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Greece

Hellenic Republic Europe Athens 10,775,557 inhabitants 131,957 sq km 81.66 inhabitants/sq km euros (EUR) population evolution

Famous people from Greece

Here is a list of famous people from Greece. Curious if anybody from Greece made it our most famous people in the world list? Read the aformentioned article in order to find out.

Alexander the Great

Military Commander

Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of Macedon, a state in northern ancient Greece. Born in Pella in 356 BC, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16. By the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from the Ionian Sea to the Himalayas. He was undefeated in battle and is considered one of history's most successful commanders. His empire stretched from Greece to modern-day Pakistan Alexander succeeded his father, Philip II of Macedon, to the throne in 336 BC after Philip was assassinated. Upon Philip's death, Alexander inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. He had been awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his father's military expansion plans. In 334 BC, he invaded the Achaemenid empire, ruled Asia Minor, and began a series of campaigns that lasted ten years. Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of decisive battles, most notably the battles of Issus and Gaugamela. He subsequently overthrew the Persian King Darius III and conquered the entirety of the Persian Empire. At that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River.

Homer

Author

In the Western classical tradition, Homer is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest of ancient Greek epic poets. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature. When he lived is unknown. Herodotus estimates that Homer lived 400 years before his own time, which would place him at around 850 BC, while other ancient sources claim that he lived much nearer to the supposed time of the Trojan War, in the early 12th century BC. Most modern researchers place Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. The formative influence of the Homeric epics in shaping Greek culture was widely recognized, and Homer was described as the teacher of Greece. Homer's works, which are about fifty percent speeches, provided models in persuasive speaking and writing that were emulated throughout the ancient and medieval Greek worlds. Fragments of Homer account for nearly half of all identifiable Greek literary papyrus finds.

Socrates

Philosopher

Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes. Many would claim that Plato's dialogues are the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity. Through his portrayal in Plato's dialogues, Socrates has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, and it is this Platonic Socrates who lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic method, or elenchus. The latter remains a commonly used tool in a wide range of discussions, and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions is asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand. Plato's Socrates also made important and lasting contributions to the field of epistemology, and the influence of his ideas and approach remains a strong foundation for much western philosophy that followed.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Military Commander

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish army officer in the Ottoman military, revolutionary statesman, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey. His surname, Atatürk, was granted to him in 1934 and forbidden to any other person by the Turkish parliament. Atatürk was a military officer during World War I. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, he led the Turkish national movement in the Turkish War of Independence. Having established a provisional government in Ankara, he defeated the forces sent by the Allies. His military campaigns led to victory in the Turkish War of Independence. Atatürk then embarked upon a program of political, economic, and cultural reforms, seeking to transform the former Ottoman Empire into a modern, secular, and democratic nation-state. Under his leadership, thousands of new schools were built, primary education was made free and compulsory, while the burden of taxation on peasants was reduced. The principles of Atatürk's reforms, upon which modern Turkey was established, are referred to as Kemalism.

Pythagoras

Philosopher

Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him. He was born on the island of Samos, and might have travelled widely in his youth, visiting Egypt and other places seeking knowledge. Around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, in Magna Graecia, and there set up a religious sect. His followers pursued the religious rites and practices developed by Pythagoras, and studied his philosophical theories. The society took an active role in the politics of Croton, but this eventually led to their downfall. The Pythagorean meeting-places were burned, and Pythagoras was forced to flee the city. He is said to have died in Metapontum. Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religious teaching in the late 6th century BC. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist, but he is best known for the Pythagorean theorem which bears his name. However, because legend and obfuscation cloud his work even more than that of the other pre-Socratic philosophers, one can give only a tentative account of his teachings, and some have questioned whether he contributed much to mathematics and natural philosophy. Many of the accomplishments credited to Pythagoras may actually have been accomplishments of his colleagues and successors. Whether or not his disciples believed that everything was related to mathematics and that numbers were the ultimate reality is unknown. It was said that he was the first man to call himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom, and Pythagorean ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato, and through him, all of Western philosophy.

Plutarch

Philosopher

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is considered today to be a Middle Platonist.

Yanni

Instrumental Artist

Yiannis Hryssomallis, known professionally as Yanni, is a Greek pianist, keyboardist, composer, and music producer who has spent his adult life in the United States. Yanni continues to use the musical shorthand that he developed as a child, blending jazz, classical, soft rock, and world music to create predominantly instrumental works. As this genre of music was not well suited for commercial pop radio and music television, Yanni achieved international recognition by producing concerts at historic monuments and by producing videos that were broadcast on public television. His breakthrough concert, Yanni Live at the Acropolis, yielded the second best-selling music video of all time. Additional historic sites for Yanni's concerts have included India's Taj Mahal, China's Forbidden City, the United Arab Emirates' Burj Khalifa, Russia's Kremlin, Puerto Rico's El Morro castle, and Lebanon's ancient city of Byblos. At least fourteen of Yanni's albums have peaked at #1 in Billboard's "Top New Age Album" category, and two albums received Grammy nominations. Through late 2011, Yanni had performed live in concert before more than two million people in more than 20 countries around the world, and has accumulated more than 35 platinum and gold albums globally, with sales totaling over 20 million copies. A longtime fundraiser for public television, Yanni's compositions have been used on commercial television programs, especially for sporting events such as the Tour de France, World Figure Skating Championships, U. S. Open Tennis Championships, U. S. Open Golf Championships, and Olympic Games. He has written film scores and the music for an award-winning British Airways television commercial.

Nana Mouskouri

Easy listening Artist

Nana Mouskouri, born Iōánna Moúschouri on October 13, 1934, in Chania, Crete, Greece, is a Greek singer. She was known as "Nána" to her friends and family as a child. She has recorded songs in many languages, including Greek, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Hebrew, Welsh, Mandarin Chinese, Corsican, and Turkish.

