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Category: Culture
Should the Greek people give Alexis Tsipras another chance as their prime minister?
I no longer follow Greek politics for the same reason I stopped following US politics: too depressing. I refer you however to the Greek version of “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”, as I have illustrated here: Nick Nicholas’ answer to What does the Greek word “malaka” mean? I […]
How did names like Anatoly and Arcady become names in Russia?
Partial answer: from St Anatolius: Anatolius of Laodicea and Anatolius of Constantinople. Saints’ names are the default source of given names in Orthodoxy. The question then becomes, why this saint’s cult was so much stronger in Russia than in Greece—I’ve never heard of a Greek called Anatolios, and the Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit has only […]
Where is the heart of the Balkans?
From linguistic criteria (having the most features of the Balkan sprachbund ), FWIW, it’s the Bulgaro-Macedonian language continuum, with Albanian a close second, then Romanian/Aromanian, Greek halfway in, and Serbian, Romany and Turkish peripheral. Dunno about Ladino. Dimitra as a northerner would be more enthusiastic about the Balkan affiliation of Greece than me as a […]
Since the Greeks and the Romans seemed relatively cultured people (at least by the standards of their time), how were they deceived by Christianity?
Hm, question with assumptions much? Note that: The Roman Empire was not a Gene Rodenberry Humanist utopia. It was fertile ground for all manner of (as the Roman sceptics would have put it) strange cults from the East, and it certainly had not turned away from religion in any meaningful sense. Lucian derided many of […]
Are memes a novel linguistic category of proverbs?
Hm. In this subculture, sure. Adage at least, if not proverb. The fragmentation of culture in the Anglosphere, and the lack of common cultural reference points as a result, is a strange thing. It feels unprecedented. You can’t fall back on common literary references any more. The Anglosphere thinks traditional wisdom is old hat and […]
What is the difference between Orthodox Christianity and other forms of Christianity?
Oriental Orthodoxy and Church of the East have Christological differences from other Christian churches. The Church of the East (Assyrian) rejects the Council of Ephesus (Christ–God is the same being as Christ–Man), and Oriental Orthodoxy rejects the Council of Chalcedon (Christ–God is a distinct nature from Christ–Man). This diagram in Non-Chalcedonianism helps: Non-Chalcedonianism . The […]
Do many modern Greeks feel a sense of failure or perhaps inferiority when compared with their ancient Greek ancestors?
The feeling has been there for a very long time. Theodore Metochites in the 14th century lamented that the Ancients had said everything that needed to be said, so there was nothing left for his contemporaries to do. The Greek peasantry would make up stories about the pagan giants who built the inexplicable structures all […]
Does the expression “bite off more than you can chew” translate to other languages?
Sure. Modern Greek: Πήγε για μαλλί και βγήκε κουρεμένος: He went in to get wool, and came out shorn. Answered 2016-01-07 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/Does-the-expression-bite-off-more-than-you-can-chew-translate-to-other-languages/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
What impact did Crete have on Ancient Greece?
As Toby Williams said, significant in pre-Classical Greece—after all, the Mycenaeans got their writing system from the Minoans, and there are echoes of the old Cretan dominance in the myths around Crete. In Classical times, not much at all. A couple of philosophers (including Epimenides and his paradox), but Crete was a backwater. That continued […]
Why is the Parthenon of Athens not listed as one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world?
1. If the first list of the Seven Wonders was compiled by Herodotus (Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), then the Parthenon was under construction at the time he compiled it; and even if it had been built, it would have been too new to include. But that argument doesn’t work, because the Mausoleum was […]