Greek War of Independence; 200th year anniversary

The Greek War of Independence led to the establishment of a national state for the first time in Europe.  It was in 1814 that several young Greek intellectuals of the diaspora formed a secret society called Filiki Eteria (Society of Friends).  One of its leaders was Alexander Ypisilantis.  He and his brother Dimitrios Ypsilantis played major roles in the revolution that started in 1821.

Battle scene from the Greek War of Independence by Georg Perlberg.

Today, March 25th, Greek Independence Day, our country will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the revolt against the Ottoman Empire.  It was on that day, the day of the Annunciation, Greeks swore to "fight or perish" in 1821.  Four hundred years had elapsed since the Ottoman Turks had conquered Constantinople and brought the end of the Byzantine Empire.

  As in every revolt, many battles were important but the Siege(s) and Exodus from Missolonghi were renowned for their heroism.  Although most Greeks, men, and women perished, their sacrifice raised strong feelings among Europe's philhellenes the most notable of whom was Lord Byron who moved to Greece joined the revolution lived and died in Missolonghi.

Two of the protagonists in the struggle to establish the new country of Greece were; Theodoros Kolokotronis (1770-1843) the commander-in-chief of the Greek forces in Peloponnese or Morea and Ioannis Kapodistrias (1776-1831) a distinguished statesman and diplomat who had served as the Foreign Minister of the Russian Empire.  Kapodistrias was elected as the first Head of State of the newly independent  Greece.  He found a country that was totally destroyed.  In his brief tenure, he instituted reforms to modernize the country and jump-start its moribund economy.  He was assassinated on September 27th, 1831.

  Although most of the rebels were men, I will mention two women, Laskarina "Bouboulina" Pinotsi and Manto Mavrogenous who contributed as much to the cause as any of the men.  It was Bouboulina who raised the first flag of the revolution on the mast of her ship.  Mavrogenous was a wealthy and well-educated woman who spent her entire estate for the cause and died penniless.

Land battles were important but it was in the sea battles that Greeks excelled.  Konstantinos Kanaris (1790-1877) contributed his ship to the Greek Navy and achieved fame because of his effective use of fire-ships.  In 1822 he blew up the Turkish admiral's flagship.  In the years that followed he burned several Turkish ships off the coast of Asian Minor and the Eastern Aegean islands.  In addition to Kanaris, several other seamen such as Miaoulis, Koudouriotis, and Bouboulina managed to cut the supply lines from Turkey to their forces fighting against the rebels in the Greek mainland thus helping immensely the outnumbered and outgunned Greeks succeed against superior forces and win their freedom.

Painting of Burning of the Turkish Frigate by Constantine Volanakis

The revolt lasted between 1821 and 1830.  As in every revolution, many battles and events took place but the sea battle that concluded the war took place in the bay of Navarino where the naval forces of France, Brittain, and Russia defeated the Ottoman fleet following which the new country of Greece was born.

Ζητω η Ελλας!

Painting of the sea battle of Navarino by Ambroise Louis Garneray (1827)

Halcyon days

Halcyon days, a period when storms do not occur derived its name from Alcyone (Αλκυονη in Greek), who was the daughter of Aeolus, God of winds.  When Alcyone's husband fell in the sea, in a shipwreck, she threw herself into the sea whereupon the Gods transformed them into halcyon birds (kingfishers).  When Alcyone made her nest on the beach, waves threatened to destroy it, but Aeolus kept his winds calm so she could lay her eggs.  It was these calm periods that became known as the "halcyon days".  It is a period of 7 to 14 days when storms do not occur or it denotes a period that is remembered for its happiness.  I wish you all dear friends, many Halcyon periods, in your lives.

Picture of seagulls flying near the islet of Rafti by Kostas Fotos. 

