Nikos Galis

Athlete (1957)

Nikos Galis is one of the greatest basketball players in the history of basketball, and one of the greatest national athletes of Greece. Born in the USA to Greek parents, he joined Aris of Thessaloniki and then Panathinaikos Athens during the late 70s to early 90s.

In 1987, Galis led the Greek national team to a gold medal in the Eurobasket and a silver medal in 1989. Galis and his team achieved an unbelievable 80 game winning streak, winning eight Greek League Championships, seven of which were consecutive,  and six Greek cups. He received the Alphonso Ford Trophy as the EuroLeague top scorer twice, in  1991-91 and 1993-94. Among his other achievements are being the all-time leader of the EuroLeague both in scored points and points per game,  shooting 13/13 in 1993 against his former team Aris Thessaloniki, scoring more than 55 points 10 times in a game, and being the Greek cup all-time scoring leader (33.5). He holds the FIBA Basketball World Cup record for highest career scoring average (33.5 per game) and the record for most points scored in a single tournament (33.7). Galis won the Mister Europa European Player of the Year award and the Euroscar in the same year. In 1987 he was named Mediterranean Player of the Year as well as the world’s 10th best athlete from all sports.  He is one of six Euroscar European winners to have been inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame and was chosen among the 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors and FIBA’s 50 Greatest Players in 1991.

After his retirement, Galis founded a basketball camp in Greece where 3000 kids participate annually. Today, he is considered a basketball legend, being highly respected among the global basketball community. Former basketball player, coach, and brother of basketball legend Dražen Petrović had said: “Although Drazen is my brother, for the best athlete of 1987, I voted for Galis.”

Bibliography

1. Psarakis, Yiannis. ”Nikos Galis – Europe’s Greatest -Ever Scorer”. Fibaeurope. Web. 22 July, 2016.

Kostis Palamas

Poet (1859 – 1943)

Kostis Palamas was a poet, writer, playwright, journalist and scholar, recognized worldwide as the modern national poet of Greece. His works, primarily The King’s Flute and Twelve Lays of the Gypsy are an everlasting consignment to Hellenism and world literature, which have rendered him an immortal symbol of the Greek letters.

Palamas wrote his first poem at the age of 9 and made his debut in the literary world in 1874 at the age of 15 as a journalist writing for the newspaper “West Greece”. In 1876 he participated in a poetic contest but lost to Georgios Vizyenos and in 1888 he won first place in the poetic contest in Philadelphia for his poem Hymn to Athena. In this poem, Palamas calls the Ancient Greek spirit to rise and return as a cleansing force in the modern world.

Palamas was the founder of the New Athenian School, a dominant literary movement at the time, was general secretary of the University of Athens from 1897 until his resignation in 1929 and was one of the founding members of the Academy of Athens. He also served as President of the Academy in 1930. In 1896 the Olympic Games were revived; Palamas wrote the lyrics of the Olympic Hymn and it was set to music by Spyridon Samaras. The Olympic Anthem is always played in the Olympic Games; during the opening ceremony and during the closing ceremony.

In 1891 his 4-year-old son died of meningitis. This gave him the stimulus to write The Grave, one of the finest masterpieces of modern literature. Some years later, in 1907, Palamas published the Twelve Lays of the Gypsy in which during the final years of the Byzantine Empire and the dawn of the Renaissance, a gypsy with new theories and symbols rejects the ideas and religions of the old world to bring redemption to humanity and ultimately lytrosis. With the fall of the old world, the gypsy is revived three times by the immortal values: Love, Fatherland and the Gods. Palamas saw the gypsy as himself; with his indomitable nature and free spirit the gypsy displays contempt to the old values and ideas of society and envisions the rebirth of the man of the future.

In 1910 Palamas published another one of his most successful works The King’s Flute. In the poem, Palamas calls for the need of the return of the heroic spirit as he believed that only with the spirit of self-sacrifice could the Hellenic nation be reborn and reclaim its lost lands. The poem took 26 years to finish and its impact on Greece was massive; it influenced the Greek nation during the Balkan Wars in 1912, which resulted in the doubling of Greece’s borders. Palamas’ heroic epic was written after a long and meticulous study of the Greek Middle Ages and the demotic songs. With his polymathy, he connected all of the three eras of Greek history together and embodied all of Hellenism.

