GREECE-Famous Greeks, Fun Facts, and Recipes

                                                                     

Plato

 

 (c.429-327 BC) - Brilliant student of Socrates and later carried on his work. He gathered Socrates' ideas and wrote them down in a book. Plato founded the world's first university. He wrote down his teachings and people all over the world, even today, study the Greek philosophers

Aristotle

 

 (382-322 BC) - Discovered many things in science and biology. He wrote books about physics, poetry, zoology, biology, politics, governments, and more.
Archimedes
                                                              

Mathematician and an engineer. He designed a machine, called the Archimedean screw, which could make water flow uphill. His design has been used for almost 2,000 years, to take water from rivers to the fields. Archimedes was able to tell fool's gold from real gold.

Pythagoras

 

Mathematician. Founded the  Pythagorean theorem on right-angled triangles.

Alexander the Great

 

He was called 'the Great' because he conquered more lands than anyone before him and became the overall ruler of Greece.

Maria Callas

                                                      

Greek American Opera Singer. Known for her impressive vocal range, bel canto technique, and dramatic abilities. Most notable performances Tosca and Norma.                                                             

                                                                          

Thank you to my dear friend and proud Spartan Kyriakos Marudas for sharing this Cultural Tradition from Greece:

Greek families celebrate the New Year by baking a sweet bread called tsoureki. A coin is inserted into one of the pieces and it's said that whoever gets the slice with the coin will have good luck for the entire year.

                                                         

 

 

Fun Facts

No one in Greece can choose to not vote. Voting is required by law for every citizen who is 18 or older.

The world’s third leading producer of olives, the Greeks has cultivated olive trees since ancient times. Some olive trees planted in the thirteenth century are still producing olives.

According to Greek mythology, Athena and Poseidon agreed that whoever gave the city the best gift would become guardian over the city. Though Poseidon gave the gift of water, Athena’s gift of an olive tree was deemed by the other gods to be more valuable.

Greece has zero navigable rivers because of the mountainous terrain. Nearly 80% of Greece is mountainous

Approximately 98% of the people in Greece are ethnic Greeks. Turks form the largest minority group. Other minorities are Albanians, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Armenians, and gypsies.

Thousands of English words come from the Greek language, sometimes via the Roman adaptation into Latin and then to English. Common English words from Greek include “academy,” “apology,” “marathon,” “siren,” “alphabet,” and “typhoon.”

In the 1950s, only about 30% of Greek adults could read and write. Now, the literacy rate is more than 95%.

An old Greek legend says that when God created the world, he sifted all the soil onto the earth through a strainer. After every country had good soil, he tossed the stones left in the strainer over his shoulder and created Greece.

Greece has more than 2,000 islands, of which approximately 170 are populated.  Greece’s largest island is Crete (3,189 sq. miles) (8,260 sq. km.).

Over 40% of the population lives in the capital Athens. Since becoming the capital of modern Greece, its population has risen from 10,000 in 1834 to 3.6 million in 2001.

Continuously inhabited for over 7,000 years, Athens is one of the oldest cities in Europe. It is also the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, the Olympic Games, political science, Western literature, historiography, major mathematical principles, and Western theories of tragedy and comedy.

Some scholars say that the Greek civilization has been around for so long that it has had a chance to try nearly every form of government.

Greece enjoys more than 250 days of sunshine—or 3,000 sunny hours—a year.

Currently, Greek men must serve from one year to 18 months in any branch of the armed forces. The government spends 6% of the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on the military.

Ancient Greece was not a single country like modern Greece. Rather, it was made up of about 1,500 different city-states or poleis (singular, polis). Each had its own laws and army, and they often quarreled. Athens was the largest city-state.

Until the late 1990s, the greatest threat to Greece was Turkey, as the two nations have had historical disputes over Cyprus and other territory for decades. After coming to each other’s aid after a devastating earthquake that hit both countries in 1999, their relationship has improved.

                                                 

 Sources:http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/People/Main_Page/,http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/homework/greece/famous.htm

Recipes:http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Shrimp-with-Tomatoes-and-Feta-Garides-Saganaki, http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spinach-and-rice-spanakorizo/