Ο Ηρακλής και οι στυμφαλίδες όρνιθες. Αργυρός στατήρας Πραισού. 40ς αιώνας π.Χ.
Εμπνεόμενος από την απεικόνιση στο νόμισμα. Inspired from the depiction on the coin
Η Κιβωτός της Πραισού.
The ark of Praisos (or Praesos or Pressos).
Δικτυακός τόπος για την Πραισό επαρχίας Σητείας Κρήτης και την περιφέρειά της. Η γη των Ετεοκρητών στην ιστορία τη λαογραφία και τη φαντασία. Μια απόπειρα του Ερρίκου Σκουλούδη .
Praisos and its region. The land of Eteocretans in history,folklore and imagination.By Errikos Skouloudis (Erikpraisos)
In Praisos area vast installment begins during the Middle Minoan period (2100-1650) when it appears to have built most of the megalithic structures, and since then we have a continuous habitation.
The city of Praisos was founded around 1100 BC and coincides with the Dorian invasion and had a continuous life for about 1000 years. Praisos was the capital of Eteocretans the pure descendants of the Minoans who were gradually joined the Mycenians and later were repulsed eastwards by the Dorian conquerors. The city was spread over three hills or Acropolis .
In the city remained a language written in the Ionic alphabet that of Eteocretans still a mystery for linguists. The period of greater prosperity was during classical and early Hellenistic times when we have like other cities of Crete, Doric institutions.
Hellenistic Praisos was destroyed around 145 BC by Ierapytnians .
Life continued in the village known until today as Prassi located at the foot of the main Acropolis
We do not know many things about the Byzantine period and the Arab occupation. The village Kanenes was found according to the legend by a Byzantine exiled nobleman or General with the same name.
The Venetian period in Crete began in 1212 and around 1645 our region was gradually enslaved by ottomans. During the Venetian period many churches were built. With the invasion of the Turks the village Prassi was destroyed completely and other villages were devastated or lost the three quarters of their population. The remaining populations of Vaveli and Kalamafki gradually not standing the oppression were converted to islam but not Kanenes which remained a stronghold of Christianity. The small village of Pandeli has a presence since the 14th century. The ottoman period was painful for people who could be released in the early 20th century from it’s tyranny after many revolutions. After the liberation the setllements revived and the destroyed churches were reconstructed. The settlements were led to decline in recent decades because of the wave of urbanization.
A huge wealth of historical memories, traditions, customs and items of popular culture are lost. The Ark of Praisos is symbolic. Like other Noah i am gathering what can be saved from the cataclysmic changes of our time
I have almost completed recording the local dialect, local history through the ages, folk material (legends, traditions, folk poetry and more). I've also recorded a large part of the plants (with photos), the legends and history of the churches of the area etc. Recently i published with the help of the Cultural Association of Praisos the first two volumes of my work.
With this blog i have started presenting with a more poetic way the history and folklore of Praisos area and that of the greatest area of Sitia’s province. Exactly what i have included in the meaning Praisos and Sitia:Their history, my childhood memories, my inspiration from the landscape, my fantasies, through a way where the dream merge with reality and fiction with poetry.
My involvement with painting of byzantine icons and their style has influenced me (ignoring the prospectivity, multiple levels, metaphysical).
I use data that I love as from the classical art, the orientalists and Pre-Raphaelite painters, and finally and above all I am inspired by surrealism which is ubiquitous, but where necessary I don’t avoid the classic presentation. The incorporated elements of folk art in the films of the great Georgian director Sergei Parajanov fascinates me and in many panels influences my aesthetics. The collages of the great Greek poet and Nobel prize winner Odysseus Elytis is also another source of my inspiration.
In many of my compositions for ancient Praisos I use statues and figurines, wanting to show the petrifaction of time as if the figures are isolated and petrified. In most representations the actors seem to pose like in the old photos facing the camera.
The distance from the events gives me the possibility of an overrun by the protagonists who lose their drama and are turned into ornamental figures. The possibility of a pictorial representation, something like the poses in Art Nouveau.
But mainly all have a theatricality . We are the viewers of a performance and the actors are addressed to us.
Ο Ηρακλής και οι στυμφαλίδες όρνιθες. Αργυρός στατήρας Πραισού. 40ς αιώνας π.Χ.
Νόμισμα της
Πραισού με κεφαλή θεάς και ταύρο όπως απεικονίζεται στον κατάλογο του
νομισματολόγου Σβορώνου και στη Χάρτα του Ρήγα Φεραίου (κεφαλή γυναικός
στεφανωμένη με στάχυας και βους
κονιορτόν ρίπτων). Στη Χάρτα η Πραισός σημειώνεται αρκετά πιο δυτικά
Η Χάρτα του Ρήγα ή Χάρτα της
Ελλάδος είναι μεγάλων διαστάσεων χάρτης που απεικονίζει τον
ελλαδικό χώρο και την ευρύτερη περιοχή της Βαλκανικής χερσονήσου
νότια του Δούναβη. Πρόκειται για ένα από τα πιο σημαντικά έργα
του Νεοελληνικού Διαφωτισμού έργο του Ρήγα Βελεστινλή, και το πιο
σημαντικό δείγμα της ελληνικής χαρτογραφίας της προεπαναστατικής
περιόδου. Ο Ρήγας Βελεστινλής ή Φεραίος (1757-1798))
ήταν συγγραφέας, πολιτικός, στοχαστής και επαναστάτης. Θεωρείται εθνομάρτυρας
και πρόδρομος της Ελληνικής Επανάστασης του 1821. Ο Ρήγας καλούσε σε παμβαλκανική εξέγερση κατά της
οθωμανικής κυριαρχίας και επιζητούσε τη συγκρότηση πολυεθνικού κράτους, που θα
εξασφάλιζε την ισότιμη συμβίωση των βαλκανικών λαών, συμπεριλαμβανομένων και
των Τούρκων.
Coin of Praisos with head of a Goddess and bull
Coin of Praisos with the head of a goddess and a bull as depicted in the catalog of the numismatist Svoronos and in the Charta of Rigas Feraios (Woman's head crowned with sheaves and ox causing dust). Praisos is placed on the map further west.
Rigas Velestinlis or Feraios was born in 1757 in Thessaly, near the ancient Greek city of Pherae. On 24 July 1798 he and seven of his partners were strangled by the Turks in Belgrade; Their lifeless bodies were tossed into the Danube. The Rigas Charta, one of Feraios’ most striking works of national importance, was first published by Feraios himself in Vienna (1796-1797). The Charta marks the first major revival of Greek cartography, with geography enriched by a communicational and political dimension. After all, Feraios’ historical ideology draws from the French Enlightenment principle that geography and history are tightly interlinked.
The Charta is Feraios’ most thorough drawing. Harnessing his profound knowledge and vision for the enslaved Greeks, the Charta provided an ideological framing to the Revolution. Feraios believed it was imperative for the enslaved Greeks to become educated by popularizing the means available at the time. Through his Charta he lays out the entire area of the free Greece he envisioned. The structure of the images and symbols imparts a sense of the mentality of his contemporary Greeks. Rigas called for a pan-Balkan uprising against Ottoman rule and sought to establish a multinational state that would ensure the equal coexistence of the Balkan peoples, including the Turks.