Greece

We explain everything about Greece and its physical and cultural characteristics. In addition, how is its economy, religion and the history of this country.

Greece

Greece is a national state whose official name is Hellenic Republic. It is located in southeastern Europe and belongs to the European Union. It borders the north with Albania, Macedonia del Norte and Bulgaria, and to the east with Türkiye.

The capital of Greece is the city of Athens And, in addition to its continental territory, it has an insular territory composed of two thousand islands of various sizes among which Crete, Rodas and Santorini stand out.

Greece is divided into 7 administrative regions that are in turn divided into 13 peripheries, 9 continental and 4 islands. On the periphery of Attica is its capital, Athens.

Greece has one of the richest and most studied stories of antiquity and is considered the first great civilization of the West. His culture left its mark on areas such as philosophy, theater, politics and sport.

Is characterized by having a mostly mountainous territory and a Mediterranean climate. Its paradisiacal beaches make it a tourist point of great world appeal.

• See also: Greek civilization

Greece characteristics

• It has a population of 10,700,000 inhabitants.
• Its surface is 131,957 km²which represents a population density of 81 inhabitants per km².
• Its capital is the city of Athens.
• It is considered the cradle of the first great civilization of the West.
• Its official language is Greek.
• The predominant religion is orthodox Christianity.
• The predominant climate is the temperate Mediterranean.
• It was the cradle of great thinkers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
• It was the first place where the Olympic Games were played.
• Its main economic activities are agriculture, industry and tourism.
• As part of the European Union its official currency is the euro.
• Its main commercial partners are Italy, Germany, Chipre and China.

Extension, population and capital of Greece

Greece has an extension of 131,957 square kilometers and a population of 10,700,000 inhabitants. Its population density is 81 inhabitants per square kilometer.

Greece is divided into 7 administrative regions. These regions are divided into 13 smaller state units called “peripheries.” The most populous periphery is attic, with 3,841,000 inhabitants. The second most populated is Macedonia Central, where the city of Salares is located, the second in importance after Athens.

The peripheries that make up the territory of Greece are:

• Attica
• Central Macedonia
• Thessaly
• Western Greece
• Crete
• Eastern Macedonia and Thrace
• Peloponnesus
• Central Greece
• Epirus
• South Aegean
• Western Macedonia
• Jonic Islands
• Northern Aegean

The capital of Greece is the city of Athens. It has a population of 3,800,000 inhabitants, which represents 35.5 % of the country’s total.

Climate, relief and hydrography of Greece

Greece is a country that is characterized by having a Mediterranean temperate climate, mainly, in the coastal area and on the islands. It has soft, temperate and humid and dry summer winters. Precipitation usually concentrates in the winter months, and summer is very sunny and hot.

Winter in Greece is characterized by presenting average temperatures between 10 and 15 ºC, although these temperatures can fall in the northern region and in the mountainous areas of the country. In the summer, temperatures range between 20 and 27 ºC.

Greece’s territory is covered between 70 and 80 % per mountains And it is the country in Europe with the largest number of mountain peaks. It is also characterized by being one of the European countries with the greatest extension of coasts and islands, so it has a large number of golfs and archipelagos.

The rivers of Greece are usually short and have very little flow in the dry times of summer. The most extensive river is aliakmonas, with 297 kilometers long.

Greece has more than 5,500 species of plants and 30 % of its territory is covered with forests of alpine conifers and Mediterranean vegetation. Among the plant species are fruit trees, such as orange, olive trees, dates, almond trees, fig trees, grenades and vines. The presence of pines and chestnuts and in mountain areas can be found and firs, bes and fir trees.

As for the fauna, Greece has mammals such as the brown bear, the lynx, the roe, the jackal and the wild goat (extinct in the rest of Europe). In addition, more than 400 species of birds live in Greek territory, such as the Rüppell, Urraca and Cinderella Pardela; reptiles, such as the common European viper, the lizard of Erhard and the silly turtle; and amphibians like the Cretan frog. Its marine fauna is also abundant and has species such as the pilgrim shark, the monk seal, the dolphin, the sperm whale and the whale.

Greece culture

The official language is Greek, and the predominant religion is orthodox Christianity, professed by 96 % of the population.

Ancient Greece is one of the most important civilizations in history, and cradle of the culture of the West. In this town, some of the greatest exponents in branches of knowledge such as philosophy, mathematics, astronomy and literature lived.

