105-481: The Academy of Athens ( Greek : Ακαδημία Αθηνών , Akadimía Athinón ) is Greece 's national academy , and the highest research establishment in the country. It was established in 1926, with its founding principle tracing back to the historical Academy of Plato , and operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Education . The Academy's main building is one of the major landmarks of Athens. The organization of
210-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
315-527: A burning image of the Olympic rings rising from the pool. The Opening Ceremony was a pageant of traditional Greek culture and history hearkening back to its mythological beginnings. The program began as a young Greek boy sailed into the stadium on a 'paper-ship' waving the host nation's flag to aethereal music by Manos Hatzidakis and then a centaur appeared, followed by a gigantic head of a cycladic figurine which eventually broke into many pieces symbolising
420-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in
525-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
630-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near
735-516: A handover ceremony as both nations' flags were raised. The Mayor of Athens , Dora Bakoyianni , passed the Olympic Flag to the Mayor of Beijing , Wang Qishan . After a short cultural performance by Chinese actors, dancers, and musicians directed by eminent Chinese director Zhang Yimou , Rogge declared the 2004 Olympic Games closed. The Olympic flag was next raised again on 10 February 2006 during
840-548: A result from the cost-benefit analysis, we reach the conclusion that there has been a net economic benefit from the Olympic Games". Cost per sporting event for Athens 2004 was US$ 9.8 million. This compares with US$ 14.9 million for Rio 2016, US$ 49.5 million for London 2012, and US$ 22.5 million for Beijing 2008. Average cost per event for the Summer Games since 1960 is US$ 19.9 million. Cost per athlete for Athens 2004
945-523: A retractable glass roof designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava . The same architect also designed the Velodrome and other facilities. Infrastructure, such as the tram line linking venues in southern Athens with the city centre, and numerous venues were considerably behind schedule just two months before the start of the Games. The subsequent pace of preparation, however, made the rush to finish
1050-551: A routine with tai chi and acrobatics, followed by dancers from the Peking Opera and finally, a little Chinese girl Chen Tianjia singing a reprise of Mo Li Hua and concluded the presentation by saying "Welcome to Beijing!" The medal ceremony for the last event of the Olympics, the men's marathon , was conducted, with Stefano Baldini from Italy as the winner. The bronze medal winner, Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima of Brazil,
1155-565: A schedule of what sports were on the many stations of NBC Universal. The Games were shown on television 24 hours a day, on one network or another. As with any enterprise, the Organizing Committee and everyone involved with it relied heavily on technology in order to deliver a successful event. ATHOC maintained two separate data networks, one for the preparation of the Games (known as the Administrative network) and one for
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#17327719251091260-436: A significantly improved infrastructure, including a new airport, ring road and subway system. There has been debate (mostly in popular media) regarding the cost of the Games and their possible contribution to the 2010–18 Greek government-debt crisis , although there is little or no evidence supporting this claim . The 2004 Games were generally deemed to be a success, with the rising standard of competition amongst nations across
1365-470: A single drummer in the ancient stadium joined in a drum duet with a single drummer in the main stadium in Athens, joining the original ancient Olympic Games with the modern ones in symbolism. At the end of the drum duet, a single flaming arrow was launched from the video screen (symbolically from ancient Olympia) and into the reflecting pool, which resulted in fire erupting in the middle of the stadium creating
1470-468: A very colourful float parade chronicling Greek history from the ancient Minoan civilization to modern times. Although NBC in the United States presented the entire opening ceremony from start to finish, a topless Minoan priestess was shown only briefly, the breasts having been pixelated digitally in order to avoid controversy (as the " Nipplegate " incident was still fresh in viewer's minds at
1575-541: Is 176%. By late March 2004, some Olympic projects were still behind schedule, and Greek authorities announced that a roof it had initially proposed as an optional, non-vital addition to the Aquatics Center would no longer be built. The main Olympic Stadium, the designated facility for the opening and closing ceremonies, was completed only two months before the Games opened. This stadium was completed with
1680-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout
1785-773: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system
1890-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During
1995-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to
2100-945: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern 2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( Greek : Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004 , romanized : Therinoí Olympiakoí Agónes 2004 ), officially