Hippocrates

Physician

Hippocrates of Cos or Hippokrates of Kos was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is referred to as the father of western medicine in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field as the founder of the Hippocratic School of Medicine. This intellectual school revolutionized medicine in ancient Greece, establishing it as a discipline distinct from other fields that it had traditionally been associated with, thus establishing medicine as a profession. However, the achievements of the writers of the Corpus, the practitioners of Hippocratic medicine, and the actions of Hippocrates himself were often commingled; thus very little is known about what Hippocrates actually thought, wrote, and did. Hippocrates is commonly portrayed as the paragon of the ancient physician, credited with coining the Hippocratic Oath, still relevant and in use today. He is also credited with greatly advancing the systematic study of clinical medicine, summing up the medical knowledge of previous schools, and prescribing practices for physicians through the Hippocratic Corpus and other works.

Sophocles

Playwright

Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides. According to the Suda, a 10th-century encyclopedia, Sophocles wrote 123 plays during the course of his life, but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, The Women of Trachis, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. For almost 50 years, Sophocles was the most-fêted playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens that took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. He competed in around 30 competitions, won perhaps 24, and was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won 14 competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles, while Euripides won only 4 competitions. The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature Oedipus and also Antigone: they are generally known as the Theban plays, although each play was actually a part of a different tetralogy, the other members of which are now lost. Sophocles influenced the development of the drama, most importantly by adding a third actor, thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus.

Aeschylus

Playwright

Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays can still be read or performed, the others being Sophocles and Euripides. He is often described as the father of tragedy: Our knowledge of the genre begins with his work and our understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in plays to allow for conflict amongst them, whereas previously characters had interacted only with the chorus. Only seven of his estimated seventy to ninety plays have survived into modern times, and there is a longstanding debate about his authorship of one of these plays, Prometheus Bound. Fragments of some other plays have survived in quotes and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyrus, often giving us surprising insights into his work. He was probably the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy and his Oresteia is the only ancient example of the form to have survived. At least one of his works was influenced by the Persian invasion of Greece, which took place during his lifetime. This play, The Persians, is the only extant classical Greek tragedy concerned with recent history and it is a useful source of information about that period. So important was the war to Aeschylus and the Greeks that, upon his death, around 456 BC, his epitaph commemorated his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon rather than his success as a playwright.

Epicurus

Philosopher

Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher as well as the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. Only a few fragments and letters of Epicurus's 300 written works remain. Much of what is known about Epicurean philosophy derives from later followers and commentators. For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by ataraxia—peace and freedom from fear—and aponia—the absence of pain—and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and evil; death is the end of both body and soul and should therefore not be feared; the gods do not reward or punish humans; the universe is infinite and eternal; and events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in empty space.

Aristophanes

Playwright

Aristophanes, son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his thirty plays survive virtually complete. These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and they are used to define the genre. Also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy, Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates although other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher. His second play, The Babylonians, was denounced by the demagogue Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. It is possible that the case was argued in court but details of the trial are not recorded and Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights, the first of many plays that he directed himself. "In my opinion," he says through the Chorus in that play, "the author-director of comedies has the hardest job of all."

Tommy Lee

Heavy metal Artist

Thomas Lee Bass, best known as Tommy Lee, is an American musician and founding member of glam metal band Mötley Crüe. As well as being the band's long-term drummer, Lee founded rap-metal band Methods of Mayhem, and has pursued solo musical projects. He has been married to model Elaine Starchuk and actresses Heather Locklear and Pamela Anderson.

Polybius

Politician

Polybius was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 264–146 BC in detail. The work describes the rise of the Roman Republic to 'world power'. Polybius is also renowned for his ideas concerning the separation of powers in government, later used in Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws and in the drafting of the United States Constitution. Polybius was born in Arcadia around 200 BC. He was the son of Lycortas, a Greek politician who became Cavalry Commander of the Achaean League. His father's opposition to Roman control of Macedonia resulted in his imprisonment. Polybius was then deported to Rome, where Lucius Aemilius Paulus employed him to tutor his two sons. Polybius had the opportunity to return to Macedonia in 152 BC; he elected to stay, however, in Rome, as by that time he had placed his allegiance in the Roman Republic. He became a close friend of the Roman military commander Scipio Aemilianus, accompanying the general to Hispania and Africa. Polybius's The Histories provides a detailed account of Rome's ascent to empire and included his eyewitness account of the Sack of Carthage in 146 BC. Polybius held that historians should only chronicle events whose participants the historian was able to interview, and was among the first to champion the notion of having factual integrity in historical writing, while avoiding bias.

Pericles

Statesman

Pericles was the most prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during the Golden Age—specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically influential Alcmaeonid family. Pericles had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thucydides, his contemporary historian, acclaimed him as "the first citizen of Athens". Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. The period during which he led Athens, roughly from 461 to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the "Age of Pericles", though the period thus denoted can include times as early as the Persian Wars, or as late as the next century. Pericles promoted the arts and literature; it is principally through his efforts that Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world. He started an ambitious project that generated most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis. This project beautified the city, exhibited its glory, and gave work to the people. Pericles also fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist.

Democritus

Philosopher

Democritus was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in Abdera, Thrace, Greece. A pupil of Leucippus, he was an influential pre-Socratic philosopher who formulated an atomic theory for the universe. His exact contributions are difficult to disentangle from those of his mentor Leucippus, as they are often mentioned together in texts. Their speculation on atoms, taken from Leucippus, bears a passing and partial resemblance to the nineteenth-century understanding of atomic structure that has led some to regard Democritus as more of a scientist than other Greek philosophers; however, their ideas rested on very different bases. Largely ignored in ancient Athens, Democritus was nevertheless well known to his fellow northern-born philosopher Aristotle. Plato is said to have disliked him so much that he wished all his books burned. Many consider Democritus to be the "father of modern science".

