The Center for Hellenic Studies at Georgia State is the only such program in the southeast and is unique for the wide range of events it sponsor. Even in antiquity, cities on the Greek mainland colonized seaside regions as far to the east as the coast of the Black Sea, as far to the south as Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, and as far west as the Cote d’Azur and southern Spain. The Italian peninsula, fro
m Naples all the way to Sicily, was simply known as “Greater Greece” (Megali Ellada), so numerous and so wealthy were the Greek colonies there. It is worth recalling that Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, New York and Chicago in the US, Toronto in Canada, as well as London and Manchester in the United Kingdom are cities with some of the largest Greek populations after Athens and Thessaloniki and Patras on the Greek mainland. Clearly, a thriving and dynamic Greek diaspora has always been one of the prominent features of the Hellenic world. We at the Center for Hellenic Studies are indebted to the generosity of the Atlanta chapter of that diaspora, and of the Greek government, for the generous gifts that made the establishment of this Institute possible. It is the financial and cultural commitment of such local communities, as well as the support of the Greek Consulate here in Atlanta, that enable programs such as ours to prosper and to expand the reach of our cultural and academic mission.
