#drachmas

annabeth and Percy appear out of the water

Chiron: alright everyone, into the big house! Many of you have urgent financial business to attend to!!! And bring your drachmas or whatever too!

percy: urgent financial business?

annabeth: drachmas?

Chiron: why yes.

percy: what do we need them for?

Chiron: oh, not you two.

percy and annabeth: say what?

chiron: all these campers need to pay their bets!

annabeth: BETS?!?!?

Nikolaos Gyzis (1842-1901) “The Secret School” (1885-1886) Oil on canvas

One of the more enduring myths of Greek national imagining is that of the Secret School (Krypho Scholio). It is about the suppression (and, in some cases, total prohibition) of education by the Ottomans of their subjected people. According to the Secret School narrative, because of this suppression (especially during the first two centuries of Ottoman rule in Greece, the mid-fifteenth to the early seventeenth), Greeks had secretly organized small, underground schools in order to educate their children. These schools were said to have convened in churches or monasteries, usually at night, and usually with priests for teachers. Though there isn’t any serious historiographical support for the existence of these schools, this myth has long been part of the populist historical narrative and has even been included in primary school textbooks.

Retro Greece

1. Nokia

Luke 15:1‭-‬10 CPDV

https://bible.com/bible/42/luk.15.1-10.CPDV

There are so many different currencies in the world, it’s mind-boggling! I just learned that one dollar and forty-two cents in US dollars is one pound in British money. And while we’re on the topic of European currency, I have a Greek myth to tell you. It’s all about money!

You probably know the basic layout of the Underworld: Big, murky island surrounded by the River Styx. Spirits would gather on the shore and wait for Charon the boatman, to ferry them across. Before Hades came along and got everything organized, Charon could charge anything he wanted for a ferry fee. If he liked the looks of you, he would charge you next to nothing, but if he didn’t, he’d charge you mounds and mounds of drachmas (Greek currency). You can see how this is really unfair. When Hades took over, he called Charon in, gave him a good scolding, and convinced (read: bullied) him to charge a standard fee of one drachma.