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Ελλάς (Ellás)

How is the land laid out?

Ελλάς (Ellás)1 consists of 132 thousand square kilometers located at the end of Europe's Balkan Peninsula and nearby islands. The continental protrusion continues longest in western Greece, but in the east it ends early at the north shore of the Aegean Sea. The southern extreme of the mainland is the--barely attached--Pelopónnissos.2 Plains are scattered; mountains predominate. The main spine in the west is the Pindhos, but a parallel range reaches nearly 3,000 meters. Peaks over 2,000 meters are also found between these two ranges, along the north of the Pelopónnisos and in its south center and in three spots on the island of Kríti.3 That island, Europe's tenth largest, is oriented west to east at the southern end of Ellás' territory. Other important islands are: the Iónioi4 Islands west of the peninsula (chiefly Kérkira5 and Kefallinía6); Límnos,7 the largest in the northeast Aegean; Lésvos,8 between two of Türkiye's9 peninsulas; Khíos,10 just west of a Turkish peninsula; Sámos, near the Turkish coast southeast of Khíos; the Dhodhekánisos11 (chiefly Ródhos12); Évvoia,13 which closely parallels the eastern Greek coast; and the Kikládhes14 (chiefly Náxos). Around them is the Aegean Sea, which connects northeastward through Türkiye to the Black Sea. and westward to the rest of the Mediterranean Sea. The area between the Kikládhes and Kríti is called the Kritikón Sea;15 between the Kikládhes and the Pelopónnisos, the Mirtóön16 Sea; and north-northwest of Limnos, the Thrakikón17 Sea.

Important rivers are: Evros,18 which separates Ελλάς (Ellás) and Türkiye; the Strimón,19 which flows from western Bǎlgariya;20 the Axios,21 which constitutes the south end of an important Balkan land route; the Aliákmon, in northern Ελλάς (Ellás); and the Piniós, further south. The largest lake--only part of which is in Ελλάς (Ellás)--is Préspa at the triple boundary of Ελλάς (Ellás) with Makedonija22 and Shqipëri.23

Tourists enjoy Myrtos Beach on Kefallinía, Samariá Gorge on Kríti, both for nature, and Santorini for both nature and culture.24

Map

map of Ellás: showing three rivers, one lake, one reservoir and many islands

Who lives there?

More than 11 million people live here (2007). More than nine in ten speak Greek. No other language accounts for as many as one in 20. Nearly everyone is Greek Orthodox Christian.

Only one metropolitan area exceeds one million: Άθήνα (Athéna),25 the capital.

Other cities of note include Ρόδος (Ródos or Ródhos; Rhodes in English), Ηράκλειο (Irákleio or Heraklion, by which is ancient Knossos), Χανιά (Chaniá, Kríti: population 54,000;28 with a nationally important airport just south of the city29), the former city of Mukanai (Mycenae), Κόρινθος (Kórinthos), Κέρκυρα (Kérkura or Kérkyra, or Corfu), Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloníkē or Thessaloníki) and Βέροια (Véroia).

Tourists enjoy Míkonos for its culture.24

Who was there before?

The first literate people in Greece wrote in "Linear A" on Kríti. While this language has been translated, it is disputed whether it is a Semitic language or a Semitically-influenced language.30 It is certainly plausible that Semitic peoples were among the mix present in the islands and mainland when the Greeks began to immigrate around 4,000 years ago. Greeks had become dominant in Kríti by the middle of the Second Millenium when Linear B was Greek's written form.

The Greeks worshipped a pantheon of gods and goddesses, originally derived from Indo-European roots they shared with others. These included Zeus Pater31 and Helios.32 Other gods did not have these roots: Apollo and Dionysus among them. Rituals included oracles, animal sacrifice and cult 'mysteries'. The latter evolved during the period of Greek cultural hegemony over the eastern Mediterranean when they came to include foreign influences, and, in turn, to influence other religions, including Christianity. The eastern Roman emperor's conversion in the fourth century CE, together with persecutions, succeeded in making the world religion that of all Greeks but today's most recent immigrants. Nonetheless, syncretic vestiges persisted at least into the 20th century.33

Slavs invaded in the first millenium C.E., but their influence was rendered ephemeral by the emperor's mass resettlement of Greek-speaking Italians to the Pelopónnisos.

