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Greek Writers

Ancient period

• Aeschylus
• Alcaeus
• Alcman
• Anacreon
• Apollodorus
• Apollonius Rhodius
• Aristophanes
• Callimachus
• Cassius Dio
• Euripides
• Eusebius of Caesarea
• Hecataeus of Miletus
• Hecataeus of Abdera
• Hesiod
• Homer
• Longus
• Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, frequently called Lucan
• Menander
• Pausanias
• Pindar
• Polycarp
• Sappho
• Sophocles
• Theocritus

Medieval period

• Anna Comnena
• Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus
• Isaac of Nineveh
• John of Damascus
• Michael Psellos
• Procopius
• Zozimus

Modern period

Andreas Kalvos (Greek: Ἀνδρέας Κάλβος; 1792 - November 3, 1869) was a contemporary of Dionysios Solomos and one of the greatest Greek writers of the 19th century.

Manolis Anagnostakis (10 March 1925 – 23 June 2005) was a Greek poet and critic at the forefront of the Marxist and existentialist poetry movements arising during and after the Greek Civil War in the late 1940s. Anagnostakis was a leader amongst his contemporaries and influenced the generation of poets immediately after him. His poems have been honored in Greece's national awards and arranged and sung by contemporary musicians. 

Constantine P. Cavafy, also known as Konstantin or Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis, or Kavaphes (Greek Κωνσταντίνος Π. Καβάφης) (April 29, 1863 – April 29, 1933) was a renowned modern Greek poet who lived in Alexandria and worked as a journalist and civil servant. In his poetry he examined critically some aspects of Christianity, patriotism, and homosexuality, though he was not always comfortable with his role as a nonconformist. He published 154 poems; dozens more remained incomplete or in sketch form. His most important poetry was written after his fortieth birthday.

Kiki Dimoula (Greek: Κική Δημουλά) (born Athens 1931) is an acclaimed Greek poet. She worked as a clerk for the Bank of Greece. She was married to the poet Athos Dimoulas (1921-1985), with whom she had two children. Since 2002, Dimoula is a member of the Academy of Athens.

She has been awarded the Greek State Prize twice (1971, 1988), as well as the Kostas and Eleni Ouranis Prize (1994) and the Αριστείο Γραμμάτων of the Academy of Athens (2001). She is to be awarded the European Literature Prize for 2010. Her poetry has been translated into English, French, German, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, and many other languages.

Odysseas Elytis (Greek: Οδυσσέας Ελύτης) (November 2, 1911—March 18, 1996) was a Greek poet regarded as a major exponent of romantic modernism in Greece and the world. In 1979, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1979.

Andreas Embirikos (Greek: Ανδρέας Εμπειρίκος) (Brăila, 1901 – Athens, 1975) was a Greek surrealist poet and the first Greek psychoanalyst.

Iakovos Kambanelis or Kampanellis (born 1922) is a Greek poet, playwright, lyricist, and novelist. Born December 2, 1922 in Hora in the island of Naxos, Kambanelis is currently one of the most popular Greek artists. A survivor of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, he authored a Mauthausen cantata with music by Mikis Theodorakis. He also authored at least 12 films, two of which he directed himself. In addition, he is known as a song author. He is also a member of the board of Morfotiko Idryma Ethnikis Trapezis cultural society, along with some of the most prominent Greek artists.

Kostas Karyotakis (Greek: Κώστας Καρυωτάκης, October 30, 1896 – July 20, 1928) is considered one of the most representative Greek poets of the 1920s and one of the first poets to use iconoclastic themes in Greece. His poetry conveys a great deal of nature, imagery and traces of expressionism and surrealism. The majority of Karyotakis' contemporaries viewed him in a dim light throughout his lifetime without a pragmatic accountability for their contemptuous views; for after his suicide,the majority began to revert to the view that he was indeed a great poet. He had a significant, almost disproportionately progressive influence on later Greek poets.

 Kostis Palamas (Greek: Κωστής Παλαμάς; 13 January 1859 — 27 February 1943) was a Greek poet who wrote the words to the Olympic Hymn. He was a central figure of the Greek literary generation of the 1880s and one of the cofounders of the so-called New Athenian School (or Palamian School, or Second Athenian School) along with Georgios Drosinis, Nikos Kampas, Ioanis Polemis.

Alexandros Papadiamantis (Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος Παπαδιαμάντης) (March 4, 1851 - 3 January 1911) was a famous and influential Greek writer of the 19th century.

Ioannis (or Yannis) Psycharis (Greek Ιωάννης (Γιάννης) Ψυχάρης, French Jean Psychari, 1854-1929) was a philologist, author and promoter of Demotic Greek. Psycharis was the coiner of the term diglossia, which describes a language community's simultaneous use of the genuine mother tongue of the present day, the vernacular, and a dialect from centuries earlier in the history of the language. The vernacular is of low prestige and is discouraged or totally forbidden for written use and formal spoken use, while the obsolete dialect is of high prestige and is used for most written communication and for formal speeches by institutions of authority such as government and religious institutions. Diglossia was a major issue in Greek society and politics in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Psycharis was born to a Greek family in Odessa (territory of modern-day Ukraine), Imperial Russia on the coast of the Black Sea. Nicholas I of Russia still reigned at the time of his birth and his government exercised censorship and other controls over education, publishing, and all manifestations of public life.

Psycharis lived most of his adult life in Paris where he was employed as a professor.

Psycharis also proposed an innovative orthography for Greek which never really caught on, despite being the focus of several serious attempts at implementation continuing into the late 20th century. A beginning Modern Greek textbook for foreign students, Ellinika Tora (Greek Now), employs some of his suggestions such as substituting rho for lambda when the pronunciaton of the glide is conditioned by the other sounds around it - thus αδερφός (aderfos) instead of standard αδελφός (adelphos). While this and other of his suggestions more accurately reflect true pronunciation, they seem to have little chance of being adopted.

