is meant to be enjoyed with friends and family and to not be overdone. As Greece Is says, ‘an enviable hallmark of Mediterranean culture is the civilized role of alcohol.’

People drink in joy in Greece. They drink, not to escape but, as they chime their glasses together, to engage more fully in the moment with one another. Even the occasional excess is usually a product of happy exuberance; drunken fighting and regrettable behavior are virtually non-existent.

(Consider also that as famously rich as the Greek language is, there is no specific word for hangover.)

• Whatever the drink, you never just start drinking. After everyone’s glass has been filled, there will be a general “ya-mas!” (“our health!”)to start things off. Thereafter, sip from your glass as you like.
  
  
• When glasses are refilled, it’s not uncommon to toast with the fresh drink. This happens a lot – glasses are generally small (perhaps this very purpose). You can fill your own glass, but fill the glasses of your neighbors first. (Who fills whose glass? Just as you wish, but it much follows the pattern of society in general – men often fill women’s glasses, and you fill the glass of your great aunt.)
  
  
• Whenever anyone new joins the party, all will toast afresh when their glass is filled for the first time.
  
  
• Nicest of all, from time to time someone will simply be seized with the impulse to toast. This is particularly the case at a large table – spontaneous toasts periodically reunite the group. People will sometimes even rise from their chairs to chime glasses with friends at a distance.
  
  
• Is there a happy event coming up? Look forward to even more toasting (“kala stefana!” = “happy wreaths!”= happy wedding).
  
  
• Do join in each toast – if all these sips are going to your head, just barely wet your lips, and drink lots of water in between.
  

You may find that Greek drinking practices, for all their complexity, are adopted with such ease that the art of drinking with style and grace is one of the best souvenirs you’ll bring home.

To read this article in full, please visit: Greece Is

A way of communicating that only 6 people know how to understand, BBC Travel goes behind the scenes of Greece’s disappearring whistle language. The whistle language, also known as Sfyria and only existing in a tiny village in Evia, Greece called Antia, is one of the rarest and most endangered languages in the world.

A BBC journalist meets a 45-year-old farmer named Yiannis Apostolou and delves deep into the world of the whistles. Such precise, musical notes, have been passed down from generation to generation, but when a village population disappears, so does its language.

To read the full article and watch a video of the whistle language, please visit: BBC Travel

Even today, a lot of Athenians don’t know how the squares and neighborhoods of Athens received their names! Now, Greek Reporter teaches us the meaning of the most popular squares and neighborhoods of Athens!

America Square today is deteriorating as the whole Kypseli neighborhood is downgrading. Yet, the busy square was named in 1927, as the municipal council wanted to show its appreciation for the philhellenism shown by the United States. Until then it was Agamon Square, or Square of the unwed. It was named so in 1887 after three middle-aged Athenians who had a café in the square and were all unmarried.

Anafiotika is an Athenian neighborhood on the north slope of the Acropolis Hill. Particularly picturesque, with tiny houses and narrow streets resembling a Greek island, it was created around 1860 by craftsmen and laborers who had come from the island of Anafi to work in the excavations of the Acropolis, but also to build the capital, which was a relatively new city then. One of them, on the pretense of building a small church, gathered materials and with the help of a carpenter, he made a house in one night and settled in. In a few days (or nights …) the builder, helped the carpenter to get his own home. Thus, Anafiotika was born from these two builders from Anafi.

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

“Ancient Greeks were wise. They knew where to build their sacred venues,” says the grandfather of BBC journalist. She’s remembering a time when she was a young girl and would wonder in awe of the brightly shining stars from the Athens’ Philopappou Hill. Here, the girl and her grandfather would discuss the significance of Greece’s temples and the meaning behind them all. Now, she shares what she learned all that time ago with BBC, and us.

“In retrospect, I can’t help but wonder if this beautiful explanation was inflated by my grandfather’s immense pride in Greek culture. But Manolo Fernandez, a Spanish language teacher and amateur astronomy enthusiast, shares my grandfather’s opinion – that the placement of Greece’s temples was not random.”

“The temple of Poseidon in Sounion forms an isosceles triangle with the Hephaisteion in Athens and the temple of Aphaia Athena in Aegina. Apollo in Delphi, Aphaia in Aegina and the Parthenon, the same: they all form perfect isosceles triangles!”

To read this article in full, please visit: BBC

From an ancient Greek myth is the story of how the Aegean Sea received its name. Greeker than the Greeks recounts the tale of a King named Aegeus, who failed to produce a son with his two wives, Meta and Chalciope. They called upon the goddess Themis, one of the oracles of Ancient Delphi, to see what they were doing wrong.

"Do not loosen the bulging mouth of the wineskin until you have reached the height of Athens, lest you die of grief."

Pondering upon this conundrum, while on his way home to Athens, Aegeus dropped in on his old pal King Pittheus of Troezen (a small town in the northeastern Peloponnese).

To read this article in full, please visit: Greeker than the Greeks