“The Sea of Erechtheus" was a sacred salty well, housed by the Temple of Erechtheion, on the Acropolis (Athens, Greece). According to the legend, it was Poseidon who produced this spring by striking the rock with his trident. It was his gift to the city of Athens, in the competition with the goddess Athena for the patronship of the city. Ancient authors suggest that this salt water well had a hydraulic communication with the Aegean Sea. Pausanias has described it as a "sea-like water" (thalassion hydor) and has also mentioned an intriguing acoustic phenomenon: the noise made by the waves at the harbour of Phalerum could be heard near the spring.
Finding sea water in a well relatively distant from the sea might be surprising for the modern reader or visitor to Athens, who knows that Acropolis is few kilometres away from the shoreline and, in addition, the hill of Acropolis rises a few tens of meters above sea level.
Since previous studies have not tackled yet the mystery of the "Sea of Erechtheus", the present paper aims to integrate ancient Greek narratives, travelogues, ancient geography, (ethno)hydrology and hydromythology, in order to provide a plausible explanation for this phenomenon. The conclusions support the validity of ancient sources and point to a regular phenomenon common to the frequent landscape of Greece: the intrusion of seawater into the coastal karst limestone aquifers.
Discover the world's research
20+ million members 135+ million publications 700k+ research projects Join for free ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.
Th e events of the Asia Minor Disaster have become a corner stone of Modern Greek historiography, while the social repercussions are neglected. Th is paper proposes to examine a sample of Modern Greek history textbooks regarding the information they provide on the social aspects of the settlement and assimilation of refugees in Greece post-1922. Since these textbooks have very little on this
... [Show full abstract] issue, possible reasons for this are off ered, as is a feasible approach to teaching this topic in history textbooks. Th e overall aim of the paper is to open a discussion on the possibility of including this social history in Greece's offi cial history textbooks, through the addi- tion of oral testimonies and fi ction according to specifi c selective criteria. Offi cial teaching of history in the Greek state tends to present Greece as a homo- geneous nation. In regards to the Asia Minor Disaster, we observe that the pres- entation is restricted to pivotal events; however, the assimilation of Asia Minor refugees1 into Greek society receives very little attention. Nevertheless, oral testi- monies and works of fi ction by refugees provide us with valuable information on their fi rst years of settlement in Greece. Both bodies of work illustrate historical experiences of the Asia Minor Disaster's aft ermath, which are missing from the offi cial teaching of history in the Greek state, in particular, the relationship between refugees and locals2 or, to be precise, the refugees' treatment by the locals. Read more April 2003 · Classical Antiquity
A familiar theme in Greek myth is that of the deadly gift that passes between a man and a woman. Analysis of exchanges between men and women reveals the gendered nature of exchange in ancient Greek mythic thinking. Using the anthropological categories of male and female wealth (with examples drawn from many cultures), it is possible to arrive at an understanding of the protocols of exchange as
... [Show full abstract] they relate to men and especially to women. These protocols, which are based in part on the distinction between metals and other durable goods as "male" and textiles as "female," are closely related to the gendered division of labor. Anxiety about women as exchangers derives in part from their status as objects exchanged in marriage (as exemplified by Helen in the Iliad), and partly from a misogynist and pessimistic strand of Greek thought (embodied by Hesiod's Pandora) that discounts any female economic contribution to the oikos. Indeed, the majority of destructive exchanges take place within the context of marital crisis. While some texts, beginning with the Odyssey, show the positive side of women's economic role, tragedy tends to follow the Hesiodic distrust of women as exchange partners. Passages from the Agamemnon and the Trachiniai are analyzed to show how in situations of perverted reciprocity brought about by marital discord, even women's traditional gifts of textiles may become deadly. Read more Article
Full-text available
December 2016 · Journal of International Social Research
Language is considered as a person's identity, both national and individual, thereby making him/her a part of a whole. Being parts of a whole, everybody feels himself/herself as an ontological entity within a specific community. This, on the basis, makes him/her feel a sense of self-respect and value, which are the principal attributions – though not the only ones – that make people feel as real
... [Show full abstract] individuals. Religion, on the other hand, is another sacred area, which should be closed to any debate in terms of its universality or reliability, for such a discussion will probably turn out to be nothing but a verbiage due to diversities in belief systems and religions. In parallel with language, religion, too, is a sign of existence for a person. Apart from that, language and religion share the biggest portion in shaping a nation's culture, which, for sure, is directly related to one's sense of identity and belonging. Nevertheless, these two crucially important facts have been demolished or distorted through colonization processes by the colonial and imperialist powers, which, in turn, have tarnished the very attributions that add to people's individuality. Moreover, while the language and religion problems help the colonizers unstrengthen the colonized more and more, these issues are also abused by the colonizers in order to alienate and assimilate the colonized. This article, hence, aims to demonstrate the colonizers' attitudes against the colonized people's language and religion, correspondingly against their identity and culture, as well as the results of these modes of colonization. View full-text November 2017 · The Journal of Asian Studies
The present parochialism of Thai studies, although partial, suggests parallels with the situation of Modern Greek studies in the early 1970s. The cultural and political conditions attendant on both in the respective time periods—especially the prudery, emphasis on bourgeois notions of respectability, and restrictions on the scope and content of scholarship—suggest that a comparative framework,
... [Show full abstract] already emergent, would benefit both Thailand and Thai studies today. Thailand and Greece both represent conditions of “crypto-colonialism,” in which the combination of adulation and resentment of powerful Western nations produces a distinctive set of attitudes. Important cultural and political consequences flow from this shared condition, as is also contrastively demonstrated by the two countries’ very different recent histories. For example, censorship, once deeply intrusive but now virtually nonexistent in Greece, was instantiated by absent voices and official surveillance at the Thai studies conference at which this article was originally presented. A defensive posture, such censorship exposes an underlying sense of political weakness and cultural embarrassment. Read more March 2018
The present chapter focuses on female education in the Greek countryside. It also seeks to explore why schooling was a taboo for the parents who were prejudiced against their daughters’ education. Another problem was the fact that the Greek villagers could not afford schooling because they were poor. Girls were destined to stay at home and serve as their mothers’ help in the household chores.
... [Show full abstract] However, there were regional specifities that determined women’s course towards schooling as the richer the place the more chances it stood for supplying the girls with knowledge. According to tables that are included in this chapter, female schooling in the Greek countryside slightly improved towards the turn of nineteenth century, and only at the beginning of the twentieth century were there some signs of clear improvement. Read more Last Updated: 05 Jul 2022
Discover the world's research
Join ResearchGate to find the people and research you need to help your work.