2205-526: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around
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#17327719251092310-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
2415-650: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with
2520-486: The 1991 Mediterranean Games , the 1994 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship , 1994 World Fencing Championships and the successful 1997 World Championships in Athletics , one month before the Olympic host city election was crucial in allaying lingering fears and concerns among the sporting community and some IOC members about the Greek ability to host international sporting events. Another factor that contributed to
2625-438: The 2000 Summer Olympics ), the number of participating nations increased from 199 to 201. Additionally, Yugoslavia had changed its name the year prior to Serbia and Montenegro and its code from YUG to SCG; the country would dissolve two years later, making this its only Olympics appearance under the new moniker. Georgia 's new flag made its debut at the Olympics by unfurling it at the opening ceremony on 13 August. It replaces
2730-534: The Athens Tram become operational, and this system provided additional connections to those already existing between Athens city centre and its waterfront communities along the Saronic Gulf . These communities included the port city of Piraeus , Agios Kosmas (site of the sailing venue), Helliniko (the site of the old international airport which now contained the fencing venue, the canoe/kayak slalom course,
2835-533: The Byzantine Museum and the State Archives. Finally, on 24 March 1926, the building was handed over to the newly established Academy of Athens. The Academy of Athens was recently selected as main motif for a high value euro collectors' coin; the €100 Greek Academy of Athens commemorative coin , minted in 2004 to commemorate the 2004 Summer Olympics . In the obverse of the coin, a close view of
2940-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It
3045-624: The Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας , Agónes tis 28is Olympiádas ), and officially branded as Athens 2004 ( Αθήνα 2004 ), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens , Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes compete, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team officials from 201 countries, with 301 medal events in 28 different sports . The 2004 Games marked
3150-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
3255-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in
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3360-752: The opening ceremony of the next Winter Olympics in Torino . A young Greek girl, 10-year-old Fotini Papaleonidopoulou , lit a symbolic lantern with the Olympic Flame and passed it on to other children before "extinguishing" the flame in the cauldron by blowing a puff of air. The ceremony ended with a variety of musical performances by Greek singers, including Dionysis Savvopoulos , George Dalaras , Haris Alexiou , Anna Vissi , Sakis Rouvas , Eleftheria Arvanitaki , Alkistis Protopsalti, Antonis Remos , Michalis Hatzigiannis , Marinella , and Dimitra Galani, as thousands of athletes carried out symbolic displays on
3465-788: The "Ioannis Sykoutris" library. In 2002, the Foundation for Biomedical Research of the Academy of Athens was established. From its foundation, the Academy of Athens has been a member of the International Association of Academies (AIA), and the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). It also participates in the following body: All European Academies (ALLEA), European Academies' Science Advisory Council (EASAC), Inter Academy Council (IAC), Inter Academy Medical Panel (IAMP). The main building of
3570-628: The 15,000-seat Helliniko Olympic Basketball Arena , and the softball and baseball stadia), and the Faliro Coastal Zone Olympic Complex (site of the taekwondo, handball, indoor volleyball, and beach volleyball venues, as well as the newly reconstructed Karaiskaki Stadium for football). The upgrades to the Athens Ring Road were also delivered just in time, as were the expressway upgrades connecting central Athens with peripheral areas such as Markopoulo (site of
3675-488: The 2004 Games, becoming the first broadcaster to do so. Following the artistic performances, a parade of nations entered the stadium with over 10,500 athletes walking under the banners of 201 nations. The nations were arranged according to Greek alphabet making the Philippines , Finland , Fiji , Chile , and Hong Kong the last five to enter the stadium before the Greek delegation. On this occasion, in observance of
3780-489: The 35-year-old, before slowly swinging up and lifting the flame above the stadium. Following this, a fireworks display commenced to conclude the ceremony. All National Olympic Committees (NOCs) except Djibouti participated in the Athens Games. Two new NOCs had been created since 2000 and made their debut at these Games ( Kiribati and East Timor ). Therefore, with the return of Afghanistan (who had been banned from
3885-470: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into
3990-637: The Academy complex are the terra-cotta work of Austrian sculptor Franz Melnitzky . Interior murals and paintings were done by the Austrian artist Christian Griepenkerl . On 20 March 1887, the building of the "Sinaean Academy", as it was called, was delivered by Ziller to the Greek Prime Minister, Charilaos Trikoupis . In the absence of a national Academy, the building was used for housing the Numismatic Museum in 1890, and in 1914
