The Hellenes (Greeks) lived in Asia Minor, in their historical homeland, since antiquity, where the ancient hellenic cities flourished until the Hellenistic years. Much later, Asia Minor was conquered by Turkic tribes who moved there from Central Asia. The Greeks remained in these territories until the beginning of the 20th century, when the Kemalists seized power of the Ottoman state. The Seven Churches, the Seven Lamps of Hellenic-Christian culture, were extinguished.. Written sources, but mainly archaeological monuments of the region, which have survived until today, from the hordes of «barbarians», testify to the true word. They have a Hellenic stamp and Hellenic letters. From Aeolia to Lycia and Cilicia, from Bithynia to Paphlagonia and Cappadocia, and from Caria and Ionia to Lydia, Mysia, Pisidia and Pamphilia, the Hellenic element was culturally dominant, except for some periods until the Roman conquest, when the Hittites first and then the Persians subdued by force of arms and numerical superiority the flourishing Hellenic cities and towns of Asia Minor.. The first migrations of populations from Hellas to the coast of Asia Minor, began from the middle of the 11th to the 9th century BC. Hellenes from the northeastern Peloponnese, Attica and Euboea moved to Samos, Chios and the coast of Asia Minor. The entire western beach of Asia Minor was named Ionia. It was there that the first city-states (πόλις-κράτος) were created. In Ionia, during the first great Hellenic colonization, the «Ionian Dodecapolis» was founded.. Ionia was a fertile land. Her ports teemed with life. The need to import raw materials prompted its inhabitants to establish colonies, mainly on the Black Sea coast. The Ionians attached great value and importance to social life. This is evident in the architectural creations of their cities. They developed philosophy, science, architectural style with subtlety, harmony and elegance, urbanism, poetic metre, rhetoric, geography, historiography, Ionic dialect, poetry and theatre. The strong economy allowed Ionia, especially in the early years of its existence, to mint coins made of electro and silver. The first coins in ancient Greece were minted in the 7th c. BC in Asia Minor. The Ionians were famous for their hard work, ingenuity of mind, love of overseas travel, spirituality, sociability, artistic and commercial nature. In total, the Ionians founded more than 75 colonies on the Black Sea coast alone. In Ionia, in Miletus, were born the great Greek philosophers, Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes. Here, the first hellenic alphabet was created, the circle and sundial were invented, the first model of the celestial sphere, the ellipse, appeared. They lived here, Thales, Herodotus and Pythagoras, born the architect Isidore the Milesian, who built Agia Sophia in Constantinople.. The Ionic language, is the language of epic poetry. The Homeric idiom is based on the Ionian, which is enriched with elements from the Aeolian and Attic dialects. It is the dialect of lyric poetry and historiography. In Ionic are written Hecataeus of Miletus and Herodotus of Halicarnassus. Also, the pre-Socratic philosophers, Empedocles, Parmenides, and Xenophanes. The Ionian dialect was spoken apart from the inhabitants of the Ionian Dodecapolis and in Euboea, in the Cyclades as well as in the numerous colonies of the Ionians on the Black Sea coast, in Lower Italy and the Iberian Peninsula.. Lycia, a country associated with legends and traditions already since Homeric times, extends along the south east coast of Asia Minor, east of Rhodes and very close to it. We first encounter the Lycians in the «Iliad», on the side of the Trojans. Their leaders were Glaucus and Sarpedon. The Hellenic Mythology is a collection of stories and legents passed down through generations. Theese tails of Gods, heroes and monsters have significantly impacted modern culture, influencing everything from literature and art to film and advertising. Hellenic Mythology has its roots in ancient Hellas, where it was used to explain natural phenomena, human behavior, and the origins of the world. The stories were pased down orraly for generation before being written down by poets like Homer and Hesiod. These tales were entertaining and taught important lessons and values to the people of Ancient Hellas. Today, these stories continue to captivate and inspire people around the world.. Greeks founded colonies and other settlements in new environments.This whole process took place during the period of the first and second Great Greek Colonisation in 8th and 6th centuries BCE, respectively. The Greek diaspora established colonies (city-states) and other settlements in the lands that stretching from the Iberian Peninsula in the West to North Africa in the South and the Euxeinos Pontos in the North East. Greek culture and local cultures met, influenced, and enriched each other. This cultural heritage, that they created together and which was kept until the roman and byzantine era,formed later the basis foundations of modern European culture.. From the shores of misty Albion, Pytheas made perhaps the most mysterious voyage in the history of Ancient Navigation. Returning from these places, he visited the whole coast-line of Europe from Gadira to the river Tanais (Scythia). Pytheas reached the coast of Norway, when ice prevented him from moving further north. After sailing to the mysterious shores of Thule, Pytheas eventually headed for the places where amber is mined.. Beginning from the 9th century, the route from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea became particularly profitable and important to the Slavs. One of Constantinople most powerful trading partners was Ancient Russia. An important revival in relations between Russia and Constantinople happened in the 9th century when the waterway «From the Varangians to the Greeks» connected northern Europe with the South.. The Greeks, with the invitation to the area of Azov of Catherine II The Great, were the descendants of the Ionians, who lived in Asia Minor and after the persecution of the Turks on the coast of Asia Minor, in the Aegean and Crete fled to the lands of Novorussia. The Greeks during 400 years of slavery under the Turkish yoke and occupation retained their language and Christian faith as Crypto-Christians. The restoration of the colonists from Greece to the lands of southern Russia, Catherine The Great II, considered it reasonable and necessary. In Taganrog the military and the more affluent settled, who could settle themselves into commercial employment. For the religious needs of the Greeks in their new homeland, churches and monasteries were built for the most prominent members of the Greek diaspora. The most important, the Greek Jerusalem monastery of the Holy Trinity, built in 1813 at the expense of the benefactor and Sea-Wolf of the Aegean, Ivan Andrejevich Varvakis, and the Parish Church of Saints Constantine and Hellen.. Theophanes the Greek, with the vivid expressionistic and mystical style, drove the Palaiological tradition of the art of Constantinople to an extreme form. Information regarding the artistic work of Theophanes in Constantinople before his establishment in Novgorod comes from the modern Russian artist, the monk Brother Epiphanius.. The Venerable Father Paisius Velichkovski contributed decisively so that «Philokalia» could be rendered correctly in the Slavic language and it was one of his most important services to the Church. Also, he left his own creations – teachings, messages, correspondence – which have a tremendous theological value for asceticism because it opens up the character of internal spiritual life.. The Monastery of Chora and its burial chapel, together constitute a masterpiece composition of architecture, mosaic decoration and hagiography, a brilliant example of our late Byzantine culture. The domes and arches are adorned by Mosaic representations of Christ, The Virgin of Vlacherna, The Righteous of the Old Testament, The Apostles and the Saints. At the entrance of the esonarthex, towards the nave, there is the mosaic representation of Theodor Metochites, who offers on his knees to The Despot Christ the «model» of the church.. Modern Hellenic Poetry has as its main characteristic, the questioning of every rule. Verse is free (automatic writing), while rhyme, metre, and the specified number of syllables are frequently abolished. Speech is closer to nonfiction (use of everyday and simple vocabulary), while words are combined with originaly, as some are seemingly mismatched. The use of myth is one of the ways that allows the modernist writer to give coherence to his work, since myths almost always refer to general concepts, death and rebirth, the circuit of nature, the order of the seasons although many times, as in the case of Odysseus, myths are more specifically literary. But there are other ways to achieve unity in modernist works. As an example, we can mention the analogy with music..