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Varsamonerou Monastery
Varsamonerou or Valsamonerou Monastery ( el, Μονή Βαρσαμόνερου or Βαλσαμόνερου) is a deserted Eastern Orthodox monastery situated near the village of Voriza of the Heraklion regional unit in south-central Crete, Greece. It is built on the south slopes of Mt. Ida, at a location approximately 55 km southwest of Heraklion that offers a panoramic view of the Mesara Plain. History The monastery dates from the early Venetian period but the exact date of its establishment is unknown. Venetian archives dating as early as 1332 refer to it as ''Chiesa della Madonna di Varsamonero''.Θ. Δετοράκης, Ν. Ψιλάκης, Α. Χατζηκωστής. ''Τα μοναστήρια της Κρήτης'', εκδ. Τράπεζας Κρήτης, Αθήνα 1986. The monastery acted a regional monastic and cultural centre until the 15th century. The nearby Vrontisi Monastery was established as its metochion around 1400. According to an inventory taken in ...
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Greek Language
Greek ( el, label= Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy (Calabria and Salento), southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer, ancient Greek literature includes many works of l ...
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Vrontisi Monastery
Vrontisi Monastery ( el, Μονή Βροντισίου, also spelled as Βροντησίου) is a 14th-century Eastern Orthodox monastery situated between the villages of Zaros and Vorizia of the Heraklion regional unit in south-central Crete, Greece. The monastery is roughly 50 km southwest of Heraklion and is built at an altitude of 550 m on the south slopes of Mt. Ida, having a panoramic view of the Mesara Plain and the Asterousia Mountains. The origin of its name is not clear; according to the prevailing explanation it was named after its founder whose surname was ''Vrontisis''. History Venetian archives contain several documents referring to the Vrontisi monastery.Θ. Δετοράκης, Ν. Ψιλάκης, Α. Χατζηκωστής. ''Τα μοναστήρια της Κρήτης'', εκδ. Τράπεζας Κρήτης, Αθήνα 1986. The earliest written reference dates back to 1474. However, it is older than that but the exact year of its establishment is unknow ...
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Monasteries In Crete
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church, or temple, and may also serve as an oratory, or in the case of communities anything from a single building housing only one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds. A monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, balneary and infirmary, and outlying granges. Depending on the location, the monastic order and the occupation of its inhabitants, the complex may also include a wide range of buildings that facilitate self-sufficiency and service to the community. These may include a hospice, a school, and a range of agricultural and manufacturing buildings such as a barn, a forge ...
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Buildings And Structures In Heraklion (regional Unit)
A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for a wide number of factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the term ''building'' compare the list of nonbuilding structures. Buildings serve several societal needs – primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical division of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) and the ''outside'' (a place that at times may be harsh and harmful). Ever since the first cave paintings, buildings have also become objects or canvasses of much artisti ...
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Ephorate Of Byzantine Antiquities
The ephors were a board of five magistrates in ancient Sparta. They had an extensive range of judicial, religious, legislative, and military powers, and could shape Sparta's home and foreign affairs. The word "''ephors''" ( Ancient Greek ''éphoroi'', plural form of ''éphoros'') comes from the Ancient Greek ''epi'', "on" or "over", and ''horaō'', "to see", i.e., "one who oversees" or "overseer". The ephors were a council of five Spartan men elected annually who swore an oath monthly on the behalf of the state. The Spartan kings, however, would swear on behalf of themselves. The ephors did not have to kneel before the Kings of Sparta, and were held in high esteem by the citizens because of the importance of their powers and because of the holy role that they earned throughout their functions. Donald Kagan, ''The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War''. page 29. Ithaca/New York 1969, . Several other Greek city-states with a Spartan ancestry also had ephors, such as Taras or ...
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Iconostasis
In Eastern Christianity, an iconostasis ( gr, εἰκονοστάσιον) is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church. ''Iconostasis'' also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere within a church. The iconostasis evolved from the Byzantine templon, a process complete by the 15th century. A direct comparison for the function of the main iconostasis can be made to the layout of the great Temple in Jerusalem. That Temple was designed with three parts. The holiest and inner-most portion was that where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. This portion, the Holy of Holies, was separated from the second larger part of the building's interior by a curtain, the "veil of the temple". Only the High Priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies. The third part was the entrance court. This architectural tradition for the two main parts can be seen carried forward in Christian churches and is still most demonstratively ...
