Hallo, I am Lena, welcome to my channel
Today I start a new project with videos
 
I will go tours in some places
and I will write calligraphy at the places I will go
The first tour will be in ancient city Aptera, which is in city of Chania, of Crete island (Greece)
More details when we arrive. 
Let's go....
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
So, here we are...
We are going to visit a temple of 5th century,
the monastery of Saint John,
the Roman cisterns, the ancient theater and the house with peristyls.
So, here in Aptera
In the doric ancient greek dialect, the name was Aptara
Here I have some brochures to read more information
I have already read some to tell you
 
Here you see some of the places, we will go to many places today
 
Ancient city Aptera, was built in a very good place
 
a very good strategic location
It was built about the 7th century BC
The location was very strategic because the ancient city lies on a low hill
about 200 metres high,
which overlooks the Souda bay
That period, this city was contolling the two natural bays with the harbors
the most important harbors
The one was the Minoas harbor,
which is the today area Marathi,
and the other was the Kissamos harbor
which today is the Kalami area
Just a mention again, that Aptera is situated in Chania Perfecture
about 10klm to the road to Rethymno
below the Souda bay
 
 
 
At the ancient Knossos, about 14th-13th century BC
the archaeologists found some inscriptions
 
that mention the ancient city Aptera
they write the city as Apatava
They believe that Apatava was this place, the newest Aptera
The name Apatava (or Apatawa) was written
in the syllabic script Linear B
 
 
 
There are three theories
how this city was named Aptera
 
(Aptera in greek means someone without wings)
 
The first theory or myth says
that Aptera was a nick name
of Goddess Artemis
She was named as Goddess Artemis the Aptera
One other theory or myth -
as I read from the brochure ( I cannot remember everything :-)  )
says that the eponymous of a hero-king  Delphi Pteras or Apteras, gave his name to the city
 
and the last theory
this is more a myth
that was mentioned by the historic Stefanos Vyzantios at the 5 century AC
He was saying that
there was a mythic battle
between the Muses and the Sirens
let me check it again
 
so in that battle
the Sirens lost
thew their feathers (wings) so, they stayed without  feathers (featherless) (or wingless)  (A-ptera) and fell into the sea
So, these are the three theories
 
choose anyone you like  most  :-)
 
 
 
Here you see the ruins of an ancient roman house
propably was a summer house
it has peristyls
It was built the first years of the Roman empire
and as it said
it was built with many details
from the Hellenist period
 
The history says that the first excavations
were made the 1860 from the French archaeological school
that period this ancient city was found
and they found many other ancient foundings
 
According to these foundings they learned that this ancient city was inhabited
from the 7th  century BC
until the 8th century AC
That period the city was destroyed from a big earthquake
and after that was destroyed from the Arabs
 
 
 
 
We are at the Monastery of Saint John Theologos,
 
which was builted
around 1182 AC
This Monastery belonged to Patmos island
until 1960 AC
Now, nobody is here, except those buildings and the church
 
This is a room of the old monastery
now it is a small information center
 
 
 
You see here on the wall some information panels
and you can read, when you come here, more information about Aptera
Also there is a tv which plays a video with photos and  the information of this place
 
Nice job
 
 
 
 
 
 
This is a magic place
We are at the most inpressive monuments of this place, the Romans cisterns
Three-parted  cisterns
From outside you will see three arches
at the floor there waters
It was the place that the waters were collected, at the ancient years
Because of the waters, which fell from the walls, they have very beautiful colors
 
You can't imagine how beautiful it's in here
Happy to see this place, I haven't see it before
We have so many ancient beautis in Greece
You will see all these beauties thanks to my beloved husband  Vassilios (love you)
Here I am in the ancient theater of this city
You will see more pictures later
Do you see this stone I am on?
This stone was called "thimeli" and it was the altar of Dionysos, all the ancient greek theaters have it in the middle of the stage
 
Also, Epidayrus theater has this stone at the same place
 
This stone has something amazing
 
If you stand on this stone and talk
you can here your voice as you talk in a microphone
You hear your voice very loud.... amazing
 
Now, I sit on the stones of the ancient theater (amazing)
and I will write calligraphy for you
Now, I will write four words for you
 
It is better to say that I will write the same word, in four different greek styles
The one style will be Linear B,
the next style will be in later ancient greeks
then I will write the word in  greek capitals that we use now
and the last style will be
in modern greek calligraphy
 
I will write the word Aptera,
which is the name of this ancient city as we said before
 
and as I said before at the Linear B, the name of Aptera was Apatava (or Apatawa)
 
I have also with me  my pilot parallel pens
 
my notepad
I will write on the blanc pages
 
 
 
 
This is an aluminium hard pad, which is ideal when I write on the road
without a desk
 
 
 
 
I start now with Linear B script. Linear B, has syllabus and not individual letters
 
You see the syllabus here
 
This script Linear B, was found on insciptions
and to remind you, as I said at the beginning of the video, in ancient Knossos
they have found inscriptions with the name of this city
 
which was Apatava in Linear B
 
and I start with this
 
 
 
Pilot parallel pens are also ideal pens for calligraphy on the road, you don't have to keep ink bottle with you
 
 
 
 
In Linear B script, this symbol is "A"
 
this symbol is "PA"
symbol "TA".... so till now we have APATA...
and the last symbol "VA"...  final word "APATAVA"
in Linear B
 
 
 
Let's write now in later ancient greek letters
 
which looks very much to the modern greek capital letters
 
 
 
 
If you see, I don't use guide lines when I write
 
I just write free, just to see it
 
The word Aptera -  "ΑΠΤΕΡΑ" in greek
 
 
Now, I will write in capital modern greeks
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Capital greek letters that we use today.
Now, I will write the word Aptera in small letters, modern greek calligraphy
 
 
 
 
Now, I will show you the words together
 
 
 
 
APATAVA
in Linear B
APTERA  in later ancient greek hand
This is very common hand, you may see it very often is oaths
or other ancient texts
APTERA in capital modern greek letters
 
and the small letters in modern greek calligraphy
So, here ends this small tour to the ancient city of Aptera in Crete
 
 
I showed you and told you only some things about this magic place
I wrote you also greek calligraphy
I liked very much this place and for me also, was the first time I saw them
I was impressed
If you visit Chania and Crete, it would be very nice to visit this place
 
 
There are some links with details at the description box
 
 
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This is an extra video, tour video
and I will upload these kind of videos when I will go for a tour
 
Till next time..... Byeeee
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
