#thessalonikia

[attichoney4u]

Big inspiration from @allbeendonebefore. The designs for Athens and Thessaloniki were based from her work!

Recently, I came across a post from the talented @margaretartstuff, which inspired me to do my own take of the "myth of the mermaid".

The human is Thessalonikia (that's how Thessaloniki was called in ancient times) and she converses with the person whom she was named after, Thessaloniki.

I don't know how popular this myth is outside of Greece, but I still wanna share it due to how tragic it is. It goes that when Princess Thessaloniki, Alexander the Great's half-sister, learnt about her brother's death, she jumped from a cliff to drown. She didn't die, but instead, she turned into a mermaid. Ever since that day, she stops every ship passing by and asks "Is Alexander the Great alive?". The captain must answer "He lives, and he reigns, and he conquers the world" if he wants to keep sailing safely, or else, the mermaid will send a fierce storm to crash his ship. This dialogue is depicted above. So, if you ever find yourself in Greece and a mermaid asks you about Alexander the Great, you know what you should answer. ;)

[gemsofgreece]

https://parallaximag.gr/agenda-parallaxi/biblio/i-thessalonikia-poy-eide-to-vivlio-tis-na-ginetai-pagkosmia-kykloforia

There will be a greek book called the Threads that bind and the story is quite interesting so far. About a girl with the power of the fates, greek mythology, modern noir setting in Greece.

Now i really do hope this book succeeds a lot like any Greek author who wants to make it big globally. Also the story is what we have been saying on this blog. A greek story mixing Greek mythology and modern without exploiting it, but trying to question the philosophy behind the myths of our culture, in her story specifically how much choice a person has in their lifes.

Looks promising! And honestly I love that she writes under her real Greek surname without making it short English-like, like many Greek celebrities abroad, even though the book is written originally in English and will be first published in USA and UK (she has studied the English language and literature) and will then be translated and published in Greece! Also love the Fates theme. But I really hope she doesn’t fall on the traps foreign writers fall on, in order to attract a young foreign audience… this worries me a little.

[wordsmithic]

My human-eating lovelies now on your screen!

Against the Niruvei rise the Isior, who hunger for human flesh instead of human souls. They can be found in forests, mountains, or drinking coffee in the city while spying on their next meal. Generations of Isior resist the Niruvei influence for two thousand years now, and they still have dark nightmares to grant to their opponents. The main character who is also Isior is the Greek Ismene Demara.

(commission for the character by Erin Drake/Rosegold)

Like a Proper Thessalonikia™, she appears dressed in the best fashion of her era (a mix of modern and traditional Thessalonian fashion) holding her favorite weapons. She is a bit too ambitious since she thinks waging war against Raphael Shirazi is an easy feat but her persistence bears some fruit in the end!

Yes the Persephone/Maiden archetype is a Thessalonikia, deal with it 😂

--- For those wondering what I am blabbering about, here's the link to the story summary of The Other Evil, a modern retelling of Hades and Persephone with Hellenic and Persian cultural elements, written out of spite for bad HxP retellings.

[daddy-issuess]

thessalonikia?

Οχι Αθηναία

[toposopos]

Seafront - Thessaloniki - MacedoniaGreece

[alatismeni-theitsa]

So happy to find another greek tumblr with actual interesting content??? Just as rare as a thessalokia without makeup in the center 😂 ( a diss on myself tbh δεν πάω κέντρο χωρίς να ντυθώ λες και πάω για βάφτιση).

I was wondering what are your opinions on ( usually from US ) foreigners using greek deities for their paganism? It always sort of bothered me to see videos of a girl from Minnesota , say that the deity she works with is Aphrodite or something ( while pronouncing the name with the most americanized accent ever) and then go on and describe how they look and how they act as if the god is a original character of theirs rather than an actual deity. It just doesn't make much sense to me...do they do that with other pantheons? Like do they take Ra and be like " ah yes my spiritual god" ? ?

( ps. I'm so happy that another person on this app despises LO , it's refreshing to see people standing up to the massacre that the creator has done to mythology)

Hello dear Thessalonikia (complimentary)! Κοιτα καποια βαφτιση ολο και καπου στον κοσμο γινεται, οποτε πρεπει να εισαι προετοιμασμενη... Κι εγω βαφομουν, γι αυτο εκανα τοσο καιρο να απαντησω το ask. Δε μου εβγαινε το eyeliner 😁

As I've answered in the past, I don't have a problem with foreigners who worship the Greek gods. And now I won't talk about the ones who read ancient texts and try to be as respectful as possible, but the ones you mentioned.

It's not "a good look" when they don't do their research and just worship them because of "vibes". They haven't studied at all and think their own knowledge and intuition are enough. They worship or "work" with one deity and bash the rest or badmouth other deities (because they usually have a background in a monotheistic religion, they think polytheism works the same, that you just choose one god as your patron and that's it), they don't have an idea about how respect in the Greek culture worked/works, they don't even read about how these gods have been worshiped and what their domains ACTUALLY are (and not what American pop culture tells them).