4095-651: The Academy is a neoclassical building between Panepistimiou Street and Akadimias Street in the centre of Athens. The building was designed as part of an architectural "trilogy" in 1859 by the Danish architect Theophil Hansen , along with the University and the National Library . Funds had been provided by the magnate Simon Sinas specifically for the purpose, and the foundation stone was laid on 2 August 1859. Construction proceeded rapidly, after 1861 under
4200-466: The Academy of Athens, whose title hearkens back to the ancient Academy of Plato , was first established on 18 March 1926, and its charter was ratified by the law 4398/1929. This charter, with subsequent amendments, is still valid and governs the Academy's affairs. According to it, the Academy is divided into three Orders: Natural Sciences, Letters and Arts, Moral and Political Sciences. The Academy today, maintains 14 research centres, 5 research offices and
4305-649: The Athens venues one of the tightest in Olympics history. The Greeks, unperturbed, maintained that they would make it all along. By July/August 2004, all venues were delivered: in August, the Olympic Stadium was officially completed and opened, joined or preceded by the official completion and openings of other venues within the Athens Olympic Sports Complex (OAKA), and the sports complexes in Faliro and Helliniko. Late July and early August witnessed
Academy of Athens (modern) - Misplaced Pages Continue
4410-585: The Games themselves (Games Network). The technical infrastructure involved more than 11,000 computers, over 600 servers , 2,000 printers , 23,000 fixed-line telephone devices, 9,000 mobile phones, 12,000 TETRA devices, 16,000 TV and video devices and 17 Video Walls interconnected by more than 6,000 kilometers of cabling (both optical fiber and twisted pair ). This infrastructure was created and maintained to serve directly more than 150,000 ATHOC Staff, Volunteers, Olympic family members ( IOC , NOCs , Federations), Partners & Sponsors and Media. It also kept
4515-552: The Games, Greek hotel staff staged a series of one-day strikes over wage disputes. They had been asking for a significant raise for the period covering the event being staged. Paramedics and ambulance drivers also protested. They claimed to have the right to the same Olympic bonuses promised to their security force counterparts. The lighting ceremony of the Olympic flame took place on 25 March 2004 in Ancient Olympia . For
4620-445: The Games. The TOC was organized in teams (e.g. Systems, Telecommunications, Information Security, Data Network, Staffing, etc.) under a TOC Director and corresponding team leaders (Shift Managers). The TOC operated on a 24x7 basis with personnel organized into 12-hour shifts. The opening ceremony of the games, directed by choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou and produced by Jack Morton Worldwide , led by project director David Zolkwer ,
4725-409: The Games. They were not allowed to post audio, video, or photos that they had taken. An exception was made if an athlete already has a personal website that was not set up specifically for the Games. NBC launched its own Olympic website, NBCOlympics.com. Focusing on the television coverage of the Games, it did provide video clips, medal standings, live results. Its main purpose, however, was to provide
4830-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
4935-492: The Greek capital's selection was a growing sentiment among some IOC members to restore some original values of the Olympics to the Modern Games, a component which they felt was lost during the 1996 Summer Olympics. After leading all voting rounds, Athens easily defeated Rome in the fifth and final vote. Cape Town , Stockholm , and Buenos Aires (the latter won the rights to host the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in 2013),
5040-403: The Greek islands. Underneath the cycladic head was a Hellenistic representation of the human body, reflecting the concept and belief in perfection reflected in Greek art. A man was seen balancing on a hovering cube symbolising man's eternal 'split' between passion and reason followed by a couple of young lovers playfully chasing each other while the god Eros was hovering above them. There followed
5145-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than
5250-495: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
5355-472: The Greek state specifically in the form of incremental social security contributions, income taxes and VAT tax paid by all the companies, professionals, and service providers that were directly involved with the Olympic Games. Moreover, it is reported that the Athens 2004 Olympic Games have had a great economic growth impact on the Greek economy, in the words of the Greek Minister of Finance, is that "as
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#17327719251095460-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow
5565-685: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community
5670-535: The IOC as disciplines within the sport of aquatics , and wheelchair racing was a demonstration sport. For the first time, the wrestling category featured women's wrestling and in the fencing competition women competed in the sabre . American Kristin Heaston , who led off the qualifying round of women's shot put became the first woman to compete at the ancient site of Olympia. The demonstration sport of wheelchair racing