Palamas’ collection is massive. He had lived long enough to live through Greece’s most troubled times in modern history; these situations stimulated him differently to write poems which covered a vast spectrum of themes. Some of his most notable ones are Songs of my Fatherland, Iambs and Anapests, The Greetings of the Sun-born, The Nights of Phemius, Satirical Exercises, Altars and I Asaleuti Zoi. Throughout his poems, Palamas constantly emphasises on the return to the Ancient Greek spirit and its values, to become a practical part of modern society’s lifestyle. He was the most ardent proponent of all the poets of the Megali Idea and the rebirth of the nation. He was nominated for the Nobel prize 14 times.

Having lived through the loss of both parents at the age of 7, the loss of his son and the loss of his wife, Palamas died in 1943 during the German Axis Occupation. His funeral was attended by more than 33.000 citizens and was transformed into a peaceful but powerful demonstration against the axis. All the people were crying in deep emotion not from sadness for the death of their poet, but because they knew that freedom was coming.

Bibliography

1. “Palamas, Kostis”. Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Passas, I. Athens: 1946. Print.

Georgios Papanikolaou

Physician (1883 – 1962)

He was born in 1883 in Cyme as the son of a politician and member of the Hellenic Parliament. At the age of 15 he began studying medicine at the University of Athens and by the age of 21 he had received his degree. In 1907 he went to Germany and took lessons in Biology. He continued his studies in the University of Munich where he conducted research and was made an assistant professor of natural sciences. He continued his career in Monaco where he worked as an oceanographer.

With the start of the Balkan Wars in 1913, Papanikolaou returned to Greece and served in the army for the liberation of the Greek subjugated lands. In the same year he departed to the United States to pursue his life-long dream of becoming a researcher. Having only 250 dollars, the couple faced financial issues, which forced Papanikolaou to abandon his dream in order to survive. He played the violin in small taverns and sold carpets to make a living.

Eventually Papanikolaou’s papers were cited and he was hired as an assistant preparer in the University Hospital of Cornell. He worked as an assistant professor of Anatomy and slowly began rising in the hierarchy, becoming an associate professor and ultimately a full time professor in Anatomy, Histology and Pathology but without having been assigned teaching duties, for he was dedicated to research. His research on alcohol was decisive on the alcohol prohibition in 1920. The same year, news about his achievements reached Greece. Prime Minister Eleutherios Venizelos offered him to become a Professor of Medicine in the University, which he declined. He continued his researches in the same university on genetics and sex hormones.

The year 1928 was a landmark for modern medicine. Georgios Papanikolaou’s thesis “Diagnosis of Cancer of the uterus by cervical smears” was published. It was the groundbreaking discovery which led to the so-called Pap smear, the main diagnostic method for cervical cancer used successfully to this day. With this discovery, Papanikolaou was opening the gates to a new science called Exfoliative Cytology, a sub-specialty of Pathology. Unfortunately, Papanikolaou’s method was met with utter disregard by the medical establishment as they failed to acknowledge its practical value. In spite of his hostile reception, Papanikolaou was more determined than ever to convince them otherwise.

In 1943, Papanikolaou’s discovery gained worldwide acceptance and was acknowledged by three leading universities Boston, New York and Harvard. Some years more were needed to pass in order for the method to be used routinely for the accurate diagnosis of cervical cancer. Before its application, women who were diagnosed for cervical cancer had already advanced carcinoma and prognosis was poor. Today, with the discovery of the Pap test, the diagnosis can be done before the signs and symptoms of cervical cancer appear.

Georgios Papanikolaou published over 100 research papers. He received the medal of honour from the American Cancer Society, was member of the Academy of Sciences of New York, served as Vice-President of the Council of the Cytologic Society of New York and was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Medicine. He died in 1962 at the age of 78.

Bibliography

1. “Papanikolaou, Georgios”. Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Passas, I. Athens, 1946. Print.
2. Spiroslouis1. Η μηχανή του χρόνου S04E35 Γεώργιος Παπανικολάου. Youtube. 16 Oct. 2012. 10 July. 2016.

Alexander Papagos

Field Marshal, Prime Minister of Greece (1883 – 1955)

Statesman and Field Marshal of modern Greece. He served as Commander-in-chief during the Greco-Italian war in 1940 and as Prime Minister of Greece during the final days of the civil war in 1952 until his death.

As cavalry captain he fought in the Balkan Wars during the years 1912 – 1913 and showed great courage and bravery for undertaking successfully difficult and dangerous missions, most notably in the Battle of Bizani when the Greek forces liberated the lands of Epirus. After the Balkan wars, Papagos was found in the midst of the National Schism. He was arrested and exiled for belonging to the side of the King but was eventually called up to serve as chief of staff in the Greco-Turkish war in Asia Minor in 1920 – 1922.