Yiannis Ritsos (Greek: Γιάννης Ρίτσος) (Monemvasia May 1, 1909 - Athens November 11, 1990) was a Greek poet and left-wing activist and an active member of the Greek resistance during World War II.

Giorgos or George Seferis (Γιώργος Σεφέρης) was the pen name of Geōrgios Seferiádēs (Γεώργιος Σεφεριάδης, 13 March 1900 - September 20, 1971). He was one of the most important Greek poets of the 20th century, and a Nobel laureate. He was also a career diplomat in the Greek Foreign Service, culminating in his appointment as Ambassador to the UK, a post which he held from 1957 to 1962.

Dionysios Solomos (Greek: Διονύσιος Σολωμός, 8 April 1798 - 9 February 1857) was a Greek poet from Zakynthos. He is best known for writing the Hymn to Liberty (Greek: Ὕμνος εἰς τὴν Ἐλευθερίαν, Ýmnos eis tīn Eleutherían), of which the first two stanzas on music by Nikolaos Mantzaros became the Greek national anthem in 1865. He was the central figure of the Heptanese School of poetry, and is considered the national poet of Greece - not only because he wrote the national anthem, but also because he contributed to the preservation of earlier poetic tradition and highlighted its usefulness to modern literature. Other notable poems include Ο Κρητικός (Τhe Cretan), Ελεύθεροι Πολιορκημένοι (The Free Besieged) and others. A characteristic of his work is that no poem except the Hymn to Liberty was completed, and almost nothing was published during his lifetime.

Nanos Valaoritis (born 1921) is one of the most distinguished writers in Greece today. He has been widely published as a poet, novelist and playwright since 1939, and his correspondence with George Seferis (Allilographia 1945-1968, Ypsilon, Athens 2004) has been a bestseller. Raised within a cosmopolitan family with roots in the Greek War of Independence but twice driven into exile by events, Valaoritis has lived in Greece, England, France and the United States, and as a writer and academic he has played a significant role in introducing the literary idioms of each country to the rest. The quality, the international appeal, and the influence of his work has led Valaoritis to be described as the most important poet of the Hellenic diaspora since Constantine Cavafy.

Kostas Varnalis (Greek: Κώστας Βάρναλης, 14 February 1884 – 16 December 1974) was a Greek poet.

Varnalis was born in Burgas, Bulgaria, in 1884. As his name suggests, his family originated from Varna. He completed his elementary studies in the Greek schools of Plovdiv and then moved to Athens to study literature at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. While there, he became involved in the language dispute, taking the side of the demoticists over the supportres of the katharevousa. After his graduation in 1908 he worked for some time as a teacher in Burgas, before returning to Greece and teaching in Amaliada and Athens. During the next years, he worked as a teacher and part-time journalist, also engaging in translation work. In 1913, he took part in the Second Balkan War.

In 1919 he gained a scholarship and travelled to Paris where he studied philosophy, literature and sociology. It was during his Parisian studies that he became a Marxist and reviewed his ideas on poetry in theory and in practice. His political alignment resulted in his being barred dismissed from his teaching position at the Paedagocical Academny in 1926, and to be barred from any state employment. Varnalis thus took to journalism, a profession he practised until the end of his life. In 1929, he married the poetess Dora Moatsou. In 1935, he participated in the Soviet Writers' Conference in Moscow as Greece's representative. Under the 4th of August Regime, he was sent to internal exile in Mytilene and Agios Efstratios. In 1959, he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. Varnalis died in Athens on 16 December 1974.

Vassilis Vassilikos (Greek: Βασίλης Βασιλικός, born November 18, 1934) is a prolific Greek writer and diplomat. A native of the northern Greek island of Thassos, Vassilikos grew up in Thessaloniki, graduating from law school there before moving to Athens to work as a journalist. Due to his political activities, he was forced into exile following the 1967 military coup, where he spent the next seven years.

Between 1981 and 1984 Vassilikos served as general manager of the Greek state television channel ET1. Since 1996, he has served as Greece's ambassador to UNESCO.

As an author, Vassilikos has been highly prolific and widely-translated. He has published more than 100 books, including novels, plays and poetry. His best known work is the political novel Z (1967) (English language ISBN 0-394-72990-0 or ISBN 0-941423-50-6), which has been translated into thirty-two languages and was the basis of the award-winning film Z directed by Costa-Gavras (with music by Mikis Theodorakis).

Greek Philosophers

Ancient Greek Philosophers
Anaxarchus of Abdera
Anaximander (c. 610 – c. 546 BCE)
Anaximenes of Miletus
Archimedes
Aristotle (384–322 BCE)
Athenagoras of Athens (c. 133 – 190), early Christian apologist
Celsus
Democritus (born 460 BCE)
Diogenes of Sinope (412–323 BCE)
Empedocles (490–430 BCE)
Epictetus (55 – c. 135)
Epicurus (341–270 BCE)
Epimenides
Eratosthenes
Gregory of Nazianzus
Gregory of Nyssa
Hecataeus
Heraclitus
Hypatia of Alexandria (died 415)
Irenaeus
Leucippus
Parmenides
Pherecydes
Plato (c. 427 – c. 347 BCE)
Plethon,(c. 1355 – 1452)
Plotinus
Protagoras
Pythagoras (582–496 BCE)
Socrates (470–399 BCE)
Thales of Miletus (c. 624 – 547 BCE)
Theagenes
Theophrastus
Xenophanes
Zeno of Citium (333–264 BCE)
Zeno of Elea (c. 495 – c. 430 BC)

Modern Greek Philosophers

Adamantios Korais or Coraïs (Greek: Αδαμάντιος Κοραής) (27 April 1748 – 6 April 1833) was a humanist scholar credited with laying the foundations of Modern Greek literature and a major figure in the Greek Enlightenment. His activities paved the way for the Greek War of Independence and emergence of a purified form of the Greek language, known as Katharevousa. Encyclopaedia Britannica asserts that "his influence on the modern Greek language and culture has been compared to that of Dante on Italian and Martin Luther on German".

