Greek language

Leo III the Isaurian (Greek: Λέων ὁ Ἴσαυρος, romanized: Leōn ho Isauros; c. 685 – 18 June 741), also known as the Syrian, was the first Byzantine emperor of the Isaurian dynasty from 717 until his death in 741. He put an end to the Twenty Years' Anarchy, a period of great instability in the Byzantine Empire between 695 and 717, marked by the rapid succession of several emperors to the throne, along with ending the continual defeats and territorial losses the Byzantines had suffered during the 7th century. He also successfully defended the Empire against the invading Umayyads and forbade the veneration of icons.

A tomos (Greek: τόμος, romanized: tomos, lit. 'section', 'part of', 'part which is cut') in the Eastern Orthodox Church is a decree of the head of a particular Eastern Orthodox church on certain matters (such as the level of dependence of an autonomous church from its mother church).

Tomos is a Greek word; it can be literally translated as 'a section'. "In the narrower meaning in Orthodox church terminology, a tomos is [...] a scroll or a small book, but one with a very specific purpose — it codifies a decision by a Holy Synod, or council of Orthodox bishops." The translation of the word tomos in English is document.

A mystagogue (from Greek: μυσταγωγός, romanized: mystagōgós, lit. 'person who initiates into mysteries') is a person who initiates others into mystic beliefs, and an educator or person who has knowledge of the sacred mysteries of a belief system. Another word for mystagogue is hierophant.

John Chrysostom (/ˈkrɪsəstəm, krɪˈsɒstəm/; Greek: Ἰωάννης ὁ Χρυσόστομος, Latin: Ioannes Chrysostomus; c. 347 – 14 September 407) was an important Church Father who served as Archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders, his Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, and his ascetic sensibilities. He was also the author of Adversus Judaeos and was strongly against Judaism. The epithet Χρυσόστομος (Chrysostomos, anglicized as Chrysostom) means "golden-mouthed" in Greek and denotes his celebrated eloquence. Chrysostom was among the most prolific authors in the early Christian Church.

He is honored as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches, as well as in some others. The Eastern Orthodox, together with the Byzantine Catholics, hold him in special regard as one of the Three Holy Hierarchs (alongside Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus). Along with them and Athanasius of Alexandria he is also regarded as one of the four Great Greek Church Fathers. The feast days of John Chrysostom in the Eastern Orthodox Church are 14 September, 13 November and 27 January. In the Catholic Church, he is recognised as a Doctor of the Church. Because the date of his death is occupied by the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14 September), the General Roman Calendar celebrates him since 1970 on the previous day, 13 September; from the 13th century to 1969 it did so on 27 January, the anniversary of the translation of his body to Constantinople. Of other Western churches, including Anglican provinces and Lutheran churches, some commemorate him on 13 September, others on 27 January. John Chrysostom is honored on the calendars of the Church of England and the Episcopal Church on 13 September. The Coptic Church also recognizes him as a saint (with feast days on 16 Thout and 17 Hathor).

Veneration (Latin: veneratio; Greek: τιμάω timáō), refers to the practice of honoring people and articles of religious significance. The term applies, for example, to the veneration of saints and the veneration of relics.

To venerate a saint is honour a person who has been identified as having a high degree of sanctity or holiness. Angels are shown similar veneration in many religions. Veneration of saints is practiced, formally or informally, by adherents of some branches of all major religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Jainism.

The history of the Greek alphabet starts with the adoption of Phoenician letter forms in the 9th–8th centuries BC during early Archaic Greece and continues to the present day. The Greek alphabet was developed during the Iron Age, centuries after the loss of Linear B, the syllabic script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek until the Late Bronze Age collapse and Greek Dark Age. This article concentrates on the development of the alphabet before the modern codification of the standard Greek alphabet.

The Phoenician alphabet was consistently explicit only about consonants, though even by the 9th century BC it had developed matres lectionis to indicate some, mostly final, vowels. This arrangement is much less suitable for Greek than for Semitic languages, and these matres lectionis, as well as several Phoenician letters which represented consonants not present in Greek, were adapted according to the acrophonic principle to represent Greek vowels consistently, if not unambiguously.

The Idalion Tablet is a 5th-century BC bronze tablet from Idalion (Greek: Ιδάλιον), Cyprus. The script of the tablet is in the Cypriot syllabary and the inscription itself is in the Arcadocypriot dialect of Greek.

The tablet was kept in the ancient official depository of the temple of Athena on the western acropolis of Idalion, where it was discovered in 1850 by a farmer from the village of Dali. It was purchased by Honoré Théodoric d'Albert de Luynes, who donated it to the Bibliothèque nationale de France in 1862. Today it is kept in the BnF Museum in Paris. The script was not deciphered until after the 1870 discovery of the Idalion bilingual.

Idalion or Idalium (Greek: Ιδάλιον, Idalion, Phoenician: 𐤀𐤃𐤉𐤋, ʾDYL, Akkadian: e-di-ʾi-il, Edīl) was an ancient city in Cyprus, in modern Dali, Nicosia District. The city was founded on the copper trade in the 3rd millennium BC. Its name does not appear on the Sargon Stele of 707 BC, but does appear on the later Prism of Esarhaddon [nl] (copies of the text dated to 673–672 BC) and in similar spellings in Ashurbanipal's annal (648/647 BC).

Recent excavations have uncovered major buildings on the site which are open to visitors. A new museum is at the entrance of the site.

Chi (/kaɪ/ KY, also /xiː/ KHEE; uppercase Χ, lowercase χ; Greek: χῖ) is the twenty-second letter of the Greek alphabet.