Front cover of Maragos’ book, The Teacher of Arcadia. Courtesy Thodoros Maragos   Prologue: From Hellas to Greece   My artist friend Evi Sarantea from the island of Euboea introduced me to the Greek cinematographer Thodoros Maragos. I watched several of his documentaries. They are political and philosophical. They are commentaries on the history and politics of the 200-year-old modern Greek state and society. They zero in on foreign influence, which shaped the politics and economics of Greece. The tragedy of this country in the third decade of the twenty-first century, tied to foreign debt and perpetual humiliation, is that it is the same country that, in the classical age of some 3,000 to 2,500 years ago and in the Alexandrian Era, 2,300 to 2,000 years ago, gave us the rule of law, democracy, philosophy, the Parthenon, beautiful arts, architecture, theater, the Olympics, Aristotle, science, Alexander the Great, advanced technology of the Antikythera computer of genius,...

  Apotheosis of Homer by Archelaos of Priene, c. 225 BCE. BM. Public Domain.       Prologue   More than any other Greek, Homer (The Poet), Aristotle (The Philosopher), and Alexander the Great (the military genius and pillar of Hellenism), made Hellas / Greece equivalent to civilization.    The epics of Homer   The epic poems of Homer inspired the Greeks for millennia. [1]  The first epic, the Iliad, tells the story of the Trojan War, according to which, about hundreds of Achaean / Greek ships from all over Hellas carried soldiers to Troy in Asia Minor in order to avenge the abduction of Helen by Paris, a prince of Troy. Helen was the daughter of Zeus and wife of King Menelaos of Sparta. This woman was so beautiful that all important leaders of Greece wanted her for wife. But Menelaos won the lottery. To maintain peace, the unlucky suitors of Helen promised that if anyone tried to take Helen away from Menelaos, they would come to his aid....

Anthropogenic dangers of climate change. US Fifth National Climate Assessment, Nov. 14, 2023.  Prologue I watched  President Joe Biden  delivering his March 7, 2024 State of the Union speech. “My lifetime,” he said, “has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. A future based on the core values that have defined America: honesty, decency, dignity, equality. To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor. Now some other people my age see a different story: an American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. That’s not me.”   There’s some truth in this ideal picture of America, and I liked it. I am grateful to America for my education, which opened my eyes to see the world, especially giving me an opportunity to know myself.   January 6, 2021 – starting a civil war?  Biden is also right that the Republicans want to forget January 6, 2021. This was an unsuccessful coup inspired and guided by former President Trump, Yet...

Δρ. Εὐάγγελος Βαλλιανᾶτος Σχολή Αθηνών του Ραφαήλ (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino), 1511. Τοιχογραφία. Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Μουσείο Βατικανού. Δημόσιος τομέας. Οι Έλληνες στοχαστές περιλαμβάνουν τους φιλόσοφους Επίκουρο, Πυθαγόρα, Παρμενίδη, Σωκράτη, και Πλάτωνα και  Αριστοτέλη (κέντρο), τον Βασιλέα της Αιγύπτου Πτολεμαίο, τους θεούς Απόλλωνα και Αθηνά, τους φιλόσοφους Ηράκλειτο, Διογένη της Σινώπης, τον Πλωτίνο και την Υπατία (κάτω αριστερά με λευκό πέπλο) και τον Μέγα Αλέξανδρο (άνω αριστερά). Ο μαθηματικός Ευκλείδης σχεδιάζει κάτι γεωμετρικό, κάτω δεξιά με κόκκινο πέπλο.   Πρόλογος   Όλες οι παραδόσεις είναι ανθρώπινες εφευρέσεις που διαρκούν για λίγο ή, μερικές φορές, για πάντα. Μερικές από αυτές τις καινοτομίες είναι εξαιρετικά χρήσιμες και διαρκούν, άλλες εξαφανίζονται, μόνο για να αντικατασταθούν από καλύτερες εναλλακτικές. Δεν γνωρίζουμε πότε ξεκίνησαν οι παραδόσεις, πόσο μάλλον η ιστορία. Υπάρχουν περίοδοι ανθρώπινης δραστηριότητας που χρονολογούνται στην προϊ...