Art & Culture

OLYMPIC GAMES MONUMENT

MONUMENT TO THE GREEK CULTURE
 ARCHITECT
GEORGE T. CHRISTIE

 A  Greek epigram written in ancient Ionian-attican script:

ΕΛΛΗΝΩΝ ΓΑΙΑ ΑΓΩΝΕΣΣΙ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΗΣ
ΠΟΙΗΣΙΝ ΤΕΛΕΕΤΑΙ  ΛΟΓΟΝ  ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΗΣ.

THE LAND OF GREEKS BY ITS STRIFES FOR DEMOCRACY
PERFECTED EVERYTHIG DONE TROUGH THE CONCEPT OF FREEDOM.

The memorial incorporates the concepts of the epigram.

ANALYSIS

The unique Greek Civilization has its sources in its position in the geopolitical map, the morphological peculiarity of the land and in the spiritual idiosyncrasy that these conditions, along with the historical developments, cultivated in the Greeks.
 TOPOLOGY (THE LAND OF GREEKS)
The land of Greece is seismogenic; to this fact it owes the diversity and charms of its natural landscape. Inland high mountains alternate with plains and the sea is seeded with endless islands.
 Engeladus as great sculptor chiseled shores and islands with Olympus and Santorinies. And haunted this country with elves and myths.

Engeladus was the god of earthquakes.

 The first a notable civilization develops in the islands,  hundreds of them inhabited, and the coastline areas,. The temperate climate contributed significantly to this end, supporting thus the greatest diversity and natural beauty, encouraging simultaneously the socializing and experimentation.
The seas that wet the land inspired the exploration and traveling, but also the frequent storms prompted the residents of the islands to a continuous search for seaworthy vessels.
From the time of the ancient Cretan civilization, which dates back to the 7th millennium b.c.e., a seaworthy people flourished which colonized the Mediterranean Sea and controlled its trade. This brought wealth and put the Greeks in constant cultural exchanges with all the then known world.

 COMMENTS ON THE WORDS OF THE EPIGRAMM

The DEMOCRACY

 In Crete, due to its natural marine protection, developed not a patriarchal system (the men were most of the time traveling), but the ancestral matriarchal system, which encouraged procedures of equality. Crete subsequently influenced the rest of Greece and so a system and appreciation for isonomy and equality developed. Along with this, the geological diversity contributed to the political Diaspora of the Greeks who were organized in autonomous communities, city-states, with a local sense of values.
The common language and ethics formed at the same time common poles and collective national consciousness.
The sanctuaries were common. (Delphi, Delos).
The great feasts were common. (Olympic Games, Pythian, Nemean, Isthmian). In these competitions, the athletes took part naked. The athletic exercise naked (gymnastic, a word that derives  from the Greek word for naked (gymnos γυμνός), characterized the Greek world, because nudity flattens differences, puts the foundation for equality and highlights the natural values ​​of the athlete.
The marine life on the other hand is based, by its nature, on personal merit and unity, emphasized the individual qualities and contributed also to the sense of equality.
All the above, cultivated in the soul of every Greek citizen and community the love for freedom as the supreme good and as the necessary condition for civilized existence. This awareness imposed democratic procedures in the decision making of Greek communities and eventually gave birth to DEMOCRACY as the desirable political system.
In Democracy nobody settled in the same office or administrative position. All citizens had the same opportunity to officiate on various posts since, in most of them, they were appointed by lot and not through elections. From this democratic procedure, and alternating officiating, the LOGOS (verbally expressed critical thought) was born and along with it the diaLOGUE and the antiLOGOUS (disputation).

 THE STRIFES

 The above highly spiritual possessions of the Greeks, and the culture that this way of life produced, inevitably induced the envy of foreign peoples. Titanic struggles followed to defend the values of Freedom. That strife lifted the civilization and the national sense of propriety to its zenith.
 THE CONCEPT (LOGOS)
 This word LOGOS, unique in Greek Literature, means the verbally express critical thinking, the crystallization and projection of internal mental processes. In each integrated method of thinking and applied knowledge the word LOGOS is often the second component. Biology, Geology, Theology, Paleontology, etc. Before proceeding in any cultural practice first the theoretical, rational aspect must be considered and mastered.
The LOGOS is perfected through diaLOGUE and antiLOGOUS (disputation) and only this ensures the function of DEMOCRACY “without fear or passion.”
The main feature of LOGOS is the METRON that is the rational analysis and measuring, the charting and the assessing of that which is under examination.

 THE DOING

 The word in the epigram is “ΠΟΙΗΣΙΝ” which means both doing and poetry. It is no coincidence that the ancient Greeks attributed the general term POETRY “doing” to poetic literature. All the other arts, sculpture, dance, architecture, etc., were named with words that describe the special practice of these arts.
The POETIC LOGOS became the exponent of Greek culture, the instigator of arts and cultural repository. But the LOGOS is tested and improved in practice. Perfected through the “doing”.
Poetry, with its limited second meaning, that of literature, carries a compact corpus of ideas, which are surrounded by the transparent dynamics of rhyme.
 THE SYMBOLS OF MONUMENT
 The monument is not based on a visible ground, but is launched from the invisible crater of the existential roots of Hellenism.
The crystal marble column is a symbol of the Greek LAND, having as satellites and guards the spears and shields of the struggles of the nation for freedom. The spiraling POETIC rhymes vibrate with the free expressions of the LOGOS and antiLOGOUS which transform it into a Doric column, a “perfect DOING”.
The final award is given by the goddess of Freedom, who lands in the peak of the Greek civilization as her eternal dwelling place.
Only the clothing and the armor of the Goddess are depicted. Her body is invisible.

Joyfully
George T. Christie