Η γαλλο-ιρανή συγγραφέας και σκηνοθέτιδα Μαρζάν Σατραπί, γνωστή κυρίως για το αριστουργηματικό γραφικό μυθιστόρημα και ταινία «Περσέπολις», απεβίωσε σε ηλικία 56 ετών, όπως πληροφορήθηκε το Γαλλικο Πρακτορείο την Πέμπτη από μέλος του στενού της κύκλου. «Η Μαρζάν Σατραπί πέθανε από θλίψη, λίγο περισσότερο από ένα χρόνο μετά τον θάνατο του Ματτίας Ρίπα, του συζύγου της και του έρωτα της ζωής της», ανέφεραν σε δήλωση που έστειλαν στο AFP. Ο σύζυγος της Σατραπί, Σουηδός παραγωγός, ηθοποιός και σεναριογράφος, πέθανε στις 8 Απριλίου του περασμένου έτους. Μια σειρά πρόσφατων αναρτήσεων στη σελίδα της Σατραπί στο Instagram έγραφε το μήνυμα «Γιατί έχασα τον έρωτα της ζωής μου». Η Σατραπί, μια φανερή κριτικός της θεοκρατικής κυβέρνησης του Ιράν, έφτασε στη Γαλλία το 1994 και απέκτησε τη γαλλική υπηκοότητα το 2006. Το «Περσέπολις» αφηγείται την ιστορία της πρώιμης ζωής της Σατραπί στην Τεχεράνη, όπου αγωνιζόταν υπό τους περιορισμούς που επέβαλε η ισλαμική ηγεσία του Ιράν μετά την επανάσταση του 1979, πριν την στείλουν οι γονείς της στην Ευρώπη και ξεκινήσει μια ζωή στην εξορία. Πέρυσι, αρνήθηκε το γαλλικό παράσημο της Λεγεώνας της Τιμής λόγω της «υποκρισίας» της χώρας στις σχέσεις της με το Ιράν, επικαλούμενη τις γαλλικές πολιτικές για τις βίζες που εμπόδιζαν τους αντιφρονούντες να εγκαταλείψουν το Ιράν για τη γαλλική χώρα. Πηγή: Γαλλικό Πρακτορείο www.ertnews.gr

Εικόνα σταθεροποίησης εμφάνισαν οι ευρωπαϊκές μετοχές στο ξεκίνημα των συναλλαγών σήμερα, με τη σύγκρουση στη Μέση Ανατολή να διατηρεί νευρικούς τους επενδυτές. Ο πανευρωπαϊκός δείκτης STOXX 600 σημείωσε άνοδο 0,1% στις 622,17 μονάδες στις 10:19 ώρα Ελλάδας. Οι τιμές του αργού υποχώρησαν νωρίτερα καθώς το Ισραήλ και ο Λίβανος συμφώνησαν να θέσουν σε εφαρμογή κατάπαυση πυρός. www.ertnews.gr

A “Fleet” of Greek triremes is shown in a multiple image of the reconstructed ship “Olympias,” a faithful recreation of the Ancient Greek trireme that enabled the rise of Athens as a great power. Credit: EDSITEment-reconstructed /Perseus /Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;Project./Public Domain Few things on this earth are as lovely as a wooden ship with its sails unfurled, sailing on the open sea; the Ancient Greek trireme ships are no exception to this rule, but of course, they were once warships that were so deadly they enabled the rise of Athens as a great power. The graceful ships, which were propelled not only by two large sails but by three ranks of men pulling on oars, may have originated in Corinth or perhaps further afield in Phoenicia. Wherever they were first created, triremes were used by all the ancient maritime civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea, including the Phoenicians and Romans as well as the ancient Greeks. The trireme derives its name from its three rows of oars, with one man working each oar. The early trireme was a further development of the penteconter, an ancient warship with a single row of 25 oars on each side, and the bireme, a warship with two banks of oars, from Phoenicia. Triremes played an integral role in the rise of Athens as a great power Known for its speed and agility in battle, the trireme was the dominant warship in the Mediterranean from the 7th to the 4th centuries BC, after which it was largely superseded by the larger quadriremes and quinqueremes, with four and five banks of rowers. Triremes played a vital role in the history of Ancient Greece during the Persian Wars and the creation of the Athenian maritime empire — as well as its downfall in the Peloponnesian War. Modern scholarship is divided on the provenance of the trireme — although it was either Greece or Phoenicia — and the exact time it developed into the foremost ancient fighting ship. The Greek writer Clement of Alexandria, drawing on earlier works, explicitly attributes the invention of the trireme to Sidon, the great Phoenician city. According to the great historian Thucydides, the trireme was introduced to Greece by the Corinthians in the late 8th century BC; the Corinthian Ameinocles was recorded as building four such ships for the Samians. In the ancient world, naval combat relied on two methods: boarding and ramming. Rams (embolon) were fitted to the prows of warships and were used to rupture the hull of the enemy ship. The first definitive reference to the use of triremes in naval combat dates back to approximately 525 BC, when the historian Herodotus wrote that the tyrant Polycrates of Samos was able to contribute 40 triremes to a Persian invasion of Egypt for the Battle of Pelusium. Thucydides meanwhile clearly states that in the time of the Persian Wars, the majority of the Greek navies consisted of (probably two-tiered) penteconters and ploia makrá (“long ships”). In any case, by the early fifth century, the trireme was becoming the dominant type of warship in the eastern Mediterranean, The first large-scale naval battle in which triremes participated was the Battle of Lade during the Ionian Revolt, where the combined fleets of the Greek Ionian cities were defeated by the Persian fleet, composed of squadrons from their Phoenician, Carian, Cypriot, and Egyptian subjects. It was 483/2 BC, however, that saw the pivotal moment in the development of the trireme, when the Athenian statesman Themistocles persuaded the Athenian assembly to begin the construction of 200 triremes, using the income of the newly discovered silver mines at Laurion. Triremes sail to the rescue of Greece at Salamis The decisive naval clash of the Second Persian War occurred at Salamis just two years later, in September of 480 BC, where the fleet under Persian leader Xerxes was decisively defeated. This naval battle is considered by many historians to be one of the most decisive in history, bringing an end to the threat of the Persian invasion of the West. Much like the earlier battle at Thermopylae, the heroics at the Battle of Salamis have risen to legendary status, as the allied Greek city-states used approximately 370 trireme ships, and the Persians had over 1,000, according to ancient sources. The Persians planned to crush the outnumbered Greeks with the sheer force of their massive fleet. The leader of the Greek naval force, Themistocles, aware of the great number of Persian ships, used that fact against the enemy, luring the Persians to the narrow Strait of Salamis, where the Greek ships were waiting. Since the massive Persian fleet could not fit in the strait, they quickly became disorganized, opening up a possibility for a Greek victory. Triremes enabled the creation of Athens’ thalassocracy The source and foundation of Athens’ lasting political power was her strong fleet, which historians believe was composed of over 200 triremes. It not only secured control of the Aegean Sea and the loyalty of her allies but also safeguarded trade routes and the all-important grain shipments from the Black Sea, with the help of its standing navy of triremes. Athenian maritime power is the first example of what historians refer to as a “thalassocracy,” or complete dominion over the seas, in world history. For the crew of Athenian triremes, the ships were an extension of their democratic beliefs. In thinking of these gigantic ships propelled by manpower, we all can recall the iconic scene of slaves manning the oars of a Roman galley in the movie Ben Hur, with men struggling to keep up with the frenetic pace that was called for in order to ram other naval ships during battle. And indeed many of the men in such Roman galleys in reality were slaves — but this was emphatically not the case with the Greek triremes. In fact, serving aboard such a vessel was seen as an honor and the oarsmen were from all ranks of life, with rich and poor rowing alongside each other. Historian Victor Davis Hanson argues that this “served the larger civic interest of acculturating thousands as they worked together in cramped conditions and under dire circumstances.” Service on Athenian ships was an integral part of the military service although hired foreigners were also accepted. A typical Athenian trireme crew during the Peloponnesian War consisted of 80 citizens, 60 metics (freed slaves), and 60 foreign hands. Indeed, historians say that in the few emergency cases where slaves were used to crew ships, these were deliberately set free, usually before being employed. Experts say that the design of the trireme most likely pushed the technological limits of the time. The three files of oarsmen on each side worked as one, with each man outboard of, and in height overlapping, the other. While well-maintained triremes would last up to 25 years, during the Peloponnesian War, Athens had to build nearly 20 triremes a year to maintain their fleet of 300. Athenian triremes had two great cables called hypozomata (undergirding), stretching from end to end along the middle line of the hull just under the main beams, adding the needed support for ramming during battle. Triremes decorated with evil eyes, sculptures of deities Its draft was relatively shallow, about 1 meter, which, in addition to the relatively flat keel allowed a trireme to be beached easily — a great advantage for amphibious operations. The construction of a trireme was expensive and required approximately 6,000 man-days of labor. The three principal types of wood used were fir, pine, and cedar. Oak was primarily used for the hulls in order that they could withstand the force of being hauled ashore. In the case of Athens, since most of the fleet’s triremes were paid for by wealthy citizens, there was a natural sense of competition among the patricians to create the “most impressive” trireme, both to intimidate the enemy and, perhaps surprisingly, to attract the best oarsmen. Triremes made a fearsome and beautiful sight, as we can see from ancient depictions and reproductions of the ships today. They were highly decorated with representations of the evil eye, or mati, and had nameplates, and painted figureheads. These decorations were used both to show the wealth of the patrician and to make the ship frightening to the enemy. The home port of each trireme was shown with pride by the wooden statue of a deity placed above the bronze ram on the front of the ship. The resurrection of the trireme in Greece Triremes had two masts, a main (histos megas) and a small foremast (histos akateios), with square sails, while steering was provided by two steering oars at the stern, with one at the port side and one to starboard. Classical sources indicate that the trireme was capable of sustained speeds of about 6 knots at a relatively leisurely pace of rowing. There is also a reference by Xenophon to a single day’s voyage from Byzantium to Heraclea Pontica, which translates as an average speed of 7.37 knots. In Athens, the ship’s captain, known as the trierarchos, would have been a wealthy Athenian citizen. He alone was responsible for manning, fitting out, and maintaining the ship for his liturgical year at least; the ship itself belonged to Athens. During the Hellenistic period, the relatively lightweight trireme was supplanted by larger warships in dominant navies, especially the quinquereme, while triremes continued to be the mainstay of smaller navies. Although the Hellenistic kingdoms did develop the quinquereme and even larger ships, most navies of the Greek mainland and the smaller colonies could only afford triremes. They were used by the Diadochi Empires and sea powers like Syracuse, Carthage, and later Rome. In 1985–1987 a shipbuilder in Piraeus, advised by historian J. S. Morrison and naval architect John F. Coates and informed by evidence from underwater archaeology, built an Athenian-style trireme, Olympias. The work was also advised by the classics teacher Charles Willink and drew on evidence gained from Greek literature, history of art, and archaeology above and below water. The Olympias’ bronze bow ram, a copy of an original ram now in the Piraeus archaeological museum, weighs 200 kg. The ship was built from Douglas fir and Virginia oak while its keel is of iroko hardwood. During its sea trials, in 1987, the Olympias was crewed by 170 volunteer oarsmen and oarswomen. She achieved a speed of 9 knots (17 km/h). These results, achieved with an inexperienced, mixed crew, suggest that ancient historians like Thucydides were not exaggerating about the capabilities of triremes. Olympias was transported to Britain in 1993, to take part in events celebrating the 2,500 years since the beginning of democracy. In 2004 she was used to transport the Olympic Flame ceremonially from the port of Keratsini to the main port of Piraeus, as the Olympic Torch Relay approached Athens for the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Farantouri shared details about her highly anticipated concert alongside electronic music pioneer Lena Platonos. Illustration: Greek Reporter Legendary Greek vocalist Maria Farantouri has teased a groundbreaking upcoming performance, revealing that she will be singing passages from Plato’s Republic set to techno music. Speaking to the camera on the morning show Buongiorno, Farantouri shared details about her highly anticipated concert alongside electronic music pioneer Lena Platonos, scheduled for June 19 at the historic Odeon of Herodes Atticus. The ambitious program will feature three major works that bridge ancient text, contemporary composition, and electronic soundscapes. Farantouri noted that the performance will seamlessly blend modern musical elements guaranteed to thrill younger audiences. “Lena Platonos and I are preparing a truly historic concert,” Farantouri said. “It connects the past with the present using very modern, electronic rhythms. I will also be singing Plato’s Republic. Lena has taken the myth of the Three Fates and set it to music—and it’s going to be techno! Young people will literally be dancing to it. It’s absolutely thrilling.” Plato’s Republic: Cornerstone of philosophy and politics Written around 375 BC, Plato’s Republic is arguably the most influential work of philosophy and political theory in Western history. Structured as a Socratic dialogue, it explores the definition of justice, the character of the just city-state, and the nature of the human soul. It is the very text that gave the world the famous “Allegory of the Cave”—Plato’s metaphor for how humanity mistakes the shadows of illusion for reality, and how the pursuit of truth requires breaking free from those chains. What makes Platonos and Farantouri’s techno adaptation so brilliantly ironic is Plato’s own complicated relationship with music. In the Republic, Plato devoted significant time to discussing the role of the arts in society, famously arguing that certain musical scales and rhythms should be banned because they could corrupt the soul or incite chaotic emotion.

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