2013-2021; a Travelogue

In the past 7 years, I uploaded 202 posts in my blog Cross Country Chronicles.  As this is the first post of 2021 and maybe the final of this series that started with a trip, I took with my son John, from Orlando to San Francisco to Chicago and on to our starting point Columbus, Ohio.  Also, it included among others the remarkable crossing from Spain to Greece on my brother Nikos 29-foot sailboat Okyrhoe.  The trip from Florida to California and back to Ohio is described in 55 posts in January and February 2014.

The trip from Spain to Greece is described in 23 posts from August 2015 to July 2016.  There are many individuals from my immediate family, and those who love and care about me, to friends I love dearly, to professional associates at places where I lived and worked, and all those who encouraged and inspired me to write.  I want to thank and express my gratitude to all and wish them a good a pleasant trip in their lives.  The pictures in this post are from Porto Rafti, the beautiful little bay, I have made my domicile while in Greece.

                                                                       The three pictures in this post were taken by my brother-in-law Kostas Fotos.

Greek Yogurt

 

Yogurt first appeared during the Neolithic period.  It is probable that the earliest yogurt was made by accident from fermentation of milk in Mesopotamia around 5,000 BC.  Yogurt was well-known food in Ancient Greece and Rome.  The cuisine of Ancient Greeks included a dairy product called Oxygala (Οξυγαλα) which is sour milk.  The Greek physician Galen mentioned that Oxygala was consumed with honey in a similar way Greek yogurt is eaten today.  Yogurt played and still plays a major role in the Mediterranean cuisine today.

Milking a cow painting.  Ancient Egypt c2371-2350 BC. Getty image.

There is folklore linking the consumption of milk to longevity.  In fact people in the Bulgarian village of Momchilovtsi, which is perched on the slopes of Rhodope mountains near the border with Greece claims many centenarians and many locals believe that this is due to large quantities of cultured milk products the they consume.  It was in 1905 the Bulgarian microbiologist Stamen Grigorov at the age of 27 discovered in Geneva the bacterium Lactobacillus Bulgaricus, which ferments milk to yogurt.  A major impetus to yogurt's recent popularity was because in 1904, the Russian scientist Ilya Metchnikov who was working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris published his theory about the health benefits of yogurt for which he received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1908.

Ingredients

1.5 liters of pasteurized whole milk, 2 tablespoons of yogurt with active cultures

Preparation

Place the milk in a pot and heat it to 120° F or 50° C.

In a separate cup or bowl, mix two tablespoons of yogurt, that has active cultures with milk until the yogurt is totally dissolved.  Add it to the pot with the heated milk and stir it well.

Pour the milk into a Pyrex glass container or glass jars, cover it and wrap it in a warm towel and place it in the oven.  Turn the oven light on and leave it for 8-10 hours.

Place the glass container in the refrigerator for 6-8 hours and your homemade yogurt will be ready.  To make the Greek variety, strain the yogurt with a cheesecloth to consistency you enjoy.  When you strain the yogurt, you get, liquid whey, a protein rich liquid. If you strain nearly all the liquid from the yogurt, you get a soft Greek cheese called Anthotyro which is very tasty.  In summary from milk you can make home-made yogurt, liquid whey, Kefir and cheese.  Enjoy! 

Mycenae

In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the major centers of Greek civilisation.  It dominated much of southern Greece, the Cycladitic islands, Crete and the western Anatolia.  At its peak in 1350 BC, the Citadel and the lower town had a population of 30,000.

With 3 of my children in front of the famous Lion Gate. 

Francesco Grimani in 1700 identified the ruins of Mycenae based on Pausanias' description.

Mycenae's Acropolis and surrounding countryside.  The German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) excavated Mycenae and nearby Tiryns.  Schliemann is considered as the modern discoverer of prehistoric or Bronze Age Greece. 

Grave circle, in the cemetery, inside Mycenae's citadel.

Wild cyclamens growing in the sun-parched fields of Mycenae's palace.

Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae, conducted the 10 year war against Troy, to get beautiful Helen back to his brother Menelaus.  Legend tells us that the long and arduous war divided mortals and gods alike, and contributed to curses and vengeance that followed many of the Greek heroes.  After the war Agamemnon returned to Mycenae and although he was greeted warmly by his subjects, he was slayed by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegistheus.

