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Modern Greek Folklore
Greek folklore is the folk tradition that has developed among the Greek people in and outside Greece over the centuries. Similarly to other European folklore, it includes pre-Christian pagan folklore and elements of ancient Greek mythologoy and folklore which developed from the Indo-European religion and the local Pelasgian mythology, along with Christian myths and legends that developed during the Hellenistic, Roman and medieval periods. It also shares elements with the folklore of Balkan countries such as Albanian folklore and Serbian mythology (and other southern Slavic mythology) as well as Anatolian folklore. Greek folklore consists of demotic music, legends, traditions and customs. Greek folktales include Myrsina, Anthousa, Xanthousa, Chrysomalousa, How the dragon was tricked and others, while legends include those of the nereids, the Kalikantzaros, the Lycanthrope and the Vrykolakas, which is similar to the Vampire of slavic folklore. Music and dance Greek traditio ...
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Lytras Nikiforos Carols
Lytras is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Nikiforos Lytras (1832–1904), Greek painter * Nikolaos Lytras (1883–1927), Greek painter * Orfeas Lytras (born 1998), Greek footballer {{surname Greek-language surnames ...
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Turkish Folklore
The tradition of folklore—folktales, jokes, legends, and the like—in the Turkish language is very rich, and is incorporated into everyday life and events. Turkish folklore Nasreddin Hoca Perhaps the most popular figure in the tradition is Nasreddin, (known as ''Nasreddin Hoca'', or "teacher Nasreddin", in Turkish), who is the central character of thousands of jokes. He generally appears as a person who, though seeming somewhat stupid to those who must deal with him, actually proves to have a special wisdom all his own: One day, Nasreddin's neighbor asked him, "Teacher, do you have any forty-year-old vinegar?" —"Yes, I do," answered Nasreddin.—"Can I have some?" asked the neighbor. "I need some to make an ointment with."—"No, you can't have any," answered Nasreddin. "If I gave my forty-year-old vinegar to whoever wanted some, I wouldn't have had it for forty years, would I?" Similar to the Nasreddin jokes, and arising from a similar religious milieu, are the Bekta ...
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Pontus (region)
Pontus or Pontos (; el, Πόντος, translit=Póntos, "Sea") is a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in the modern-day eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region and its mountainous hinterland (rising to the Pontic Alps in the east) by the Greeks who colonized the area in the Archaic period and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: ''(')'', "Hospitable Sea", or simply ''Pontos'' () as early as the Aeschylean ''Persians'' (472 BC) and Herodotus' ''Histories'' (circa 440 BC). Having originally no specific name, the region east of the river Halys was spoken of as the country ''()'', lit. "on the uxinosPontos", and hence it acquired the name of Pontus, which is first found in Xenophon's ''Anabasis (Xenophon), Anabasis'' (). The extent of the region varied through the ages but generally extended from the borders of Colchis (modern western Georgia (country), Georgia) until well into Paphlagonia in the west, with ...
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Byzantine Lyra
The Byzantine lyra or lira ( gr, λύρα) was a medieval bowed string musical instrument in the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. In its popular form, the lyra was a pear-shaped instrument with three to five strings, held upright and played by stopping the strings from the side with fingernails. The first known depiction of the instrument is on a Byzantine ivory casket (900–1100 AD), preserved in the Bargello in Florence (''Museo Nazionale, Florence, Coll. Carrand, No.26''). Versions of the Byzantine lyra are still played throughout the former lands of the Byzantine Empire: Greece ( Politiki lyra, lit. "lyra of the City" i.e. Constantinople), Crete (Cretan lyra), Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Croatia ( Dalmatian Lijerica), Italy (Calabrian lira) and Armenia. History The most likely origin is the pear-shaped pandura, however with the introduction of a bow. The first recorded reference to the bowed lyra was in the 9th century by the Persian geographer ...
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Byzantine Music
Byzantine music (Greek: Βυζαντινή μουσική) is the music of the Byzantine Empire. Originally it consisted of songs and hymns composed to Greek texts used for courtly ceremonials, during festivals, or as paraliturgical and liturgical music. The ecclesiastical forms of Byzantine music are the best known forms today, because different Orthodox traditions still identify with the heritage of Byzantine music, when their cantors sing monodic chant out of the traditional chant books such as the Sticherarion, which in fact consisted of five books, and the Irmologion. Byzantine music did not disappear after the fall of Constantinople. Its traditions continued under the Patriarch of Constantinople, who after the Ottoman conquest in 1453 was granted administrative responsibilities over all Eastern Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire. During the decline of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, burgeoning splinter nations in the Balkans declared autonomy or autocephaly fr ...
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Slavic Folklore
Slavic folklore encompasses the folklore of the Slavic peoples from their earliest records until today. Folklorists have published a variety of works focused specifically on the topic over the years.See, for example, Kononenko 2007. See also * Vladimir Propp, Russian folklorist who specialized in morphology * Supernatural beings in Slavic religion * Deities of Slavic religion Notes References *Kononenko, Natalie O. 2007. ''Slavic Folklore: A Handbook''. Greenwood Press Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood (stylized ABC-CLIO/Greenwood), is an educational and academic publisher (middle school through university level) which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as Gr .... Slavic Folk Tales(en) {{Folklore-stub ...