During the following years of political turmoil in Greece, Papagos became Minister of Defense and commanded important units of the Greek army. In 1936, Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas took over and appointed Alexander Papagos as field marshal of the Greek army. As the most willing and capable man to lead the Greek army against the Italians in Second World War in 1940, Metaxas entrusted him with the country’s defense against the invading forces. Metaxas’ rightful decision did not prove him wrong. Papagos worked day and night to prepare the Greek army for war. He managed to do so excellently in spite of the time constraints and the country’s poor economic state.

On October 28^th, 1940 the Italians declared war against Greece. It was Alexander Papagos who led the Greek army in the epic battle against the Italians in the Albanian front during the Second World War. His work on the preparations of Greece for the war was evident from the way the Greek resistance fought, which had earned the admirations of all Europe. This was later confirmed by Winston Churchill, who quoted “Greeks don’t fight like heroes, heroes fight like Greeks”.

When the front broke, Papagos rejected the king’s offer to escape with him to Cairo and remained in Greece where he formed a patriotic organization for the resistance against the German Axis Occupation. He was arrested by the Germans and sent to the concentration camps in Dachau where he remained imprisoned until the war was over. With his return to Greece, Papagos was tasked with combating the communist forces during the civil war.

Even after the civil was had ended, Papagos remained an active patriot both in the military and in politics, eventually becoming Prime Minister of Greece until his sudden death in 1955. During that time he reorganized and rectified the nation following the devastating consequences of the civil war and struggled for the unification of Cyprus with Greece. Today, Alexander Papagos is remembered for his decisive role during the most difficult years of modern Greek history as well as for his determination and struggle to keep Greece a free nation. His work was recognized by nearly all European nations, who awarded him with the highest honours.

Bibliography

1. “Papagos, Alexander”. Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Passas, I. Athens: 1946. Print.
2. Skefromaste Hellenica.”Alexandros Papagos (1883 – 1995)”.  October 4, 2013. Web. 20 June, 2016.

Aris Poulianos

Anthropologist, Archaeologist (1924)

“My mother named me Aris Poulianos, my profession over the last years is anthropologist; I study the origin of man, where he came from, and that is how I came to some conclusions…”.

Aris Poulianos’s name today is connected with some of the most groundbreaking discoveries made in the field of archaeology and paleontology. He is credited as the discoverer of the oldest human remains on the planet.

On September 1960, in a cave in Petralona, Chalkidiki, a shepherd named Philippos Chantzarides accidentally discovered a human skull and later a skeleton. After 12 years of meticulous anthropometric studies by the University of Thessaloniki, European and Japanese scientists and Aris Poulianos himself, the skeleton was revealed to be almost 750.000 years old. The skeleton, which came to be known as Archanthrope of Petralona is believed to be the transitional stage between homo erectus and homo sapiens. At the time of its discovery, it was the oldest human skeleton in Europe.

In Ptolemais, northern Greece, Poulianos discovered a whole skeleton of an elephant that had been killed by hunters using tools. The skeleton was dated 3.000.000 years old.

His greatest discovery, however, was a tibia and a fibula found in a quarry in Triglia, Chalkidiki in 1996. It pertained to the Archanthrope of Triglia, as he came to be called. The anthropometry conducted by the University of Northern Carolina revealed that the bones were dated 12.000.000 years ago, meaning that Poulianos had discovered the remains of the oldest homo erectus ever. It predated the so-called “Lucy”, which was found in Tanzania by more than 700.000 years and thus wiped out the “Out-of-Africa” theory.

Later, Poulianos would discover the oldest fire ash ever recorded in human history, again in Greece, dating back to 1.000.000 BC. These discoveries proved that this man could speak, impose laws, build weapons and form communities.

Aris Poulianos has conducted more than 20.000 anthropometries during his work as an anthropologist. Throughout his career, which has spanned more than half a century, he gave all of his fortune for the construction of a museum inside the cave where all of the artifacts were found. Today it attracts tourists from all around the world, as well as students from prestigious universities seeking to complete their doctorate. Unfortunately, many of the artifacts discovered by Poulianos, including bones of the skeletons, were taken by shady scholars and have been lost.

Poulianos’ discoveries overturned numerous mainstream theories on the origin of man as well as of the Greeks. Before his discoveries, it was believed that man originated from Africa and subsequently moved and colonized other continents. During the 19th and 20th century, it was theorized that the Greeks originated from the north as part of an Indo-European race and settled in Greece before wiping out all its previous inhabitants.

