Description

Poros – Torch Relay Greek Route

Athens 2004 Olympic Games Pin

The Olympic Flame past from Greek City, Poros.

The 2004 Summer Olympics Torch Relay took the Olympic Flame across every habitable continent, returning to Athens, Greece. Every citywhich had hosted the Summer Olympics was revisited by the torch, as well as several other cities chosen for their international importance.

The relay was the first time the Olympic flame had travelled to Africa, India and South America. The flame was transported from country to country aboard a specially-equipped Boeing 747 leased from Atlanta Icelandic (Registration TF-ARO) called Zeus. On board the flame was carried and burned continuously in specially modified miners lamps.

Poros is a small Greek island-pair in the southern part of the Saronic Gulf.

The ancient polis of Kalaureia was home to an asylum dedicated to Poseidon, the ruins of which are still accessible on a hilltop close to the town. This asylum may have been linked to the sanctuaries at Geraistos and Tainaros. Ancient historians claimed that Poros was home to an Amphictyony in the Archaic period, a league of the poleis Poros, Athens, Prassiai, Aegina, Epidaurus, Hermione, Troizen, Nauplion and Orchomenus. However, there is no evidence for this, and modern scholars believe the Amphictyony may have been a Hellenistic invention. An enormous feast was found dating to the Hellenistic period in the ruins of the Kalaureia asylum, along with a plaque celebrating the “revival” of the Kalaureian League.

Poros was divided in two islands during the antiquity: the one was called Sfairia and is the part of the island where today is located the island’s capital; the other was called Kalavria and is the bigger part of Poros at the north of Poros Town. During the Mycenaean dominance (1,400-1,100 B.C.) Kalavria was quite powerful as the most important naval base of the wider region was located on islet Monti or Liontari in the eastern coast of Poros. In the 7th century B.C., it is believed that Kalavria was part of an “amphictyonia”; that is an alliance between multiple City-states. The amphictyonia was named “Amphictionia of Kalavria” and its members were Athens, Poros, Aegina, Epidaurus, Hermione, Trizina, Nafplio, Orchomenos and Prasies. During the 5th century, the Persians started attacking the Greek territories along with the Aegean islands. With the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, which also affected the islands of the Argosaronic Gulf, Trizina and Kalavria offered asylum to the anti-Macedonian politician who eventually became the tyrant of the region. After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C., the Ptolemies of Egypt occupied Kalavria. Around that time, the famous orator Demosthenes came to the island and some say that this is the place where he committed suicide. In 273 B.C., the last explosion of the Methana volcano dramatically changed the morphology of Poros and the wider region.

The pin depicts the Torchbearer passing from a monument of  Poros city

Product: Olympic Pin

Pin code: #04-162-014

Tiraz: <1.000pcs

Official Licensed Product

Licensed Manufacturer: Efsimon Collection

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