Korais' portrait was depicted on the reverse of the Greek 100 drachmas banknote of 1978-2001.

Anthimos Gazis ('Aνθιμος Γαζῆς) was a scholar, a philosopher during the Greek Enlightenment, a cartographer and one of the heroes of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. He was born in Milies (Thessalia) in Greece in 1758 and died in 1828. His real name was Anastasios Gazalis.

Gazis studied in Greece and then he went to Constantinople where he was ordained priest.He became rector of the Greek Church of Vienna in 1797. In 1811 he received his Diploma from the “Philological Institute of Bucharest”. In 1813 Gazis was elected a Member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. His efforts were concentrated to the development of a higher education system in Greece. In 1821, he was the main figure of the Resurrection of Thessalia against the Ottomans.

He was the editor of the very first periodical in Greek, published in Vienna (The "Logios Ermis"). In 1799, he translated and published the Benjamin Martin’s “Philosophical Grammar”.

Gazis published in 1800 Vienna a map of Greece and the Balkans called [[Pinax Geographikos tes Hellados]]. It is a reduced edition of the famous map of Rigas Feraios (the Charta of Greece). He edited also a worldmap called Atlas e charte geographikes ton dyo Hemisphairion..., owned today by the National Library of Australia.

Fotis Vassileiou and Barbara Saribalidou published a book in 2006 concerning his contribution to the European higher education and lifelong learning.

Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek: Νίκος Καζαντζάκης) (February 18, 1883, Heraklion, Crete, Ottoman Empire - October 26, 1957, Freiburg, Germany) was arguably the most important and most translated Greek writer and philosopher of the 20th century. Yet he did not become well known globally until the 1964 release of the Michael Cacoyannis film Zorba the Greek, based on Kazantzakis' novel whose English translation has the same title.

Kostas Axelos (Κώστας Αξελός) (June 26, 1924 – February 4, 2010) — also spelled Costas Axelos — was a Greek philosopher. He was born in Athens and attended high school at the French Institute and the German School of Athens. He enrolled in the law school in order to pursue studies in law and economics. With the onset of World War II Alexos got involved in politics. Then during the German and Italian occupation he participated in the Greek Resistance, and later on in the Greek Civil War, as an organiser and journalist affiliated with the Communist Party (1941–1945). He was later expelled from the Communist Party and condemned to death by the right-wing government. He was arrested and escaped.

At the end of 1945 Axelos moved to Paris, France, where he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne. From 1950 to 1957 he worked as a researcher in the philosophy branch of C.R.N.S, where he was writing his dissertations, and subsequently proceeded to work in Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. From 1962 to 1973 he taught philosophy at the Sorbonne. His dissertation "Marx, penseur de la technique" (translated as "Alienation, Praxis and Techne in the Thought of Karl Marx") tried to provide an understanding of modern technology based on the thought of Heidegger and Marx and was very influential in the 1960s, alongside the philosophy of Herbert Marcuse.

Axelos was a collaborator on, columnist with, and subsequently editor of the magazine Arguments (1956–1962). He founded and, since 1960, has run the series Arguments in Edition de Minuit. He has published texts mostly in French, but also in Greek and German. His most important book is "Le Jeu du Monde" (Play of the World), where Axelos argues for a pre-ontological status of play.

 

Cornelius Castoriadis (Greek: Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης, March 11, 1922-December 26, 1997) was a Greek-philosopher, economist and psychoanalyst. Author of the The Imaginary Institution of Society, co-founder of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group and 'philosopher of autonomy'.

Nicos Poulantzas (Greek: Νίκος Πουλαντζάς; 30 September 1936  – 3 October 1979) was a Greek Marxist political sociologist. In the 1970s, Poulantzas was known, along with Louis Althusser, as a leading Structural Marxist and, while at first a Leninist, eventually became a proponent of eurocommunism. He is most well-known for his theoretical work on the state. But he also offered Marxist contributions to the analysis of fascism, social class in the contemporary world, and the collapse of the dictatorships in Southern Europe in the 1970s (e.g. Franco's rule in Spain, Salazar's in Portugal, and Papadopoulos's in Greece).

Ioannis Theodorakopoulos (Greek: Ἰωάννης Θεοδωρακόπουλος; born in 1900 in Vassaras, Lakonia - died in 1981 in Athens) was a Greek philosopher. In 1920 Theodoracopoulos traveled to Vienna to study Classical Philology and Philosophy. Subsequently, he continued his studies of philosophy in Heidelberg and receives in 1925 his Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Heidelberg.

In 1929, together with professors Konstantinos Tsatsos and Panayotis Kanellopoulos established the "Archive of Philosophy and Theory of Science" and was appointed as professor at the University of Thessaloniki (1933-1939), and at the University of Athens (1939-1968). Since 1950, and throughout these appointments, Theodoracopoulos also taught at the School of Political Science of Panteios University. He served twice as Minister of Education and Religion under the respective premierships of Kanellopoulos (1945) and Paraskeuopoulos (1966).

In 1960 he became a regular member of the Athens Academy and became its President in 1963 and Secretary General 1966-1981. In 1975 he established the Liberal School of Philosophy "Plethon" in his home town of Magoula-Sparta in Lakonia, organising international conferences and symposia. These highly successful events drew participants from all over Greece and Theodoracopoulos himself taught a series of seminars up to his death. Theodorakopoulos was published widely including 53 books and copious articles.

Christos Yiannaras (Greek: Χρήστος Γιανναράς, also transliterated Giannaras) is an important Greek philosopher and writer of more than 50 books, translated into many languages.

