Another invention in the late Middle Ages was the use of Greek fire by the Byzantines, which was used to set enemy fleets on fire.

# REDIRECT Greek fire

Initial theories of transformation of materials were developed by Greek philosophers, such as the Four-Element Theory of Empedocles stating that any substance is composed of the four basic elements – fire, water, air and earth.

His original system consisted of the four classical elements found in the ancient Greek traditions ( air, earth, fire and water ), in addition to two philosophical elements: sulphur, ‘ the stone which burns ’, which characterized the principle of combustibility, and mercury, which contained the idealized principle of metallic properties.

In one Greek myth, Prometheus stole fire from the gods to protect the otherwise helpless humans, but was punished for this charity.

The most effective kind of ammunition though involved fire, such as “ firebrands, and deadly Greek Fire ”.

After the battle of Plataea, the Greek cities extinguished their fires and brought new fire from the hearth of Greece, at Delphi ; in the foundation stories of several Greek colonies, the founding colonists were first dedicated at Delphi.

Though early thermal weapons, such as Greek fire, have existed since ancient times, the first widely used explosive in warfare and mining was black powder, invented in 9th century China ( see the history of gunpowder ).

Picture showing Greek fire in use against the other ship.

Greek fire was an incendiary weapon used by the Byzantine Empire.

The impression made by Greek fire on the west European Crusaders was such that the name was applied to any sort of incendiary weapon, including those used by Arabs, the Chinese, and the Mongols.

The composition of Greek fire remains a matter of speculation and debate, with proposals including combinations of pine resin, naphtha, quicklime, sulphur, or niter.

Although the term " Greek fire " has been general in English and most other languages since the Crusades, in the original Byzantine sources it is called by a variety of names, such as " sea fire " (), " Roman fire " (), " war fire " (), " liquid fire " (), or " manufactured fire " ().

Incendiary and flaming weapons were used in warfare for centuries prior to the invention of Greek fire.

Greek fire proper, however, was developed in ca.

The historian James Partington further thinks it likely that Greek fire was not in fact the creation of any single person, but " invented by chemists in Constantinople who had inherited the discoveries of the Alexandrian chemical school ".

Kallinikos ' development of Greek fire came at a critical moment in the Byzantine Empire's history: weakened by its long wars with Sassanid Persia, the Byzantines had been unable to effectively resist the onslaught of the Muslim conquests.

This was the Greek word most often translated as `` baptism ''.

Deppy is Despina Messinesi, a long-time member of the Vogue staff who, although born in Boston, was born there of Greek parents.

Greek phone service is worse than French, so that it was to be some little time before contact of any sort was established.

My other nugget of art and architectural knowledge -- besides remembering that it was Ghiberti who designed the doors of the baptistery in Florence -- is the three styles of Greek columns.

We were struck by the notable absence of banana skins and beer cans, but just so that we wouldn't go overboard on Greek refinement, perfection was side-stepped by a couple of braying portable radios.

Although he did not attend any celebrated schools or universities, he was a master of Greek and Hebrew and could read the Bible in the original.

Milton was required to absorb and display an intensive and accurate knowledge of Latin grammar, logic-rhetoric, ethics, physics or natural philosophy, metaphysics, and Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.

Those famous lines of the Greek Anthology with which a fading beauty dedicates her mirror at the shrine of a goddess reveal a wise attitude: `` Venus, take my votive glass, Since I am not what I was, What from this day I shall be, Venus, let me never see ''.

Greek civilization was swirling toward its great revolution, in which the developed qualities of the Hellenic outlook were suddenly to break forth.

It was not even in writing Latin epigrams, sometimes bawdy ones, or in translating Lucian from Greek into Latin or in defending the study of Greek against the attack of conservative academics, or in attacking the conservative theologians who opposed Erasmus's philological study of the New Testament.

Milman Parry rigorously defended the observation that the extant Homeric poems are largely formulaic, and was led to postulate that they could be shown entirely formulaic if the complete corpus of Greek epic survived ; ;

The Greek evidently fell for her, `` Monsieur X '' recounted, and to clinch what he thought was an affair in the making he gave her 100,000 francs ( about $300 ) and led her to the roulette tables.

The study of Greek was the distinctive mark of boys destined to go to college, and Lucy Upton too expected to go to college and take the full classical course offered to men.