Today, thanks to the archaeological discoveries of Poulianos, it has been established that the Greeks are in fact an autochthonous race and that man as he is today first stood up in two legs and walked the earth in Greece. In his own words: “All of the peoples, the Europeans, and those that went to Africa, Asia and America, all of them began from the Greek peninsula”. “It is the place which gave the first homo erectus on Earth since 13.000.000 years. Darwin told us about Africa 3.000.000 years ago; I say here, 13.000.000 years ago”.

Bibliography

1. Ayfantis, Georgios. Anthropos & Epistimi – Enimerosis: Prehistory and History of Man, Science & Civilization. Athens: Hellinikon Selas, 2009. Print.
2. Balanthsberoia. Το Σπήλαιο των Πετραλώνων. Youtube. April 4, 2012. Web. March 25, 2016.
3. ΕΛΛΑΣ-ΑΦΥΠΝΙΣΗ -ΤΩΡΑ. Άρης Πουλιανός: Ο Βενιζέλος εξαφάνισε τα ευρήματα που ανατρέπουν την παγκόσμια ιστορία!!!. Youtube. September 22, 2014. Web. March 25, 2016.
4. Kalopoulos, Michalis. ”Αρης Πουλιανός… και ο Αρχάνθρωπος τών Πετραλώνων 11 εκατ. ετών! GreatLie. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
5. Kikkerjen. Άρης Πουλιανός για τον Αρχάνθρωπο των Πετραλώνων. Youtube. December 14, 2011. Web. March 25, 2016.
6. Zisopoulos, Dimitris. Άρης Πουλιανός. Ο Άρης των Ανθρώπων. Youtube. April 27, 2011. Web. March 25 , 2016.

Elias Venezis

Novelist (1904-1973)

One of the major novelists of modern Greece, Elias Venezis, whose actual name was Elias Mellos, was born in Ayvalik. He is considered one of the most influential novelists of the Generation of the 30’s, capturing the sociopolitical and geopolitical changes of modern Greece and the Greek genocide of 1931-1923.

Venezis was taken prisoner by the Turkish Army and sent to the amele taburu, Turkish concentration camps. His account of the tortures and sufferings endured by the Greeks were captured in great detail in his most celebrated work The Number 31328 which has been translated in many languages.

During the German occupation in Greece, he was again sent to a concentration camp in Greece where he again survived. The experiences of the Greeks in this infamous camp were documented into his play Block C which premiered in Athens in 1945. The hardships of the Greek people during the radical sociopolitical changes of the early 20th century and their persecution by the Turks and their allies were also documented in many other of his novels such as Manolis Lekas and Other Stories, Tranquility, Aeolian Earth,  and Exodus.

His works carry both historical as well emotional weight and for his contribution to modern Greek literature and history he was awarded the National Literature Prize and became a member of the Academy of Athens.

Bibliography

1. ”Venezis, Elias”. Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Passas, I. Athens: 1946. Print.
2. ”Νούμερο 31328”. mixanitouxronou.gr. 2 Jul. 2016. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.

Vangelis

Musician (1943)

Undoubtedly one of the most prolific composers of our time, Vangelis Papathanasiou is the pioneer of electronic music and the mind behind some of the most successful scores in motion picture history.

Born in Volos, Vangelis took on music from an early age and without any formal training quickly became one of the most recognizable figures of Greek music during the 60s. Later on, while relocating to Paris and London, Vangelis explored new grounds with electronic music. With the simultaneous use of 6 keyboards, Vangelis was able to broaden his musical idea, tune it with the keyboards and record it all at the same time. His distinguished musical style became an instant success, drawing the attention of renowned filmmakers.

In 1982 Vangelis won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for his work in ”Chariots of Fire”. The musical album peaked the charts of several countries, becoming one of the highest selling albums and introducing Hollywood to a new style of music. He collaborated with Ridley Scott in ”Blade Runner” and again in ”1942: Conquest of Paradise” earning Golden Globe nominations for both. Other soundtracks include Costa Gavras’s Palme d’Or winning ”Missing”, Roger Donaldson’s ”The Bounty” and Oliver Stone’s ”Alexander”.

It is not just Vangelis’s music that distinguishes him from other composers but his approach to music. He supports that music ought to drive the composer in order to have an honest and true result. To achieve this, the composer must work as a channel through which the music passes and changes from its chaotic form to its grounded form. If the composer drives the music, the result will be a product of business and not music.