And it's also weird that they don't research about the Greek names of the gods despite them being "obsessed" about them. Religion is not a hobby and gods are not OCs or your pals. (Idk if their old church told them something like that about Jesus and now they think the Divine is like this but it's not the same for the Greek pantheon).

Many pagans are extremely selective with their paganism, creating a mix and match of gods and attributes that don’t exist in Greek culture. (I guess they don’t feel the need to search further?) That’s not bad exactly, but it can be weird. Honestly, anyone can worship however they want, I am not the one to dictate that. But when you come from the Greek culture and know certain rules about worship and respect about certain gods, it’s off putting to be cut off by a foreigner who thinks they know better because of “feelings”. Especially if it’s obvious that person hasn’t studied that deity within the context of the religion at all.

Imagine me working in my paganism with Shiva just like some Americans work with Aphrodite, let’s say -- without any contact with actual Hinduism, its principles and how the different branches view Shiva, without the rituals, without his proper clothing and symbols. Everyone would be (kinda rightfully :p) raging at me. There is free will and rights, but we also must be thoughtful about our actions. Just because something is legal and within our rights, it doesn’t mean that it’s the best action xD For example, Hindus are the ones who worshiped this deity for millennia and have constructed a proper set of rituals and prayers in order for the person to reach him better. Now, we can’t have a random person from Greece saying “umm yeah let me throw all that ancient knowledge aside. I just need my crystals and some tarot cards”. And, on top of that, imagine me not giving him respect as the great deity he is, but constantly saying “ommg Shiva would love feta because I just KNOW he likes salty food! He would drink karpouzi chai with me on the beach and he would also wear crocks because he is dorky heehee”

Perhaps some Americans view the Greek gods as American property and that’s why they don’t feel the need to search further into a different culture and practice.

And because a LOT of foreign Greek pantheon worshipers are like that, many Greeks are like "uuugh" when they hear about foreign worshipers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the LO subject, you might have already found the anti lo tag (or anti lore Olympus) on my blog and on Tumblr in general. If you haven’t I urge to search it! There are many anti LO blogs. I don’t post as much but there are others who do. antiloreolympus is one of those blogs and has lists with other anti LO blogs!

[coralaki]

thessalonikia?

Vera thessalonikia

[na-lu]

Thessalonikia?

Oute!

[gkizinaki]

Thessalonikia??

O  X  I

[goodsexnostress26]

ρε μωρο εισαι για μια γυρα με το τραινο της ακρόπολης?

eimai ligaki thessalonikia

[attichoney4u]

Big inspiration from @allbeendonebefore. The designs for Athens and Thessaloniki were based from her work!

For whatever reason, I was inspired to draw a pretty rushed (as you probably can see) piece about Athens and Thessalonikia's (because this is how she was called in ancient times) first meeting.

Athens looks at her like this because that's the first time he sees her after she was born/founded (don't know how that works in Hapo's universe) wonders if she will ever amount to anything (spoiler alert: she does) and doesn't know yet that she's gonna be his biggest rival (and his biggest headache) for the next 2.400 years.

Thessaloniki looks at him like this, because she doesn't know he's an asshole yet (and also because she doesn't blame him yet for everything going wrong with her city).

That reminds me that I should make a post about Thessaloniki's founding story.

See you soon 😊!

[gemsofgreece]

Some complain that we should make a Greek song for Eurovision but we already had one in 2018, but we were disqualified even though it was a pretty song. Maybe because it a soft ballad or something but it was something to send a song in our native language.

But i think we should start first...voting for the candidates who will represent us and second mix both traditional and modern rhythms.

Bre make a Pontiac song and see how much on top we would be, would make the whole crowd dance 😉

Oh my God Anon 😂😂😂 You are young, right? Or started watching Eurovision recently? This is not condescending, I just want to cheer you up. I am asking because Greece retains a honorary title of being a Eurovision powerhouse due to its mostly consistent success throughout 2001- 2013. In all those years, almost all the songs that succeeded had either Greek music or both Greek music and lyrics. The 2014-2019 dry spell had mostly entirely English songs except for two, which had very bad performances. The 2021-2022 successes made people hopeful that Greece was coming back but long time fans complained that Greece should also return to its authentic sounds.

When it comes to the 2018 song, have you watched the stage performance???? I think even Victor two days ago was better than Yanna, and that says a lot! It had nothing to do with the song or the language or it being soft. She sang terribly and supposedly her whole freaking equipment for the staging was stuck at the customs and never arrived at Eurovision (that’s what she said)!!!Have you ever heard of such an occurrence before? 😂 One more suspicious person would say there were barely any ideas for the staging at all and she had no better way of excusing it.

Despite all that, the public did keep her in, albeit barely, and gave her the 10th place. She was murdered by the juries who gave her the 16th place and disqualified her. Here’s the thing though: Yanna accused the juries and the production in general of a sabotage. This might sound crazy but something shitty DID happen. There is a point in the song, during the chorus, where fireworks pop. However, inexplicably during the jury show, the technicians chose to randomly shoot the fireworks during the very calm verse. This was so out of place it was visibly wrong, it wasn’t like a detail you won’t even notice. The Greek team requested that the performance should be repeated, since it was the crucial jury show and it was the technicians’ fault, but the production refused and asked the juries to vote based on what they saw, a decision that was criticised by Greeks and other fans of the song alike.