In literature, Greece introduced lyric poetry, narrative, epic poetry, tragedy and comedy. Some of the main literary exponents of ancient Greece were:

• Homer. He was a poet who is attributed The Iliad and The Odysseythe two most important epic poems of ancient Greece and fundamental works of world literature. There are not many records of this author’s life, but it is believed that he lived around the seventh century BC. C.
• Safo de Mitilene (650 BC.-580 BC). He was a poet representative of the poetry of the archaic era. He Hymn in honor of Aphrodite It is the only complete poem that could be known about this author.
• Esquilo (525 BC.-456 BC). He was a tragic poet and the first representative of this literary genre. Only seven complete works of their authorship are preserved, among which they stand out The Persians, The seven against Thebes, The supplicants and Agamemnon.
• Sophocles (496 BC.-406 BC). He was a tragedy poet and one of the main representatives of this literary genre. Seven works of their authorship are preserved, among which they stand out Antigone, Oedipus Rey, Electra and Áyax.
• Euripides (480 BC – 406 BC). He was a tragedy poet and, together with Sophocles and Esquilo, one of the main representatives of the genre. His most important works are The Trojans, Medea and The bacontes.

• See also: Greek literature

Greek philosophy

Greek philosophy had its peak during the period known as ancient philosophy and had some of the most recognized referents of this discipline.

It covered a first stage, called presocratic, in which The thinkers sought to understand the constitutive principle of the world. The most recognized presocratic philosophers were:

• Such as Miletus (624 BC.-548 BC). It was a Greek philosopher who argued that water was the beginning of the entire universe (I arjé), so for him all things were formed by this element.
• Anaximandro (610 BC.-545 BC). It was a Greek philosopher, disciple of such, who argued that the constituent principle of the universe was the They appearedthat indefinite, eternal and indeterminate.
• Anaximens (590 BC.-525 BC). It was a Greek philosopher who argued that the air was the constitutive principle of the universe and highlighted the importance of two processes of this element: condensation and rarefaction.
• Pythagoras (569 a. C.-475 BC). It was a Greek philosopher and mathematician who established, together with the school that founded and brought his name, many of the bases of mathematics.
• HERACLITO DE EPHESO (540 BC.-470 BC). It was a Greek philosopher who argued that everything in the universe was exposed to a constant change and used the term Logos to refer to that law that governed everything. He established as a constitutive element to fire.
• Parmenides de Elea (530 BC.-470 BC). It was a Greek philosopher who rejected the idea that being could appear out of nowhere and declared that: “what is that it cannot cease to be.”
• Miletus Aspasia (470 BC.-400 BC). It was a Greek philosopher who had a great influence on the cultural and political life of Athens. For her liberal ideas considered improper for a woman at that time, she was socially and judicially persecuted throughout her life.
• Democritus (460 BC.-370 BC). It was a Greek philosopher who made important contributions in areas such as astronomy, arithmetic and geometry.

A next stage inaugurated, by Socrates, dealt with issues and reflections about ethics, society, politics and norms.

Its main representatives were:

• Socrates (470 BC.-400 BC). He was a Greek philosopher and one of the most recognized thinkers of universal philosophy. He was Plato’s teacher and stood out for the application of the Mayéutic method. There are no writings of Socrates, so everything that is known about his thinking is through his disciples.
• Plato (428 a. C-347 a. C.). He was a Greek philosopher, disciple of Socrates and Master of Aristotle. He founded the Academy, a philosophical school, and transmitted much of his ideas through myths and allegories. Some of his most important contributions were the theory of ideas, dialectics and works such as The Republic, Fedro and Apology to Socrates.
• Aristotle (384 BC.-322 AC). He was a Greek philosopher disciple of Plato and one of the greatest thinkers in history. In his works he covered various topics of disciplines such as logic, metaphysics, physics, politics and ethics. His most outstanding works are Metaphysics, Organ (logic treaties), Policy, Rhetoric, Poetics and Ethics to Nicómaco.

Eratóstenes and the circumference of the planet. Eratostenes was a Greek mathematician and astronomer who lived between the years 276 and 195 a. C. stood out for knowing the sphericity of the earth and calculating its circumference. With tools and technologies much lower than that of today, he was able to establish the perimeter of the land circumference in 39 375 kilometers, a figure very close to its real value.

• Can serve you: History of philosophy

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is formed by the set of myths that extended in Greek territory and in other territories during ancient Greece.

Myths are stories that are usually transmitted orally and are starring gods, heroes or beings with supernatural powers. They narrate fictitious stories in which phenomena or situations of nature are usually explained. They do not have a specific author, but are stories that are part of the culture and idiosyncrasy of a certain people.