Since the past decade, Vangelis has been composing music based on mathematical coordinates for NASA’s mission in space, the most recent being the Rosetta mission. He also composed music for the 2000 and 2004 Olympic games respectively.

For his promotion of Hellenism throughout the word, Vangelis Papathanasiou has received numerous accolades and awards, with his music being his biggest honor.

Bibliography

1. Freddy279. Vangelis Papathanasiou Biography (complete). Youtube. 12 Sep. 2012. 22 Nov. 2015.
2. ”Vangelis”. IMDb, n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2015.

Unknown Soldier

“Such were these men, worthy of their country. And for you that remain, you may pray for a safer fortune, but you ought not to be less venturously minded against the enemy; not weighing the profit by an oration only, which any man amplifying, may recount, to you that know as well as he, the many commodities that arise by fighting valiantly against your enemies; but contemplating the power of the city in the actions of the same from day to day performed, and thereby becoming enamoured of it. And when this power of the city shall seem great to you, consider then, that the same was purchased by valiant men, and by men that knew their duty, and by men that were sensible of dishonour when they were in fight; and by such men, as though they failed of their attempt, yet would not be wanting to the city with their virtue, but made unto it a most honourable contribution. For having every one given his body to the commonwealth, they receive in place thereof an undecaying commendation and a most remarkable sepulchre; not wherein they are buried so much, as wherein their glory is laid up, upon all occasions both of speech and action to be remembered for ever. For to famous men all the earth is a sepulchre: and their virtues shall be testified, not only by the inscription in stone at home, but by an unwritten record of the mind, which more than of any monument will remain with every one for ever. In imitation therefore of these men, and placing happiness in liberty, and liberty in valour, be forward to encounter the dangers of war. For the miserable and desperate men, are not they that have the most reason to be prodigal of their lives; but rather such men, as if they live, may expect a change of fortune, and whose losses are greatest if they miscarry in aught. For to a man of any spirit, death, which is without sense, arriving whilst he is in vigour and common hope, is nothing so bitter as after a tender life to be brought into misery”.

Excerpt from Pericles’ Funeral Oration by Thucydides, Translated by Thomas Hobbes

Constantine P. Cavafy

Poet (1863 – 1933)

Constantine Cavafy was a poet and writer, widely regarded as one of the greatest of his time. Born in Alexandria to a Greek family of Constantinopolitan descent, Cavafy influenced modern Greek literature enormously, and is hailed to this day as a literary genius. With a collection spanning 154 poems, essays and proses, he remains the most translated modern Greek writer, with his works translated in over 15 languages.

As a youth, Cavafy lived in Constantinople and England before settling in Alexandria, where he remained for the rest of his life. He worked in the public sector, lived an unusually closed life with small social interactions and refused to publish his works openly on magazines or book forms, instead distributing them privately among friends and relatives. Nevertheless, this did not hinder him from becoming the greatest spiritual figure of Alexandria of his time. Throughout his lifetime, he garnered significant attention as a pioneer poet and was visited in his home in Alexandria by several fans, most notably Nikos Kazantzakis, who called him “one of the last flowers of a civilization”.

Traditionally, Cavafy’s works are divided into 3 groups according to the maturity of his age at which they were written. They are also classified into philosophic, erotic and historic. Hellenism and Hellenic history is a recurring theme in all of his poems. He expresses a Hellenism that is oecomenical in space and unscathed in time. Some of his most notable ones include Waiting for the Barbarians, Ithaca, The God Abandons Anthony, In Alexandria 31 B.C., Epitaph of Antiochos King of Comagene, Come O King of the Lacedaemonians, In the Boring Village, Thermopylae, Caesarion etc.

His work covers a vast array of philosophical and historical context closely associated with ancient Greek philosophy and history, blending facts with fiction in an effort to create a philosophical allegory of the present. What distinguished Cavafy from other laureates was his ability to articulate deep and most often philosophical meaning into his work without focusing primarily on the structure of the poem, such as in his acclaimed work The Windows.

Cavafy gave prominence to the Greek language as a whole by writing in an idiosyncratic style which aimed not at impressing the reader with his choice of verbs and adjectives but by challenging the reader to think and find the true meaning of the words. Therefore, his poetry focused on being didactic and exploring the Greek thought rather than impressing or evoking an emotional response. He was nominated a couple of times for the Nobel Prize of Literature and was a recipient of the Order of the Phoenix in 1926 by general Pangalos, the only form of recognition he ever received from his homeland. He died on the day of his birthday in 1933, aged 70.