Greek painters

El Greco (1541 – April 7, 1614) was a painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" (The Greek) was a nickname, a reference to his Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος (Doménikos Theotokópoulos).

El Greco was born in Crete, which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, and the centre of Post-Byzantine art. He trained and became a master within that tradition before travelling at age 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done. In 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best known paintings.

El Greco's dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century. El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting.

Antonio Vassilacchi, called Il Aliense (Αντώνιος Βασιλάκης) (1556-1629), was a Greek painter, who worked mostly in Venice and the Veneto.

Theophilos Hatzimihail (born ca. 1870, Vareia, near Mytilene, island of Lesbos, Greece; – died, Vareia, 22 March; 1934), known simply as Theophilos, was a major folk painter of Neo-Hellenic art. The main subject of his works are Greek characters and the illustration of Greek traditional folklife and history.

Demetrios Galanis (1880-1966) was an early twentieth century Greek artist and contemporary and friend of Picasso. In 1920, the year he completed his `Seated Nude', he exhibited alongside such major figures of modern art as Matisse and Braque, while from 1921 on he also exhibited alongside Juan Gris, Dufy, Chagall and Picasso.

By the early 1920s Galanis was famous in France and preparing for shows in Brussels, London, and New York. In 1920-21 he frequently exhibited in Paris and in 1922 his first one-man exhibition received the enthususiastic critical response that established his reputation. 'Seated Nude' was among the pictures exhibited, and in an introduction to the exhibition André Malraux described the artist's work as "having the power to stir emotions equivalent to that of Giotto."

This show established Galanis’ reputation as a painter and confirmed the favourable opinions already expressed on the quality of his work. Critics of his time paid much more attention to his figurative work than his landscapes, confirming the well-established view that Galanis’ first and foremost concern was his love for the human form.

Galanis received greater critical acclaim abroad in his lifetime than any other Greek modern artist of the early 20th century. The French state honoured him with the highest distinctions: full professor at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris and a life-long member of the Académie française.

Having moved to Paris in 1900, living close to Montmartre for fifty years in Rue Cortot, Galanis developed his artistic talent beyond painting. He was also known for his illustrative wood engravings in books, such as the Heritage Press edition of Sophocles' Oedipus the King and the Cresset Press edition of John Milton's Paradise Lost.

The most significant collection of Galanis' work can be found at the Teloglion Foundation at theAristotle University of Thessaloniki, though examples can also be found in London's Tate Gallery. Galanis' most famous Seated Nude sold at auction for $221,860 in May 2006.

Nikolaos Gyzis (Greek: Νικόλαος Γύζης, 1 March 1842 - 4 January 1901) is considered one of Greece's most important 19th-century painters. He is most famous for his work Eros and the Painter, his first genre painting. It was auctioned in May 2006 at Bonhams in London, being last exhibited in Greece in 1928. He is the major representative of the so-called "Munich School", the major 19th-century Greek art movement.

Nikiphoros Lytras (1832–1904) was a nineteenth century Greek painter born in Tinos, and trained in Athens at the School of Arts. In 1860 he won a scholarship to Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Munich. After completing these studies, he became a professor at the School of Arts in 1866, a position he held for the rest of his life. He remained faithful to the precepts and principles of the academaism of Munich, while paying greatest attention both to ethographic themes and portraiture. His most famous portrait was of the royal couple, Otto and Amalia, and his most wel-known landscape a depiction of the region of Lavrio.

Nikos Engonopoulos (Greek: Νίκος Εγγονόπουλος; October 21, 1907 – October 31, 1985) was a modern Greek painter and poet. He is one of the most important members of the Greek Generation of the '30s as well as a major representative of the surrealistic movement in Greece. His work as a writer also includes critique and essays.

Yiannis Moralis (Greek: Γιάννης Μόραλης) (23 April 1916 – 20 December 2009) was an important Greek visual artist and part of the so-called "Generation of the 30s".

Over the years, Moralis was also involved with creating theatrical set and costume designs for the Greek National Theatre and the Greek National Ballet; illustrating poetic works by Odysseas Elytis and Giorgos Seferis; and decorating architectural works such as the façade of the Athens Hilton, the Metro-Station "Panepistimiou" and the Athens Central Station.

Dimitris Mytaras is a Greek artist born in Chalkis in 1934 and is considered one of the important Greek painters of the 20th century.

His work is mainly inspired by the human figure, and a combination of naturalism and expressionism. From the 1960s onward, Mytaras moved in the direction of Critical Realism, while from 1975 an expressionistic approach became more and more marked in his output.

During the time of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974, Mytaras sought to comment critically on Greek life through a series of realistic works entitled Photographic Documents.

In later life he turned towards classical themes.

Mytaras was also selected to create one of the official posters for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Spyros Vassiliou (1902-1985) was a Greek painter, printmaker, illustrator, and stage designer. He became widely recognized for his work starting in the 1930s, when he received the Benaki Prize from the Athens Academy. The recipient of a Guggenheim Prize for Greece (in 1960), Spyros Vassiliou's works have been exhibited in galleries throughout Europe, in the United States, and Canada.

Marie Euphrosyne Spartali, later Stillman (10 March 1844 – 6 March 1927), was a British Pre-Raphaelite painter of Greek descent, arguably the greatest female artist of that movement. During a sixty-year career she produced over one hundred works, contributing regularly to galleries in Great Britain and the United States.

Yannis Tsarouchis (13 January 1910-1989) was a Greek painter.

Born in Piraeus, he studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1929-1935). He was also a student of Photios Kontoglou, who introduced him to Byzantine iconography, while he also studied popular architecture and dressing customs. Together with Dimitris Pikionis, Kontoglou and Angeliki Hatzimichali he led the movement for the introduction of Greek tradition in painting.

