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ways of rendering the ‘o’ sound and two ways of rendering the ‘e’ sound. In most instances in this book, y has been used for the ‘ee’ sound when a Greek upsilon (υ, Υ) has been used, and i for Greek ita (η, Η) and iota (ι, Ι). In the case of the Greek vowel combinations that make the ‘ee’ sound, that is οι, ει and υι, an i has been used. For the two Greek ‘e’ sounds αι and ε, an e has been employed.

As far as consonants are concerned, the Greek letter gamma (γ, Γ) usually appears as g rather than y throughout this book. For example, agios (Greek for male saint) is used rather than ayios, and agia (female saint) rather than ayia. The letter fi (φ, Φ) can be transliterated as either f or ph. Here, a general rule of thumb is that classical names are spelt with a ph and modern names with an f. So Phaistos is used rather than Festos, and Folegandros is used rather than Pholegandros. The Greek chi (χ, Χ) has usually been represented as h in order to approximate the Greek pronunciation as closely as possible. Thus, we have Hania instead of Chania and Polytehniou instead of Polytechniou. Bear in mind that the h is to be pronounced as an aspirated ‘h’, much like the ‘ch’ in ‘loch’. The letter kapa (κ, Κ) has been used to represent that sound, except where well-known names from antiquity have adopted by convention the letter c, eg Polycrates, Acropolis.

Wherever reference to a street name is made, we have omitted the Greek word odos, but words for avenue (leoforos, abbreviated leof on maps) and square (plateia) have been included.

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Eating Out

For more on food and drink, Click here.

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Health

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EMERGENCIES

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Language Difficulties

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Numbers

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Paperwork

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Question Words

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Shopping & Services

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Time & Dates

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Transport

Private Transport

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ROAD SIGNS

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Travel with Children

Also available from Lonely Planet: Greek Phrasebook

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Glossary

For culinary terms see the Food Glossary, and also see Where to Eat & Drink.

Achaean civilisation – see Mycenaean civilisation

acropolis – citadel; highest point of an ancient city

agia (f), agios (m) – saint

agora – commercial area of an ancient city; shopping precinct in modern Greece

Archaic period – also known as the Middle Age (800-480 BC); period in which the city-states emerged from the ‘dark age’ and traded their way to wealth and power; the city-states were unified by a Greek alphabet and common cultural pursuits, engendering a sense of national identity

arhon – leading citizen of a town, often a wealthy bourgeois merchant; chief magistrate

arhontika – 17th- and 18th-century AD mansions, which belonged to arhons

askitiria – mini-chapels or hermitages; places of solitary worship

baglamas – small stringed instrument like a mini bouzouki

basilica – early Christian church

bouleuterion – council house

bouzouki – long-necked, stringed lutelike instrument associated with rembetika music

bouzoukia – any nightclub where the bouzouki is played and low-grade blues songs are sung

Byzantine Empire – characterised by the merging of Hellenistic culture and Christianity and named after Byzantium, the city on the Bosphorus that became the capital of the Roman Empire; when the Roman Empire was formally divided in AD 395, Rome went into decline and the eastern capital, renamed Constantinople, flourished; the Byzantine Empire (324 BC-AD 1453) dissolved after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453

caïque – small, sturdy fishing boat often used to carry passengers

Classical period – era in which the city-states reached the height of their wealth and power after the defeat of the Persians in the 5th century BC; the Classical period