Thucydides

Historian

Thucydides was a Greek historian and Athenian general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis in terms of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work. He has also been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the relations between nations as based on might rather than right. His text is still studied at advanced military colleges worldwide, and the Melian dialogue remains a seminal work of international relations theory. More generally, Thucydides showed an interest in developing an understanding of human nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plague, massacres, as in that of the Melians, and civil war.

Sappho

Author

Sappho was a Greek lyric poet, born on the island of Lesbos. The Alexandrians included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BCE, and it is said that she died around 570 BCE, but little is known for certain about her life. The bulk of her poetry, which was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, has been lost, but her immense reputation has endured through surviving fragments.

Arianna Huffington

Politician

Arianna Huffington is a Greek-American author and syndicated columnist. She is best known for her news website The Huffington Post. At one time a liberal democrat she later became a popular conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, after which she adopted liberal political beliefs in the late 1990s. She is the former spouse of former Republican congressman Michael Huffington. In 2003, she ran as an independent candidate for Governor in the California recall election. In 2009, Huffington was named as number 12 in Forbes' first-ever list of the Most Influential Women In Media. She has also moved up to number 42 in The Guardian's Top 100 in Media List. In 2011, AOL acquired The Huffington Post for US$315 million and made Huffington president and editor in chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which included The Huffington Post and then-existing AOL properties such as Engadget, AOL Music, Patch Media, and StyleList.

Míkis Theodorakis

Theatrical Composer

Michael "Mikis" Theodorakis is a Greek songwriter of over 1000 songs and composer. He scored for the films Zorba the Greek, Z, and Serpico. He is viewed as Greece's best-known living composer. Politically, he identified with the left until the late 1980s; in 1989 he ran as an independent candidate within the centre-right New Democracy party in order for the country to come out of the political crisis that had been created due to the numerous scandals of the government of Andreas Papandreou and helped to establish a large coalition between conservatives, socialists and leftists. In 1990 he was elected to the parliament, became a government minister under Constantine Mitsotakis, and fought against drugs and terrorism and for culture, education and better relations between Greece and Turkey. He continues to speak out in favor of left-liberal causes, Greek-Turkish-Cypriot relations, and against the War in Iraq. He has consistently opposed oppressive regimes and was a key voice against the Greek junta 1967-1974, which imprisoned him.

Xenophon

Author

Xenophon, son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates. He is known for his writings on the history of his own times, the 4th century BC, preserving the sayings of Socrates, and descriptions of life in ancient Greece and the Persian Empire.

Pindar

Author

Pindar, was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar is by far the greatest, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich exuberance of his language and matter, and his rolling flood of eloquence, characteristics which, as Horace rightly held, make him inimitable." His poems however can also seem difficult and even peculiar. The Athenian comic playwright Eupolis once remarked that they "are already reduced to silence by the disinclination of the multitude for elegant learning". Some scholars in the modern age also found his poetry perplexing, at least up until the discovery in 1896 of some poems by his rival Bacchylides, when comparisons of their work showed that many of Pindar's idiosyncrasies are typical of archaic genres rather than of the poet himself. The brilliance of his poetry then began to be more widely appreciated. However his style still challenges the casual reader and he continues to be a much admired though largely unread poet.

Queen Sofía of Spain

Noble person

Queen Sofía of Spain is the wife of King Juan Carlos I of Spain. Born a princess of Greece and Denmark, she became queen of Spain upon her husband's accession in 1975.

Demosthenes

Politician

Demosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by studying the speeches of previous great orators. He delivered his first judicial speeches at the age of 20, in which he argued effectively to gain from his guardians what was left of his inheritance. For a time, Demosthenes made his living as a professional speech-writer and a lawyer, writing speeches for use in private legal suits. Demosthenes grew interested in politics during his time as a logographer, and in 354 BC he gave his first public political speeches. He went on to devote his most productive years to opposing Macedon's expansion. He idealized his city and strove throughout his life to restore Athens' supremacy and motivate his compatriots against Philip II of Macedon. He sought to preserve his city's freedom and to establish an alliance against Macedon, in an unsuccessful attempt to impede Philip's plans to expand his influence southwards by conquering all the other Greek states. After Philip's death, Demosthenes played a leading part in his city's uprising against the new King of Macedonia, Alexander the Great. However, his efforts failed and the revolt was met with a harsh Macedonian reaction. To prevent a similar revolt against his own rule, Alexander's successor in this region, Antipater, sent his men to track Demosthenes down. Demosthenes took his own life, in order to avoid being arrested by Archias, Antipater's confidant.

Leonidas I

Military Commander

Leonidas I, also known as Leonidas the Brave was a Greek hero-king of Sparta, the 17th of the Agiad line, third son of Anaxandridas II of Sparta, who was believed to be a descendant of Heracles, possessing much of the latter's strength and bravery. Leonidas is notable for his leadership at the Battle of Thermopylae.

Giorgio de Chirico

Painting Artist

Giorgio de Chirico was a Greek-born Italian artist. In the years before World War I, he founded the scuola metafisica art movement, which profoundly influenced the surrealists. After 1919, he became interested in traditional painting techniques, and worked in a neoclassical or neo-Baroque style, while frequently revisiting the metaphysical themes of his earlier work.

Muhammad Ali of Egypt

Monarch

Muhammad Ali Pasha al-Mas'ud ibn Agha was an Albanian commander in the Ottoman army, who became Wāli, and self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. Though not a modern nationalist, he is regarded as the founder of modern Egypt because of the dramatic reforms in the military, economic and cultural spheres that he instituted. He also ruled Levantine territories outside Egypt. The dynasty that he established would rule Egypt and Sudan until the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.

