77) Greece Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74

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Greece Heinrich Schliemann had intensively studied Cretan culture and succeeded in excavating the Lion Gate on Crete and Troy in Asia Minor near the Bosporus or Hellespont. So Homer hadn't lied. Troy was no longer a fantasy. They had been great sailors, had founded colonies everywhere in the world at that time, and were busy trading with Phoenicians and Egyptians. Probably the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur means nothing else than that the immigrant Athenians (Ionians, Aeolians, Dorians, Achaeans) had to pay tribute to the king of Crete. Of course, no human flesh was eaten in Crete at that time. Perhaps there were still human sacrifices, but the boys and girls who had been deported there probably had to serve as slaves or help to improve the population growth. Athens and Sparta in particular were slowly becoming stronger. Both with a different political and social model. The city of Sparta, with a military 2 king-system. While one king went to war at the head of his troops and often died first (see Leonidas at the Thermopiles), the other king held the position at home. If something terrible happened, he was held responsible and frequently punished with death. Almost a democratic kingship. The other city was Athens. The first model for an elitist democracy, since women, slaves and non-owners had no voting rights. Commerce, art and culture flourished because they were open-minded. The writing and numbers were adopted from the Phoenicians, medicine and part of the architecture came from Egypt. During the Persian Wars, for example, the theories of Zarathustra were taught. And so the criticism against the gods could begin. Zarathustra had divided the world into good and bad powers. The Greeks developed this further, and it was clear to them that divine greatness could only exist in its goodness. After the expulsion of the Jews from Palestine, many of whom also fled to Greece and brought monotheism with them, Christianity emerged. But first, back to Alexander. The Persians had been a common enemy to the Greeks. But now, someone came who, though he didn't show it often, had been brought up in their way of thinking, and by one of the greatest masters of antiquity, Aristotle. Alexander, we shall later call him the Great, took everything by storm. First Greece fell into his hands, then, Persia, Egypt, the areas up to the Indus. He just didn't want to conquer Afghanistan. Was this megalomaniac smarter than the English in the 19th century, the Russians in 1979 or the Americans in 2002? The world did not have to endure him, who considered himself a god, for long. After his own soldiers had forced him to retreat from the Indus, he indulged himself even more than before in alcohol. Eventually he died quite young and his empire crumbled shortly afterwards. However, the effects on the eastern Mediterranean world remained. The Greek language and culture determined the understanding between the different peoples. In Alexandria, for example, the Old Testament (at that time, of course, not under this name) was translated into ancient Greek. However, barely a few centuries after the death of the Macedonian, Alexander, a barbaric people put an end to the freedom of the Greeks. The Romans had secured the western Mediterranean through their victories in the Punic wars against the Carthaginians and now satisfied their insatiable greed in the eastern part. They had solved the problem, which was incompatible with Greek freedom. A strong state inevitably limits personal freedom. However, it was not possible for individualists to act effectively against an enemy, whose members had so little of their own but shared so much common consciousness. "Inter arma silent Musae." - When the weapons speak, the muses are silent. Many of them were abducted as slaves and brought Hellenism to Rome. After the first raids, however, these barbarians also learned to appreciate the value of Greek culture and to preserve what they could transport away. In the third and fourth centuries, some emperors even had the idea of ​​moving the capital to the Bosporus. This is how Constantinople came into being. And after the division of the Roman Empire, Greece again became the centre of an empire, with ancient Greek as the official language. Initially there were four popes, one in Rome, Carthage, Alexandria and Constantinople. While the vandals put an end to the papacy in Carthage, the warriors of Islam did the same in Alexandria. Then there was not only a political but also a religious separation and Greece took over the leadership of the Orthodox Church. One cannot believe that this was better than the Catholic. So in 528, Justinian, the Caesar of the eastern Roman empire, had the last academy in Athens closed. The Bosporus was ruled until 1453, they conquered to Algeria and Ravenna, fought with both Arabs and Crusaders, were sometimes robbed, defended trade interests against Venice, fought with Bulgarians and Serbs. However, when the Christian world excelled through her indifference and the Turks pressed them more and more, they could no longer withstand. Byzantium became Istanbul and the Hagia Sophia a mosque. The Greek mainland followed and remained under Turkish occupation until the middle of the 19th century. There are many reports of how heroic Greeks liberated their homeland. But what really happened during the Turkish rule? Like the Armenians, the Greeks were mostly more educated than the average Turk. Apart from the fact that the Greeks were allowed to rediscover their own antiquity, for example because the Muslim honoured Aristotle, they were used in the Turkish state apparatus. In some cases, Greeks achieved top positions and prestige. It was the strength of the Ottoman Empire to incorporate capable people from any nation. It was only later, at the beginning of the 20th century, when she had to face her decline, and a kind of Turkish nationalism developed, that it became difficult for non-Turks, very often, like the genocide against the Armenians, even life threatening. From 1680, this giant empire was repeatedly chopped off, until 1920 only today's Turkey remained. And the Greeks? There was no real self-determination. Being situated in a strategic location in the Mediterranean, interesting for great powers, they were a game ball and had to endure the fact that kings were imposed on them from outside, and finally, after the Second World War, a military dictatorship, which was partly financed from outside, and partly exploited the country itself. It has remained that way until today. Long after the Second World War, a civil war between the partly Communist Popular Front and American - English soldiers continued. When peace was finally at hand, a military dictatorship supported by NATO was set up. The country was still used as a military base during the war in Yugoslavia. Neither major powers, nor indigenous, upper classes showed an interest in building up the country economically. Only the tourists came by themselves. Back to list!

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