Wonderful to hear Greek spoken and sung by talented school students and distinguished speakers at an event last Thursday that marked International Greek Language Day (February 9).

Defence Minister Nikos Dendias and Victoria Hislop, where among the guests that gathered at the Greek Ambassadors Residence to celebrate the Greek Language.

Following the message by Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Giorgos Kotsiras on the 9th of February, Ambassador Yannis Tsaousis addressed this event speaking about the significance of the Greek language and its remarkable continuity through the centuries. He also highlighting the promotion of Greek language learning within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Strategic Plan for Greeks Abroad, and relevant initiatives by Deputy Foreign Minister Giorgos Kotsiras and the Secretary General for Greeks Abroad and Public Diplomacy, John Chrysoulakis.

Later on, in a thought-provoking conversation with Ambassador Yannis Tsaousis, Victoria spoke about herjourney learning Greek, and writing about Greece.

Oxford student Ethan Chandler shared his powerful personal account of how his love of Greece, motivated him to learn the language.

How charitable organisations integrate Greek language learning into their work was the focus of 2 presentations about the Daughters of Penelope initiative to promote play-based Greek education to Greek Diaspora children & Kind at Heart Foundation's educational project in Tanzania.

Representing both the Greece and Cyprus Diaspora in the UK, and making the evening truly special, were school students from the Greek Primary School of London and the Hellenic School of High Barnet. They gave an unforgettable performance of Greek songs and a great poetry recital.

"My favourite word: 'borborygmos' "[means-tummy-rumble]

I first learned the ancient Greek alphabet at school in 1958. I was 11 years old. From that moment on, Latin, with its ancient Roman characters, had to take second place. In the position of "beta", in the best sense attributed to Eratosthenes of Cyrene (ed.: contemporaries attributed to him the nickname "Beta", because he was the second best in the world in all areas of knowledge). After some time I stumbled upon Xenocrates, Plato's successor in the Academy, who once wondered how many syllables can be produced from the different combinations of letters of the Greek alphabet.

Whatever the answer, I have one: it depends. Upon which version of the alphabet we are looking at - local or over a wider region, since there were several, with a varying number of letters from 24 to 28. What they all had in common, however, was that the overall number of letters remained small. Compare, for example, the symbols and ideograms one needs to command in order to decipher Linear B: about 200. Without mentioning the more than 3,000 characters needed for basic literacy in Chinese.

Let's look at it differently: by adapting a version of the Phoenician alphabet, developed for a Semitic language, and adding vowels that the Semite-speakers did not use, some Greeks around 800 BC invented for their Indo-European language the first fully phonetic alphabet in the world. Something that even a child of 3 - 5 years can manage with ease.

Even an ancient Spartan could! I mention this because, in spite of some biased claims by snobbish Athenians, all or most Spartans, women and men, were literate - enough to cope with all the needs and demands of their society. I remember very well the first ancient Spartan inscriptions that I examined first-hand at the excellent Museum of Sparta, in the 1970s, thinking how different was the form of some (Doric) words differed from those of the Attic dialect I had learned in school. "Sioi" instead of "Gods", for example.

I've been moving on ever since. Unlike the Spartans, I wear a tie from time to time. One of my favourites, from the "Thalassa" collection (designed in Greece, but, oimoi, produced in Italy!), has as its motif letters of the Greek alphabet. And what is my favourite Greek word, both modern and ancient? What else than a typical example of onomatopoeia: the "booborygmos".

Paul Cartledge is Professor of Greek History at the School of Classics, University of Cambridge and Vice-Chair of BCRPM

Paul's words were published in Ta Nea.

Wednesday 09 February 2022, was a great day in Sicilian and Greek relations with the arrival from the Acropolis Museum in Athens, the statue of the goddess Athena (Acr. 3027, second half of the fifth century BC.) to be exhibited in the regional museum, the Museo Archeologico Regionale "Antonino Salinas", Palermo.

The official delivery took place, in the morning, in the presence of  Minister of Culture and Sport of the Hellenic Republic, Lina Mendoni, and the director of the Acropolis Museum, Nikolaos Stampolidis, who entrusted this precious statue of the goddess Athena in the hands of the Regional Councillor of Cultural Heritage Alberto Samonà and the director of the Salinas museum, Caterina Greco. Also present were the Italian Deputy Minister for Culture Culture, Lucia Borgonzoni and Professor Louis Godart, President of the Italian Committee for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

The arrival in Palermo of the statue of Athena was possible following the agreement, encouraged by Alberto Samonà and signed between the two museums under Italian law, according to which Sicily granted the Acropolis Museum the fragment of the Frieze of the Parthenon that belonged to the English consul Robert Fagan and that, after being sold in 1820, was kept in the Museo Archeologico Regionale "Antonino Salinas".

It is the first time that the Acropolis Museum offers Sicily, for a long-term exhibition, an original testimony of Athenian history. Thanks to the agreement between the two museums, but more generally, Sicily and Greece, this heralds the start of a great path for cultural collaboration.

The presentation of the statue took place on Wednesday 09 February 2022, “International Greek Language Day”, a day celebrating the Greek language and culture.

At the end of the four years, the Acropolis Museum will send to Palermoa geometric amphora of the early eighth century BC.

Associated Press in the Washington Post also reports: 'Greece hopes the loan of the small Italian fragment — part of a 160-meter-long (520-foot) frieze that ran around the outer walls of the Parthenon — will boost its campaign for the return from London of the British Museum’s part of the Parthenon Sculptures. “Greece recognizes no rights of ownership or possession” to the sculptures in the British Museum, commented Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni who travelled to Palermo’s  A. Salinas Archaeological Museum for the handover. “(The deal with Italy) indicates the path that London can follow”, concludes Mendoni.

The statue of the goddess Athena which has been lent from the Acropolis Museum to the Museo Archeologico Regionale "Antonino Salinas", Palermo. The official ceremony held at the museum on Wednesday 09 February, pictured from left to right:Italian Deputy Minister for Culture, Lucia Borgonzoni, Professor Louis Godart, President of the Italian Committee for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles with Alberto Samonà the Councillor for Cultural Heritage and Identity of the Sicilian Region as well as Director of the Salinas Museum, and Minister of Culture and Sport of the Hellenic Republic, Lina Mendoni,