-- Greece and West Germany have ratified an agreement under which Germany will pay $28,700,000 to Greek victims of Nazi persecution, it was announced today.

The new `` Phedre '' was done in 17th century setting, instead of ancient Greek ; ;

In Greek mythology, Achilles (, Akhilleus, ) was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.

Aristotle (, Aristotélēs ) ( 384 BC – 322 BC ) was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great.

With the loss of the study of ancient Greek in the early medieval Latin West, Aristotle was practically unknown there from c. AD 600 to c. 1100 except through the Latin translation of the Organon made by Boethius.

Marie-Louise von Franz tells us the double approach of Western alchemy was set from the start, when Greek philosophy was mixed with Egyptian and Mesopotamian technology.

However, while Apollo has a great number of appellations in Greek myth, only a few occur in Latin literature, chief among them Phoebus ( ; Φοίβος, Phoibos, literally " radiant "), which was very commonly used by both the Greeks and Romans in Apollo's role as the god of light.

In Greek mythology Artemis was the leader ( ηγεμόνη: hegemone ) of the nymphs, who had similar functions with the Nordic Elves.

Derrida utilized, like Heidegger, references to Greek philosophical notions associated with the Skeptics and the Presocratics, such as Epoché and Aporia to articulate his notion of implicit circularity between premises and conclusions, origins and manifestations, but-in a manner analogous in certain respects to Gilles Deleuze-presented a radical re-reading of canonical philosophical figures such as Plato, Aristotle and Descartes as themselves being informed by such " destabilizing " notions.

He wrote in Ancient Greek and is known to have utilized Babylonian astronomical data.

This epithet utilized the plural of the adjective, Lacedaemonius ( Greek Λακεδαιμὀνιοι, Latin Lacedaemonii ).

Of Posidonius's work on tactics, The Art of War, the Greek historian Arrian complained that it was written ' for experts ', which suggests that Posidonius may have had first hand experience of military leadership or, perhaps, utilized knowledge he gained from his acquaintance with Pompey.

The Town successfully advocated Prince George's County Government for a new state-of-the-art $ 6 million facility, which received recognition for its utilization of three massive Archimedes Screws, a flood pumping technology developed by the ancient Greek mathematician rarely utilized on such a scale in the United States.

She was very inspired by ancient Greek art and utilized some of those forms in her movement ( see image ).

An electronic device called a rheoencephalograph Greek rheos stream, anything flowing, from rhein to flow is utilized in brain blood flow biofeedback.

Fabius ' work utilized the writings of the Greek historian Diocles of Peparethus, who allegedly wrote an early history of Rome.

The editions of the United Bible Societies and of Nestle-Aland's Novum Testamentum Graece were those primarily utilized, along with readings from other ancient manuscripts when the translators felt the original meaning was not clearly conveyed by either of the primary Greek New Testament editions.

d. Hebrew zaqar and Greek aner are usually translated “ man ” or “ men .” The Hebrew ‘ am, usually translated “ people ”, is occasionally rendered “ army ” when utilized in a military context.

In particular, Wedemeyer stressed that if the U. S. had insisted on experienced American military advisers attached at the lower battalion and regimental levels of Nationalist armies ( as it had done with Greek army forces during the Greek Civil War ), that aid could have more efficiently been utilized, and that the immediate tactical assistance would have resulted in Nationalist armies performing far better in combat against the Communist Chinese.

In the 2000 – 01 season, the club was, amazingly, supervised by five different managers and had to deal with a scandal that involved two players ( Brazilian Alex Dias and Ukrainian goalkeeper Maksym Levytsky ) who utilized fake Portuguese and Greek passports.

Weiss also established a new text of the Greek New Testament, which was utilized by Eberhard Nestle for his Novum Testamentum Graece.

The choice of name symbolised a new beginning as it reflected the fact that the company ’ s founder, Vincenzo Lancia ( 1881 – 1937 ), utilized letters of the Greek alphabet for his early vehicles — such as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and so on.

Lancia had previously utilized the first letter of the Greek alphabet, Alpha, but this was not chosen for the new 1972 Lancia due to the obvious confusion it might cause with Alfa Romeo.

Classical Greek objects and customs were appropriated selectively and utilized in peculiarly " Macedonian " ways.