Tag: Alexander the Great

Seven Network Finally Apologizes for Saying FYROM is Home of Alexander the Great and King Philip II

After much protest and demands for a retract, Seven Network has finally offered an apology for their presenters referring to FYROM as the home of Alexander the Great and King Philip II during the 2016 Rio Olympics opening ceremony.

Following an outpour of major Greek organizations condemning the blunder over the past several weeks, Kerry Stokes AC, Seven Network Chairman, finally responded to the issue in a letter addressed to the Greek Embassy in Australia.

“Greece can proudly claim Alexander the Great as one of their own. We apologize. It was not our network’s intention to disappoint our viewers. I do hope you will accept our sincere apologies for the miscommunication,” Stokes said.

However, the blunder of the network stating that King Phillip II of Macedonia is FYROM’s first Olympian champion touched the Greek community of Australia profoundly. Both the Greek Community of Melbourne and the Pan-Macedonian Association sent letters to the network nearly one month ago.

“To simply say in a throw-away line that FYROM’s first gold medal at the games was won by King Philip of Macedon (Alexander the Great’s Father) is wrong on so many levels and offensive to every Hellene and philhellene who knows their history and understands the importance of identity and cultural lineage,” read the letter sent to Kerry Stokes by GCM President, Bill Papastergiadis.

The apology from the network did not offer an explanation as to how the incorrect information came to be a part of the announcer’s script, nor did it offer an explanation as to why the NBC Universal network in the USA made the same blunder.

Thus far, NBC has not reacted to the outcry of Greek communities, including Members of Congress Gus Bilirakis and Carolyn Maloney who wrote a letter to Stephen Burke, the CEO of NBC Universal network back on August 18.

(au.greekreporter.com)

September 8, 2016
Pakistan unearths the city defeated by Alexander the Great

Pakistan has unearthed the city defeated by Alexander the Great.

The ruins that Italian archaeologists have unearthed in modern-day Barikot, in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, once belonged to Bazira, the city conquered by Alexander the Great.

In short, Italian archaeologists working in the Italian-Pakistani excavations in the Swat valley did not go on vacation this summer.

Bazira is mentioned in classical sources as having been put under siege and conquered by the Macedonians led by Alexander the Great towards the end of the 4th Century BC. Up to now there had been no trace of this ancient city. Archaeologists had dated the city at the Indo-Greek period of King Menander, the Greek King of Buddhist faith who ruled almost two centuries after Alexander and whose coins were found in the excavation site.

The Italian Archaeological Mission (renamed ISMEO), founded by Giuseppe Tucci in the Swat District in 1955, has been excavating in Barikot since 1984. Since 2011 the excavations at Barikot, the ancient Bazira (12 hectares including the acropolis) have concentrated on approximately one hectare in the south-western quadrant of the city.

During the last few weeks, an analysis of the materials conducted with the help of the CIRCE team headed by Prof Filippo Terrasi (Napoli2 University, Department of Mathematics and Physics) revealed that the pre Indo-Greek city levels can be dated with absolute certainty at the middle of the 3rd Century BC, one century prior to the city walls, which means in the middle of the Mauryan period. And that’s not all: the protohistoric village unveiled by the trench foundations outside the city walls dates back to 1100-1000 BC.

“Today it is clear that the Indo-Greeks fortified a city that already existed and that, in order to build the city walls, they destroyed most of the stratigraphy and exposed extremely ancient structures through extended and deep terracing work. We used to think that the city lays on nothing more than a late protohistoric settlement. Today we know that it was already a city and that the ruins at the foot of the walls are 800 years older than we had originally thought,” said the Mission Director, Luca M. Olivieri. This means that the city reveals an amazing sequence of occupation.

(www.pakistantoday.com.pk)

September 4, 2016
‘Greeks’ Exhibition to Open June 1 at National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C.

“The Greeks—Agamemnon to Alexander the Great”spans 5,000 years of Greek history and culture, presenting stories of individuals from Neolithic villages through the conquests of Alexander the Great. This unprecedented exhibition features more than 550 artifacts from the national collections of 22 museums throughout Greece, making it the largest exhibition of its kind to tour North America in 25 years. The Greeks makes its final of two U.S. stops, and its only East Coast appearance, at the National Geographic Museum, where it opens to the public on June 1.

“The Greeks is the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of Greek history and culture to visit North America in a generation,” said Kathryn Keane, vice president of Exhibitions at the National Geographic Society. “From their Bronze Age beginnings to the height of classical civilization, the Greeks and the traditions they founded continue to have a profound impact on our lives today.”

The exhibition contains more than 500 magnificent artifacts, many of which have never been displayed outside of Greece. Curator favorites include iconic stone figurines from the Cycladic Islands; gold funerary masks and other treasures from Mycenae; classical marble statues from the Acropolis Museum of Greek poets, athletes and heroes; and brightly painted ceramic vases featuring scenes from Greek mythology and daily life.

Museum visitors will experience the exhibition through the eyes of the ancient Greeks. Some are well-known even today — Odysseus, Homer, Agamemnon, Leonidas, Socrates, Pericles, Philip II and Alexander — with their achievements recorded in epic poems, historical writings and mythological stories. But many of the people featured in the exhibition remain unnamed and known to us only through the archaeological record: a priestess of Mycenae, a warrior of the Iron Age, two noble women of the Archaic period and an athlete of the classical era. The objects buried with these individuals provide insights into their lives and the roles they played within their respective families and societies.

Woven throughout the exhibition are the inventions, innovations and institutions that provide the foundation for much of Western culture. Scholars today trace the origins of modern democracy; the Olympic movement; and Western philosophy, poetry and theater back to Greece. Even many of the monuments of Washington, D.C., owe their architectural style to the mathematicians, builders and sculptors of ancient Greece.

The Greeks was developed by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports (Athens, Greece), The National Geographic Museum (Washington, D.C.), the Field Museum (Chicago), the Canadian Museum of History (Gatineau, Canada), and Pointe-à-Callière Montréal Archeology and History Complex (Montréal, Canada). More information about The Greeks at the National Geographic Museum can be found here: http://natgeo.org/thegreeks. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities.

In addition to this exhibition, National Geographic is producing a three-hour series “The Greeks,” which will air nationally on PBS, starting June 21, 2016 at 9 p.m. (check local listings). A rich complement of publications and public programming related to the exhibition will also be announced in early May. Special events will include an engaging Nat Geo Liveevent featuring Caroline Alexander, author of the recently published and critically acclaimed English translation of “The Iliad.”

The National Geographic Museum, 1145 17th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., is open every day (except Dec. 25) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is $15 for adults; $12 for National Geographic members, military, students, seniors and groups of 25 or more; $10 for children ages 5-12; and free for local school, student and youth groups (18 and under; advance reservation required). Tickets may be purchased online at http://natgeo.org/thegreeks; via telephone at (202) 857-7700; or in person at the National Geographic Museum, 1145 17th Street, N.W., between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. For more information on group sales, call (202) 857-7281.

(press.nationalgeographic.com)

May 31, 2016