From 1935 to 1936 he visited Istanbul, Paris and Italy. He came in contact with the Renaissance art and Impressionism. He discovered the works of Theophilos Hatzimihail and met influential artists such as Henri Matisse and Alberto Giacometti.

Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas (in Greek Νίκος Χατζηκυριάκος – Γκίκας ) (February 26, 1906 – September 3, 1994) was a leading Greek painter, sculptor, engraver, iconographer, writer and academic. He was a founding member of the Association of Greek Art Critics, AICA-Hellas, International Association of Art Critics.

He studied ancient and Byzantine art as well as folk art due to his adoration for the Greek landscape. During his youth he was exposed in Paris to the avant-garde European artistic trends and he gained recognition as the leading Greek cubist artist.

His aim was to focus on the harmony and purity of Greek art and to deconstruct the Greek landscape and intense natural light into simple geometric shapes and interlocking planes.

His works are featured in the National Gallery (Athens), the Musee d’ Art Moderne in Paris, the Tate Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of New York and in private collections worldwide.

Christos Kapralos (Greek: Χρήστος Καπράλος, 1909 - 1993) was a Greek artist of the 20th century. He was born in Panaitolto in the municipality of Thesties

He studied drawing at a school with the help of the Agrinian Papastratou Bros. and continued studied writing at Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and at Académie Colarossi, he had a student named Oumbertos Argyros, his professor was Marcel Gimond. He returned to Greece and in Panaitolio (or Panetolio) in 1945 and in 1946, he moved ot Athens and visited Aigina.

Christos Kapralos in that connection with the bas-relief for the memory of the Battle of Pindus during World War II, where he worked between 1940 and 1945 stuck in his village which was once known as Moustafouli, Aitoloakarnania. After the wor with the frieze, march along with the rhapsody of history of modern Hellenism.

In May 1964 in the Zygos gallery, A. Tasos presented hil large black and white wooden arts with the mind from the Greek Civil War, one memory for all lost friends of his younger days. From his works forgets the civil war which was set in 1961] and copleted his works "The men".

His works were one of the anthropocentrical with the inspiration of Ancient Greek art and mythology. His works which he presented with many expos not only in Greece, also in the rest of the world. In Agrinio in 1996, functioned the only sculpture exposition in the Kapralos Art Screen which is founded in the wall of the Papastrateias Public Library. His works which includes 60 small works with great length, he loved art from the beginning of his career from 1930 untilk 1956. Between those works separate the work Figoura 1951, Melpomene (1940-1945), Kazuo Kikuchi, a Japanese student from Paris (1937) and Christopher (1940-1945).

Bronze and marble works which he displayed in Athens from 1960 until 1993 in the front of the building, it lets in Athens in the factory at 7 Tripou Street in Koukaki.

In the island of Aigina where he visited in the summer months featurees a factory by the name Christos Kapralos Museum which is one of the six factories, and exposed all the works which were in display in Aigina every summer from 1963 until 1993.

Konstantinos Parthenis (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Παρθένης) (10 May 1878 – 25 July 1967) was a distinguished Greek painter. Parthenis broke with the Greek academic tradition of the 19th century and introduced modern elements together with traditional themes, like the figure of Christ, in his art.

Greek filmmakers

Theodoros Angelopoulos (Greek: Θόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος) (born 27 April 1935) is a Greek filmmaker, screenwriter and film producer.
Angelopoulos began making films after the 1967 coup that began the Greek military dictatorship known as the Regime of the Colonels. He made his first short film in 1968 and in the 1970s he began making a series of political feature films about modern Greece: Days of '36 (Meres Tou 36, 1972), The Travelling Players (O Thiassos, 1975) and The Hunters (I Kynighoi, 1977). He quickly established a characteristic style, marked by slow, episodic and ambiguous narrative structures as well as long takes (The Travelling Players, for example, consists of only 80 shots in about four hours of film). These takes often include meticulously choreographed and complicated scenes involving many actors. His regular collaborators include the cinematographer Giorgos Arvanitis, the screenwriter Tonino Guerra and the composer Eleni Karaindrou. Angelopoulos is considered by British film critics Derek Malcolm and David Thomso as one of the world's greatest living directors.

Awards:

• THE BROADCAST (1968)
  
  
  
  • 1968. Greek Critics' Award, Thessaloniki Film Festival.

• RECONSTRUCTION (1970)
  
  
  
  • 1970. Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film, Best Actress Awards, Critics' Award, Thessaloniki Film Festival.
  • 1971. Georges Sadoul Award as «Best Film of the Year Shown in France).
  • 1971. Best Foreign Film Award, Hyeres Film Festival.

• DAYS OF '36 (1970)
  
  
  
  • 1972. Best Director, Best Cinematography Awards, Thessaloniki Film Festival
  • International Film Critics Association (FIPRESCI) Award for Best Film, Berlin Film Festival.

• The Travelling Players (1974-75)
  
  
  
  • 1975. International Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI), Cannes.
  • 1975. Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, Greek Critics Association Awards, International Thessaloniki Film Festival
  • Interfilm Award, «Forum» 1975 Berlin Festival.
  • 1976. Best film of the Year, British Film Institute,
  • Italian Film Critics Association: Best Film in the World, 1970-80.
  • FIPRESCI: One of the Top Films in the History of Cinema.
  • Grand Prix of the Arts, Japan.
  • Best Film of the Year, Japan.
  • Golden Age Award, Brussels.

• THE HUNTERS (1977)
  
  
  
  • 1978. Golden Hugo Award for Best Film, Chicago Film Festival.

• MEGALEXANDROS (1980)
  
  
  
  • 1980. Golden Lion and International Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI), Venice Film Festival.

• Voyage to Cythera (1983)
  
  
  
  • Best Screenplay and International Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI) Best Film Awards, 1984 Cannes Film Festival
  • Critics' Award, Rio Film Festival.

