The "Oxi" that Sent Us to War

October 28th, 1940, otherwise known as "Oxi" day. It's sad that today most of us don't even know which of the two national holidays have to do with the Italians and which one with the Turks. Well, let me remind you that this date has to do with the Italians, and WWII... and do you happen to remember that the great man (Ioannis Metaksas) who said OXI was a dictator of Greece at the time? Ok... let's back up a bit...

Metaksas and the coming of the "Third Greek Culture"

In 1936, a weak King George of Greece, allowed army General Ioannis Metaksas, the leader of a far-right political party that had the least supporters nationwide, to take control in containing the communists and their socialist ways in the labor force. Metaksas was another one of those dictators who wanted to control his fellow patriots by reminding them of their "Greekness." This was to be done by instilling in them the values of Ancient Greece (especially the strict citizens' control of Sparta) and the Christian morals of the Byzantine Empire, all under the label of "The Third Greek Culture"; something like Hitler's Third Reich. Although his opponents charged him with a Nazi profile, he supposedly hushed them by spreading fear and not by literally "eliminating" them. He was also unwilling to turn his back on Britain's support and even asked to become Britain's ally in 1936 (which Britain denied, fearing a new set of responsibilities towards Greece).

It all started with the bombing of Elli

After the outbreak of WWII and the occupancy of Albania by the facist Italians, Britain and France vouched that Greece's borders would be left untouched. Meanwhile, Metaksas was hoping to keep Greece outside this war, but Mussolini had other ideas. READ THE REST AT ALLTHEGREEKS.COM

Sources: A Concise History of Greece by Richard Clogg

http://www.hellenicnavy.gr/history.asp

Image: http://www.lookatgame.com/index.php?key=28η

Defkalyon: The Ancient Greek Version of Noa (and his ark)

Sacred texts show that the story of a flood wiping out all of corrupt humanity is essential in a civilization's history. Just as the Sumerians and the Jews/Christians have a flood story in their history (bordering on mythology), so did the ancient Greeks. The Sumerians had Atrahasi build a boat as instructed by the god Enki, the Jews had Noa build an ark as instructed by God and the Greeks had Defkalyon build a boat as instructed by his immortal Titan father, Prometheus. And all of this happened to destroy the majority of mankind. But first, lets see the story of its creation...

The 3 Ages of Man and Their Creation

When the titan god Kronos reigned, he created a race of mankind - this is the first and golden age - which was happy and good. No one worked and they all lived on the earth in harmony (does this remind anyone else of the Garden of Eden?). When they died, they roamed the earth as daimones or spirits. However, this age ended when Kronos died and Zeus took over.

The second age is known as the silver age, during which Prometheus was instructed by Zeus to create the next "batch" of men, who were uglier and inferior in intelligence. The four seasons were created and men had to seek shelter and grow food.

The third age is the bronze age and this is the time of naturally-born humans, descendants of the silver age humans and nymphs. The problem with the bronze age humans is that they started to get greedy, corrupt and impious, failing to honor the gods. This angered Zeus, who decided to destroy them with a flood that would cover the earth.

Read the rest of the article at allthegreeks.com.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atra-Hasis

http://www.theoi.com/Heros/Deukalion.html

http://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Κατακλυσμός_του_Δευκαλίωνα

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/a/hesiodagesofman.htm