Its been a while now since I have criticised Greece or as the neo Greeks like to call it, Hellas. Now Hellas is a very unfortunate name for the greatest ancient European civilisation and beloved Balkan pet of modern westerners. But Thats only to be xpected considering their role in the establishment of Hell ass the land of gods and heroes So for the last time in 2014 I want to tell a real neo Greek story. In 1924 eleven years since the invasion and occupation of Macedonia and the year of its colonisation by fleeing Turkish Christians the year 1924 was also nearly 100 years since a bunch of Albanian and Vlach speakers living within the borders of what used to be Ancient Greece with a little help from Western European philhellens threw of the yoke of ottoman occupation. Then after much democratic discussion facilitated by the presence of interpreters invited a Bavarian prince to become their king. Otto king of the Hellenes. Not long after the hellenisation of its multicultural multi lingual population began transforming them into pure Greeks speaking the Greek language, a process that continues to this very modern day. The motto of this neo Greek nationalism being religion defines the nationality meant that any Christian regardless of their ethnicity language or location within the Ottoman Empire was in reality a pure Greek a direct descendent of Hercules and Aphrodite. A human with the touch of the divine thats how the nation with no peer likes to see itself. But I digress so enough back grounding and back to the modern Greek story. Its 1924 the fascist Greek government of metaxas decrees by law that Macedonia names in Macedonia must be changed into Greek. Apparently ancient atlases were consulted to ensure historical accuracy. The purification and rechristening of Macedonia began in Ernest almost immediately. All names personal and place were changed and thrown in for good measure speaking Macedonian became illegal punishable by a fine a curfew and or imprisonment. But I continue to digress please excuse me. There is a city in Greek occupied Western Macedonia called Kostur in Macedonian. its a little city more a town nestled along a small picturesque lake renown for its fur industry. So the heroic and brilliant Greek godfathers charged with finding real pure Greek names preferably ancient ones decided to call Kostur, Kastoria. The Greek logic being that its original name was that and most likely reflected the abundance of beavers in the lake, Kastor in Greek being beaver. It wasy assumed the stupid barbaric Slav invaders couldnt say Kastoria and corrupted it to Kostur despite the fact that Kastoria is perfectly pronounceable by all slavic speakers. And now for the punch line knock knock. In Macedonian Kostur means skeleton. So can anyone guess what the original Ancient Greek name was and what it means in Greek. So typically hell ass ish on so many different levels.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 07:19:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015