Actium - the naval battle in which Antony and Cleopatra were defeated by Octavian's fleet under Agrippa in 31 BC

Chaeronea - a battle in which Philip II of Macedon defeated the Athenians and Thebans (338 BC) and also Sulla defeated Mithridates (86 BC)

Battle of Lepanto, Lepanto - Turkish sea power was destroyed in 1571 by a league of Christian nations organized by the Pope

battle of Leuctra, Leuctra - Thebes defeated Sparta in 371 BC; the battle ended Sparta's military supremacy in Greece

Mantinea, Mantineia - the site of three famous battles among Greek city-states: in 418 BC and 362 BC and 207 BC

battle of Marathon, Marathon - a battle in 490 BC in which the Athenians and their allies defeated the Persians

battle of Navarino, Navarino - a decisive naval battle in the War of Greek Independence (1827); the Turkish and Egyptian fleet was defeated by an allied fleet of British and French and Russian warships

battle of Pharsalus, Pharsalus - Caesar defeated Pompey in 48 BC

battle of Thermopylae, Thermopylae - a famous battle in 480 BC; a Greek army under Leonidas was annihilated by the Persians who were trying to conquer Greece

Balkan Wars - two wars (1912-1913) that were fought over the last of the European territories of the Ottoman Empire and that left the area around Constantinople (now Istanbul) as the only Ottoman territory in Europe

bay wreath, laurel wreath, laurels - (antiquity) wreath of laurel foliage worn on the head as an emblem of victory

pantheon - (antiquity) a temple to all the gods

Wooden Horse, Trojan Horse - a large hollow wooden figure of a horse (filled with Greek soldiers) left by the Greeks outside Troy during the Trojan War

hybrid, loan-blend, loanblend - a word that is composed of parts from different languages (e.g., `monolingual' has a Greek prefix and a Latin root)

dithyramb - (ancient Greece) a passionate hymn (usually in honor of Dionysus)

Greek, Hellenic, Hellenic language - the Hellenic branch of the Indo-European family of languages

pean, paean - (ancient Greece) a hymn of praise (especially one sung in ancient Greece to invoke or thank a deity)

torch race - (ancient Greece) in which a torch is passed from one runner to the next

souvlaki, souvlakia - made of lamb

17 November, Revolutionary Organization 17 November - a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization in Greece that is violently opposed to imperialism and capitalism and NATO and the United States; an active terrorist group during the 1980s

ELA, Revolutionary People's Struggle - an extreme leftist terrorist group formed in Greece in 1971 to oppose the military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974; a revolutionary group opposed to capitalism and imperialism and the United States

Common Market, EC, EEC, European Community, European Economic Community, European Union, EU, Europe - an international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members; "he took Britain into Europe"

NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization - an international organization created in 1949 by the North Atlantic Treaty for purposes of collective security

Balkan country, Balkan nation, Balkan state - a country on the Balkan Peninsula

Aegina, Aigina - an island in the Aegean Sea in the Saronic Gulf

Chios, Khios - an island in the Aegean Sea off the west coast of Turkey; belongs to Greece

Kikladhes, Cyclades - a group of over 200 islands in the southern Aegean

Dhodhekanisos, Dodecanese - a group of islands in the southeast Aegean Sea

Lesbos, Lesvos, Mytilene - an island of eastern Greece in the eastern Aegean Sea; in antiquity it was famous for lyric poetry

Rodhos, Rhodes - a Greek island in the southeast Aegean Sea 10 miles off the Turkish coast; the largest of the Dodecanese; it was colonized before 1000 BC by Dorians from Argos

Crete, Kriti - the largest Greek island in the Mediterranean; site of the Minoan civilization that reached its peak in 1600 BC