ASPIS 3

PRIMARY SOURCES OF GREEK HISTORY AND FOLKLORE

translated into English

1. The destruction of the colossus in Rhodes. 652/653 AD

 

"During this year, Moab captured Rhodes and destroyed the colossus of Rhodes, 1360 years after its construction, bought it by a Jewish merchant from Edessa and loaded nine hundred camels with copper."........................

2. The great mathematician Theophilus Palaeologos heroically dies. May 29, 1453

“Theophilus Paleologos did the same (he fought and tore the opponents with claws and teeth). Watching the emperor fight to save a city, that was in danger, he cried out: It is better to die than to live! Then he rushed at his enemies,..................

3. The huge sea whale Porfyrios. In the time of Justinian I

“During the reign of this emperor, a whale was caught, which was named Porfyrios, who had been harassing the Byzantines for fifty years or more. When he appeared, many boats sank, and many people died.

They used many tricks to trap him, but it was all in vain, however he was eventually caught, hunting dolphins.................

4. Constantine the Great about homosexuals.

"Another law was sent, so that all homosexuals would die, since this is shamelessness, and not leave anyone suffering from this pathological disorder."..................

5. Medical case of Siamese twins men. In the time of Romanus Lacapenus

 

“These days, one strange couple, two Siamese boys, came from Armenia to the kingdom. They were expelled from Constantinople as a bad omen. However, during the reign of Constantine, they arrived again.......................

6. Patriarch Theophylact (+956) leaves the Divine Liturgy to see his newborn foal.

 

“He had an unstoppable love for horseback riding and have collected more than two thousand horses in his stein. He did everything to feed them. He gave them not only grass and barley, but also pine nuts, peanuts and almonds, as well as dates and raisins, the best of their kind, mixing them with aromatic wine, cinnamon and various flavors....................

7. Nikiforos Pastilas, drunk, heroically battles in Crete in 960

 

“As soon as the barbarians (Arabs), who lived in fertile and high mountains, saw indiscipline and indifference to precautionary measures, they left their mountains, immediately lining up in a belligerent order and launched an attack against them. Those (Byzantine soldiers), although...................

8. The touching moment of Andronikoi, grandfather and grandson, in the midst of their conflict. 1323

“A few days later he goes out and meets the king, his grandfather, outside in front of the city walls. While the grandfather-king did not get up from the horse, his grandson descended from the horse nearby and, although his grandfather protested, he went up and kissed his hand and his leg, although he remained sitting motionless.

Then he sat on his horse, and they hugged and kissed each other, exchanged a few short sentences, and parted. And the king went to Constantinople, and the young man left for the army camp near the temple of Themitoros Pigi....................

9. Albanian raids impede the development of agriculture and crafts!

“Fear of Albanian raids is a serious obstacle to the development of agriculture and crafts.

From time to time, Albanians invade Moria (Pelopones), even when least expected of them.

They rob people, destroy the countryside, kill men, kidnap girls and boys and return to their mountains,.......................

10. Plan of Saint Sophia

(At Vizye of Thrace)

“When the emperor in Constantinople decided to build the Saint Sophia, no architect could offer him a construction plan that he would like. When the emperor once came to church service and when he took the holy bread, this bread fell to the ground, but when the king bent to pick it up, he did not find it.

Suddenly he sees a bee with this holy bread in his mouth flying out in the window. Decree comes out,....................

11. The ghost and Elena Mataraga. Zakynthos 1794

“Elena Mataraga was 20 years old, and she loved her fellow villager, who died. However, her parents married her to someone else because of other interests.

The night after his funeral, Elena saw the ghost of her beloved, silently standing at the edge of her bed. He appeared to her, on the second and third nights in a row........................

12. The vampires help the lovers!

“Strange stories begin to circulate on the island. One said that he saw a dead man walking and screaming in the dark night.

Another saw how at midday something flew through the air in a burning chariot. Another claims that at midnight he woke up from loud sighs and, opening his eyes, saw in the fire a white ghost, laden with chains, tormented by a herd of devils.

All these monstrous stories accumulate day by day, exaggerate, become more frightening, and everyone gradually begins to believe that the dead terrorize the living in order to free themselves from their sins, that they pull the feet of sleeping people, run through the fields, through thorns and bushes and in ultimately turns into a huge black dog that cools people's blood all night..........................

13. The indifference of the Greeks of Revolution about the Democracy

 ...........................

14. About the stork.

“The stork is the opposite of the crow because he takes care of his baby birds with great love and goes and eats all day and whatever he eats comes and throws vomit for his birds and feeds them until they are full.

The next day if he can't find food, he gives his children the yesterday's meal that he had in his stomach. But also his birds, as they grow older, take care of their elderly parents.

15. Cut off the tongues

“When the Turkish sultan conquered the whole country, he wanted to destroy Christianity. He quickly realized that he could not completely exterminate the Christian faith, since all those people who spoke Greek, should have forgotten their language first in order to change their faith.

He issued a decree to cut off the tongues of all children, and when they grew up, they could not pass on the Greek language to their descendants,........ 

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