Today, he is regarded unanimously as a master poet, a sage of the Greek letters with his work taught in universities all around the world, bringing the Greek language to the foreground once again.

Bibliography

1. C.P. Cavafy – The Official Website of the Cavafy Archive. cavafy.com.Web.
2. ”Kavafis, Konstantinos.” Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Passas, I. Athens: 1946. Print.
3. ”Konstantinos Kavafis.” San Simera, (n.d.). Web. 7 Oct. 2015.

Ioannis Metaxas

General, Dictator, Prime Minister of Greece (1871-1941)

The sheer brilliance of Ioannis Metaxas undoubtedly left its mark in Greek history when on October 28th, 1940, he refused to surrender the country to the Italian forces. With his strategic knowledge and bravery, Ioannis Metaxas seized power on August 4th, 1936 and led the country through a series of political and social reformations into the second World War to defend the country, its people and its glorious history from the enemy.

Responsible for the Metaxas Line, one of the largest fortification complexes at the time, Metaxas led the country to a victorious battle against the Italian invasion on March 1941 and a strong defence against the German forces during the Battle of Greece in 1941, raising the country’s national morale and determination to succeed.

While in office, Metaxas was responsible for some of the most important and innovative restructurings of the state in every field from agriculture to education and culture. Most notably:

• Founded E.O.N., a non-political youth organization in attempt to imbue the youth with the ethnic ideas and values of Hellenism, which had been subjected to years of political propaganda.
•  He established the Social Insurance Institute therefore implementing the 8-hour working schedule, the official days off-work and pension organization.
• He established hospitals and medical offices for the treatment of many diseases such as malaria, kindergartens, schools, organizations for the promotion of Greek culture (Ergatiki Hestia), food rationing for millions of children and unemployed people.
• Created airports in Thessaloniki and Crete, performed anti-flooding constructions, created aqueducts, roads, tunnels, pavements, erected schools, offices and other buildings.
• Built homes and districts for refugees.
• Established National Forests and hired guards for the protection of the wildlife and enforced the agriculture. By 1938, the cultivable acres of Greece had increased to 25.841.400 from 12.452.980 that was since 1922.
• Enforced the Greek culture by establishing organizations, institutions and cultural centres, most notably Stegi Grammaton kai Technon, organized theatrical  presentations for the first time in ancient theatres, founded the national organization for publishing school books.
• Built 1739 new schools and hired 3288 teachers.
• Developed tourism in Greece and organized promotion of the country.
• Cancelled the Greek national debt.
• Implemented the Price Control Code, by which he could control the prices of all products in the country. This way there was a regulation in the profit  between the merchant and the intermediary.
• Established protection and restoration of every archaeological artefact and monument in the country. It is interesting to note that during wartime, Metaxas ordered the protection of as much archaeological artefacts and monuments as possible by hiding them underground.
• Fought against communism, which had begun expressing anti-Hellenic ideologies.
• Fought against crime and drugs. He deployed units which uncovered drug dealing companies and confiscated huge amounts of imported drug substances. In just 5 years robberies had dropped from 82 to 13 and  assassinations had dropped from 360 to 67.
• He organized, educated and armed the Greek Army so well that in 1940 everybody in Europe was amazed from its thriumphant victories in the mountains of Epirus to such an extent that the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill proclaimed “From now on, we will not say that Greeks fight like Heroes, but that Heroes fight like Greeks”.

As the greatest political and military figure in the history of modern Greece, he encompassed every ideals that ought to encompass a political leader, taking place in battles, organizing the country’s army and defences and reforming every single field of the country, always to the benefit of the peoples and country. His act of refusing to surrender the country to the enemy, Metaxas’ OXI, is alone an act that characterizes a Great Greek. Harold Nicolson, a member of the British government said about Metaxas: “John Metaxas, who assumed in 1936 the governance of his divided country, managed in just a few years to imbue it with determination and to make it strong and capable to confront, with the nation united behind him, the greatest challenge that Greece had ever faced in its course. We the British bow in respect before the memory of this great man…”

Bibliography

1. Barbis, Kostas. “Ioannis Metaxas and Eleutherios Venizelos”. Athens: Logothetis, 2004. Print.
2. ”Metaxas, Ioannis.” Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Passas, I. Athens: 1946. Print.
3. Phoca, Ioanna. ”Works of 4th of August.” Ioannis Metaxas. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
4. Pleuris, Konstantinos. Ioannis Metaxas biography. Athens: Hilektron, 2013. Print.