Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy, southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Sea of Crete and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin, featuring thousands of islands. The country consists of nine traditional geographic regions, and has a population of approximately 10.5 million. Athens is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki and Patras.
Ancient Greece was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity, that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically related city-states and other territories. Most of these regions were officially unified only once, for 13 years, under Alexander the Great's empire from 336 to 323 BC. In Western history, the era of classical antiquity was immediately followed by the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine period.
Eileithyia or Ilithyia was the Greek goddess of childbirth and midwifery, and the daughter of Zeus and Hera. In the cave of Amnisos (Crete) she was related with the annual birth of the divine child, and her cult is connected with Enesidaon, who was the chthonic aspect of the god Poseidon. It is possible that her cult is related with the cult of Eleusis. In his Seventh Nemean Ode, Pindar refers to her as the maid to or seated beside the Moirai (Fates) and responsible for the creation of offspring. Her son was Sosipolis, who was worshiped at Elis.
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek, Dark Ages, the Archaic or Epic period, and the Classical period.
The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BC. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as well as consonants. In Archaic and early Classical times, the Greek alphabet existed in many local variants, but, by the end of the 4th century BC, the Euclidean alphabet, with 24 letters, ordered from alpha to omega, had become standard and it is this version that is still used for Greek writing today.
Kleitoria is a village and a municipal unit in Achaea, Peloponnese, Greece. It was also the new name of the former municipality Lefkasio, of which it was the seat, between 2008 and 2011. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Kalavryta, and became a municipal unit of this municipality. The municipal unit has an area of 253.221 km2. The site of the ancient city of Cleitor is nearby.
Kleitor or Cleitor is a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Gortynia, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 150.582 km2. Its population was 1,406 in 2011. The seat of the municipality was in Mygdalia.
The Ladon Lake or the Ladon Reservoir is an artificial lake in the upper part of the river Ladon, in the northwestern part of Arcadia, Greece. The 50 m high dam was built in 1955. The reservoir is situated in a sparsely populated, mountainous area. It is completely in the municipality Gortynia, municipal units Kleitor, Kontovazaina and Tropaia.
Skotani, is a small mountain village in the municipal unit of Paion, Achaea, Greece. In 2011 its population was 60 for the village and 99 for the community, which includes the village Agios Georgios. Skotani is 5 km east of Chovoli, 7 km northeast of Dafni, 7 km southwest of Kleitoria and 20 km south of Kalavryta. Its elevation is about 700 m above sea level.
Paos is a village and a community in Achaea, Greece. It was the seat of the municipality of Paion. In 2011 its population was 253 for the village and 298 for the community, which includes the villages Dechounaiika, Palaios Paos, Potamia and Vesini. It is 25 km southwest of Kalavryta, and 50 km northwest of Tripoli. The Greek National Road 33 passes through the village. Its central road is named "111".
Cleitor or Kleitor, also known as Clitorium, was a town in ancient Arcadia.
The ancient Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and were one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. They were held at the Panhellenic religious sanctuary of Olympia, in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin. The originating Olympic Games are traditionally dated to 776 BC. The games were held every four years, or Olympiad, which became a unit of time in historical chronologies. They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule in the 2nd century BC. Their last recorded celebration was in AD 393, under the emperor Theodosius I, but archeological evidence indicates that some games were still held after this date. The games likely came to an end under Theodosius II, possibly in connection with a fire that burned down the temple of the Olympian Zeus during his reign.
Pederasty or paederasty is a sexual relationship between an adult man and a boy. The term pederasty is primarily used to refer to historical practices of certain cultures, particularly ancient Greece and ancient Rome.
Thaliades was a town in Arcadian Azania in ancient Greece, situated on the river Ladon between the towns Halus and Thelpusa. There was a temple of Eleusinian Demeter, with statues of Demeter, her daughter and Dionysos. It was part of the city-state of Kleitor. The ruins that have been found 1 km west of Vachlia are believed to be the remains of Thaliades.
Pournaria is a village and a community in the municipal unit of Kleitor, Arcadia, Greece. In 2001, it had a population of 142 for the village, and 241 for the community, which includes the village Mouria. Pournaria is situated on a hillside, at 500 m elevation. Mouria is 3 km to the southwest of Pournaria, on the northern shore of the Ladon reservoir. Pournaria is 9 km northeast of Tropaia, 10 km southeast of Paos and 42 km northwest of Tripoli.
Koine Greek, also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic period, the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire. It evolved from the spread of Greek following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC, and served as the lingua franca of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following centuries. It was based mainly on Attic and related Ionic speech forms, with various admixtures brought about through dialect levelling with other varieties.
The Kleitor or Cleitor river is a river of Achaea that flows into the Aroanios near the site of the ancient city of Cleitor.
In Greek mythology, Cleitor or Clitor or Kleitor(Κλήτωρ) may refer to the following personages:
