title: Marikina

text: Marikina Health Office is a center of health services in the city and responsible for providing healthcare services as well as planning and implementation of the health care programs provided by the city government. It operates health centers and lying-in clinics of each barangay to provide basic medical services in the community.


title: Marikina

text: Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center is a major public hospital in Marikina and one of the largest medical facilities in the east of Metro Manila and Rizal Province, while Marikina Valley Medical Center, St. Vincent General Hospital, Garcia General Hospital, St. Anthony Medical Center, and Marikina Doctors Hospital and Medical Center (located in Santolan), are some of the major private hospitals.


title: Marikina

text: Marikina Rescue 161 is a 24-hour emergency service that responds to all calls within the city for assistance during emergency situations in 5 minutes. The office also conducts seminars and training on first-aid among its staff to upgrade skills especially Marikina is vulnerable to calamities like floods, fire, and earthquakes.


title: Marikina

text: Marikina Police Station is responsible for law enforcement, under the Eastern Police District (EPD) of National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) of the Philippine National Police (PNP).


title: Marikina

text: Marikina Fire Department provides fire and emergency services, under Fire District IV (FD4) known as the Eastern District Fire of Bureau of Fire Protection National Capital Region (BFPNCR) of Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).


title: Marikina

text: Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina (PLMar) is the first city government-funded university to offer different courses while Marikina Polytechnic College (MPC) is a city-state technical college that offers mostly technical courses, both are government-owned institutions. FEU Roosevelt Marikina, a prominent college institution, is a private non-sectarian college named in honor of the American president Franklin D. Roosevelt and it is considered as the oldest academic institution in eastern Metro Manila.


title: Marikina

text: Sectarian schools also offer college courses such as Mother of Divine Providence School, National Christian Life College and Our Lady of Perpetual Succor College (OLOPSC). Numerous campuses of information technology and computer colleges are also growing in the city. Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) located near the city hall, is responsible for managing and supervising technical education and skills development in the city.


title: Marikina

text: Marikina Science High School (MSHS), is the first city public science high school in Marikina. Marikina Catholic School is a private sectarian institution and it is considered as the city's center of Catholic educational institution located in Our Lady of the Abandoned Parish complex. Manila Boystown Complex, is a Manila city government-owned institution, the facility is exclusively for abandoned, forgotten, and voluntarily surrendered children, teenagers, and senior citizens.


title: Marikina

text: Preschools, daycare centers, and numerous private schools for elementary and high school are scattered all over the city including Ingenium School and Charis School. Exclusive schools such as Marist School and St. Scholastica's Academy are also found in the city.


title: Marikina

text: Each barangay in Marikina has at least one public primary or one public secondary school. A total of 17 primary public schools and 13 secondary public schools in the city is under the supervision of Department of Education's Division of City Schools Marikina.


title: Marikina

text: Marikina has its own radio station, the Radyo Marikina, is considered the first local government radio station in the Philippines and a community radio station owned and operated by the Marikina city government. Its frequency is 1674 kHz in Metro Manila. The studio is located at the Public Information Office on the 2nd floor of Marikina city hall.


title: Marikina

text: Life TV and Life Radio is owned and supervised by PMCC 4th Watch. Its studios are located at NCLC Building in Barangay Santo Niño. Life TV can be watched through BEAM TV nationwide digital television broadcast, in UHF Channel 50 and SkyCable channel 44.


title: Marikina

text: Marikina has sister cities and friendship agreements with foreign and local cities. Also included neighbor cities.


title: Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical

text: The Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical is a Golden Globe Award that was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as a separate category in 1951. Previously, there was a single award for "Best Actress in a Motion Picture", but the splitting allowed for recognition of it and the Best Actress – Drama.


text: The formal title has varied since its inception. In 2005, it was officially called "Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical". , the wording is "Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical".


title: Courtney A. Kemp

text: Courtney A. Kemp (born May 4, 1977) is an American television writer and producer. She created the 2014 Starz television series "Power". She has written for such shows as "The Good Wife" and "Beauty & the Beast".


title: Courtney A. Kemp

text: Kemp was raised in Westport, Connecticut, and began reading college textbooks at the age of eight. Her father Herbert Kemp Jr was the first African American graduate of Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business. The Kemp family was one of the few African American families in Westport and faced discrimination. By the age of 10 she had begun reading plays by William Shakespeare, eventually coming up with her own stories. In 1994, she graduated from Staples High School and went on to receive her bachelor's degree from Brown University as well as her Master's in English Literature from Columbia University.


title: Courtney A. Kemp

text: Kemp had an initial plan to become a professor in literature with her degree but that did not suit her needs. She wanted a more collaborative career. She went on to land an interview at "Vogue", to become an Assistant but did not land the job. She then strove to get a job for "Entertainment Weekly" and was questioning why that would not be possible. Kemp went on to land a position at "Mademoiselle" and worked at "GQ" for three years. She then left the industry and started writing for the J.Crew catalogue. Kemp's job at "GQ" landed her many good opportunities, especially getting offers from several TV producers asking her to adapt one of her pieces, on interracial dating, into a show. Although this never materialized, it made her want to start producing for the small screen.


title: Courtney A. Kemp

text: At the age of 26, Kemp left Westport and went to Los Angeles, California to further pursue her dream as a television writer. There she garnered her big break by becoming a staff writer for the then-Fox hit series "The Bernie Mac Show". She then began writing for other television shows such as "Eli Stone", "Justice" and "Beauty & the Beast" (a 2012 remake of the 1987 series of the same name) before eventually becoming increasingly known for her writing of episodes for the CBS political drama series "The Good Wife".


title: Courtney A. Kemp

text: Her idea for what would become the first series she ever sold and pitched, "Power", came about when she met rapper 50 Cent and executive producer Mark Canton at a coffeehouse in Los Angeles. She thought up the concept of a guy destined to leave his life as a drug dealer behind him to become a successful club owner and businessman, and soon penned the script with 50 Cent and Canton alongside her, both serving as executive producers. The show aired on the Starz network from June 7, 2014 to February 9, 2020 and received critical acclaim.


title: Courtney A. Kemp

text: The success of the show spawned several spin-offs including "" which premiered on September 6, 2020. Kemp served as the showrunner for the show. In August 2021, she signed a deal with Netflix.


title: Courtney A. Kemp

text: Kemp lost her father, Herbert Kemp Jr., in 2011. The first episode of "Power" was dedicated to his memory and he was the inspiration behind the main character James "Ghost" St. Patrick.


title: Courtney A. Kemp

text: Courtney and her family lived in Westport, Connecticut where they were one of few black families residing in the town at the time and suffered racial harassment.


title: Courtney A. Kemp

text: She has a daughter named Charlie. Her ex-husband, a Senior Vice President of Business Affairs at Paramount Pictures named Brian Mawuli Agboh, filed for a divorce in 2016.


title: Abandonment (emotional)

text: Emotional abandonment is a subjective emotional state in which people feel undesired, left behind, insecure, or discarded. People experiencing emotional abandonment may feel at a loss. They may feel like they have been cut off from a crucial source of sustenance or feel withdrawn, either suddenly or through a process of erosion. Emotional abandonment can manifest through loss or separation from a loved one.


title: Abandonment (emotional)

text: Feeling rejected, which is a significant component of emotional abandonment which has a biological impact in that it activates the physical pain centers of the brain and can leave an emotional imprint in the brain's warning system. Emotional abandonment has been a staple of poetry and literature since ancient times.


title: Abandonment (emotional)

text: Individuals who experience feelings of emotional abandonment are likely to also experience maladaptive thoughts ("irrational beliefs") and behaviors such as depressive symptoms and relationship avoidance and/or dependence. This may cause abundant difficulty in daily life with interpersonal relationships and social settings. Feelings of emotional abandonment can stem from numerous situations. According to Makino et al (2004) "Whether one considers a romantic rejection, the dissolution of a friendship, ostracism by a group, estrangement from family members, or merely being ignored or excluded in casual encounters, rejections have myriad emotional, psychological, and interpersonal consequences. People not only react strongly when they perceive that others have rejected them, but a great deal of human behavior is influenced by the desire to avoid rejection." Therefore, our perception of rejection or of being rejected can have a lasting effect on how an individual acts. One's perception may impair one's ability to establish and maintain close and meaningful relationships with others.


title: Abandonment (emotional)

text: While such maladaptive thoughts and behaviors are sometimes present in the context of certain psychological disorders (e.g., borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, depression, anxiety disorders), not all individuals who experience feelings of emotional abandonment will meet criteria for such a psychological disorder. These individuals may function within normal limits in spite of the presence of these emotional difficulties.


title: Abandonment (emotional)

text: Feelings of emotional abandonment alone are not enough to merit a diagnosis for a psychological disorder. Such feelings should only be considered by a mental health professional in conjunction with all available information and diagnostic criterion prior to drawing conclusions about the state of someone's mental health. When treatment is deemed appropriate by a mental health professional, there are several treatment plans that are helpful in improving maladaptive thoughts and behaviors commonly manifested in those who feel emotionally abandoned. For example, cognitive processing therapy (CPT) is effective in treating depression, anxiety disorders, and PTSD. Emotion focused therapy (EFT) is effective in treating depression. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is effective in treating negative emotionality and impulsive behaviors commonly seen in those diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Another form of therapy that is suited to this population is acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). ACT focuses on an individual's avoidance of painful emotions and memories. ACT techniques are designed to cultivate thought processes that are focused on being present in the moment and accepting uncomfortable or painful thoughts and feelings. Reframing maladaptive perceptions of one's thoughts to adaptive perceptions of thoughts and committing to aligning one's behaviors with one's goals and values is fundamental to ACT treatment. Just like the process of arriving at diagnostic conclusions, all modes of therapy and treatment plans should be based on individual presentation and should be evaluated by a mental health professional before beginning treatment.


title: Abandonment (emotional)

text: Separation anxiety, a substrate of emotional abandonment, is recognized as a primary source of human distress and dysfunction. When we experience a threat or disconnect within a primary attachment, it triggers a fear response referred to as separation stress or separation anxiety. Separation stress has been the subject of extensive research in psychological and neurobiological fields, and has been shown to be a universal response to separation in the animal world. When conducting experiments on rat pups, researchers separate the pups from their mothers for a period of time. They then measure their distress vocalizations and stress hormones to determine varying conditions of the separation response. As the rats mature, their subsequent reactive behaviors and stress hormones are reexamined and are shown to bear a striking resemblance to the depression, anxiety, avoidance behaviors, and self defeated posturing displayed by human beings known to have suffered earlier separation traumas.


title: Abandonment (emotional)

text: Owing to the neocortical component of human functioning, when human beings lose a primary relationship, they are slow to grasp its potential repercussions (i.e. they may feel uncertain about the future or fear being unable to climb out of an abyss). There are additional factors that add to these fears such as "Unusual distress about being separated from a person or a pet, excessive worry that another person will be harmed if they leave them alone, heightened fear of being alone, physical symptoms when they know they will be separated from another person soon, excessive worry surrounding being alone, and needing to know where a spouse or loved one is at all times." All the aforementioned factors add an additional layer of separation stress. To abandon is "to withdraw one's support or help from, especially in spite of duty, allegiance, or responsibility; desert: abandon a friend in trouble." When the loss is due to the object's voluntary withdrawal, a common response is to feel unworthy of love. This indicates the tendency for people to blame the rejection on themselves. "Am I unworthy of love, destined to grow old and die all alone, bereft of human connection or caring?" Questioning one's desirability as a mate and fearing eternal isolation are among the additional anxieties incurred in abandonment scenarios. The concurrence of self devaluation and primal fear distinguish abandonment grief from most other types of bereavement.


title: Abandonment (emotional)

text: The depression that might accompany abandonment can create a sustained type of stress that constitutes an emotional trauma which can be severe enough to leave an emotional imprint on an individuals' psychobiological functioning. This can affect future choices and responses to rejection, loss, or even disconnection. One after-effect of abandonment is that of experiencing triggers. These triggers are linked to our primal fear of being separated. This type of fear is referred to as primal abandonment fear. We fear being left alone and having no one to take care of our needs. People usually first experience anxiety as a fear of being separated from their mother This sensation is stored in the amygdala – a structure set deep into the brain's emotional memory system responsible for conditioning the fight/freeze/flight response to fear. Primal fear may have been initiated by birth trauma and even have some prenatal antecedents. The emotional memory system is fairly intact at or before birth and lays down traces of the sensations and feelings of the infant's separation experiences. These primitive feelings are reawakened by later events, especially those reminiscent of unwanted or abrupt separations from a source of sustenance.


title: Abandonment (emotional)

text: In adulthood, being left arouses primal fear along with other primitive sensations which contribute to feelings of terror and outright panic. Infantile needs and urgencies re-emerge and can precipitate a symbiotic regression in which individuals feel, at least momentarily, unable to survive without the lost object. People may also experience the intense stress of helplessness. When they make repeated attempts to compel their loved one to return and are unsuccessful, they feel helpless and inadequate to the task. This helplessness causes people to feel possessed of what Michael Balint calls “a limited capacity to perform the work of conquest – the work necessary to transform an indifferent object into a participating partner.” According to Balint, feeling one's ‘limited capacity’ is traumatic in that it produces a fault line in the psyche which renders the person vulnerable to heightened emotional responses within primary relationships.


title: Abandonment (emotional)

text: Another factor contributing to the traumatic conditions is the stress of losing one's background object. A background object is someone on whom individuals have come to rely in ways they did not realize until the object is no longer present. For instance, the relationship served as a mutual regulatory system. Multiple psychobiological systems helped to maintain individuals’ equilibrium. As members of a couple, they became external regulators for one another. They were attuned on many levels: their pupils dilated in synchrony, they echoed one another's speech patterns, movements, and even cardiac and EEG rhythms. As a couple, they functioned like a mutual bio-feedback system, stimulating and modulating each other's bio rhythms, responding to one another's pheromones, and addicting to the steady trickle of endogenous opiates induced by the relationship. When the relationship ends, the many processes it helped to regulate go into disarray. As the emotional and bio-physiological effects mount, the stressful process is heightened by the knowledge that it was not the person, but their loved one who chose to withdraw from the bond. This knowledge may cause people to interpret their intense emotional responses to the disconnection as evidence of their putative weakness and ‘limited capacity to perform the work of conquest’.


title: Abandonment (emotional)

text: Some people who experience the traumatic stress of abandonment go on to develop post traumatic symptoms. Post-traumatic symptoms associated with abandonment include a sequela of heightened emotional reactions (ranging from mild to severe) and habituated defense mechanisms (many of which have become maladaptive) to perceived threats or disruptions to one's sense of self or to one's connections. Such symptoms are all very common, regardless of how traumatic the event. They include "recurrent intrusive memories, traumatic nightmares, and flashbacks. Avoiding trauma-related thoughts and feelings and/or objects, people, or places associated with the trauma. Distorted beliefs about oneself or the world, persistent shame or guilt, emotional numbing, feelings of alienation, inability to recall key details of the trauma, etc." These symptoms all stem from devastating events that can have lasting effects on the brain through adulthood.


title: Abandonment (emotional)

text: There are various predisposing psycho-biological and environmental factors that go into determining whether one's earlier emotional trauma might lead to the development of a true clinical picture of post-traumatic stress disorder. One factor has to do with variation in certain brain structures. According to Jerome Kagan, some people are born with a locus coeruleus that tends to produce higher concentrations of norepinephrine, a brain chemical involved in arousal of the body's self-defense response. This would lower their threshold for becoming aroused and make them more likely to become anxious when they encounter stresses in life that are reminiscent of childhood separations and fears, hence making them more prone to becoming post-traumatic.


title: Abandonment (emotional)

text: The most distinguishing symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) are marked sensitivity to rejection or criticism, and intense fear of possible abandonment. Overall, the features of BPD include unusually intense sensitivity in relationships with others, difficulty regulating emotions, issues with self-image and impulsivity. Fear of abandonment may lead to overlapping dating relationships as a new relationship is developed to protect against abandonment in the existing relationship. Other symptoms may include feeling unsure of one's personal identity, morals, and values; having paranoid thoughts when feeling stressed; depersonalization; and, in moderate to severe cases, stress-induced breaks with reality or psychotic episodes.


title: Abandonment (emotional)

text: Autophobia is the specific phobia of isolation; a morbid fear of being egotistical, or a dread of being alone or isolated. Sufferers need not be physically alone, but just to believe that they are being ignored or unloved.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The culture of Greece has evolved over thousands of years, beginning in Minoan and later in Mycenaean Greece, continuing most notably into Classical Greece, while influencing the Roman Empire and its successor the Byzantine Empire. Other cultures and states such as the Frankish states, the Ottoman Empire, the Venetian Republic and Bavarian and Danish monarchies have also left their influence on modern Greek culture, but historians credit the Greek War of Independence with revitalising Greece and giving birth to a single entity of its multi-faceted culture.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Greece is widely considered to be the cradle of Western culture and democracy. Modern democracies owe a debt to Greek beliefs in government by the people, trial by jury, and equality under the law. The ancient Greeks pioneered in many fields that rely on systematic thought, including biology, geometry, history, philosophy, and physics. They introduced such important literary forms as epic and lyric poetry, history, tragedy, and comedy. In their pursuit of order and proportion, the Greeks created an ideal of beauty that strongly influenced Western art.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The first great ancient Greek civilisation were the Minoans, a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on Crete and other Aegean Islands, that flourished from c. 3000 BC to c. 1450 BC and, after a late period of decline, finally ended around 1100 BC during the early Greek Dark Ages. At the height of their power, they built architecture ranging from city houses and royal palaces. Exemplary of this construction was the palace of king Minos, located at Knossos, which was composed of two to three levels, had over 500 rooms and many terraces with porticos and stairs. The interior of this palace included monumental reception halls, vast apartments for the queen and bridesmaids, baths with complete sewage and drainage systems, food deposits, shops, theatres, sport arenas, and other amenities. The walls were built of polished marble or masonry that was covered with highly-decorated frescos. Besides the palace, on the island of Santorini, an entire Minoan city was discovered in 1967, called Akrotiri. Later, the Mycenaean civilization erected palatial structures at Mycenae, Tiryns and Pylos.


title: Culture of Greece

text: After the Greek Dark Ages, architecture developed into a style that, together with Roman, inspired Classical architecture and later Neoclassical. Examples of this style were their temples, such as the Parthenon and Erectheion which are both based in the Acropolis of Athens, and theatres. Both temples and theatres used a complex mix of optical illusions and balanced ratios. Classical Ancient Greek temples usually consist of a base with stairs at each edges (known as "crepidoma"), a cella (or "naos") with a cult statue in it, columns, an entablature, and two pediments, one on the front side and another in the back. By the 4th century BC, Greek architects and stonemasons had developed a system of rules for all buildings known as the orders: the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian. They are most easily recognised by their columns (especially by the capitals). The Doric column is stout and basic, the Ionic one is slimmer and has four scrolls (called "volutes") at the corners of the capital, and the Corinthian column is just like the Ionic one, but the capital is completely different, being decorated with acanthus leafs and four scrolls.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Following the relocation of the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople in 330 AD, and the fall of the Western Roman Empire some 150 years later, the architects of the Eastern Roman Empire, or the Byzantine Empire, built city walls, palaces, hippodromes, bridges, aqueducts, and churches. One of the more famous type of church constructed by the Byzantines was the basilica, which was very widespread and received the most development of the churches that were built in the empire. Through modifications and adaptations of local inspiration, the Byzantine style of architecture was used as the main source of inspiration for architectural styles in Eastern Orthodox countries. For example, in Romania, the Brâncovenesc style is highly based on Byzantine architecture, but also has individual Romanian characteristics.


title: Culture of Greece

text: As with the Parthenon, which was built in dedication to the Ancient Greek religion, the Hagia Sophia was considered an iconic church of Christianity. The temples of both religions differ substantially in terms of their exterior and interior aspect. In Antiquity, the exterior was the most important part of the temple, because in the interior, where the cult statue of the deity to whom the temple was built was kept, only the priest had access. The ceremonies here held outside, and what the worshipers view was the facade of the temple, consisting of columns, with an entablature and two pediments. Meanwhile, Christian liturgies were held in the interior of the churches, the exterior usually having little to no ornamentation.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Byzantine architecture often featured marble columns, coffered ceilings and sumptuous decoration, including the extensive use of mosaics with golden backgrounds. The building material used by Byzantine architects was no longer marble, which was highly appreciated and utilised by the Ancient Greeks, instead opting for mostly stone and brick while using thin alabaster sheets for windows.


title: Culture of Greece

text: After the independence of Greece and during the nineteenth century, Neoclassical architecture was heavily used for both public and private buildings. The 19th-century architecture of Athens and other cities of the Kingdom of Greece is mostly influenced by architects like Theophil Hansen, Ernst Ziller, Panagis Kalkos, Lysandros Kaftanzoglou, Anastasios Metaxas and Stamatios Kleanthis. Meanwhile, churches in Greece, on the other hand, experienced a Neo-Byzantine revival.


title: Culture of Greece

text: In 1933, the Athens Charter, a manifesto of the modernist movement, was signed and published by Le Corbusier. The primary architects of this movement were: Ioannis Despotopoulos, Dimitris Pikionis, Patroklos Karantinos and Takis Zenetos. Following World War II, and the Greek Civil War, the massive construction of apartment buildings in major Greek city centres, was a major contributory factor for the Greek economy and the post-war recovery. The first skyscrapers were also constructed during the 1960s and 1970s, such as the OTE Tower and the Athens Tower Complex.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Cinema first appeared in Greece in 1896, but the first actual cine-theatre was opened in 1907. In 1914, the "Asty Films Company" was founded, which started the production of long films in Greece. "Golfo" (Γκόλφω), a well known traditional love story, is the first Greek long movie, although there were several minor productions such as newscasts before this. In 1931, Orestis Laskos directed "Daphnis and Chloe" ("Δάφνις και Χλόη"), contained the first nude scene in the history of European cinema; it was also the first Greek movie which was played abroad. In 1944, Katina Paxinou was honoured with the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for "For Whom the Bell Tolls".


title: Culture of Greece

text: The 1950s and early 1960s are considered by many as the Golden age of Greek cinema. Directors and actors of this era were recognized as important historical figures in Greece and some gained international acclaim: Michael Cacoyannis, Alekos Sakellarios, Melina Mercouri, Nikos Tsiforos, Iakovos Kambanelis, Katina Paxinou, Nikos Koundouros, Ellie Lambeti, Irene Papas, etc. More than sixty films per year were made, with the majority having film noir elements. Notable films were "The Counterfeit Coin" ("Η κάλπικη λίρα", 1955, directed by Giorgos Tzavellas), "Bitter Bread" ("Πικρό Ψωμί", 1951, directed by Grigoris Grigoriou), "The Ogre of Athens" ("O Drakos", 1956, directed by Nikos Koundouros), "Stella" (1955, directed by Cacoyannis and written by Kampanellis). Cacoyannis also directed "Zorba the Greek" with Anthony Quinn which received Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film nominations. Finos Film also contributed to this period with movies such as "Λατέρνα, Φτώχεια και Φιλότιμο", "The Auntie from Chicago" ("Η Θεία από το Σικάγο"), "Maiden's Cheek" ("Το ξύλο βγήκε από τον Παράδεισο"), and many more. During the 1970s and 1980s Theo Angelopoulos directed a series of notable and appreciated movies. His film "Eternity and a Day" won the Palme d'Or and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Culture of Greece

text: There were also internationally renowned filmmakers in the Greek diaspora such as the Greek-American Elia Kazan.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Greece has a diverse and highly influential musical tradition, with ancient music influencing the Roman Empire, and Byzantine liturgical chants and secular music influencing middle eastern music and the Renaissance. Modern Greek music combines these elements, to carry Greeks' interpretation of a wide range of musical forms.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The history of music in Greece begins with the music of ancient Greece, largely structured on the Lyre and other supporting string instruments of the era. Beyond the well-known structural legacies of the Pythagorean scale, and the related mathematical developments it upheld to define western classical music, relatively little is understood about the precise character of music during this period; we do know, however, that it left, as so often, a strong mark on the culture of Rome. What has been gleaned about the social role and character of ancient Greek music comes largely from pottery and other forms of Greek art.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Ancient Greeks believed that dancing was invented by the gods and therefore associated it with religious ceremony. They believed that the gods offered this gift to select mortals only, who in turn taught dancing to their fellow-men.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Periodic evidence in ancient texts indicates that dance was held in high regard, in particular for its educational qualities. Dance, along with writing, music, and physical exercise, was fundamental to the commenced in a circle and ended with the dancers facing one another. When not dancing in a circle the dancers held their hands high or waved them to the left and right. They held cymbals (very like the zilia of today) or a kerchief in their hands, and their movements were emphasized by their long sleeves. As they danced, they sang, either set songs or extemporized ones, sometimes in unison, sometimes in refrain, repeating the verse sung by the lead dancer. The onlookers joined in, clapping the rhythm or singing. Professional singers, often the musicians themselves, composed lyrics to suit the occasion.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The Byzantine music is also of major significance to the history and development of European music, as liturgical chants became the foundation and stepping stone for music of the Renaissance (see: Renaissance Music). It is also certain that Byzantine music included an extensive tradition of instrumental court music and dance; any other picture would be both incongruous with the historically and archaeologically documented opulence of the Eastern Roman Empire. There survive a few but explicit accounts of secular music. A characteristic example is the accounts of pneumatic organs, whose construction was further advanced in the eastern empire prior to their development in the west following the Renaissance.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Byzantine instruments included the guitar, single, double or multiple flute, sistrum, timpani (drum), psaltirio, Sirigs, lyre, cymbals, keras and kanonaki.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Popular dances of this period included the "Syrtos", "Geranos", "Mantilia", "Saximos", "Pyrichios", and "Kordakas" . Some of these dances have their origins in the ancient period and are still enacted in some form today.


title: Culture of Greece

text: A range of domestically and internationally known composers and performers across the musical spectrum have found success in modern Greece, while traditional Greek music is noted as a mixture of influences from indigenous culture with those of west and east. A few Ottoman as well as medieval Italian elements can be heard in the traditional songs, "dhimotiká", as well as in the modern bluesy rembétika music. A well-known Greek musical instrument is the bouzouki. "Bouzouki" is a descriptive Turkish name, but the instrument itself is probably of Greek origin (from the ancient Greek lute known as pandoura, a kind of guitar, clearly visible in ancient statues, especially female figurines of the "Tanagraies" playing cord instruments).


title: Culture of Greece

text: Famous Greek musicians and composers of modern era include the central figure of 20th-century European modernism Iannis Xenakis, a composer, architect and theorist. Maria Callas, Nikos Skalkottas, Mikis Theodorakis, Dimitris Mitropoulos, Manos Hadjidakis and Vangelis also lead twentieth-century Greek contributions, alongside Demis Roussos, Nana Mouskouri, Yanni, Georges Moustaki, Eleni Karaindrou and others.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The birth of the first School of modern Greek classical music (Heptanesean or Ionian School, Greek:"Επτανησιακή Σχολή") came through the Ionian Islands (notable composers include Spyridon Samaras, Nikolaos Mantzaros and Pavlos Carrer), while Manolis Kalomiris is considered the founder of the "Greek National School".


title: Culture of Greece

text: Greece is one of the few places in Europe where the day-to-day role of folk dance is sustained. Rather than functioning as a museum piece preserved only for performances and special events, it is a vivid expression of everyday life. Occasions for dance are usually weddings, family celebrations, and paneyeria (Patron Saints' name days). Dance has its place in ceremonial customs that are still preserved in Greek villages, such as dancing the bride during a wedding and dancing the trousseau of the bride during the wedding preparations. The carnival and Easter offer more opportunities for family gatherings and dancing. Greek taverns providing live entertainment often include folk dances in their program.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Regional characteristics have developed over the years because of variances in climatic conditions, land morphology and people's social lives. "Kalamatianos" and "Syrtos" are considered Pan-Hellenic dances and are danced all over the world in diaspora communities. Others have also crossed boundaries and are known beyond the regions where they originated; these include the "Pentozali" from Crete, "Hasapiko" from Constantinople, "Zonaradikos" from Thrace, "Serra" from Pontos and "Balos" from the Aegean islands.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The avant-garde choreographer, director and dancer Dimitris Papaioannou was responsible for the critically successful opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympic Games, with a conception that reflected the classical influences on modern and experimental Greek dance forms.


title: Culture of Greece

text: There were several interconnected traditions of painting in ancient Greece. Due to their technical differences, they underwent somewhat differentiated developments. Not all painting techniques are equally well represented in the archaeological record. The most respected form of art, according to authors like Pliny or Pausanias, were individual, mobile paintings on wooden boards, technically described as panel paintings. Also, the tradition of wall painting in Greece goes back at least to the Minoan and Mycenaean Bronze Age, with the lavish fresco decoration of sites like Knossos, Tiryns and Mycenae.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Much of the figural or architectural sculpture of ancient Greece was painted colourfully. This aspect of Greek stonework is described as polychrome (from Greek "πολυχρωμία", "πολύ" = many and "χρώμα" = colour). Due to intensive weathering, polychromy on sculpture and architecture has substantially or totally faded in most cases.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Byzantine art is the term created for the Eastern Roman Empire from about the 5th century AD until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The most salient feature of this new aesthetic was its "abstract," or anti-naturalistic character. If classical art was marked by the attempt to create representations that mimicked reality as closely as possible, Byzantine art seems to have abandoned this attempt in favor of a more symbolic approach. The Byzantine painting concentrated mainly on icons and hagiographies.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The term Cretan School describes an important school of icon painting, also known as Post-Byzantine art, which flourished while Crete was under Venetian rule during the late Middle Ages, reaching its climax after the Fall of Constantinople, becoming the central force in Greek painting during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. The Cretan artists developed a particular style of painting under the influence of both Eastern and Western artistic traditions and movements. The most famous product of the school, El Greco, was the most successful of the many artists who tried to build a career in Western Europe.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The Heptanese School of painting succeeded the Cretan school as the leading school of Greek post-Byzantine painting after Crete fell to the Ottomans in 1669. Like the Cretan school it combined Byzantine traditions with an increasing Western European artistic influence, and also saw the first significant depiction of secular subjects. The school was based in the Ionian islands, which were not part of Ottoman Greece, from the middle of the 17th century until the middle of the 19th century.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Modern Greek painting, after the independence and the creation of the modern Greek state, began to be developed around the time of Romanticism and the Greek artists absorbed many elements from their European colleagues, resulting in the culmination of the distinctive style of Greek Romantic art. Notable painters of the era include Nikolaos Gyzis, Georgios Jakobides, Nikiphoros Lytras, Konstantinos Volanakis and Theodoros Vryzakis.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Ancient Greek monumental sculpture was composed almost entirely of marble or bronze; with cast bronze becoming the favoured medium for major works by the early 5th century. Both marble and bronze are fortunately easy to form and very durable. Chryselephantine sculptures, used for temple cult images and luxury works, used gold, most often in leaf form and ivory for all or parts (faces and hands) of the figure, and probably gems and other materials, but were much less common, and only fragments have survived.


title: Culture of Greece

text: By the early 19th century, the systematic excavation of ancient Greek sites had brought forth a plethora of sculptures with traces of notably multicolored surfaces. It was not until published findings by German archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann in the late 20th and early 21st century that the painting of ancient Greek sculptures became an established fact. Using high-intensity lamps, ultraviolet light, specially designed cameras, plaster casts, and certain powdered minerals, Brinkmann proved that the entire Parthenon, including the actual structure as well as the statues, had been painted.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The Byzantines inherited the early Christian distrust of monumental sculpture in religious art, and produced only reliefs, of which very few survivals are anything like life-size, in sharp contrast to the medieval art of the West, where monumental sculpture revived from Carolingian art onwards. Small ivories were also mostly in relief.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The so-called "minor arts" were very important in Byzantine art and luxury items, including ivories carved in relief as formal presentation Consular diptychs or caskets such as the Veroli casket, hardstone carvings, enamels, jewelry, metalwork, and figured silks were produced in large quantities throughout the Byzantine era. Many of these were religious in nature, although a large number of objects with secular or non-representational decoration were produced: for example, ivories representing themes from classical mythology. Byzantine ceramics were relatively crude, as pottery was never used at the tables of the rich, who ate off silver.


title: Culture of Greece

text: After the establishment of the Greek Kingdom and the western influence of Neoclassicism, sculpture was re-discovered by the Greek artists. Main themes included ancient Greek antiquity, the War of Independence and important figures of Greek history.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Notable sculptors of the new state were Leonidas Drosis (his major work was the extensive neo-classical architectural ornament at the Academy of Athens, Lazaros Sochos, Georgios Vitalis, Dimitrios Filippotis, Ioannis Kossos, Yannoulis Chalepas, Georgios Bonanos and Lazaros Fytalis.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Theatre was born in Greece. The city-state of Classical Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and military power during this period, was its centre, where it was institutionalised as part of a festival called the Dionysia, which honoured the god Dionysus. Tragedy (late 6th century BC), comedy (486 BC), and the satyr play were the three dramatic genres to emerge there. Athens exported the festival to its numerous colonies and allies in order to promote a common cultural identity.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The word τραγῳδία ("tragoidia"), from which the word "tragedy" is derived, is a compound of two Greek words: τράγος ("tragos") or "goat" and ᾠδή ("ode") meaning "song", from ἀείδειν ("aeidein"), "to sing".


title: Culture of Greece

text: This etymology indicates a link with the practices of the ancient Dionysian cults. It is impossible, however, to know with certainty how these fertility rituals became the basis for tragedy and comedy.


title: Culture of Greece

text: During the Byzantine period, the theatrical art was heavily declined. According to Marios Ploritis, the only form survived was the folk theatre ("Mimos" and "Pantomimos"), despite the hostility of the official state. Later, during the Ottoman period, the main theatrical folk art was the "Karagiozis". The renaissance which led to the modern Greek theatre, took place in the Venetian Crete. Significant dramatists include Vitsentzos Kornaros and Georgios Chortatzis.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The modern Greek theatre was born after the Greek independence, in the early 19th century, and initially was influenced by the Heptanesean theatre and melodrama, such as the Italian opera. The Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù was the first theatre and opera house of modern Greece and the place where the first Greek opera, Spyridon Xyndas' "The Parliamentary Candidate" (based on an exclusively Greek libretto) was performed. During the late 19th and early 20th century, the Athenian theatre scene was dominated by revues, musical comedies, operettas and nocturnes and notable playwrights included Spyridon Samaras, Dionysios Lavrangas, Theophrastos Sakellaridis and others.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The National Theatre of Greece was founded in 1880. Notable playwrights of the modern Greek theatre include Alexandros Rizos Rangavis, Gregorios Xenopoulos, Nikos Kazantzakis, Angelos Terzakis, Pantelis Horn, Alekos Sakellarios and Iakovos Kambanelis, while notable actors include Cybele Andrianou, Marika Kotopouli, Aimilios Veakis, Orestis Makris, Katina Paxinou, Manos Katrakis and Dimitris Horn. Significant directors include Dimitris Rontiris, Alexis Minotis and Karolos Koun.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Greek cuisine has a long tradition and its flavors change with the season and its geography. Greek cookery, historically a forerunner of Western cuisine, spread its culinary influence – via ancient Rome – throughout Europe and beyond.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Ancient Greek cuisine was characterized by its frugality and was founded on the "Mediterranean triad": wheat, olive oil, and wine, with meat being rarely eaten and fish being more common. It was Archestratos in 320 B.C. who wrote the first cookbook in history. Greece has a culinary tradition of some 4,000 years.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The Byzantine cuisine was similar to the classical cuisine including however new ingredients that were not available before, like caviar, nutmeg and lemons, basil, with fish continuing to be an integral part of the diet. Culinary advice was influenced by the theory of humors, first put forth by the ancient Greek doctor Claudius Aelius Galenus.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The modern Greek cuisine has also influences from the Ottoman and Italian cuisine due to the Ottoman and Venetian dominance through the centuries.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Greece is one of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world. The earliest evidence of Greek wine has been dated to 6,500 years ago where wine was produced on a household or communal basis. In ancient times, as trade in wine became extensive, it was transported from end to end of the Mediterranean; Greek wine had especially high prestige in Italy under the Roman Empire. In the medieval period, wines exported from Crete, Monemvasia and other Greek ports fetched high prices in northern Europe.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Education in Greece is compulsory for all children 6–15 years old; namely, it includes Primary (Dimotiko) and Lower Secondary (Gymnasio) Education. The school life of the students, however, can start from the age of 2.5 years (pre-school education) in institutions (private and public) called "Vrefonipiakoi Paidikoi Stathmi" (creches). In some Vrefonipiakoi Stathmoi there are also Nipiaka Tmimata (nursery classes) which operate along with the Nipiagogeia (kindergartens).


title: Culture of Greece

text: Post-compulsory Secondary Education, according to the reforms of 1997 and 2006, consists of two main school types: Genika Lykeia (General Upper Secondary Schools) and the Epaggelmatika Lykeia (Vocational Upper Secondary Schools), as well as the Epaggelmatikes Sxoles (Vocational Schools). Musical, Ecclesiastical and Physical Education Gymnasia and Lykeia are also in operation.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Post-compulsory Secondary Education also includes the Vocational Training Institutes (IEK), which provide formal but unclassified level of education. These Institutes are not classified as an educational level, because they accept both Gymnasio (lower secondary school) and Lykeio (upper secondary school) graduates according to the relevant specializations they provide. Public higher education is divided into Universities and Technological Education Institutes (TEI). Students are admitted to these Institutes according to their performance at national level examinations taking place at the third grade of Lykeio. Additionally, students are admitted to the Hellenic Open University upon the completion of the 22 year of age by drawing lots.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Nea Dimokratia (New Democracy), the Greek conservative right political party, has claimed that it will change the law so that private universities gain recognition. Without official recognition, students who have an EES degree are unable to work in the public sector. PASOK took some action after EU intervention, namely the creation of a special government agency that certifies the vocational status of certain EES degree holders. However, their academic status still remains a problem. The issue of full recognition is still an issue of debate among Greek politicians.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The Institute of Entrepreneurship Development (iED) is a Greek Non-governmental organization formed for the promotion of innovation and for enhancing the spirit of entrepreneurship intending to link with other European initiatives.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The origins of Western literature and of the main branches of Western learning may be traced to the era of Greek greatness that began before 700 BC with the epics of Homer, the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey". Hesiod, the first didactic poet, put into epic verse his descriptions of pastoral life, including practical advice on farming, and allegorical myths. The poets Alcaeus of Mytilene, Sappho, Anacreon, and Bacchylides wrote of love, war, and death in lyrics of great feeling and beauty. Pindar celebrated the Panhellenic athletic festivals in vivid odes. The fables of the slave Aesop have been famous for more than 2,500 years. Three of the world's greatest dramatists were Aeschylus, author of the "Oresteia" trilogy; Sophocles, author of the Theban plays; and Euripides, author of "Medea", "The Trojan Women", and "The Bacchae". Aristophanes, the greatest author of comedies, satirized the mores of his day in a series of brilliant plays. Three great historians were Herodotus, regarded as the father of history, known for "The Persian Wars"; Thucydides, who generally avoided myth and legend and applied greater standards of historical accuracy in his History of the Peloponnesian War; and Xenophon, best known for his account of the Greek retreat from Persia, the "Anabasis". Outstanding literary figures of the Hellenistic period were Menander, the chief representative of a newer type of comedy; the poets Callimachus, Theocritus, and Apollonius Rhodius, author of the "Argonautica"; and Polybius, who wrote a detailed history of the Mediterranean world. Noteworthy in the Roman period were Strabo, a writer on geography; Plutarch, the father of biography, whose "Parallel Lives" of famous Greeks and Romans is a chief source of information about great figures of antiquity; Pausanias, a travel writer; and Lucian, a satirist.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The leading philosophers of the period preceding Greece's golden age were Thales, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Protagoras, and Democritus. Socrates investigated ethics and politics. His greatest pupil, Plato, used Socrates' question-and-answer method of investigating philosophical problems in his famous dialogues. Plato's pupil Aristotle established the rules of deductive reasoning but also used observation and inductive reasoning, applying himself to the systematic study of almost every form of human endeavor. Outstanding in the Hellenistic period were Epicurus, the philosopher of moderation; Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism; and Diogenes of Sinope, the famous Cynic. The oath of Hippocrates, the father of medicine, is still recited by newly graduating physicians. Euclid evolved the system of geometry that bears his name. Archimedes discovered the principles of mechanics and hydrostatics. Eratosthenes calculated the earth's circumference with remarkable accuracy, and Hipparchus Founded scientific astronomy. Galen was an outstanding physician of ancient times.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The sculptor Phidias created the statue of Athena and the figure of Zeus in the temple at Olympia and supervised the construction and decoration of the Parthenon. Another renowned sculptor was Praxiteles.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The legal reforms of Solon served as the basis of Athenian democracy. The Athenian general Miltiades the Younger led the victory over the Persians at Marathon in 490 BC, and Themistocles was chiefly responsible for the victory at Salamis 10 years later. Pericles, the virtual ruler of Athens for more than 25 years, added to the political power of that city, inaugurated the construction of the Parthenon and other noteworthy buildings, and encouraged the arts of sculpture and painting. With the decline of Athens, first Sparta and then Thebes, under the great military tactician Epaminondas, gained the ascendancy; but soon thereafter, two military geniuses, Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great, gained control over all of Greece and formed a vast empire stretching as far east as India. It was against Philip that Demosthenes, the greatest Greek orator, directed his diatribes, the "Philippics".


title: Culture of Greece

text: The most renowned Greek painter during the Renaissance was El Greco, born in Crete, whose major works, painted in Spain, have influenced many 20th-century artists. An outstanding modern literary figure is Nikos Kazantzakis, a novelist and poet who composed a vast sequel to Homer's "Odyssey". Leading modern poets are Kostis Palamas, and Constantine P. Cavafy, as well as George Seferis, and Odysseus Elytis, winners of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1963 and 1979, respectively. The work of social theorist Cornelius Castoriadis is known for its multidisciplinary breadth. Musicians of stature are the composers Nikos Skalkottas, Iannis Xenakis, and Mikis Theodorakis; the conductor Dmitri Mitropoulos; and the soprano Maria Callas. Filmmakers who have won international acclaim are Greek-Americans John Cassavetes and Elia Kazan, and Greeks Michael Cacoyannis and Costa-Gavras. Actresses of note are Katina Paxinou; Melina Mercouri, who was appointed minister of culture and science in the Socialist cabinet in 1981; and Irene Papas.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Outstanding Greek public figures in the 20th century include Cretan-born Eleutherios Venizelos, prominent statesman of the interwar period; Ioannis Metaxas, dictator from 1936 until his death; Constantine Karamanlis, prime minister (1955–63, 1974–80) and president (1980–85) of Greece; George Papandreou, head of the Center Union Party and prime minister (1963–65); and his son Andreas Papandreou, the PASOK leader who became prime minister in 1981. Costas Simitis was leader of PASOK and prime minister from 1996 to 2004. He was succeeded by Kostas Karamanlis.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The Greek language is the official language of the Hellenic Republic and Republic of Cyprus and has a total of 15 million speakers worldwide; it is an Indo-European language. It is particularly remarkable in the depth of its continuity, beginning with the pre-historic Mycenaean Greek and the Linear B script and maybe the Linear A script associated with Minoan civilization, though Linear A is still undeciphered. Greek language is clearly detected in the Mycenaean language and the Cypriot syllabary, and eventually the dialects of Ancient Greek, of which Attic Greek bears the most resemblance to Modern Greek. The history of the language spans over 3400 years of written records.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Greek has had enormous impact on other languages both directly on the Romance languages, and indirectly through its influence on the emerging Latin language during the early days of Rome. Signs of this influence, and its many developments, can be seen throughout the family of Western European languages.


title: Culture of Greece

text: More recently, the rise of internet-based communication services as well as cell phones have caused a distinctive form of Greek written partially, and sometimes fully in Latin characters to emerge; this is known as Greeklish, a form that has spread across the Greek diaspora and even to the two countries with majority Greek population, Greece and Cyprus.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Katharévousa (Καθαρεύουσα) is a form of the Greek Language midway between modern and ancient forms set in train during the early nineteenth century by Greek intellectual and revolutionary leader Adamantios Korais, intended to return the Greek language closer to its ancient form. Its influence, in recent years, evolved toward a more formal role, and it came to be used primarily for official purposes such as diplomacy, politics, and other forms of official documentation. It has nevertheless had significant effects on the Greek language as it is still written and spoken today, and both vocabulary and grammatical and syntactical forms have re-entered Modern Greek via Katharevousa.


title: Culture of Greece

text: There are a variety of dialects of the Greek language; the most notable include Cappadocian, Cretan Greek (which is closely related to most Aegean Islands' dialects), Cypriot Greek, Pontic Greek, the Griko language spoken in Southern Italy, and Tsakonian, still spoken in the modern prefecture of Arcadia and widely noted as a surviving regional dialect of Doric Greek.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Greece has a remarkably rich and resilient literary tradition, extending over 2800 years and through several eras. The Classical era is that most commonly associated with Greek Literature, beginning in 800 BCE and maintaining its influence through to the beginnings of Byzantine period, whereafter the influence of Christianity began to spawn a new development of the Greek written word. The many elements of a millennia-old tradition are reflected in Modern Greek literature, including the works of the Nobel laureates Odysseus Elytis and George Seferis.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The first recorded works in the western literary tradition are the epic poems of Homer and Hesiod. Early Greek lyric poetry, as represented by poets such as Sappho and Pindar, was responsible for defining the lyric genre as it is understood today in western literature. Aesop wrote his "Fables" in the 6th century BC. These innovations were to have a profound influence not only on Roman poets, most notably Virgil in his epic poem on the founding of Rome, "The Aeneid", but one that flourished throughout Europe.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Classical Greece is also judged the birthplace of theatre. Aeschylus introduced the ideas of dialogue and interacting characters to playwriting and in doing so, he effectively invented "drama": his "Oresteia" trilogy of plays is judged his crowning achievement. Other refiners of playwriting were Sophocles and Euripides. Aristophanes, a comic playwright, defined and shaped the idea of comedy as a theatrical form.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Herodotus and Thucydides are often attributed with developing the modern study of history into a field worthy of philosophical, literary, and scientific pursuit. Polybius first introduced into study the concept of military history.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Philosophy entered literature in the dialogues of Plato, while his pupil Aristotle, in his work the "Poetics", formulated the first set criteria for literary criticism. Both these literary figures, in the context of the broader contributions of Greek philosophy in the Classical and Hellenistic eras, were to give rise to idea of political Science, the study of political evolution and the critique of governmental systems.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The growth of Christianity throughout the Greco-Roman world in the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries, together with the Hellenization of the Byzantine Empire of the period, would lead to the formation of a unique literary form, combining Christian, Greek and Oriental influences. In its turn, this would promote developments such as Cretan poetry, the growth of poetic satire in the Greek East and the several pre-eminent historians of the period.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Modern Greek literature refers to literature written in the Greek language from the 11th century, with texts written in a language that is more familiar to the ears of Greeks today than is the language of the early Byzantine times.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The Cretan Renaissance poem "Erotokritos" is undoubtedly the masterpiece of this early period of modern Greek literature, and represents one of its supreme achievements. It is a verse romance written around 1600 by Vitsentzos Kornaros (1553–1613). The other major representative of the Cretan literature was Georgios Chortatzis and his most notable work was "Erofili". Other plays include "The Sacrifice of Abraham" by Kornaros, "Panoria" and "Katsourbos" by Chortatzis, "King Rodolinos" by Andreas Troilos, "Stathis (comedy)" and "Voskopoula" by unknown artists.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Much later, Diafotismos was an ideological, philological, linguistic and philosophical movement among 18th century Greeks that translate the ideas and values of European Enlightenment into the Greek world. Adamantios Korais and Rigas Feraios are two of the most notable figures. In 1819, "Korakistika", written by Iakovakis Rizos Neroulos, was a lampoon against the Greek intellectual Adamantios Korais and his linguistic views, who favoured the use of a more conservative form of the Greek language, closer to the ancient.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The years before the Greek Independence, the Ionian islands became the center of the Heptanese School (literature). Its main characteristics was the Italian influence, romanticism, nationalism and use of Demotic Greek. Notable representatives were Andreas Laskaratos, Andreas Kalvos, Aristotelis Valaoritis and Dionysios Solomos.


title: Culture of Greece

text: After the independence the intellectual center was transferred in Athens. A major figure of this new era was Kostis Palamas, considered "national poet" of Greece. He was the central figure of the Greek literary generation of the 1880s and one of the cofounders of the so-called New Athenian School (or Palamian School). Its main characteristic was the use of Demotic Greek. He was also the writer of the Olympic Hymn.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Moving into the twentieth century, the modern Greek literary tradition spans the work of Constantine P. Cavafy, considered a key figure of twentieth-century poetry, Giorgos Seferis (whose works and poems aimed to fuse the literature of Ancient and Modern Greece) and Odysseas Elytis, both of whom won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Nikos Kazantzakis is also considered a dominant figure, with works such as "The Last Temptation of Christ" and "The Greek Passion" receiving international recognition.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The Greek world is widely regarded as having given birth to scientific thought by means of observation, thought, and development of a theory without the intervention of a supernatural force. Thales, Anaximander and Democritus were amongst those contributing significantly to the establishment of this tradition. It is also, and perhaps more commonly in the western imagination, identified with the dawn of Western philosophy, as well as a mapping out of the natural sciences. Greek developments of mathematics continued well up until the decline of the Byzantine Empire. In the modern era Greeks continue to contribute to the fields of science, mathematics and philosophy.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The tradition of philosophy in ancient Greece accompanied its literary development. Greek learning had a profound influence on Western and Middle Eastern civilizations. The works of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek philosophers profoundly influenced Classical thought, the Islamic Golden Age, and the Renaissance.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians were very good at maths and at building geometric tombs, but they're not famous for philosophy. Their religious explanations of things are elaborate but unconvincing in philosophical terms. Theocratic societies governed by priestly castes are usually static and monopolise thought. They insist on orthodox explanations and actively discourage independent and unconventional ideas. The Ancient Greeks invented philosophy, but no-one really knows why. Because of their trade across the Mediterranean Sea, they borrowed myths and mysticism as well as architecture and mathematics from their neighbouring civilisations. Some Greek thinkers decided to not accept religious explanations for how the world works, an example being Xenophanes. They just thought that there just had to be some king of underlying order or logic for the way things are. This will later be given to Ancient Rome and Modern civilisation.


title: Culture of Greece

text: In medicine, doctors still refer to the Hippocratic oath, instituted by Hippocrates, regarded as foremost in laying the foundations of medicine as a science. Galen built on Hippocrates' theory of the four humours, and his writings became the foundation of medicine in Europe and the Middle East for centuries. The physicians Herophilos and Paulus Aegineta were pioneers in the study of anatomy, while Pedanius Dioscorides wrote an extensive treatise on the practice of pharmacology.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The period of Classical Greece (from 800 BC until the rise of Macedon, a Greek state in the north) is that most often associated with Greek advances in science. Thales of Miletus is regarded by many as the father of science; he was the first of the ancient philosophers to seek to explain the physical world in terms of natural rather than supernatural causes. Pythagoras was a mathematician often described as the "father of numbers"; it is believed that he had the pioneering insight into the numerical ratios that determine the musical scale, and the Pythagorean theorem is commonly attributed to him. Diophantus of Alexandria, in turn, was the "father of algebra". Many parts of modern geometry are based on the work of Euclid, while Eratosthenes was one of the first scientific geographers, calculating the circumference of the Earth and conceiving the first maps based on scientific principles.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The Hellenistic period, following Alexander's conquests, continued and built upon this knowledge. Hipparchus is considered the pre-eminent astronomical observer of the ancient world, and was probably the first to develop an accurate method for the prediction of solar eclipse, while Aristarchus of Samos was the first known astronomer to propose a heliocentric model of the Solar System, though the geocentric model of Ptolemy was more commonly accepted until the seventeenth century. Ptolemy also contributed substantially to cartography and to the science of optics. For his part Archimedes was the first to calculate the value of "π" and a geometric series, and also the earliest known mathematical physicist discovering the law of buoyancy, as well as conceiving the irrigation device known as Archimedes' screw.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The Byzantine period remained largely a period of preservation in terms of classical Greco-Roman texts; there were, however, significant advances made in the fields of medicine and historical scholarship. Theological philosophy also remained an area of study, and there was, while not matching the achievements of preceding ages, a certain increase in the professionalism of study of these subjects, epitomized by the founding of the University of Constantinople.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles, the architects of the famous Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, also contributed towards mathematical theories concerning architectural form, and the perceived mathematical harmony needed to create a multi-domed structure. These ideas were to prove a heavy influence on the Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan in his creation of the Blue Mosque, also in Constantinople. Tralles in particular produced several treatises on the Natural Sciences, as well as his other forays into mathematics such as Conic Sections.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The gradual migration of Greeks from Byzantium to the Italian city states following the decline of the Byzantine Empire, and the texts they brought with them combined with the academic positions they held, was a major factor in lighting the first sparks of the Italian Renaissance.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Greeks continue to contribute to science and technology in the modern world. John Argyris, a mathematician and engineer, was among the creators of the finite element method and the direct stiffness method. Constantin Carathéodory made significant contributions to the theory of functions of a real variable, calculus of variations and measure theory, credited with the introduction of several mathematical theorems. In physics, John Iliopoulos is known for the prediction of the charm quark and the proposition of the GIM mechanism, as well as the Fayet–Iliopoulos D-term formula, while Dimitri Nanopoulos is one of the principal developers of the Flipped SU(5) model.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Biologist Fotis Kafatos pioneers in the field of molecular cloning and genomics, and he was the founding president of the European Research Council. In medicine, Georgios Papanikolaou contributed heavily to the development of cervical screening inventing the Pap test, which is among the most common methods of cervical screening worldwide.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Car designer Alec Issigonis designed the groundbreaking and iconic Mini automobile, while Michael Dertouzos was amongst the pioneers of the Internet, instrumental in defining the World Wide Web Consortium and director for 27 years of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, which innovated in a variety of areas during his term. Nicholas Negroponte, is the founder of the MIT Media Lab and the One Laptop per Child project aiming to extend Internet access in the developing world. Joseph Sifakis, a computer scientist, has won a Turing Award for his pioneering work on model checking.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Greece is a Parliamentary Republic with a president assuming a more ceremonial role than in some other republics, and the Prime Minister chosen from the leader of the majority party in the parliament. Greece has a codified constitution and a written Bill of Rights embedded within it. The current Prime Minister is Kyriakos Mitsotakis.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The politics of the third Hellenic Republic have been dominated by two main political parties, the self-proclaimed socialists of PASOK and the conservative New Democracy. Until recently PASOK had dominated the political scene, presiding over favourable growth rates economically but in the eyes of critics failing to deliver where unemployment and structural issues such as market liberalization were concerned.


title: Culture of Greece

text: New Democracy's election to government in 2004 has led to various initiatives to modernize the country, such as the education university scheme above as well as labour market liberalization. Politically there has been massive opposition to some of these moves owing to a large, well organized workers' movement in Greece, which distrusts the right wing administration and neo-liberal ideas. The population in general appears to accept many of the initiatives, reflected in governmental support; on the economic front many are so far warming to the reforms made by the administration, which have been largely rewarded with above average Eurozone growth rates. New Democracy were re-elected in September 2007.


title: Culture of Greece

text: A number of other smaller political parties exist. They include the third largest party ("the Communist Party"), which still commands large support from many rural working areas as well as some of the immigrant population in Greece, as well as the far-right "Popular Orthodox Rally", with the latter, while commanding a mere three and a half per cent of votes, seeking to capitalise on opposition in some quarters regarding Turkey's EU accession and any tension in the Aegean. There is also a relatively small, but well organized anarchist movement, though its status in Greece has been somewhat exaggerated by media overseas.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The political process is energetically and openly participated in by the people of Greece, while public demonstrations are a continual feature of Athenian life; however, there have been criticisms of a governmental failure to sufficiently involve minorities in political debate and hence a sidelining of their opinions. In general, politics is regarded as an acceptable subject to broach on almost every social occasion, and Greeks are often very vocal about their support (or lack of it) for certain policy proposals, or political parties themselves – this is perhaps reflected in what many consider the rather sensationalist media on both sides of the political spectrum; although this is a feature of most European tabloids.


title: Culture of Greece

text: According to Greek Law every Sunday of the year is a public holiday. In addition, there are four obligatory, official public holidays: March 25 ("Greek Independence Day"), Easter Monday, August 15 ("Assumption or Dormition of the Holy Virgin") and December 25 ("Christmas"). Two more days, May 1 ("Labour Day") and October 28 ("Ohi Day"), are regulated by law as optional but it is customary for employees to be given the day off. There are, however, more public holidays celebrated in Greece than are announced by the Ministry of Labour each year as either obligatory or optional. The list of these non-fixed National Holidays rarely changes and has not changed in recent decades, giving a total of eleven National Holidays each year.


title: Culture of Greece

text: In addition to the National Holidays, there Public Holidays that are not celebrated nationwide, but only by a specific professional group or a local community. For example, many municipalities have a "Patron Saint", also called "Name Day", or a "Liberation Day", and at this day is customary for schools to have a day off.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Notable festivals include Patras Carnival, Athens Festival and various local wine festivals. The city of Thessaloniki is also home of a number of festivals and events. The Thessaloniki International Film Festival is one of the most important film festivals in Southern Europe,


title: Culture of Greece

text: Classical Athens may be suggested to have heralded some of the same religious ideas that would later be promoted by Christianity, such as Aristotle's invocation of a perfect God, and Heraclitus' Logos. Plato considered there were rewards for the virtuous in the heavens and punishment for the wicked under the earth; the soul was valued more highly than the material body, and the material world was understood to be imperfect and not fully real (illustrated in Socrates's allegory of the cave).


title: Culture of Greece

text: Alexander's conquests spread classical concepts about the divine, the afterlife, and much else across the eastern Mediterranean area. Jews and early Christians alike adopted the name "hades" when writing about "sheol" in Greek. Greco-Buddhism was the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed in the Indo-Greek Kingdoms. By the advent of Christianity, the four original patriarchates beyond Rome used Greek as their church language.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The Greek Orthodox Church, largely because of the importance of Byzantium in Greek history, as well as its role in the revolution, is a major institution in modern Greece. Its roles in society and larger role in overarching Greek culture are very important; a number of Greeks attend Church at least once a month or more and the Orthodox Easter holiday holds special significance.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The Church of Greece also retains limited political influence through the fact the Greek constitution does not have an explicit separation of Church and State; a debate suggested by more conservative elements of the church in the early 2000s about identification cards and whether religious affiliation might be added to them highlights the friction between state and church on some issues; the proposal unsurprisingly was not accepted. A widely publicised set of corruption scandals in 2004 implicating a small group of senior churchmen also increased national debate on introducing a greater transparency to the church-state relationship.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Greek Orthodox Churches dot both the villages and towns of Greece and come in a variety of architectural forms, from older Byzantine churches, to more modern white brick churches, to newer cathedral-like structures with evident Byzantine influence. Greece (as well as Cyprus), also polled as, ostensibly, one of the most religious countries in Europe, according to Eurostat; however, while the church has wide respect as a moral and cultural institution, a contrast in religious belief with Protestant northern Europe is more obvious than one with Catholic Mediterranean Europe.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Greece also has a significant minority of Muslims in Western Thrace (numbering around 100–150,000), with their places of worship guaranteed since the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. The Greek state has fully approved the construction a main mosque for the more recent Muslim community of Athens under the freedom of religion provisions of the Greek constitution.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Other religious communities living in Greece include Roman Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Protestants, Armenians, followers of the ancient Greek religion (see Hellenism), Jews and others.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Greece has risen to prominence in a number of sporting areas in recent decades. Football in particular has seen a rapid transformation, with the Greece national football team winning the 2004 UEFA European Football Championship. Many Greek athletes have also achieved significant success and have won world and olympic titles in numerous sports during the years, such as basketball, wrestling, water polo, athletics, weightlifting, with many of them becoming international stars inside their sports. The successful organisation of the Athens 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games led also to the further development of many sports and has led to the creation of many World class sport venues all over Greece and especially in Athens and Thessaloniki. Greek athletes have won a total 146 medals for Greece in 15 different Olympic sports at the Summer Olympic Games, including the Intercalated Games, an achievement which makes Greece one of the top nations globally, in the world's rankings of medals per capita.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The national colours of Greece are blue and white. The coat of arms of Greece consists of a white cross on a blue escutcheon which is surrounded by two laurel branches. The Flag of Greece is also blue and white, as defined by Law 851/1978 "Regarding the National Flag". It specifies the colour of "cyan" (Greek: κυανό, "kyano"), meaning "blue", so the shade of blue is ambiguous.


title: Culture of Greece

text: The Order of the Redeemer and military decoration Cross of Valour both have ribbons in the national colours.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Since it was first established, the national emblem has undergone many changes in shape and in design. The original Greek national emblem depicted the goddess Athena and an owl. At the time of Ioannis Kapodistrias, the phoenix, the symbol of rebirth, was added.


title: Culture of Greece

text: Other recognizable symbols include the (throughout the Byzantine Empire) double-headed eagle and the Vergina Sun.


title: Tap water

text: Tap water (also known as faucet water, running water, or municipal water) is water supplied through a tap, a water dispenser valve. In many countries, tap water usually has the quality of drinking water. Tap water is commonly used for drinking, cooking, washing, and toilet flushing. Indoor tap water is distributed through "indoor plumbing", which has existed since antiquity but was available to very few people until the second half of the 19th century when it began to spread in popularity in what are now developed countries. Tap water became common in many regions during the 20th century, and is now lacking mainly among people in poverty, especially in developing countries.


title: Tap water

text: Governmental agencies commonly regulate tap water quality. Household water purification methods such as water filters, boiling, or distillation can be used to treat tap water's microbial contamination to improve its potability. The application of technologies (such as water treatment plants) involved in providing clean water to homes, businesses, and public buildings is a major subfield of sanitary engineering. Calling a water supply "tap water" distinguishes it from the other main types of fresh water which may be available; these include water from rainwater-collecting cisterns, water from village pumps or town pumps, water from wells, or water carried from streams, rivers, or lakes (whose potability may vary).


title: Tap water

text: Providing tap water to large urban or suburban populations requires a complex and carefully designed system of collection, storage, treatment and distribution, and is commonly the responsibility of a government agency.


title: Tap water

text: Publicly available treated water has historically been associated with major increases in life expectancy and improved public health. Water disinfection can greatly reduce the risks of waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera. There is a great need around the world to disinfect drinking water. Chlorination is currently the most widely used water disinfection method, although chlorine compounds can react with substances in water and produce disinfection by-products (DBP) that pose problems to human health. Local geological conditions affecting groundwater are determining factors for the presence of various metal ions, often rendering the water "soft" or "hard".


title: Tap water

text: Tap water remains susceptible to biological or chemical contamination. Water contamination remains a serious health issue around the world, and diseases resulted from consuming contaminated water cause the death of 1.6 million children each year. In the event of contamination deemed dangerous to public health, government officials typically issue an advisory regarding water consumption. In the case of biological contamination, residents are usually advised to boil their water before consumption or to use bottled water as an alternative. In the case of chemical contamination, residents may be advised to refrain from consuming tap water entirely until the matter is resolved.


title: Tap water

text: In many areas, low concentration of fluoride (< 1.0 ppm F) is intentionally added to tap water to improve dental health, although in some communities "fluoridation" remains a controversial issue. (See water fluoridation controversy). However, long-term consumption of water with high fluoride concentration (> 1.5 ppm F) can have serious undesirable consequences such as dental fluorosis, enamel mottle and skeletal fluorosis, bone deformities in children. Fluorosis severity depends on how much fluoride is present in the water, as well as people's diet and physical activity. Defluoridation methods include membrane-based methods, precipitation, absorption, and electrocoagulation.


title: Tap water

text: Everything in a building that uses water falls under one of two categories; fixture or appliance. As the consumption points above perform their function, most produce waste/sewage components that will require removal by the waste/sewage side of the system. The minimum is an air gap. See cross connection control & backflow prevention for an overview of backflow prevention methods and devices currently in use, both through the use of mechanical and physical principles.


title: Tap water

text: Other materials, if the pipes made from them have been let into circulation and the widespread use in the construction of the water supply systems.


title: Tap water

text: For many centuries, water pipes were made of lead, because of its ease of processing and durability. The use of lead pipes was a cause of health problems due to ignorance of the dangers of lead on the human body, which causes miscarriages and high death rates of newborns. Lead pipes, which were installed mostly in the late 1800s in the US, are still common today, much of which are located in the Northeast and the Midwest. Their impact is relatively small due to the fouling of pipes and stone cessation of the evolution of lead in the water; however, lead pipes are still detrimental. Most of the lead pipes that exist today are being removed and replaced with the more common material, copper or some type of plastic.


title: Tap water

text: Remnants of pipes in some languages are the names of the experts involved in the execution, reparation, maintenance, and installation of water supply systems, which have been formed from the Latin word 'lead', English word 'plumber', French word, 'plombier'.


title: Tap water

text: Potable water is water that is drinkable and does not pose a risk to health. This supply may come from several possible sources.


title: Tap water

text: Domestic water systems have been evolving since people first located their homes near a running water supply, such as a stream or river. The water flow also allowed sending wastewater away from the residences.


title: Tap water

text: Modern plumbing delivers clean, safe, and potable water to each service point in water distribution system, including taps. It is important that the clean water not be contaminated by the wastewater (disposal) side of the process system. Historically, this contamination of drinking water has been one of the largest killers of humans.


title: Tap water

text: Most of the mandates for enforcing drinking water quality standards are not for the distribution system, but for the treatment plant. Even though the water distribution system is supposed to deliver the treated water to the consumers' taps without water quality degradation, complicated physical, chemical, and biological factors within the system can cause contamination of tap water.


title: Tap water

text: There is a huge gap regarding the potable water supply between the developed and developing world. In general, Africa, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, has the poorest water supply system in the world because of the insufficient access to the system and the low quality of the water in the region, while Finland has the best tap water quality in the world according to a reports by UNICEF and UNESCO.


title: Tap water

text: Tap water can sometimes appear cloudy and is often mistaken for mineral impurities in the water. It is usually caused by air bubbles coming out of solution due to change in temperature or pressure. Because cold water holds more air than warm water, small bubbles will appear in water. It has a high dissolved gas content that is heated or depressurized, which reduces how much dissolved gas the water can hold. The harmless cloudiness of the water disappears quickly as the gas is released from the water.


title: Tap water

text: Domestic hot water is provided by means of water heater appliances, or through district heating. The hot water from these units is then piped to the various fixtures and appliances that require hot water, such as lavatories, sinks, bathtubs, showers, washing machines, and dishwashers.


title: Tap water

text: Water flow through a tap can be reduced by inexpensive small plastic flow reducers. These restrict flow between 15 and 50%, aiding water conservation and reducing the burden on both water supply and treatment facilities.


title: Tap water

text: Wastewater from various appliances, fixtures, and taps is transferred to the waste and sewage removal system via the sewage drain system to treatment plants. This system consists of larger diameter piping, water traps, and ventilation to prevent toxic gases from entering the living space.


title: Tap water

text: Contaminant levels found in tap water vary between households and plumbing systems. While the majority of US households have access to high-quality tap water, demand for bottled water increases. In 2002, the Gallup Public Opinion Poll revealed that the possible health risk associated with tap water consumption is one of the main reasons that cause American consumers to prefer bottled water over tap water.


title: Tap water

text: The trust level towards tap water depends on various criteria, including the existing governmental regulations towards the water quality and their appliance. In 1993, the cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, led to a massive hospitalization of more than 400,000 residents and was considered the largest in US history. Severe violations of tap water standards influence the decrease in public trust.


title: Tap water

text: The difference in water quality between bottled and tap water is debatable. In 1999, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released controversial findings from a 4-year study on bottled water. The study claimed that one-third of the tested waters were contaminated with synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic. At least one sample exceeded state guidelines for contamination levels in bottled water.


title: Tap water

text: In the United States, some municipalities make an effort to use tap water over bottled water on governmental properties and events. Voters in Washington State repealed a bottled water tax via citizen initiative.


title: Tap water

text: The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates the allowable levels of some contaminants in public water systems. There may also be numerous contaminants in tap water that are not regulated by EPA and yet potentially harmful to human health. Community water systems—those systems that serve the same people throughout the year—must provide an annual "Consumer Confidence Report" to customers. The report identifies contaminants, if any, in the water system and explains the potential health impacts. After the Flint lead crisis (2014), researchers have paid special attention in studying quality trends in drinking water all across the USA. Unsafe level of lead were found in tap water in different cities, such as Sebring, Ohio in August 2015, and Washington, DC, in 2001. Several studies show that a Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) health violation occurs in around 7-8% of community water system (CWS) in an average year. Around 16 million cases of acute gastroenteritis occur each year in the US, due to the existence of contaminants in drinking water.


title: Tap water

text: Before a water supply system is constructed or modified, the designer and contractor are required to consult the local plumbing code and obtain a building permit prior to construction. Replacing an existing water heater may require a permit and inspection of the work. The US national standard for potable water piping guidelines is NSF/ANSI 61 certified materials. NSF/ANSI also sets standards for certifying polytanks, though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the materials.


title: Tap water

text: To improve water quality, Japan’s Ministry of Health revised its water quality standards, which were implemented in April 2004. Numerous professionals developed the drinking water standards. They also determined ways to manage the high quality water system. In 2008, improved regulations were conducted to improve the water quality and reduce the risk of water contamination.


title: 13th century

text: The 13th century was the century which lasted from January 1, 1201 (MCCI) through December 31, 1300 (MCCC) in accordance with the Julian calendar.


title: 13th century

text: The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan, which stretched from Eastern Asia to Eastern Europe. The conquests of Hulagu Khan and other Mongol invasions changed the course of the Muslim world, most notably the Siege of Baghdad (1258), the destruction of the House of Wisdom and the weakening of the Mamluks and Rums which, according to historians, caused the decline of the Islamic Golden Age. Other Muslim powers such as the Mali Empire and Delhi Sultanate conquered large parts of West Africa and the Indian subcontinent, while Buddhism witnessed a decline through the conquest led by Bakhtiyar Khilji.


title: 13th century

text: The Southern Song dynasty would begin the century as a prosperous kingdom but would eventually be invaded and annexed into the Yuan dynasty of the Mongols. The Kamakura Shogunate of Japan would successfully resist two Mongol invasion attempts in 1274 and 1281. Goryeo resisted an invasion by the Mongols but eventually sued for peace and would eventually become a client state of the Yuan dynasty.


title: 13th century

text: One of the earliest Islamic states in Southeast Asia would form during this century, most notably the Samudera Pasai. The Kingdoms of Sukhothai and Hanthawaddy would emerge and go on to dominate their surrounding territories.


title: 13th century

text: In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages. In North America, according to some population estimates, the population of Cahokia grew to being equal to or larger than the population of 13th-century London. In Peru, the Kingdom of Cuzco begins. The Kanem Empire in what is now Chad reaches its apex. The Solomonic dynasty in Ethiopia and the Zimbabwe Kingdom are founded. In the history of Maya civilizations, the 13th century marks the beginning of the Late Postclassic period. In the periodization of Precolumbian Peru, the 13th century is part of the Late Intermediate Period.


title: .338 Norma Magnum

text: The .338 Norma Magnum is a cartridge first introduced in 2008 and came into production in 2009, designed by Norma of Sweden.


title: .338 Norma Magnum

text: The .338 Norma Magnum was originally developed as a long-range sport shooting wildcat cartridge by the American sport shooter Jimmie Sloan with the help of Dave Kiff, owner of Pacific Tool and Gauge, who made the reamers and headspace gauges. Barrels were supplied by Rock Creek Barrel Inc.


title: .338 Norma Magnum

text: Various twist rates were tried with 5R rifling. It was designed as a way to optimize shooting the 19.44 g (300 gr) 8.59 mm (.338 in) caliber Sierra HPBT MatchKing projectile from actions and magazines that lack the length to handle cartridges exceeding 91.44 mm (3.60 in) in overall length. The 19.44 g (300 gr) .338 caliber Sierra HPBT MatchKing projectile was not available when the .338 Lapua Magnum was originally designed (it was optimized for shooting 16.2 g (250 gr) projectiles) and .338 Lapua Magnum cartridges intended for military use are generally loaded with shorter 16.2 g (250 gr) to 18.47 g (285 gr) projectiles.


title: .338 Norma Magnum

text: The .338 Norma Magnum cartridge was C.I.P. certified on 26 May 2010 and thus became an officially registered and sanctioned rifle cartridge.


title: .338 Norma Magnum

text: The .338 Norma Magnum prior to C.I.P. certification had a shorter cartridge overall length (91.44 mm (3.60 in) compared to the cartridge overall length of the .338 Lapua Magnum (93.50 mm (3.681 in). The .338 Norma Magnum loaded with 19.44 g (300 gr) .338 caliber Sierra HPBT projectiles will have these projectile less deeply seated compared to the .338 Lapua Magnum when both cartridges are loaded to 91.44 mm (3.681 in) overall length. To achieve this the .338 Norma Magnum cartridge utilizes a shorter case (about 63.30 mm (2.492 in) with less taper and a slightly sharper shoulder angle with a slightly longer neck, resulting in about 6.5% less case capacity. However the cartridge overall lengths of the .338 Norma Magnum and .338 Lapua Magnum were, as of 2013, determined at 93.50 mm (3.681 in) by the C.I.P. rulings for these cartridges.


title: .338 Norma Magnum

text: On June 17, 2008, the U.S. government issued a market survey to support a requirement for a Precision Sniper Rifle (PSR) to possibly replace the currently fielded Bolt Action SOF Sniper Systems MK 13 (.300 Winchester Magnum) and the M40 and M24 (7.62×51mm NATO) chambered to safely fire factory produced "non-wildcat" .338 caliber ammunition.


title: .338 Norma Magnum

text: The .338 Norma Magnum was designed to improve upon the .338 Lapua Magnum when loaded with 19.44 g (300 gr) Sierra very-low-drag bullets in magazines and actions that restrict the .338 Lapua Magnum's maximum cartridge overall length.


title: .338 Norma Magnum

text: In long range precision sport shooting rifles, which the .338 Norma Magnum cartridges were designed for, the chamber and throat area of the barrel are often custom made by a gunsmith for a particular cartridge, meaning the rifle (system) is consciously constructed for optimal use with a particular cartridge case and projectile combination. If projectiles with differing dimensions are to be used this will generally erode such a custom made system's accuracy potential. This makes objective comparisons between cartridges hard, since cartridges are essential parts of a larger rifle system.


title: .338 Norma Magnum

text: Since the .338 Lapua Magnum can be loaded to its C.I.P. overall length or even somewhat longer, the practical difference between the two cartridges gradually becomes negligible. Some manufacturers of .338 Lapua Magnum actions, magazines and rifles have indicated that they intend to offer products that will allow the use of .338 Lapua Magnum cartridges that can handle overall lengths that exceed the current C.I.P. .338 Lapua Magnum maximal overall length standard of 93.50 mm (3.681 in).