5775-562: The Olympic flag of the Athens Games between the mayor of Athens and the mayor of Beijing, host city of the next Olympics. After the flag exchange a presentation from the Beijing delegation presented a glimpse into Chinese culture for the world to see. Beijing University students (who were at first incorrectly cited as the Twelve Girls Band ) sang Mo Li Hua (Jasmine Flower) accompanied by a ribbon dancer, then some male dancers did
5880-823: The Organising Committee, and by President Dr. Jacques Rogge of the IOC , in which he described the Athens Olympics as "unforgettable, dream Games". Dr. Rogge had previously declared he would be breaking with tradition in his closing speech as President of the IOC and that he would never use the words of his predecessor Juan Antonio Samaranch , who used to always say 'these were the best ever games'. Dr. Rogge had described Salt Lake City 2002 as "superb games" and in turn would continue after Athens 2004 and describe Turin 2006 as "truly magnificent games." The national anthems of Greece and China were played in
5985-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
6090-463: The amount of €8.5 billion. The same report further explains that €2 billion of this amount was covered by the revenue of the ATHOC (from tickets, sponsors, broadcasting rights, merchandise sales etc.) and that another €2 billion was directly invested in upgrading hospitals and preserving archaeological sites. Therefore, the net infrastructure costs related to the preparation of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games
6195-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of
6300-707: The building is depicted. The intention was to highlight the premise that in the city of Athena, the Olympic Games should not only be the most important athletic event, but also reflect equal importance toward intellectual and cultural activities. All three should be equivalent to the style and character of the city that was the birthplace and the matrix for the revival of the modern Olympic Games. 37°58′48″N 23°44′03″E / 37.98000°N 23.73417°E / 37.98000; 23.73417 Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ )
6405-476: The city was bidding, the 2004 bid was lauded for its low scale, humility, honest and earnestness, its focused message, and a more real and detailed bid concept. During the unsuccessful 1996 bid, concerns and criticisms were raised – primarily regarding critical subjects about the city's infrastructural readiness, its air pollution, its budget and politicization of the Games' events and their preparations. The subsequent successful organization of other events such as
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#17327719251096510-614: The cost-benefit evaluation of the impact of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games presented to the Greek Parliament in January 2013 by the Minister of Finance Mr. Giannis Stournaras , the overall net economic benefit for Greece was positive. The Greek Ministry of Finance reported in 2013 that the expenses of the Greek state for the Athens 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games, including both infrastructure and organizational costs, reached
6615-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of
6720-618: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute
6825-432: The event by her and the poet Sjón . The opening ceremony culminated in the lighting of the Olympic cauldron by 1996 gold medalist windsurfer Nikolaos Kaklamanakis . Many key moments in the ceremony, including the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron, featured music composed and arranged by New Zealand composer John Psathas . The gigantic cauldron, which was styled after the Athens 2004 Olympic torch, pivoted down to be lit by
6930-450: The first time ever, the flame travelled around the world in a relay to various Summer Olympic host cities (past and future) and other large cities, before returning to Greece. Mascots have been a tradition at the Olympic Games since the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble , France. The 2004 Olympics had two official mascots: Athena and Phevos (Greek pronunciation: Athina and Fivos). The sister and brother were named after Athena ,
7035-441: The first time since the 1996 Summer Olympics that all countries with a National Olympic Committee were in attendance, and also marked the first time Athens hosted the Games since their first modern incarnation in 1896 as well as the return of the Olympic games to its birthplace. Athens became the fourth city to host the Summer Olympic Games on two occasions (together with Paris , London and Los Angeles ). A new medal obverse
7140-436: The first time, major broadcasters were allowed to serve video coverage of the Olympics over the Internet, provided that they restricted this service geographically, to protect broadcasting contracts in other areas. The International Olympic Committee forbade Olympic athletes, as well as coaches, support personnel and other officials, from setting up specialized weblogs or other websites for covering their personal perspective of
7245-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in