Vassilis Spanoulis

Basketball Shooting guard

Vassilis Spanoulis is a Greek professional basketball player for Olympiacos Piraeus of the Greek Basket League and the Euroleague. A 6 ft 4 in tall combo guard, he is nicknamed Kill Bill, V-Span, and MVP. Spanoulis was named the Balkan Athlete of the Year in 2009, the All-Europe Player of the Year in 2012, and the Euroleague MVP in 2013. He has earned five All-Euroleague Team selections. Spanoulis first played for Gymnastikos S. Larissa, and enjoyed a highly successful career start, winning the Greek Basket League's Best Young Player award in 2002. His skill-set earned him a transfer to Athens and Maroussi. Following an impressive 2004–05 season, during which he helped to lead Maroussi to the Greek Basket League Finals, and the Eurocup quarterfinals, he moved to Panathinaikos, where he became one of European basketball's major stars. In the 2005–06 Euroleague season, Spanoulis made his debut in impressive fashion, earning his first All-Euroleague Team selection as a rookie in the competition. After a stint in the NBA with the Houston Rockets during the 2006–07 season, he returned to Panathinaikos and helped to lead them to a Euroleague title in 2009, being voted as the Euroleague Final Four MVP. Spanoulis' transfer to Olympiacos, in the summer of 2010, marked a new step in his career. Within a young and rebuilding team, Spanoulis not only led a Euroleague title run in 2012, but went on to achieve a historical repeat in 2013. In the process he gained another two Euroleague Final Four MVP awards, thus joining Toni Kukoč as the only players to achieve that distinction on three occasions.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos

Soccer

Sokratis Papastathopoulos is a Greek footballer who plays as a centre back for the German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund and the Greek national team. Since the surname Papastathopoulos cannot fit on his club shirt, his first name Sokratis is usually displayed instead; however, a common nickname for him is Papa.

Solon

Philosopher

Solon was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic, and moral decline in archaic Athens. His reforms failed in the short term, yet he is often credited with having laid the foundations for Athenian democracy. Knowledge of Solon is limited by the lack of documentary and archeological evidence covering Athens in the early 6th century BC. He wrote poetry for pleasure, as patriotic propaganda, and in defense of his constitutional reforms. His works only survive in fragments. They appear to feature interpolations by later authors and it is possible that fragments have been wrongly attributed to him. Ancient authors such as Herodotus and Plutarch are the main source of information, yet they wrote about Solon long after his death, at a time when history was by no means an academic discipline. Fourth century orators, such as Aeschines, tended to attribute to Solon all the laws of their own, much later times. Archaeology reveals glimpses of Solon's period in the form of fragmentary inscriptions but little else. For some scholars, our "knowledge" of Solon and his times is largely a fictive construct based on insufficient evidence while others believe a substantial body of real knowledge is still attainable. Solon and his times are interesting to students of history as a test of the limits and nature of historical argument.

Georgios Samaras

Soccer

Georgios Samaras is a Greek footballer who plays for Scottish Premiership club Celtic and the Greek national team. He is predominantly a Left Winger, but can also play as a Centre Forward. Samaras started his career at Crete, before moving on to Eredivisie side Heerenveen in 2001. He made his first team debut two years later and after a further three seasons with the club he moved to English Premier League side Manchester City for a fee of £6 million in 2006. After Sven-Göran Eriksson took over as Manchester City manager Samaras fell out of favour with the first team. In January 2008 he was loaned out to Scottish Premier League team Celtic. During this time he helped the club win the title for a third season in a row. Celtic signed him at the end of the loan spell and since moving to Glasgow he has won the 2008–09 Scottish League Cup, 2010–11 Scottish Cup and the 2011–12 Scottish Premier League. Samaras also won the SPL Player of the Month award in September 2008. Although eligible to play for Australia, due to the fact his father Ioannis Samaras was born in Melbourne, Samaras chose to represent his country of birth, Greece, and made his debut in 2006. He has become a regular in the Greek side since then, earning over 60 caps and representing his country at Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012.

Themistocles

Politician

Themistocles was an Athenian politician and general. He was one of a new breed of non-aristocratic politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy. As a politician, Themistocles was a populist, having the support of lower class Athenians, and generally being at odds with the Athenian nobility. Elected archon in 493 BC, he convinced the polis to increase the naval power of Athens, which would be a recurring theme in his political career. During the first Persian invasion of Greece, he fought at the Battle of Marathon, and was possibly one of the 10 Athenian strategoi in that battle. In the years after Marathon, and in the run up to the second Persian invasion he became the most prominent politician in Athens. He continued to advocate a strong Athenian navy, and in 483 BC he persuaded the Athenians to build a fleet of 200 triremes; these would prove crucial in the forthcoming conflict with Persia. During the second invasion, he was in effective command of the Greek allied navy at the battles of Artemisium and Salamis. Due to subterfuge on the part of Themistocles, the Allies lured the Persian fleet into the Straits of Salamis, and the decisive Greek victory there was the turning point in the invasion, which was ended the following year by the defeat of the Persians at the land Battle of Plataea.

Theofanis Gekas

Soccer

Theofanis "Fanis" Gekas is a Greek footballer who plays for Konyaspor in the Süper Lig, as a striker. He has been the top goalscorer of the Greek League and the Bundesliga in previous seasons. He was the top goalscorer of the Europe section of 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification for scoring ten goals in Greece's successful qualifying campaign.

Melina Mercouri

Actor

Melina Mercouri, born as Maria Amalia Mercouri, was a Greek actress, singer and politician. As an actress she made her film debut in Stella and met international success with her performances in Never on Sunday, Phaedra, Topkapi, and Promise at Dawn. She won the award for Best Actress at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, and she was also nominated for an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and two BAFTA Awards. A political activist during the Greek military junta of 1967–1974, she became a member of the Hellenic Parliament in 1977 and the first female Minister for Culture of Greece in 1981. Mercouri was the person who, in 1983, conceived and proposed the programme of the European Capital of Culture, which has been established by the European Union since 1985. She was a strong advocate for the return to Athens of the Parthenon Marbles, which were removed from the Parthenon, and are now displayed in the British Museum.

Kyriakos Papadopoulos

Soccer

Kyriakos Papadopoulos is a Greek footballer who plays as a central defender for Schalke 04 and the Greek national team.

