Biographies

15 important people are...

1. **Melina Merkouri** 2. **Konstantinos Karamanlis** 3. **Eleftherios Venizelos** 4. **El Greco, he is a famous artist** 5. **Maria Callas** 6. **Eleftherios Venizelos** 7. **Vassilis Tsitsanis** 8. **Nikos Kourkoulos** 9. **Zoe Laskari** 10. **Konstantinos Akratopoulos** 11. **Peter Speliopoulos** 12. **Vassia Loi** 13. **Lazaros Papadopoulos, very tall famous basketball player** 14. **Nicholas David Rowland "Nick" Cassavetes** 15. **Lysander, an ancient leader for the Spartans**

El Greco Bio He is a well know painter that has beautiful artwork. He is known popular widespread though the world which is very unusually. He was born in 1541 and lived till April 7th in 1614. His real full name is Domenikos Theotokopoulos. He was born in Crete, Greece, where he was raised to be an icon painter. Moving to Venice in 1567, he set his passion to paint Renaissance paintings. He died in Toledo, Spain. During the time of his birth, art was expanding rapidly in Europe. Michelangelo was still a force to be reckoned with in art. This time period was perfect for an artist to be born. El Greco became a very famous Spanish painter. But he also worked as a sculptor and an architect. Most of his art have very dramatic meanings and expresses something. His artwork has become a great appreciation for the 20th century. Signing almost all paintings in Greek letters, he never forget that he was Greek descend. He is actually known as “The Greek.” This name he was giving while living in Italy. While living in Venice, he went to the school for art at the Studio of Titian. This is in 1560 where he was only 19. Even for his year age, he was the greatest painter of the day. All of El Greco’s paintings were in Venetian Renaissance style of the 16th century. Some of his first paintings are in Italy and they are portraits of Giulio Clovio and Vinecntio Anastagi. Apparently, El Greco sometimes used interns of hospitals and mental institutions as good examples to create the characters of his work, believing them to be closer to God. Now a day’s most of his artwork can be find in Prado Museum Madrid, and throughout Toledo. Around 1570-1576 he visited Rome where he first became influenced by Mannerism. Then around 1577, he immigrated to Spain and briefly visited to Madrid. Then he went on to Toledo where he remained until his death. This city was the religious capital of Spain and here, he produced more mature works. El Greco only had one son, Jorge Manueal. He was born in Toledo to Doña Jeronima de las Cuevas. El Greco never married her though. One of his first oil paintings was “Assumption of the Virgin”. Then he painted “Trinity” and “Resurrection”, which many people would call his turning point. In 1577, he painted the “Disrobing of Christ” for Toledo Cathedral. In 1578, he painted the “Allegory of the Holy League”. Later he painted “Martydom of St Maurice”. This next piece in 1588 was “Burial of the Count de Orgaz” which is known as his master piece. His most famous art would be “The Burial of Count Orgaz” which is an oil painting for the church of Santo Tome in his adopted hometown of Toledo, Spain. It’s emormous standing 16’ x 11’ mural-sized canvas including the difference between realism and mysticism of the Mannerist era. He created this in 1586 and the painting has 27 life-size figures. The painting is nothing more than a funerary scene but it’s still remarkable. El Greco is still famous for his oil paintings today 400 years later.

Obituary on Lysander
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Lysander was an ancient leader for the Spartans. He died in 395 BC in Greece. He was a Spartan general who led and commanded the Spartan fleet in the Hellespont which defeated the Athenians at Aegospotami in 405 BC. The following year, he was able to force the Athenians to capitulate, bringing the Peloponnesian War to a halt and eventually, an end. Then he organized the dominion of Sparta over Greece in the last decade of his life. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Little is known about Lysander’s early life, but researchers have discovered that his father was Aristocleitus. He was a member of the Spartan Heracleidae; that is, like most Dorian men of good family, he claimed descent from Hercales. Nevertheless, Lysander was a mothax meaning his family was poor. When he was young he needed sponsorship to be able to participate in the Spartan training to become a good soldier. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;">From his victories against the Athenians and their allies, Lysander was able to gain a huge fortune. In the Battle of Haliartus, he was killed after bringing his forces too near the walls of the city. The Spartans were arranged into two armies, under Lysander and the other under Pausanias of Sparta, to attack the city of Haliartus, Boeotia. Lysander arrived before the Pausanias army and persuaded the city of Orchomenus to revolt from the Boeotian confederacy. He then advanced to Haliartus with his troops. Fighting, he was killed in battle against Corinth and Thebes. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Lysander is still considered an ambiguous figure. He was a great leader that led the Spartas and saved the population. According to Duris of Samos, “Lysander was the first Greek to whom the cities erected altars and sacrificed to him as to a god and the Samians voted that their festival of Hera should be called Lysandreia.” <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Lysanders had a close friendship with the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger. This man gave Lysanders army financial support, which helped them conquer the Athenians around 404 BC. Athens was not sacked, though, and because of violent internal political problems, the Athenians constantly begged Lysander to help with the internal affairs. Lysander then constituted the so called thirty Tyrants in order to overpower and overthrow the democracy. Lysander made the Spartan government restore the Athenian democracy against his will.

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