7350-513: The goddess of wisdom, strategy and Phoebus , the god of light and music, respectively. They were inspired by the ancient daidala , which were toy dolls that also had religious connotations. Athens Olympic Broadcasting served as the host broadcaster for the Games, providing over 35,000 hours of coverage to over 300 television channels around the world. Local rights to the Games were held by ERT which devoted their three channels ( ET1 , NET and ET3 ) to more than 24 hours of Olympic coverage. For
7455-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn
7560-613: The information flowing for all spectators, TV viewers, Website visitors and news readers around the world, prior and during the Games. The Media Center was located inside the Zappeion which is a Greek national exhibition center. Between June and August 2004, the technology staff worked in the Technology Operations Center (TOC) from where it could centrally monitor and manage all the devices and flow of information, as well as handle any problems that occurred during
7665-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
7770-640: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek
7875-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and
7980-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks
8085-536: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It
8190-477: The official pop album of the Athens Olympics, in the leadup to the Olympics. It features contributions from Sting , Lenny Kravitz , Moby , Destiny's Child , and Avril Lavigne . EMI has pledged to donate US$ 180,000 from the album to UNICEF 's HIV/AIDS program in Sub-Saharan Africa . At least 14 people died during the work on the facilities. Most of these people were not from Greece. Before
8295-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
8400-445: The post-Soviet flag, which had been used since Lillehammer 1994 . In the table below, the number in parentheses indicates the number of participants contributed by each NOC. 10,557 athletes from 201 NOCs participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics. The sports featured at the 2004 Summer Olympics are listed below. Officially there were 301 events in 28 sports as swimming, diving, synchronised swimming and water polo are classified by
8505-470: The preparation and organisation of the Games, concluded its operations as a company in 2005 with a surplus of € 130.6 million. The State's contribution to the total ATHOC budget was 8% of its expenditure against an originally anticipated 14%. The overall revenue of ATHOC, including income from tickets, sponsors, broadcasting rights, merchandise sales etc., totalled near €2.1 billion. The largest percentage of that income (38%) came from media rights. According to
8610-572: The principle multi-figure pediment sculpture, on the theme of the birth of Athena, based on a design by painter Carl Rahl . This brought first prize at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873 . Drosis is also responsible for the figures of Athena and Apollo with lyre on the Academy's flanking pillars, and the seated marble figures of Plato and Socrates , which were executed "by the Italian sculptor Piccarelli". The eight smaller pediments in
8715-605: The right to host the Summer Olympics in 2004. The success of Athens in securing the 2004 Games was based largely on the bid's appeal to human values, the history of the Games from ancient age and modern age and the emphasis that Athens is placed at the pivotal role that Greece and Athens could play in promoting the Modern Olympism and the Olympic Movement. Unlike the 1996 bid that was seen arrogant when
8820-634: The shooting and equestrian venues), the newly constructed Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport , Schinias (site of the rowing venue), Maroussi (site of the OAKA), Parnitha (site of the Olympic Village), Galatsi (site of the rhythmic gymnastics and table tennis venue), and Vouliagmeni (site of the triathlon venue). The upgrades to the Athens Metro were also completed, and the new lines became operational by mid-summer. EMI released Unity ,
8925-450: The stadium floor. These are the top ten nations that won medals in the 2004 Games. * Host nation ( Greece ) To commemorate the 2004 Olympics, a series of Greek high value euro collectors' coins were minted by the Mint of Greece, in both silver and gold. The pieces depict landmarks in Greece as well as ancient and modern sports on the obverse of the coin. On
9030-457: The stadium to watch the ceremony. The initial part of the ceremony interspersed the performances of various Greek singers, and featured traditional Greek dance performances from various regions of Greece (Crete, Thessaly, etc.). The event was meant to highlight the pride of the Greeks in their culture and country for the world to see. A significant part of the closing ceremony was the exchange of
9135-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
9240-452: The supervision of Ernst Ziller , but the internal tumults during the latter years of King Otto 's reign, which resulted in his ousting in 1862, hampered construction until it was stopped in 1864. Works resumed in 1868, but the building was not completed until 1885, at a total cost of 2,843,319 gold drachmas , most of it provided by Sinas, and, after his death, by his wife Ifigeneia. The Greek neo-classical sculptor Leonidas Drosis sculpted
9345-571: The three other cities that made the IOC shortlist, were eliminated in prior rounds of voting. Six other cities submitted applications, but their bids were dropped by the IOC in 1996. These cities were Istanbul , Lille , Rio de Janeiro (the latter won the rights to host the 2016 Summer Olympics in 2009), San Juan , Seville , and Saint Petersburg . The 2004 Summer Olympic Games cost the Government of Greece near €9 billion to stage. The Athens 2004 Organizing Committee (ATHOC), responsible for