 The heroes of the Trojan war inspired many writers in antiquity, Homer being the pre-eminent of all, as well as many poets in recent times among whom the American poet Louise Gluck who won the 2020 Nobel price for Literature.  Her emblematic poem on Achilles and her work according to Anders Olsson, Chairman of Nobel Committee,  is "deceptively natural, candid and uncompromising, with no trace of a poetic ornament".

The Triumph of Achilles

In the story of Patroclus

no one survives, not even Achilles

who was near god.

Patroclus resembled him; the wore

the same armor.

Always in these friendships

one serves the other, one less than the other;

the hierarchy

is always apparent, though the legends 

cannot be trusted

their source is the survivor,

the one who has been abandoned.

What were the Greek ships on fire

compared to this loss?

In his tent, Achilles

grieved with his whole being

and the gods saw

he was a man already dead, a victim

of the part that loved,

the part that was mortal.

Achilles tending Patroclus, identified in inscriptions on a vase.  Attic red-figure kylix, ca 500 BC

Sunset

In Greek mythology Hesperides were are nymphs of the evening or the golden light at sunset.  They were called also Atlandides because they were daughters of the titan Atlas.  According to legend the Maidens of the West were tending of the Tree that Dance of the Hesperides around the Golden Tree that was bearing Golden apples.  Hesperides took great pleasure by dancing and singing sweet songs around the tree, (Canvas by Eduard Carvet, 1799-1883)

A happy cow enjoying the green grass of Ireland at sunset (photo by Enya Woods)

View of downtown Columbus, Ohio at sunset after a summer storm (photo by George Spigos)

Chicago also known as windy city or city by the lake at sunset from Adler Planetarium

View of Manhattan skyline and Brooklyn bridge.

Tourists flock at Cape Sounion to visit Poseidon's Temple and to enjoy the sunset at Saronic Gulf. 

Super moon over Poseidon's Temple.  If you can visit the site tomorrow October 2nd you will enjoy the rising beautiful moon between the columns of the Temple that was erected at 440 BC. (photo by T. Matsopoulos) 

Dawn

In Greek mythology Dawn or Eos (Ηως in Greek) is a Goddess that rises each morning from her home the Ocean (Οκεανος).  In the Homeric Hymn to Helios, we are told that Hyperion married  Eryphaesa, and begot tireless Helios (the Sun), rosy Eos (the Dawn) and fair tressed Selene (the Moon).  Dawn appears as many as twenty times in The Odyssey, and the poem repeats similar descriptions of her such as “But when early-born rosy-fingered Dawn appeared…”  Book Eight first lines read When young Dawn with her red-rose fingers shone once more, the royal Alcinous, hallowed island king, rose from bed and great Odysseus, raider of cities, rose too. A There are many similar expressions in Homeric verse, which suggest that different things will happen every day, but Dawn always appears early and always with her rosy fingers.

The Greek Goddess Eos in her Chariot ready for another day of travel.  Edifice found in Herculaneum

Sunrise in our little paradise on earth Porto Rafti: the Homeric expression “when newborn Dawn appeared with rosy fingers…” describes our feelings when we see Eos. At dawn the hue of the sea becomes pink.  The waves become placid and their phosphoresce reflects shades of a red carnation. Όλος ο γιαλός ροδίζει γύρω. Τα κύματα φρικιούν ήρεμα, και το φωσφόρισμά των ανταυγάζει αποχρώσεις ερυθρού γαροφάλλου..." Παπαδιαμαντης

Sunrise in Ukraine; the Homeric expression “when the early Dawn was born; her fingers bloomed” is most appropriate.

The golden throne of Dawn was riding up the sky… and brought a beautiful day… in frozen Lake Baikal.

Aurora, ceiling fresco by Guido Reni (1613) Picture from Encyclopedia Brittanica