So as you see here not only the singing is atrocious but as if this was not enough, they really just randomly shot the fireworks to her face. I honestly have no idea what happened but this was the unluckiest song we have sent. It was a gorgeous song that did not deserve either Yanna’s live vocals and her lousy team or the problematic production there. And the fact the audience tried to keep it in was solely the song’s and the language’s achievement as there is not any other redeeming quality in this participation unfortunately.

This is a topic I feel strongly about because I loved this song and I had a lot of faith in it and it still hurts. But also - regarding the language thing - it’s a myth, not only for Greek but for all languages I think. It was true in the past, when only English or French songs would win, but ever since 2010s people want diverse songs and more languages. The juries are worse on that but the public does want the ethnic element.

And to prove it, I once made a very passionate analysis on how Greek entries performed and the conclusion was that on average a song that was either fully Greek or at least in a Greek music style performed better than a totally English song. Again, on average. Here’s the link to the analysis:

And then I saved for last a stab to your heart… We have sent a song in Pontic Greek… and it is the third one that flopped 😅😅😅😅😅😅 The notorious Utopian Land by Argo, fam! But it was a bad song, even though I see on You Tube it has developed something like a cult following.

But in stark contrast, Alcohol is Free was a totally Greek song in everything (with freaking rebetiko) and it finished 6th (and 2nd in its semi) . And the reason it didn’t make it to the top 5 was that some hysteric people were clutching their pearls at the title, whining “how they would allow their kids to watch Eurovision now”. I have some very deep into esc stuff friends from Europe and I know for a fact that this was the case with some people. And yet it ended up sixth and some considered it an injustice, which it was, because it should have won, seriously. Oh yeah, I forgot, it would make it in the top 5 in spite of all that, had it not been for the juries. The public voted it 4th and the juries 14th and it ended up 6th. Similarly, Watch My Dance by Loukas Yorkas was half in Greek and it ended 7th (and notoriously 1st in its semifinal, ahead of the Eurovision winner of the year, Azerbaijan, which does raise questions about the final results - see the link above with the analysis). Interestingly, the only criticism I saw the song ever receiving was by people complaining that the whole song should be like the Greek laiko in the chorus and diss the English rap in the verse. Another example, OPA by Yorghos Alkeos, which was also entirely in Greek and finished 8th.

Now an ethnic Greek entry and a cheerful one at that will certainly be butchered by the juries, like they did with the Ukrainian Shum or the Finnish Cha Cha Cha and our own Alcohol is Free. But who cares? Better be butchered by the juries and be loved by the public, than going with bland and bad English ballads that only the juries might like and nobody else. The people have made clear what songs they want from Greece. And in any case, I would rather suck by sending something from my culture that others may simply not get than suck by sending something that doesn’t even represent me in any way.

I know you agree by the way, you just touched a sensitive chord in my heart and I went full rant mode 😇

[arikuosmanen]

Anssi Vesanen mukana tekemässä lentopallohistoriaa (Lempäälän-Vesilahden Sanomat )

Lue alkuperäinen artikkeli tältä sivulta: this site

Anssi Vesanen pääsi mukaan maailman parhaaseen lentopalloliigaan VaLePan riveissä. Kuva: Antti Raunio

Lempääläinen Anssi Vesanen pääsi osaksi suomalaista lentopallohistoriaa, kun Vesanen oli Vammalan Lentopallon riveissä Mestarien liigan ottelussa viime viikolla. VaLePa selviytyi ensimmäisenä suomalaisena miesjoukkueena maailman kovimpaan lentopalloliigaan tänä syksynä.

Historiallisessa kotiottelussa 5. joulukuuta kreikkalaista PAOK Thessalonikia vastaan Vesanen oli farmisopimuksen avulla Lempäälän Kisan 1-sarjajoukkuesta auttamassa VaLePaa, joka voitti ottelun 3-2. Vesanen on joulukuussa ollut auttamassa liigajoukkuetta loukkaantumisten vuoksi, ja on todennäköisesti mukana myös muissa Mestarien liigan peleissä.

Mestarien liigassa Vesanen ei päässyt kentälle, mutta viime sunnuntaina pelasi hakkurina koko pelin VaLePan paidassa Raision Loimua vastaan, ja palkittiin parhaana pelaajana. Lähes 600 liigapeliä ja 12 SM-mitalia urallaan kerännyt Vesanen pääsi huipentamaan uransa maailman parhaiden pelaaajien joukossa.

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[apprecier]

thessalonikia??

totally

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Rasel has reached iconic theitsa status at age 24

She lays her salt down gracefully and she is bomb at everything she does so you feel owned just by her presence! In just one minute she gave 10 iconic theitsa poses, I love her

A proper Thessalonikia, someone would say xD (She is half Pontiac Greek half Seychellois living in Thessaloniki)