In ancient Greece the myths were part of the religious tradition, since in many cases they told stories about the Greek gods. Some of the most representative myths were:

• The myth of Sisyphus
• The myth of Icaro
• The myth of Narcissus
• Aphrodite’s birth
• The Prometheus myth
• The myth of Medusa
• Pandora’s box
• TESEO AND THE MINOTAURA
• The fall of Cronos
• The twelve works of Hercules

• See more in: Greek mythology

The Olympic Games in Greece

Greece was the birthplace of the Olympicsa sporting event in which athletes from various disciplines participate.

These games were first held in 776 a. C in Olimpiaa city located in the elide area on the Peloponnese Peninsula. Some of the disciplines that were practiced were: fighting, careers and releases. The victors received an olive crown as a prize.

The games were prohibited by the Romans in 392 a. C. and restored in 1896 at the Panathinaikos stadium in Athens with representatives from different countries. Greece was based on the Olympic Games in 2004.

Currently, The two most popular sports in Greece are football and basketball.

Homeland symbols of Greece

The national symbols of Greece are:

• The flag of Greece. It consists of nine horizontal strips of blue and white white. In the upper left corner is a blue painting with a white cross known as the “Greek cross.” It was officially adopted in 1978.
• The National Anthem of Greece. His lyrics was written by Dionisio Solomos in 1823 and music by Nikolaos mantzaros in 1828. He was adopted as an official national anthem in 1865.
• The National Shield of Greece. It is made up of a white Greek cross on a blue background, surrounded by two white laurel branches with blue border. It was officially adopted in 1975.

Economic Activities of Greece

The main economic activities of Greece are:

• Agriculture. Much of Greece’s economy is based on agriculture. The main resources that are produced are tobacco, wheat, citrus and olive
• The industry. The textile, naviera, chemistry, tobacco and food industry stands out
• Tourism. This activity represents more than 20 % of GDP. Greece is one of the most visited countries in Europe and its main tourist attractions are beaches and their historical and cultural heritage. The most chosen beaches and islands by tourists are the Santorini archipelago, Mykonos, Rodas and the Jonic and Cycled Islands. As for the historical heritage, the acropolis in Athens (in which the part is located and the agora) and Delphi, an archaeological site located in the south of the country and declared a World Heritage Site, are some of the most visited sites.

Its legal tender is the euro and its main commercial partners are Italy, Germany, Cyprus and China.

Greece history

In the Bronze Age, the Minoan Civilizations (2000-1450 BC), on the island of Crete, and Mycenaean (1650-1200 BC), in Continental Greece. After a period known as dark age (1200-800 BC), the archaic era began (800-500 BC) in which the cities-states arose, called Polisand colonization began on the coast of the Mediterranean.

In the classical era (500-323 BC) highlighted art and philosophy, Democracy was instituted in Athens and medical wars were produced (499-449 a. C.) and the Peloponnese War (431-404 BC). In 338 a. C., a coalition of Greek cities was defeated by King Philip II of Macedonia. His son, Alexander the Great, formed an immense empire and, after his death, began the Hellenistic period (323-30 BC).

In 146 a. C., Greece was subjected to Rome and, when the division of the Roman Empire occurred in the fourth century, it became part of the Byzantine Empire, which adopted Greek as an official language. Between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries the region was under the control of the Ottoman Empire.

The Greek revolution against the Ottoman domain began in 1821 and had the support of several European countries. In 1832 the independence of Greece was recognized, which was formed as a monarchy. The discontent with King Otón I, Prince of Bavaria, led to his abdication in 1862 and his replacement for Jorge I, of Danish origin, who expanded the borders of the kingdom.

Elefthérios Venizélos was the most important political figure between 1910 and 1935. During the First World War there was the “national schism” that briefly separated the territory governed by King Constantine I (favorable to neutrality) and the territory governed by Venizélos (supporter of the entente).

After the Greco-Turca War (1919-1922), a republic was founded that was replaced by a monarchy in 1935, whose prime minister established a dictatorship. In 1941, Greece was invaded by the Nazis.

After a civil war (1946-1949) between monarchists and communists, which resulted in the affirmation of the monarchy, A stage known as the dictatorship of the Colonels (1967-1974) arrived. Then Greece became a republic.

In 1981, Greece entered the European Economic Community (current European Union) and, between 2009 and 2018, crossed a deep economic crisis.

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References

• Anthropocene (2023) Greece geographic map. https://antropocene.it/
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2023) Greece. Country record. Diplomatic Information Office of Spain. https://www.exteriors.gob.es/
• Molina, X. (2018) The 15 most important and famous Greek philosophers. https://psicologiaymente.com/
• European Union (SF) Greece. https://european-union.europa.eu/