9450-533: The time) and potential fines by the Federal Communications Commission . Also, lower frontal nudity of men dressed as ancient Greek statues was shown in such a way that the area below the waist was cut off by the bottom of the screen. Overall, NBC's coverage of the Olympics has been praised, and the company was awarded with 6 Emmy Awards for its coverage of the Games and technical production. Additionally, NBC televised all 28 sports in
9555-441: The tradition that the delegation of Greece opens the parade and the host nation closes it, the Greek flag bearer opened the parade and all the Greek delegation closed it. Based on audience reaction, the emotional high point of the parade was the entrance of the delegation from Afghanistan which had been absent from the Olympics and had female competitors for the first time. The Iraqi delegation also stirred emotions. Also recognized
9660-492: The world. The final medal tally was led by the United States , followed by China and Russia with host nation Greece in 15th place. Several world and Olympic records were also broken during these Games. Chile , Chinese Taipei , Dominican Republic , Georgia and Israel won their first Olympic gold medals. Eritrea and Paraguay won their first Olympic medals. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) won both their first Olympic medal and gold medal in this event. Athens
9765-421: Was US$ 0.3 million. This compares with US$ 0.4 million for Rio 2016, US$ 1.4 million for London 2012, and US$ 0.6 million for Beijing 2008. Average cost per athlete for the Summer Games since 1960 is US$ 0.6 million. Cost overrun for Athens 2004 was 49%, measured in real terms from the bid to host the Games. This compares with 51% for Rio 2016 and 76% for London 2012. Average cost overrun for the Summer Games since 1960
9870-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
9975-522: Was a joint Olympic/ Paralympic event, allowing a Paralympic event to occur within the Olympics, and for the future, opening up the wheelchair race to the able-bodied. The 2004 Summer Paralympics were also held in Athens, from 17 to 28 September. The Games were concluded on 29 August 2004. The closing ceremony was held at the Athens Olympic Stadium , where the Games had been opened 16 days earlier. Around 70,000 people gathered in
10080-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of
10185-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
10290-573: Was chosen as the host city during the 106th IOC Session held in Lausanne , Switzerland on 5 September 1997. The Greek capital had lost its bid to organize the 1996 Summer Olympics to the American city of Atlanta nearly seven years before, during the 96th IOC Session in Tokyo, Japan on 18 September 1990. Under the direction of Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki , Athens pursued another bid, this time for
10395-499: Was held on 13 August 2004. It began with a twenty-eight (the number of the Olympiads up to then) second countdown paced by the sounds of an amplified heartbeat. As the countdown was completed, fireworks rumbled and illuminated the skies overhead. After a drum corps and bouzouki players joined in an opening march, the video screen showed images of flight, crossing southwest from Athens over the Greek countryside to ancient Olympia. Then,
10500-543: Was introduced at these Games, replacing the design by Giuseppe Cassioli that had been used since 1928 . The new design features the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens rectifying the long-running mistake of using a depiction of the Roman Colosseum rather than a Greek venue. The 2004 Olympic Games were hailed as "unforgettable dream games" by then- IOC President Jacques Rogge , and left Athens with
10605-589: Was simultaneously announced as a recipient of the Pierre de Coubertin Medal for his bravery in finishing the race despite being attacked by a rogue spectator while leading with 7 km to go. A flag-bearer from each nation's delegation then entered along the stage, followed by the competitors en masse on the floor. All of them were led by Pyrros Dimas (weightlifter) and Liu Xiang (hurdler). Short speeches were presented by Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki , President of
10710-654: Was the symbolic unified march of athletes from North Korea and South Korea under the Korean Unification Flag . The country of Kiribati made its debut appearance at these Games and East Timor made a debut under its own flag. After the Parade of Nations, during which the Dutch DJ Tiësto provided the music, the Icelandic singer Björk performed the song " Oceania ", written specially for
10815-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
10920-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
11025-436: Was €4.5 billion, substantially lower than the reported estimates, and mainly included long-standing fixed asset investments in numerous municipal and transport infrastructures. On the revenue side, the same report estimates that incremental tax revenues of approximately €3.5 billion arose from the increased activities caused by the Athens 2004 Olympic Games during the period 2000 to 2004. These tax revenues were paid directly to
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