Hello and welcome to Your Greek Word on a Sunday summer edition. I just returned from my Greek holidays and the place I’ve been has a great myth behind it so I’m here to tell you all about it!

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Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go!

Son of Tantalus and father of Atreus (among his numerous children), Pelops was a cunning man but had a tragic and triumphant history too. When he was a child his father cut him into pieces and served him as dinner to the gods to challenge their mental acuity. From all the gods only Demeter had a small piece from his shoulder as she was in deep grief from the loss of her daughter Persephone and didn’t realise what she was eating. The Gods ordered for the pieces of the child to be put in a cauldron and be reassembled by one of the fates . The missing piece from his shoulder was replaced by ivory and Pelops’s descendants would carry a white birthmark on their shoulders from then on.

Pelops survived and ‘thrived’!

As a young man, he fell for Hippodamia , daughter of king Oenomaus. A prophesy that the king would be killed by his son in law had him put on chariot races between himself and his daughter’s suitors killing everyone who lost and put their heads on a spike outside his palace. Pelops got into the race but not before sabotaging the king’s chariot , getting him killed, marrying his daughter and becoming king of the peninsula South of Athens that included Sparta and its famous army. He held a war against the Athenians for 27 years and won. Abolishing Democracy and establishing Oligarchy . A period that changed ancient Greece forever. If there’s one good thing Pelops did-even if it was out of fear and guilt for the murder of his father in law- was creating the Olympic Games, in Olympia. Chariot races where the first game.

But Pelops’s lineage was cursed, sons killing each other, his wife committing suicide, one of his sons went and created an empire of tragedy and left us with great myths in Greek drama. From Helen of Troy to the Oresteia. His death is a mystery but his bones said to have been summoned by Agamemnon (his descendant) when he was in Troy , to help him win the war. The bones were lost at sea, recovered years later and laid to rest in the place he called home. Νήσος (nisos) in Ancient Greek meant 'island' and the peninsula he reigned is a combined word meaning 'Pelops’s island'. Πελοπόνησσος/Peloponnesus

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Hello and welcome to the last episode for this season. Thank you for staying with me for another year, downloading and sharing the podcast! Our audience is getting bigger and this is all thanks to you! Stay tuned this summer as you might find a bonus episode or two coming your way during our break and if you haven’t yet leave a review on the platform of your choice. It does help other people find us and I always love reading what you have to say. If you're on this side of the globe have a fantastic summer and if you're on the other one, have a great autumn

Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go!

Today’s episode is thanks to our listener Dale Choate , American expat in London, creative director extraordinaire and of course Gregophile . Thanks Dale.

Πειρείν is the Ancient Greek infinitive of ‘I try/I attempt ‘ and Πειρατής (Peiratis) is the one attempting . it’s directly linked to an attack and in particular at sea. The practice goes a long way back and has been documented as an acceptable one in the Mediterranean sea, between countries. it was perfectly legal to attack and steal goods and ships from another nation. It was illegal to attack your own. Until the Romans made it illegal all around (and I suspect it was because they didn’t have great nautical skills) The stories of tactics, thief leaders and, trade offs in the ancient world are fascinating and in the Mediterranean in particular because of the proximity of countries, seafaring and, trade. Although the word originated in Greece -not because that’s where it began but because the meaning was so accurate- it has been used in many languages. Piraat in Dutch, Pirat in German, Pirata in Spanish, Italian and Latin and Pirat in French where it arrived from in English, in the 14th century. ΠΕΙΡΑΤΗΣ/PIRATE

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Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go!

Στάδιο (stadio) in Ancient Greece was the most popular game in the Olympics and the very first one. From 776 to 724BC that 200 yard race, was the Olympics! But it remained as the most important one even when other games where added and the winner’s name would be given to the entire event for the next 4 years .The runners would compete naked and they were supervisors both in the beginning and the end of the race to make sure everything was done properly. If there was a tie the race would be repeated until a clear winner was declared. The name of the game became both a measurement for distance and the name of the place the race was happening. The measurement arrived in English with the first Bibles around 1300 and was translated as 'furlong' and in 1834 ‘a large open oval structure with tiers of seats for viewing sporting events’ was a ΣΤΑΔΙΟ/STADIUM

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