George Dalaras

Singer

George Dalaras, also possibly spelled as Yorgos or Giorgos Dalaras, is a Greek singer. He is of international fame and has recently been selected as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. He was born in Nea Kokinia, Piraeus. His father was Loukas Daralas, a singer of rebetiko.

Manos Hadjidakis

Composer

Manos Hadjidakis was a Greek composer and theorist of Greek music. He was also one of the main prime movers of the "Éntekhno" song. In 1960 he received an Academy Award for Best Original Song for his Song Never on Sunday from the self-titled movie.

Costa-Gavras

Film Director

Costa-Gavras, is a Greek-born naturalized French filmmaker, who lives and works in France, best known for films with overt political themes, most famously the fast-paced thriller, Z. Most of his movies were made in French; starting with Missing, several were made in English.

Theophrastus

Philosopher

Theophrastus, a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death, he attached himself to Aristotle. Aristotle bequeathed to Theophrastus his writings and designated him as his successor at the Lyceum. Theophrastus presided over the Peripatetic school for thirty-six years, during which time the school flourished greatly. He is often considered the "father of botany" for his works on plants. After his death, the Athenians honoured him with a public funeral. His successor as head of the school was Strato of Lampsacus. The interests of Theophrastus were wide ranging, extending from biology and physics to ethics and metaphysics. His two surviving botanical works, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants, were an important influence on medieval science. There are also surviving works On Moral Characters, On Sensation, On Stones, and fragments on Physics and Metaphysics. In philosophy, he studied grammar and language and continued Aristotle's work on logic. He also regarded space as the mere arrangement and position of bodies, time as an accident of motion, and motion as a necessary consequence of all activity. In ethics, he regarded happiness as depending on external influences as well as on virtue and famously said that "life is ruled by fortune, not wisdom."

Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt

Monarch

Ibrahim Pasha was the eldest son of Muhammad Ali, the Wāli and unrecognised Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. He served as a general in the Egyptian army that his father established during his reign, taking his first command of Egyptian forces was when he was merely a teenager. In the final year of his life, he succeeded his still living father as ruler of Egypt and Sudan, due to the latter's ill health. His rule also extended over the other dominions that his father had brought under Egyptian rule, namely Syria, Hejaz, Morea, Thasos, and Crete. Ibrahim pre-deceased his father, dying 10 November 1848, only four months after acceding to the throne. Upon his father's death the following year, the Egyptian throne passed to Ibrahim's nephew, Abbas. Ibrahim remains one of the most celebrated members of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, particularly for his impressive military victories, including several crushing defeats of the Ottoman Empire. Among Egyptian historians, he, along with his father, Muhammad Ali, his son, Ismail the Magnificent, and his great-grandson Abbas II, is held in far higher esteem than other rulers from the dynasty, who were largely viewed as indolent and corrupt. Today, a statue of Ibrahim occupies a prominent position in Egypt's capital, Cairo.

Helena Kallianiotes

Actor

Helena Kallioniotes was the spouse of actor Billy Gray.

Yannis Stankoglou

Actor

Yannis Stankoglou is an actor.

Stavros Niarchos

Businessperson

Stavros Spyros Niarchos was a Greek shipping tycoon and multi-billionaire. In 1952, Stavros Niarchos built the biggest supertankers capable of transporting large quantities of oil, and subsequently earned millions of dollars as global demand for his ships increased.

Theodoros Angelopoulos

Film Director

Theodoros "Theo" Angelopoulos was a Greek filmmaker, screenwriter and film producer. An acclaimed and multi-awarded film director, who has dominated the Greek art film industry since 1975, and is considered one of the most influential and widely respected filmmakers in the world, started making films in 1967. In the 1970s he made a series of political films about modern Greece. Angelopoulos, defined by Martin Scorsese as "a masterful filmmaker", has developed a unique cinematic vision, characterized by slightest movement, slightest change in distance, long takes, and complicated but carefully composed scenes, offering a hypnotic, sweeping, and profoundly emotional cinema. In 1998 his film, Eternity and a Day, went on to win the prestigious Palme d'Or at the 51st edition of the Cannes Film Festival, and his films have been shown at the most important film festivals around the world. In 2000 he was the President of the Jury at the 22nd Moscow International Film Festival.

Irene Papas

Actor

Irene Papas is a Greek actress and occasional singer, who has starred in over seventy films in a career spanning more than fifty years.

Ugo Foscolo

Poet

Ugo Foscolo, born Niccolò Foscolo, was an Italian writer, revolutionary and poet.

Dimitris Mitropanos

Singer

Dimitris Mitropanos was a Greek singer. He was renowned for his mastery of Laïkó, a Greek music style.

Leucippus

Philosopher

Leucippus or Leukippos was one of the earliest Greeks to develop the theory of atomism — the idea that everything is composed entirely of various imperishable, indivisible elements called atoms — which was elaborated in greater detail by his pupil and successor, Democritus. According to this atomism, if you take a piece of wood and then cut it into two equal parts, then do it continuously, eventually you will find a part that you can't cut. This smallest possible part is the "atom". A possible earlier candidate for atomism is Mochus of Sidon, from the Trojan War era. He was most likely born in Miletus, although Abdera and Elea are also mentioned as possible birth-places.

Eleni Daniilidou

Tennis Player

Eleni Daniilidou is a Greek tennis player born in Chania, on the island of Crete. As of 2011, she has won five WTA singles titles and three doubles titles. In 2003, she reached the Australian Open mixed doubles final. Her highest singles ranking has been 14th. By beating Justine Henin in the first round of the 2005 Wimbledon Championships, she became the first player to defeat a reigning French Open champion in the first round of Wimbledon.