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Vampire
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited while they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century. Vampiric entities have been Vampire folklore by region, recorded in cultures around the world; the term ''vampire'' was popularized in Western Europe after reports of an 18th-century mass hysteria of a pre-existing folk belief in the Balkans and Eastern Europe that in some cases resulted in corpses being staked and people being accused of vampirism. Local variants in Eastern Europe were also known by different names, such as ''shtriga'' in Albanian mythology, Albania, ''vrykolakas'' in G ...
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Vrykolakas
Vrykolakas (Greek βρυκόλακας, pronounced ), also called vorvolakas or vourdoulakas, is a harmful, undead creature in Greek folklore. It shares similarities with numerous other legendary creatures, but is generally equated with the vampire of the folklore of the neighbouring Slavic countries. While the two are very similar, a ''vrykolakas'' eats flesh, particularly livers, rather than drinking blood, which combined with other factors such as its appearance bring it more in line with the modern concept of a zombie or ghoul. Etymology The word ''vrykolakas'' is derived from the Bulgarian word ''vǎrkolak''. The term is attested in other Slavic languages such as Slovak ''vlkolak'', Serbian '' vukodlak'', ultimately derived from Proto-Slavic '' vьlkolakъ'' and cognates can be found in other languages such as Lithuanian '' vilkolakis'' and Romanian ''vârcolac''. The term is a compound word derived from Slovak vlk, Bulgarian вълк (''vâlk'')/ Serbian вук (''vuk''), ...
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Werewolf
In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction (often a bite or the occasional scratch from another werewolf) with the transformations occurring on the night of a full moon. Early sources for belief in this ability or affliction, called lycanthropy (), are Petronius (27–66) and Gervase of Tilbury (1150–1228). The werewolf is a widespread concept in European folklore, existing in many variants, which are related by a common development of a Christian interpretation of underlying European folklore developed during the Christendom, medieval period. From the early modern period, werewolf beliefs also spread to the New World with colonialism. Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in European witchcraft, witches, in the ...
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Kallikantzaros
The ''kallikantzaros'' ( el, καλικάντζαρος; bg, караконджул; sr-Cyrl-Latn, караконџула, separator=" / ", karakondžula; tr, karakoncolos), or ''kallikantzaroi'' in plural is a malevolent goblin in Southeast European and Anatolian folklore. Stories about the ''kallikantzaros'' or its equivalents can typically be found in Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia, and Cyprus. ''Kallikantzaroi'' are believed to dwell underground but come to the surface during the twelve days of Christmas, from 25 December to 6 January (from the winter solstice for a fortnight, during which time the sun ceases its seasonal movement). Etymology The term ''kallikantzaros'' is speculated to be derived from the Greek ''kalos-kentauros'' ("beautiful centaur"), although this theory has been met with many objections. A second theory proposes that the word comes from Turkish ''kara-kondjolos'' "werewolf, vampire", from ''kara'' "black" and ''koncolos'' "bloo ...
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Nereid
In Greek mythology, the Nereids or Nereides ( ; grc, Νηρηΐδες, Nērēḯdes; , also Νημερτές) are sea nymphs (female spirits of sea waters), the 50 daughters of the 'Old Man of the Sea' Nereus and the Oceanids, Oceanid Doris (mythology), Doris, sisters to their brother Nerites (mythology), Nerites. They often accompany Poseidon, the god of the sea, and can be friendly and helpful to sailors (such as the Argonauts in their search for the Golden Fleece). Etymology The synonyms Νηρηΐδες and Νημερτές are etymologically unrelated. Νηρηΐδες is a patronymic, describing them as the daughters of Nereus. Νημερτές means literally 'not-mistaking', and there is an adjective of the same form meaning 'clear', 'unmistakable', or 'true'. Mythology The Nereids symbolized everything that is beautiful and kind about the sea. Their melodious voices sang as they danced around their father. They are represented as beautiful women, crowned with branc ...
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How The Dragon Was Tricked
''How the Dragon was Tricked'' is a Greek fairy tale collected by Johann Georg von Hahn in ''Griechische und Albanesische Märchen''. Andrew Lang included it in ''The Pink Fairy Book''. It is Aarne-Thompson type 328, the boy steals the giant's treasures.Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. ''The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography''. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. pp. 119–120. Synopsis An older brother was jealous of his younger brother and one day tied him to a tree to be rid of him. An old, humpbacked shepherd saw him and asked him why; the younger brother said it was to straighten out his back, and persuaded the shepherd to be tied there in his place. Then he drove off the sheep. He persuaded a horse boy and a driver of oxen to come with him. He played many tricks and became famous. The king captured him, said he had earned death, and promised to spare him if he brought him the dragon's flyi ...
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