Non-theistic philosophies have competed with religions for attention: in the first millenium were Stocism, introduced from Cyprus,34 and Epicurean Cynicsm,35 started on the island of Sámos; and in the 20th century was Marxian communism.

UNESCO honors several sites for pre-modern culture:

  • The "Acropolis, Athens"
  • The "Archaeological Site of Aigai (modern name Vergina)"
  • The Archaeological Site of Delphi
  • The Archaeological Site of Mystras
  • The Archaeological Site of Olympia
  • The Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns
  • Delos
  • The "Historic Centre (Chora) with the Monastery of Saint John 'the Theologian' and the Cave of the Apocalypse on the Island of Pátmos"
  • The "Medieval City of Rhodes"
  • The "Monasteries of Daphni Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios, Greece"
  • The "Suburb of Chaidari"
  • The "Old Town of Corfu"
  • "Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessalonika"
  • The "Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos" (birthplace of the mathematician, Pythagoras)
  • The "Sanctuary of Askelpios at Epidauros"
  • The "Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae"
  • Meteora
  • "Mount Athos"
  • Philippi

    • Tourists enjoy the Parthenon, Meteora, the Delphi Theatre, Lindos, Mystras and Mount Áthos. All but Lindos are World Heritage Sites or within one.24

    Around the Area

    northeast
    east, from the northeast
    around and south of the islands, and southwest of the mainland
    west of the mjainland and around the Ionioi Islands
    northwest

    Footnotes

    1. Also called Ελλάδα (Elláda); Greece in English; formerly known as ΈΕλλάς (Hellás) or Έλλάδα (Helláda).
    2. Peloponnesus or Peloponnese in English.
    3. Crete in English.
    4. Ionian in English.
    5. Corfu in English.
    6. Cephalonia in English.
    7. Lemnos in Enlgish.
    8. Lesbos in English.
    9. Türkiye is Turkey in English.
    10. Chios in English.
    11. Also known as the Southern Sporadhes; Dodecanese in English.
    12. Rhodes in English.
    13. Euboea in English.
    14. Cyclades in English.
    15. Sea of Crete in English; sea is pélagos in transliterated Greek.
    16. Mirtoan in English.
    17. Thracian in English.
    18. Meriç in Turkish; Maritsa in Bulgarian.
    19. Struma in Bulgarian.
    20. Bulgaria in English.
    21. Varder in Macedonian.
    22. Macedonia in English.
    23. Albania in English.
    24. http://www.touropia.com/tourist-attractions-in-greece/, accessed March 27, 2018.
    25. Also transliterated as 'Athína; Athens in English.
    26. Attic in English.
    27. Piraeus in English.
    28. 2011 figure from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Greece, accessed March 21, 2018.
    29. 2017 table from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_Greece, accessed March 27, 2018. Criterion for inclusion: greater than one million passengers.
    30. Racists have a bias toward understating Semitic influences. See Martin Bernal, Black Athena, Volume II (Rutgers University Press, 1991).
    31. Pater means father. Zeus comes from word roots associated with the meanings god and sky.
    32. Meaning the sun.
    33. The 1940 story of the old woman on the bus at Eleusis, the town know for Saint Demetra, shows a lingering of the worship of the goddess, Demeter, through those who honored her saw themselves as Christians. See Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas, Volume II (University of Chicago Press, 1982).
    34. Κύπρος (Kýpros) in Greek and Kıbrıs in Turkish. Cyprus is English.
    35. Cynicism does not deny the existence of gods, but holds them irrelevant to humans.