Epaminondas

Military Commander

Epaminondas, or Epameinondas, was a Theban general and statesman of the 4th century BC who transformed the Ancient Greek city-state of Thebes, leading it out of Spartan subjugation into a preeminent position in Greek politics. In the process he broke Spartan military power with his victory at Leuctra and liberated the Messenian helots, a group of Peloponnesian Greeks who had been enslaved under Spartan rule for some 230 years, having been defeated in the Messenian War ending in 600 BC. Epaminondas reshaped the political map of Greece, fragmented old alliances, created new ones, and supervised the construction of entire cities. He was militarily influential as well, inventing and implementing several major battlefield tactics. The Roman orator Cicero called him "the first man of Greece", and Montaigne judged him one of the three "worthiest and most excellent men" that had ever lived, but Epaminondas has fallen into relative obscurity in modern times. The changes Epaminondas wrought on the Greek political order did not long outlive him, as the cycle of shifting hegemonies and alliances continued unabated. A mere twenty-seven years after his death, a recalcitrant Thebes was obliterated by Alexander the Great. Thus Epaminondas—who had been praised in his time as an idealist and liberator—is today largely remembered for a decade of campaigning that sapped the strength of the great land powers of Greece and paved the way for the Macedonian conquest.

Dimitris Diamantidis

Basketball Shooting guard

Dimitris Diamantidis is a Greek professional basketball player for the Greek League and Euroleague team Panathinaikos Athens. Standing at 1.96 m and weighing 100 kg, Diamantidis mainly plays at the point guard position on offense, but he also has the ability to play as a shooting guard, as well as to assume the small forward position, being utilized as a point forward. At the age of fourteen, he started his youth career with his home team in Kastoria, and stayed there for five years before being transferred to Iraklis in 1999. He plays for Panathinaikos since the summer of 2004. Diamantidis helped to lead Panathinaikos to three Euroleague championships in 2007, 2009, and 2011, earning the Final Four MVP Award twice, and being named Euroleague MVP in 2011. He also won eight Greek League and seven Greek Cup titles. A four-time All-Euroleague First Team selection, he is the first recipient of the Euroleague Best Defender Award, which he won five times in a row from 2005 to 2009, and an additional one in 2011. Moreover, Diamantidis was voted to the Euroleague 2001-10 All-Decade Team. As a member of the Greek national team, he earned a FIBA EuroBasket title in 2005, as well as a FIBA World Championship silver medal in 2006, with Greece stunning the likes of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, and Carmelo Anthony in the tournament's semifinal.

Antonis Samaras

Politician

Antonis Samaras is a Greek economist and politician who has been the Prime Minister of Greece since 20 June 2012. He has been leader of New Democracy, Greece's major conservative party, since 2009. Previously, Samaras served as Minister of Finance in 1989, then as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1990 and again from 1990 to 1992. Later, he was Minister of Culture in 2009. Samaras was known for a 1993 controversy in which he effectively caused the New Democracy government, of which he was a member, to fall from power. In spite of this he rejoined the party in 2004 and was elected to its leadership in a closely fought intra-party election in late 2009. He is the 7th leader of the party since it was founded in 1974.

Nurbanu Sultan

Deceased Person

Afife Nurbanu Valide Sultan was the wife of Sultan Selim II of the Ottoman Empire, mother of Sultan Murad III, and de facto co-ruler as the Valide Sultan for nine years from 1574 until 1583. She was either a Venetian of noble birth or a Spanish Jew. Her birth name may have been Olivia or Cecilia Venier-Baffo, or Rachel. As Valide Sultan her full title was Devletlu İsmetlu Afife Nûr-Banû Vâlide Sultân Aliyyetü'ş-Şân Hazretleri.

Hephaestion

Military Person

Hephaestion, son of Amyntor, was a Macedonian nobleman and a general in the army of Alexander the Great. He was "... by far the dearest of all the king's friends; he had been brought up with Alexander and shared all his secrets." This friendship lasted throughout their lives, and was compared, by others as well as themselves, to that of Achilles and Patroclus. His military career was distinguished. A member of Alexander the Great’s personal bodyguard, he went on to command the Companion cavalry and was entrusted with many other tasks throughout Alexander's ten-year campaign in Asia, including diplomatic missions, the bridging of major rivers, sieges and the foundation of new settlements. Besides being a soldier, engineer and diplomat he corresponded with the philosophers Aristotle and Xenocrates and actively supported Alexander in his attempts to integrate the Greeks and Persians. Alexander formally made him his second-in-command when he appointed him Chiliarch of the empire. Alexander also made him part of the royal family when he gave him as his bride Drypetis, sister to his own second wife Stateira, both daughters of Darius III of Persia. When he died suddenly at Ecbatana around age thirty-two, Alexander was overwhelmed with grief. He petitioned the oracle at Siwa to grant Hephaestion divine status and thus Hephaestion was honoured as a Divine Hero. At the time of his own death a mere eight months later, Alexander was still planning lasting monuments to Hephaestion's memory.

Bayezid II

Religious Leader

Bayezid II or Sultân Bayezid-î Velî was the eldest son and successor of Mehmed II, ruling as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512. During his reign, Bayezid II consolidated the Ottoman Empire and thwarted a Safavid rebellion soon before abdicating his throne to his son, Selim I. He is most notable for evacuating Jews from Spain after the proclamation of the Alhambra Decree and, being both a Roman emperor and Caliph of Islam, resettling them throughout the Ottoman Empire.

Mike Zambidis

Martial Artist

Michalis "Mike" Zambidis is a professional Greek kickboxer and martial artist. He is a 15 time World Champion, and is the current W.I.P.U. "King of the Ring" super-welterweight kickboxing oriental rules world champion, also competing in the K-1 MAX.

Angelos Charisteas

Soccer Midfielder

Angelos Charisteas is a retired Greek footballer who last played for Al Nassr FC. Charisteas had a crucial role in the UEFA Euro 2004, won by Greece, scoring three vital goals, including the one in the final against Portugal.