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Fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The word ''fresco'' ( it, affresco) is derived from the Italian adjective ''fresco'' meaning "fresh", and may thus be contrasted with fresco-secco or secco mural painting techniques, which are applied to dried plaster, to supplement painting in fresco. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting. The word ''fresco'' is commonly and inaccurately used in English to refer to any wall painting regardless of the plaster technology or binding medium. This, in part, contributes to a misconception that the most geographically and temporally common wall painting technology was the painting into wet lime plaster. Even in app ...
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Saint Phanourios
Saint Phanourios (Greek: Άγιος Φανούριος), also known as St. Phanourios the Newly-Manifest (Greek: Άγιος Φανούριος ο Νεοφανής) is recognized as a saint by the Greek Orthodox Church. He is commemorated on August 27. Saint Phanourios was awarded the Martyr's Crown in the Orthodox Christian faith. He is also well known for finding people's lost belongings after fervent supplications. Angelos Akotantos from Crete has painted a number of the Saint's icons many times depicting him killing a dragon; this tradition is found mainly in Crete especially in icons of the 15th century when the Saint is said to have saved many Cretans from certain death from the hands of the invading Ottomans. The chapel of Saint Phanourios near the village of Ayios Georgios on the north coast of the island of Cyprus is located near fossil bones of pygmy hippopotamus The pygmy hippopotamus or pygmy hippo (''Choeropsis liberiensis'') is a small hippopotamid which is nati ...
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Katholikon
A ''katholikon'' or catholicon ( gr, καθολικόν) or ''sobor'' ( Slavonic: съборъ) refers to one of three things in the Eastern Orthodox Church: * The cathedral of a diocese. * The major church building (temple) of a monastery corresponding to a conventual church in Western Christianity. * A large church in a city at which all the faithful of the city gather to celebrate certain important feasts rather than go to their local parish church. The name derives from the fact that it is (usually) the largest church where all gather together to celebrate the major feast days of the liturgical year. In Russia, it is common for a katholikon to have a smaller church in the basement which can be more easily heated in the winter. A ''katholikon'' may have special architectural features in it, such as a '' kathedra'' (episcopal throne), or both an ''esonarthex'' (inner-narthex) and ''exonarthex'' (outer narthex), used for special services such as the Paschal vigil or a lity. ...
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Nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type building, the strict definition of the term "nave" is restricted to the central aisle. In a broader, more colloquial sense, the nave includes all areas available for the lay worshippers, including the side-aisles and transepts.Cram, Ralph Adams Nave The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. Accessed 13 July 2018 Either way, the nave is distinct from the area reserved for the choir and clergy. Description The nave extends from the entry—which may have a separate vestibule (the narthex)—to the chancel and may be flanked by lower side-aisles separated from the nave by an arcade. If the aisles are high and of a width comparable to the central nave, the structure is sometimes said to have three nave ...
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Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his '' Parallel Lives'', a series of biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, and '' Moralia'', a collection of essays and speeches. Upon becoming a Roman citizen, he was possibly named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (). Life Early life Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the small town of Chaeronea, about east of Delphi, in the Greek region of Boeotia. His family was long established in the town; his father was named Autobulus and his grandfather was named Lamprias. His name is derived from Pluto (πλοῦτον), an epithet of Hades, and Archos (ἀρχός) meaning "Master", the whole name meaning something like "Whose master is Pluto". His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are frequently mentioned in his essays and dialogue ...
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Aeschines
Aeschines (; Greek: , ''Aischínēs''; 389314 BC) was a Greek statesman and one of the ten Attic orators. Biography Although it is known he was born in Athens, the records regarding his parentage and early life are conflicting; but it seems probable that his parents, though poor, were respectable. Aeschines' father was Atrometus, an elementary school teacher of letters. His mother Glaukothea assisted in the religious rites of initiation for the poor. After assisting his father in his school, he tried his hand at acting with indifferent success, served with distinction in the army, and held several clerkships, amongst them the office of clerk to the '' Boule.'' This references: *Rudolf Hirzel, ''Der Dialog''. i. 129–140 * Theodor Gomperz, ''Greek Thinkers'', vol. iii. p. 342 (Eng. trans. G. G. Berry, London, 1905) Among the campaigns that Aeschines participated in were Phlius in the Peloponnese (368 BC), Battle of Mantinea (362 BC), and Phokion's campaign in Euboea (349 BC). ...
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