Today we are going to analyse a word that is very widely used these days, the word MELANCHOLY.

Well, the word has an interesting background. It comes from MELAS(=black) and CHOLI(= bile) and it refers to someone deep in black bile, therefore glum, sad. The idea that the human feelings are related to a good balance of body fluids was very widespread in the antiquity.

Hippocrates taught that these fluids are: blood, bile, black bile and phlegm. Consequently, if the black bile prevails, you get the feeling of discontent, sorrow, ….something like the way we are feeling now!

Warm greetings to all of you.

*As always, info from G. Babiniotis’:  ”Etymology Dictionary of Modern Greek”

“nostalgia” by Andrjei Tarkovski

It’s a complex word. It comes from the ancient Greek word NOSTOS -ΝΟΣΤΟΣ that meant RETURN HOME and  ALGOS–ΑΛΓΟΣ that meant PAIN (think about NEURALGIA!).
 
Although the compounds of this word were ancient Greek, the word first appeared in the 17th century in a medical thesis written in Latin, as NOSTALGIA, It refered to a serious mental
 
illness, that could lead even to death, caused to people who were forced to live far from home (as servants or soldiers) without any hope of return.
 
The term appears in German as well - HEIMWEH, in English – HOMESICKNESS, in French - MAL DU PAYS.
 
In Greek the word NOSTALGOS and NOSTALGIKOS with their current meaning appear towards the end of the 19th century.
 
Now that things are tougher every day, don’t you just feel NOSTALGIA for the way things used to be?
 
 
(Source:Etymology Dictionary by G,Babiniotis)

read also:

http://www.livinlovin.gr/category/did-you-know/

http://www.livinlovin.gr/category/ancient-greek-mythology/

 We can see you wondering: the what???

 The alkyonides days, the days of spring in the heart of winter. These days usually last from 15 December to 15 February and they visit Greece every year, with few exceptions,ie.1947.   Do you know the myth about them? Alkyoni was  daughter of Aiolos, God of the winds, and was married to Kiykos. They were so happily married and so much in love that they called each other Zeus and Hera. The real Zeus and Hera felt deeply offended by the sacrilege and decided to punish them severely. So they transformed Kiykos into a bird, a vulcher. Alkyoni searched for her beloved husband everywhere, but couldn’t find him anywhere. She cried and cried until the Gods decided to transform her into a bird as well, alkyoni. The problem was that alkyoni is the only sea-bird that lays and hatches its eggs in mid-winter. As a result of that, the waves carried them away and she was left in despair. The gods then, touched by her misfortune and misery, decided to cease the bad weather for two weeks to give alkyoni time to reproduce. So,as we can all see, there are two weeks of spring in the heart of winter which give us the opportunity to… hatch our eggs, take them out in the sunshine, admire them as they are riding their bikes while we are enjoying a nice …ouzaki!

(this is one of quite a few versions)

That being said, we wish you all and your families
a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
 
We thank you all for being around, for sharing our vision with us and for working with us so nicely.
 
CHRONIA POLLA
 

 Katerina Tsitsipi
Aristotelis Makris

The word is CORNUCOPIA, which in English means “HORN OF PLENTY». The roots of the word are CORNU (horn) and COPIA (plenty), but the amusing part is the myth behind it!

Well, dear friends, you may know Zeus, who was God of all Gods. When Zeus was born, his mother Rea hid him in a cave in Crete (Ideon Andron, you can visit it today) to save him from his father Kronus , who had the habit of eating his children as soon as they were born in order to protect his throne (hmmmm!). His mother had enough already, so she hid little Zeus there, asked a goat, Amalthea, to feed him with her milk and appointed a group of warriors, the Kourites, to bang their spears on their shields every time little Zeus cried, so that Kronus wouldn’t hear. Surrounded by all that crowd little Zeus grew and grew, until one day, while playing with Amalthea, he broke one of her horns – you get really strong if you drink goat’s milk, you know! Poor Amalthea was very distressed, so Zeus promised her that the broken horn would always be full of all the goods she desired.

Later on, in Roman mythology, the horn became the symbol of goddess Copia, the personification of plenty and nowadays it is used to refer to an abundance of something!

The moral (-s) of this story are: drink goat’s milk, it’s good for you.

Don’t eat your children; it’s bad for you and nature.

where the greeting “ghia sou” comes from? Well, it comes from the name of the Greek goddess HYGEIA {ΥΓΕΙΑ}, which means “health”. Hygeia was the daughter and attendant of the medicine-god ASKLEPIOS. She had two sisters, Panakeia (all-cure) and Iaso (remedy). Her opposites were the Nosoi (Diseases). In classical sculpture she was represented holding a large serpent in her arms.

Now you see what we really mean when we say ‘ghia sou” and “ghia mas”and “me ghia” when someone is wearing something new? We are wishing “good health”