Corinna

Author

Corinna or Korinna was an Ancient Greek poet, traditionally attributed to the 6th century BC. According to ancient sources such as Plutarch and Pausanias, she came from Tanagra in Boeotia, where she was a teacher and rival to the better-known Theban poet Pindar. Although two of her poems survive in epitome, most of her work is preserved in papyrus fragments.

Odysseas Elytis

Poet

Odysseas Elytis was regarded as a major exponent of romantic modernism in Greece and the world. In 1979 the Nobel Prize in Literature was bestowed on him.

Menander

Playwright

Menander was a Greek dramatist and the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy. He was the author of more than a hundred comedies, and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times. His record at the City Dionysia is unknown but may well have been similarly spectacular. One of the most popular writers of antiquity, his work was lost in the Middle Ages and is known in modernity in highly fragmentary form, much of which was discovered in the 20th century. Only one play, Dyskolos, has survived almost entirely.

Constantine I of Greece

Monarch

Constantine I was King of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. He was commander-in-chief of the Hellenic Army during the unsuccessful Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and led the Greek forces during the successful Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, in which Greece won Thessaloniki and doubled in area and population. He succeeded to the throne of Greece on 18 March 1913, following his father's assassination. His disagreement with Eleftherios Venizelos over whether Greece should enter World War I led to the National Schism. Constantine forced Venizelos to resign twice, but in 1917 he left Greece, after threats of the Entente forces to bombard Athens; his second son, Alexander, became king. After Alexander's death, Venizelos' defeat in the 1920 legislative elections, and a plebiscite in favor of his return, Constantine was reinstated. He abdicated the throne for the second and last time in 1922, when Greece lost the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922, and was succeeded by his eldest son, George II. Constantine died in exile four months later, in Sicily.

Philomena

Deceased Person

Saint Philomena was, as believed by her devotees within the Catholic Church, a young virgin martyr whose remains were discovered in 1802 in the Catacombs of Priscilla. Three tiles enclosing the tomb bore an inscription that was taken to indicate that her name was Filumena, the English form of which is Philomena. The remains were removed to Mugnano del Cardinale in 1805 and became the focus of widespread devotion, with several miracles credited to the saint's intercession, including the healing of Venerable Pauline Jaricot in 1835, which received wide publicity. Saint John Vianney attributed to her intercession the extraordinary cures that others attributed to himself. In 1833 a Neapolitan nun reported that in a vision Saint Philomena had revealed that she was a Greek princess martyred at 13 years of age by Diocletian, who was Roman Emperor from 284 to 305. From 1837 to 1961 celebration of her liturgical feast was approved for some places, but was never included in the General Roman Calendar for universal use. The 1920 typical edition of the Roman Missal included a mention of her, under 11 August, in the section headed Missae pro aliquibus locis, with an indication that the Mass to be used in those places was one from the common of a Virgin Martyr, without any collect proper to the saint.

Isocrates

Author

Isocrates, an ancient Greek rhetorician, was one of the ten Attic orators. Among the most influential Greek rhetoricians of his time, Isocrates made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works. Greek rhetoric is commonly traced to Corax of Syracuse, who first formulated a set of rhetorical rules in the fifth century BC. His pupil, Tisias, was influential in the development of the rhetoric of the courtroom, and by some accounts was the teacher of Isocrates. Within two generations, rhetoric had become an important art, its growth driven by the social and political changes, such as democracy and the courts of law.

Mando

Pop Artist

Mando, born Adamantia Stamatopoulou, is a popular Greek singer. She was born in Piraeus on 13 April and raised in Athens by her jazz pianist father, Nikos Stamatopoulos and a classic soprano opera mother Mary Apergi. From a young age she began to develop her talent and interest in music, and was characterized as a "born musician". On 14 March 2010, Alpha TV ranked Mando the 23rd top-certified female artist in the nation's phonographic era, totalling five gold records. On 21 April 2013 she participated at the Greek version of Your Face Sounds Familiar which was aired by Antenna TV Greece, where in the last episode, she placed 4th.

Lafcadio Hearn

Author

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn, known also by the Japanese name Koizumi Yakumo, was an international writer, known best for his books about Japan, especially his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories, such as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. In the United States, Hearn is also known for his writings about the city of New Orleans based on his ten-year stay in that city.

Irene of Athens

Deceased Person

Irene of Athens or Irene the Athenian is the commonly known name of Irene Sarantapechaina, Byzantine empress regnant from 797 to 802. Prior to becoming Empress regnant, Irene was empress consort from 775 to 780, and empress dowager and regent from 780 to 797. It is often claimed she called herself basileus, 'emperor'. In fact, she normally referred to herself as basilissa, 'empress', although there are three instances of the title basileus being used by her.

Konstantinos Mitroglou

Soccer

Konstantinos "Kostas" Mitroglou is a Greek footballer who plays as a striker for Olympiacos and the Greek national team. Mitroglou started his career at Borussia Mönchengladbach, where he established himself as an excellent prospect. He was signed by Olympiacos in the summer of 2007 and has been with the club ever since, except for two loan spells at Panionios and Atromitos. He is nicknamed Mitrogoal and Pistolero by fans due to his goalscoring abilities.

Praxiteles

Visual Artist

Praxiteles of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attic sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue. While no indubitably attributable sculpture by Praxiteles is extant, numerous copies of his works have survived; several authors, including Pliny the Elder, wrote of his works; and coins engraved with silhouettes of his various famous statuary types from the period still exist. A supposed relationship between Praxiteles and his beautiful model, the Thespian courtesan Phryne, has inspired speculation and interpretation in works of art ranging from painting to comic opera to shadow puppetry. Some writers have maintained that there were two sculptors of the name Praxiteles. One was a contemporary of Pheidias, and the other his more celebrated grandson. Though the repetition of the same name in every other generation is common in Greece, there is no certain evidence for either position.

Costa Cordalis

Musical Artist

Costa Cordalis is a German schlager singer of Greek origin. Born Konstantinos Cordalis in Elatia, Greece, Cordalis moved to Germany in 1963. His greatest success was his 1976 song Anita which reached the top ten in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. In 2004, he competed and won in the reality television game show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.