• Landscape in the Mist (1988)
  
  
  
  • 1988. Silver Lion Award for Best Director, Venice Film Festival.
  • 1989. Felix (Best European Film of the Year) Award
  • Golden Hugo Award for Best Director
  • Silver Plaque for Best Cinematography, Chicago Film Festival.

• Ulysses' Gaze (1995)
  
  
  
  • Grand Jury Prize and International Critics' Prize, 1995 Cannes Film Festival.
  • Felix of the Critics (Film of the Year 1995).

• Eternity and a Day (1998)
  
  
  
  • Palme d'Or, 1998 Cannes Film Festival
  • Prize of the Ecumenical Jury

Elia Kazan (pronounced ē-LĒ-ä ka-ZAHN; September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was a Greek American film and theatre director, film and theatrical producer, screenwriter, novelist and co-founder of the influential Actors Studio in New York in 1947. Kazan was a three-time Academy Award winner, a five-time Tony Award winner, a four-time Golden Globes winner, as well as a recipient of numerous awards and nominations in other prestigious festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival.

Theatrical

He became one of the most visible members of the New York elite. Kazan's stage acting credits include Men in White, Waiting for Lefty, Johnny Johnson, Golden Boy, and the 1940 revival of Liliom. Kazan directed A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), two of the plays that made Tennessee Williams a theatrical and literary force. He also directed All My Sons (1947) and Death of a Salesman, (1949) the plays which did much the same for Arthur Miller. He received three Tony Awards, winning for All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and J.B.

Film Director

Kazan's history as a film director is equally noteworthy, if not more impressive. He won two Academy Awards for Best Director, for Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and On the Waterfront (1954). He elicited critically acclaimed performances from actors such as Marlon Brando and Oscar winners Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) (the film version of Tennessee Williams' play), James Dean and Oscar winner Jo Van Fleet in East of Eden (adapted from the John Steinbeck novel), Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, and Jo Van Fleet in Wild River (1960), reportedly one of Kazan's favorite films, Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass and Andy Griffith in A Face in the Crowd. Before he began directing films, however, he occasionally played supporting roles in them, one of those films being the 1941 Blues in the Night.

Mihalis Kakogiannis (Greek: Μιχάλης Κακογιάννης) (born June 11, 1922) is a prominent Cypriot filmmaker best-known for his 1964 film Zorba the Greek. He also directed the 1983 Broadway revival of the musical based on the film. Much of his work is rooted in classical texts, especially those of the Greek tragedian Euripides. Kakogiannis has been nominated for an Academy Award 5 times, a record for any Cypriot artist. He received Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film nominations for Zorba the Greek, and two nominations in the Foreign Language Film category for Electra and Iphigenia.

  John Nicholas Cassavetes (December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was a Greek-American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He appeared in many Hollywood films. He is most notable as an pioneer of American independent film. His films are noted for their use of improvisation and a realistic cinéma vérité style.

Constantinos Gavras (born 13 February 1933), better known as Costa-Gavras (Κώστας Γαβράς), is a Greek born French filmmaker, best known for films with overt political themes, most famously the fast-paced thriller, Z (1969). Most of his movies were made in French; starting with Missing (1982), several were made in English.

Nikos Koundouros (Greek: Νίκος Κούνδουρος), is a Greek film director, born in Agios Nikolaos, Crete in 1926. He studied painting and sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts, and was later exiled because of his political beliefs to the Makronissos island. At the age of 28 he decided to follow a career in cinematography, and started his career as a director of the film Magiki Polis (1954), where he combined his neorealism influences with his own artistic viewpoint. After the release of his complex and innovative film O Drakos, he found acceptance as a prominent artist in Greece and Europe, and acquired important awards in various international and Greek film festivals.

Nicholas David Rowland "Nick" Cassavetes (born May 21, 1959) is a Greek American film actor, screenwriter, and filmmaker.

He has appeared in the films Face/Off, The Wraith, Life, Class of 1999 II: The Substitute, Backstreet Dreams and The Astronaut's Wife, among others. He has directed several films, including John Q, Alpha Dog, She's So Lovely, Unhook the Stars, The Notebook, and My Sister's Keeper. He also adapted the screenplay for Blow and wrote the dialogue for the Justin Timberlake music video "What Goes Around... Comes Around".

Cassavetes came in 5th in the World Poker Tour Invitational Season 5 attempting an outrageous bluff. He is also appearing on season 5 of The Game Show Network's (GSN) 'High Stakes Poker'.

Alexandra Cassavetes (born 21 September 1965), nicknamed "Xan", is an American actress and director. She is the daughter of actor-director John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands. She is the granddaughter of actress Katherine Cassavetes. Cassavetes directed the feature-length documentary, Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, which explores the historic influence of the cable television station Z Channel.

George Pan Cosmatos (January 4, 1941 in Florence, Italy - April 19, 2005 in Victoria, Canada) was a Italian/Greek film director. After studying film in London, he became assistant director to Otto Preminger on Exodus (1960), Leon Uris's epic about the birth of Israel. Thereafter he worked on Zorba the Greek (1964), in which Cosmatos had a small part as Boy with Acne. Cosmatos grew up in Egypt and Cyprus and is said to have spoken six languages. He was famous in Italy for the movies Rappresaglia (1973) with Marcello Mastroianni and The Cassandra Crossing (1976) with Sophia Loren. In 1979, he made the famous and successful World War II adventure movie Escape to Athena, starring a gigantic all star cast including Roger Moore, David Niven, Telly Savalas, Elliot Gould and Claudia Cardinale. Cosmatos was nominated for a 1985 Golden Raspberry Award for his role as director of Rambo: First Blood Part II starring Sylvester Stallone. He also directed another Stallone vehicle, Cobra, in 1986.

