Greece, Hellenic Republic, Ellas

a republic in southeastern Europe on the southern part of the Balkan peninsula; known for grapes and olives and olive oil

• Balkan country, Balkan nation, Balkans, Balkan state — a country on the Balkan Peninsula

• Greek, Hellene — a native or inhabitant of Greece

• Actium — the naval battle in which Antony and Cleopatra were defeated by Octavian's fleet under Agrippa in 31 BC
• Chaeronea — a battle in which Philip of Macedon defeated the Athenians and Thebans (338 BC) and also Sulla defeated Mithridates (86 BC)
• Lepanto, battle of Lepanto — Turkish sea power was destroyed in 1571 by a league of Christian nations organized by the Pope
• Leuctra, battle of Leuctra — Thebes defeated Sparta in 371 BC; the battle ended Sparta's military supremacy in Greece
• Mantinea, Mantineia — the site of three famous battles among Greek city-states: in 418 BC and 362 BC and 207 BC
• Marathon, battle of Marathon — a battle in 490 BC in which the Athenians and their allies defeated the Persians
• Navarino, battle of Navarino — a naval battle in the War of Greek Independence (1827); the Turkish and Egyptian fleet was defeated by the allied fleet
• Pharsalus, battle of Pharsalus — Caesar defeated Pompey in 48 BC
• Thermopylae, battle of Thermopylae — a famous battle in 480 BC; a Greek army under Leonidas was annihilated by the Persians who were trying to conquer Greece
• Aegina, Aigina — an island in the Aegean Sea in the Saronic Gulf
• Chios, Khios — an island in the Aegean Sea off the west coast of Turkey; belongs to Greece
• Cyclades, Kikladhes — a group of over 200 islands in the southern Aegean
• Dodecanese, Dhodhekanisos — a group of islands in the southeast Aegean Sea
• Lesbos, Lesvos, Mytilene — an island of eastern Greece in the eastern Aegean Sea; in antiquity it was famous for lyric poetry
• Rhodes, Rodhos — a Greek island in the southeast Aegean Sea 10 miles off the Turkish coast; the largest of the Dodecanese; it was colonized before 1000 BC by Dorians from Argos
• Crete, Kriti — the largest Greek island in the Mediterranean; site of the Minoan civilization that reached its peak in 1600 BC
• Ithaca, Ithaki — a Greek island west of Greece; in Homeric legend Odysseus was its king
• Athos, Mount Athos — an autonomous area in northeastern Greece that is the site of several Greek Orthodox monasteries founded in the tenth century
• Athens, Athinai, capital of Greece, Greek capital — the capital and largest city of Greece; named after Athena (its patron goddess)
• Actium — an ancient town on a promontory in western Greece
• Attica — the territory of Athens in ancient Greece
• Corinth, Korinthos — the modern Greek port near the site of the ancient city that was second only to Athens
• Argos — an ancient city in southeastern Greece; dominated the Peloponnese in the 7th century BC
• Delphi — an ancient Greek city on the slopes of Mount Parnassus; site of the Temple of Apollo
• Mycenae — an ancient city is southern Greece; center of the Mycenaean civilization
• Epirus — an ancient area on the Ionian Sea that flourished as a kingdom in the 3rd century BC; located in northwest Greece and southern Albania
• Laconia — an ancient region of southern Greece in the southeastern Peloponnesus; dominated by Sparta
• Boeotia — a district of ancient Greece northwest of Athens
• Thessaloniki, Salonika, Salonica, Thessalonica — a port city in northeastern Greece on an inlet of the Aegean Sea; second largest city of Greece
• Stagira, Stagirus — an ancient town of Greek Macedonia where Aristotle was born
• Thessalia, Thessaly — a fertile plain on the Aegean Sea in east central Greece; Thessaly was a former region of ancient Greece
• Arcadia — a department of Greece in the central Peloponnese
• Peloponnese, Peloponnesus, Peloponnesian Peninsula — the southern peninsula of Greece; dominated by Sparta until the 4th century BC
• Lemnos, Limnos — a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea; famous for a reddish-brown clay that has medicinal properties
• Olympus, Mount Olympus, Mt. Olympus, Olimbos — a mountain in northeast Greece near the Aegean coast; believed by ancient Greeks to be the dwelling place of the gods (9,570 feet high)
• Parnassus, Mount Parnassus, Liakoura — a mountain in central Greece where (according to Greek mythology) the Muses lived; known as the mythological home of music and poetry
• Saronic Gulf, Gulf of Aegina — a gulf of the Aegean on the southeastern coast of Greece

• European Union, EU, European Community, EC, European Economic Community, EEC, Common Market, Europe — an international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO — an international organization created in 1949 by the North Atlantic Treaty for purposes of collective security

• Europe — the 2nd smallest continent (actually a vast peninsula of Eurasia); the British use `Europe' to refer to all of the continent except the British Isles