Andreas Papandreou

Politician

Andreas G. Papandreou was a Greek economist, a socialist politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics. The son of Georgios Papandreou, Andreas was a Harvard-trained academic. He served two terms as Prime Minister of Greece. His assumption of power in 1981 influenced the course of Greek political history, ending an almost 50-year long system of power dominated by conservative forces; the achievements of his successive governments include the official recognition of the Greek Resistance against the Axis, the establishment of the National Health System and the Supreme Council for Personnel Selection, the passage of Law 1264/1982 which secured the right to strike and greatly improved the rights of workers, the constitutional amendment of 1985–1986 which strengthened parliamentarism and reduced the powers of the unelected President, the conduct of an assertive and independent Greek foreign policy, the expansion in the power of local governments, many progressive reforms in Greek Law, and granting permission to the refugees of the Greek Civil War to return home in Greece. The Panhellenic Socialist Movement which he founded and led, was the first non-communist political party in Greek history with a mass-based organization, and introduced an unprecedented level of political and social participation in Greek society. In a poll conducted by Kathimerini in 2007, 48% of those polled called Papandreou the "most important Greek Prime Minister". In the same poll, the first four years of Papandreou's government after Metapolitefsi were voted as the best government Greece ever had.

Arion

Poet

Arion was a kitharode in ancient Greece, a Dionysiac poet credited with inventing the dithyramb: "As a literary composition for chorus dithyramb was the creation of Arion of Corinth," The islanders of Lesbos claimed him as their native son, but Arion found a patron in Periander, tyrant of Corinth. Although notable for his musical inventions, Arion is chiefly remembered for the fantastic myth of his kidnapping by pirates and miraculous rescue by dolphins, a folktale motif. Herodotus says "Arion was second to none of the lyre-players in his time and was also the first man we know of to compose and name the dithyramb and teach it in Corinth". However J.H. Sleeman observes of the dithyramb, or circular chorus, "It is first mentioned by Archilochus … Arion flourished at least 50 years later… probably gave it a more artistic form, adding a chorus of 50 people, personating satyrs… who danced around an altar of Dionysus. He was doubtless the first to introduce the dithyramb into Corinth". Arion is also associated with the origins of tragedy: of Solon John the Deacon reports: “Arion of Methymna first introduced the drama [i.e. action] of tragedy, as Solon indicated in his poem entitled Elegies".

Saint Giles

Deceased Person

Saint Giles was a Greek Christian hermit saint from Athens, whose legend is centered in Provence and Septimania. The tomb in the abbey Giles was said to have founded, in Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, became a place of pilgrimage and a stop on the road that led from Arles to Santiago de Compostela, the pilgrim Way of St. James. He is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

Vasilis Torosidis

Soccer Midfielder

Vasilios Torosidis is a Greek footballer who currently plays for Italian Serie A club Roma and the Greek national team. Torosidis is known for his dynamic forward runs, accurate delivery from the flanks, and powerful shooting from distance, as well as his versatility as a full back, defensive midfielder, or right winger.

Peisistratos

Politician

Peisistratos was a tyrant, who ruled in Athens during the most part of the period between 561 and 527 BC. His legacy lies primarily in his institution of the Panathenaic Festival and the consequent first attempt at producing a definitive version for Homeric epics. Peisistratos' championing of the lower class of Athens, the Hyperakrioi, can be seen as an early example of populism. While in power, Peisistratos did not hesitate to confront the aristocracy, and he greatly reduced their privileges, confiscated their lands and gave them to the poor, and funded many religious and artistic programs. Peisistratids is the common term for the three tyrants who ruled in Athens from 546 to 510 BC, namely Peisistratos and his two sons, Hipparchus and Hippias.

Georgios Papadopoulos

Military officer

Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos was the head of the military coup d'état that took place in Greece on 21 April 1967 and leader of the junta that ruled the country from 1967 to 1974. Papadopoulos was a Colonel of Artillery. During World War II, he had initially fought against the Italian 1940 invasion and then he became a German collaborator in the Security Battalions, and in the postwar years he received intelligence training in the United States and became a CIA agent. He held dictatorial power in Greece from 1967–1973, until he was himself overthrown by his co-conspirator Dimitrios Ioannidis. It has been claimed that Papadopoulos was the first CIA agent to govern a Western European country.

Kostas Papanikolaou

Basketball Small forward

Konstantinos "Kostas" Papanikolaou is a Greek professional basketball player for FC Barcelona of the ACB League. He is 2.06 m tall and plays at the small forward position.

Pheidippides

Person Or Being In Fiction

Pheidippides, hero of Ancient Greece, is the central figure in a story that was the inspiration for a modern sporting event, the marathon.

Lysimachus

Politician

Lysimachus was a Macedonian officer and diadochus of Alexander the Great, who became a basileus in 306 BC, ruling Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedon.

Katy Garbi

Pop Artist

Katerina 'Katy' Garbi is a Greek singer active in Greece and Cyprus, with some popularity in Turkey. Her career has spanned over 20 years and is marked by several multi-platinum releases. Garbi participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 for Greece with the song "Ellada, Hora Tou Fotos", taking ninth place. She cemented her popularity in the mid-1990s and was one of the most successful artists of the decade with her albums Arhizo Polemo and Evaisthisies becoming two of the best-selling albums of the decade. She struck her biggest commercial success with To Kati in terms of unit sales. Garbi has won 11 Pop Corn Music Awards, including three for Album of the Year, and one Arion Music Award. On 14 March 2010, Alpha TV ranked her the eighth top-certified female artist in the nation's phonographic era.

Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark

Noble person

Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent CI GCVO GBE GCStJ was the wife of Prince George, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck. Princess Marina's marriage was the most recent occasion on which a foreign-born princess married into the British royal family.