Late in his career, Cosmatos received more praise for Tombstone, a 1993 Western movie about Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. This film was particularly praised for the exceptional performance of Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday. Following Cosmatos' death, actor Kurt Russell, who starred as Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, claimed that he, and not Cosmatos, was the actual director. Russell claimed that he had Cosmatos hired as the titular director after being assured by Sylvester Stallone that Cosmatos would allow Russell to do the actual directing. Russell also claimed that he promised Cosmatos to remain silent as to this arrangement until Cosmatos's death.

Peter Kambasis (born 22 September 1974) is a Greek Canadian-born writer/director known for his role as 'MC Terapetakia' in the online series about a controversial rap group known as "The Wife Beaters". He graduated from Ryerson University (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) in June 1999, where he received his Bachelor of Applied Arts in Film Production. It was there that he began to produce short film projects primarily for Internet downloading.

Peter had soon won "Best Fiction Film" at the Student Film and Video Festival in Montreal 1998 for his short film It's Not Easy Being Greek

After working for numerous internet companies, he finally landed work at a Post-Production Sound House called Trackworks Inc., where he worked as an Editing Assistant, and eventually, Sound Editor. There he worked with such directors as Atom Egoyan (Sweet Hereafter, Ararat), Don McKellar (Childstar), Bruce McDonald (Picture Claire, Hard Core Logo) and Paul Schrader (Autofocus).

Along with recording ADR and other sound effects, Peter had also performed voice-over work in numerous films and TV shows that include: "I Was A Sixth Grade Alien", "Picture Claire", "Ararat", "Autofocus".

He continues to write, direct and act in projects for his award winning website: PolyErgos.com/Films.

Constantine Alexander Payne (born February 10, 1961) is a Greek American film director and screenwriter. His films are noted for their dark humour and satirical depictions of contemporary American society. His films also revolve around adultery in marriage and relationships. He also tends to set his films in Omaha. He has scenes of historical landmarks and museums in his films, and tends to use actual people for minor roles (real cops play cops, real teachers play teachers, etc.). He frequently incorporates telephone monologues as a dramatic device. He also tends to cast actor Phil Reeves in his films. He is on the short list of directors who have final cut rights for their films. In 2005 he became a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Directors Branch). His writing partner is Jim Taylor.

Dean Tavoularis (born May 18, 1932) is a Greek American motion picture production designer whose work appeared in numerous box office hits such as The Godfather movies, Apocalypse Now, The Brink's Job, One from the Heart and Bonnie and Clyde.

Gregory Markopoulos (March 12, 1928 - November 12, 1992) was an Greek-American experimental filmmaker. Born in Toledo, Ohio to Greek immigrant parents, Markopoulos began making 8 mm films at an early age. He attended USC Film School in the late 1940's, and went on to become a notable co-founder -- with Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Stan Brakhage and others -- of the New American Cinema movement, a contributor to Film Culture magazine, and an instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago.

In 1967, he and his partner Robert Beavers left the United States for permanent residence in Europe. Once ensconced in self-imposed exile, Markopoulos withdrew his films from circulation, refused any interviews, and insisted that a chapter about him be removed from the 2nd edition of Visionary Film, P. Adams Sitney's seminal study of American Avant-Garde Cinema. While he continued to make films, his work went largely unseen for almost thirty years.

Greek actors/actresses

Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos (born December 19, 1967), better known by his stage name Criss Angel, is aGreek American  musician, and stunt performer. He is best known for starring in his own television show, Criss Angel Mindfreak.

Jennifer Joanna Aniston (born February 11, 1969) is a Greek American actress. She established her acting career in the 1990s with her role as Rachel Green in the U.S. sitcom Friends, a role for which she won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

She has starred in Hollywood films. While most of her film roles have been in comedies such as Bruce Almighty, Office Space, Rumor Has It, and the romantic comedies Along Came Polly and The Break-Up, she has also appeared in films from other genres such as the horror-comedy Leprechaun, the crime thriller Derailed and the musical drama Rock Star.

Michael Charles Chiklis (born August 30, 1963) is a Greek American actor, voice actor, occasional director and television producer. He is known for starring in the TV series The Commish (1991–1996) and The Shield (2002–2008) as well as for his role as The Thing in the Fantastic Four film series.

Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey (born May 18, 1970) is a Greek American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. She has received seven Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, and four Writers Guild of America Awards. She was singled out as the performer who had the greatest impact on culture and entertainment in 2008 by the Associated Press, who gave her their AP Entertainer of the Year award.

After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1992, Fey moved to Chicago to take classes at the improvisational comedy group The Second City, where she became a featured player in 1994. Three years later, Fey became a writer for the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL). She was promoted to the position of head writer in 1999. The following year, Fey was added to the cast of SNL. During her time there, she was co-anchor of the show's Weekend Update segment. After leaving SNL in 2006, she created her own television series called 30 Rock, a situation comedy loosely based on her experiences at SNL. In the series, Fey portrays the head writer of a fictional sketch comedy series.

In 2004, Fey made her film debut as writer and co-star of the teen comedy Mean Girls. In 2008, she starred in the comedy film Baby Mama, alongside Amy Poehler. In 2009, Fey won an Emmy Award for her satirical portrayal of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in a guest appearance on SNL.

Maria Menounos (Greek: Μαρία Μενούνος; born June 8, 1978) is an American actress, journalist, and television presenter known at home for her appearances as a correspondent for The Today Show and Access Hollywood, and abroad for co-hosting the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens, Greece.

Aristotelis “Telly” Savalas (January 21, 1924 – January 22, 1994) was a Greek American film and television actor and singer, whose career spanned four decades. Best known for playing the title role in the 1970s crime drama Kojak, Savalas was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Birdman of Alcatraz (1962). His other movie credits include The Young Savages (1961), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Battle of the Bulge (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), The Scalphunters (1968), supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971), Inside Out (1975) and Escape to Athena (1979). He was easily recognizable with his shaved head and strong, masculine features.

John Phillip Stamos (pronounced /ˈsteɪmoʊs/; born August 19, 1963) is a Greek American actor best known for his work in television, especially as Uncle Jesse on the ABC sitcom Full House. Since the cancellation of that show in 1995, Stamos has appeared in numerous television films and series. From 2006 to 2009, Stamos had a starring role on the NBC medical drama ER. In September 2009, he began playing the role of Albert in the Broadway revival of Bye Bye Birdie.

Antonia Eugenia "Nia" Vardalos (born September 24, 1962) is a Greek-Canadian-American actress, screenwriter, director, and producer. Vardalos had done many different works but gained almost overnight success with her movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The success of the movie led to an unsuccessful television series on CBS, called My Big Fat Greek Life. Except for John Corbett, this series featured the original movie cast. In 2004 she followed it up with Connie and Carla, which co-starred Toni Collette. Vardalos and her husband have appeared together in both of those films, as well as Meet Prince Charming (1999). Vardalos also guest starred on The Drew Carey Show in 1997, where her husband was a frequent guest star. Her next work was the movie My Life in Ruins, which arrived in theaters in 2009.

Amy Sedaris (born March 29, 1961) is a Greek American actress, author and comedienne. She is perhaps best known for playing the character Jerri Blank in the Comedy Central television series Strangers with Candy. Sedaris regularly collaborates with her older brother, humorist and author David Sedaris. She is recognized as a frequent guest on The Late Show with David Letterman.

 

Cybele (Greek: Κυβέλη) was the stage name of the famous Greek actress Cybele Andrianou (Greek: Κυβέλη Ανδριανού).

She was born in 1887 to an unmarried couple in Smyrna and spend the first two years of her life in an Athens orphanage. At the age of two-and-a-half, she was adopted by Anastasis and Maria Andrianou. The family of a famous Athenian lawyer of the time, who had recently lost their only child, helped Cybele's adoptive parents financially. In 1901, at the age of 14, she received her first award for her stage performance.

Melina Mercouri (Greek: Μελίνα Μερκούρη), born as Maria Amalia Mercouris (October 18, 1920, Athens, Greece – March 6, 1994, New York City, New York) was a Greek actress, singer and politician.

As an actress she made her film debut in Stella (1955) and met international success with her performances in Never on Sunday, Phaedra, Topkapi and Promise at Dawn. She won the award for Best Actress at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, and she was also nominated for an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and two BAFTA Awards.

A political activist during the Greek military junta of 1967–1974, she became a member of the Hellenic Parliament in 1977 and the first female Minister for Culture of Greece in 1981. Mercouri was the person who, in 1983, conceived and proposed the programme of the European Capital of Culture, which has been established by the European Union since 1985.

She was a strong advocate for the return of the Parthenon Marbles, that were removed from the Parthenon and are now displayed in the British Museum, to Athens.

Alexis Minotakis, known as Alexis Minotis, was born 8 August 1898 or 1899 in Deliana, Chania, Crete and died on 11 November 1990 in Athens, Greece.

Minotis was a distinguished Greek actor and director. He first appeared on stage in his native Crete as Chorus Leader and later as Messenger in Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus. From 1925 until 1930, he worked in close collaboration with the famous Greek actress Marika Kotopouli in her own theatre. During this period, he appeared in the great Shakespearan roles in The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, Macbeth and played the title role in Hamlet, the first time the play had been staged in Greece. Other roles in the classical repertoire were Ibsen's Ghosts and Peer Gynt. He expanded his talents by directing ancient Greek tragedies such as Hecuba, Antigone, The Phoenissae, Prometheus Bound, Oedipus at Colonus, as well as Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock, Strindberg's The Father and Brecht`s Mother Courage.

In 1940, he married the actress Katina Paxinou and together they appeared in many productions at the Royal Theatre in Athens which they founded.

In 1946, he went to Hollywood to appear in Sir Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious with Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains. In the same year, he also appeared with Robert Cummings and Michèle Morgan in The Chase. His other films include Siren of Atlantis (1949) with Maria Montez, Boy on a Dolphin (1957) with Sophia Loren, and Land of the Pharaohs (1955) with Joan Collins.

In 1955, he directed Katina Paxinou in Euripides' Hecuba for the National Theatre of Greece at The Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus and starred in Oedipus Rex as well as directing. In 1956, he made his first appearance in Oedipus at Colonus. The production received great acclaim and Minotis went on a long international tour with the company.

Katina Paxinou (December 17, 1900 - February 22, 1973) was an Academy Award-winning Greek film and theatre actress.

Born Aikaterini (Catherine) Konstantopoulou in Piraeus, Greece, she trained as an opera singer but changed career and joined the Greek Royal Theater in 1929. Paxinou distinguished herself on the stage. When World War II broke out, she was performing in London. Unable to return to Greece, she emigrated to the United States.

He appeared on Broadway in Electra with the Marika Kotopouli company in 1930-31 and in Oedipus Tyrannus with the National Theatre of Greece in 1952.

In 1958, Minotis directed Maria Callas in a production of Medea presented in Dallas. The production was then seen at Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala and Epidaurus. He also directed the Greek National Opera production of Norma with Callas in Epidaurus in 1961.

She was selected to play "Pilár" in the 1943 film For Whom the Bell Tolls, winning an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture. She continued appearing in Hollywood films until 1949. She made one British film as well, lay, again, a gypsy woman, this time in the 1959 Technicolor religious epic, The Miracle.

In 1950, Paxinou resumed her stage career. In her native Greece, she formed the Royal Theatre of Athens with Alexis Minotis, her principal director and her husband Ioannis Paxinos, since 1940.

Paxinou made several appearances on the Broadway stage and television as well, including the lead role in the first production in English of Federico Garcia Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, at the ANTA Playhouse in New York in 1951, and a BBC production of Lorca's Blood wedding (Bodas de sangre), broadcast on June 2, 1959.