List of Famous people born in Greece
Hephaestion
Hephaestion, son of Amyntor, was an ancient Macedonian nobleman and a general in the army of Alexander the Great. He was "by far the dearest of all the king's friends; he had been brought up with Alexander and shared all his secrets." This relationship lasted throughout their lives, and was compared, by others as well as themselves, to that of Achilles and Patroclus.
Romain Gavras
Romain Gavras is a French-Greek filmmaker. He is best known for directing Jamie xx's video "Gosh" and Kanye West's video "No Church in the Wild". He also directed Justice's "Stress" and M.I.A.'s "Born Free", both controversial for their depiction of graphic violence.
Müezzinzade Ali Pasha
Müezzinzade Ali Pasha was an Ottoman statesman and naval officer. He was the Grand Admiral in command of the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto, where he was killed in action. He also served as the governor of Egypt from 1563 to 1566.
George II of Greece
George II ; was King of Greece from September 1922 to March 1924 and from November 1935 to his death in April 1947.
Ioannis Kapodistrias
Count Ioannis Antonios Kapodistrias, sometimes anglicized as John Capodistrias, was a Greek statesman who served as the Foreign Minister of the Russian Empire and was one of the most distinguished politicians and diplomats of Europe. After a long and distinguished career in European politics and diplomacy he was elected as the first head of state of independent Greece (1827–31). He is considered the founder of the modern Greek state, and the architect of Greek independence.
Paul I of Greece
Paul was King of Greece from 1 April 1947 until his death in 1964. He was succeeded by his son, Constantine II.
Ioannis Ikonomou
Ioannis Ikonomou is a Greek translator who has been working for the European Commission in Brussels since 2002. Considered a notable contemporary example of a polyglot, he knows 32 living languages including Greek, English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Finnish, Danish, Russian, Swahili, Hebrew, Arabic, Mandarin and Bengali, and reportedly as many as 47 languages including dead languages like Old Church Slavic. He speaks 21 out of 24 official EU languages. He considers the Mandarin language as the most complicated language to learn. Chinese is also his favorite language. He is the only in-house translator of the European Commission who is trusted to translate classified Chinese documents.
Draco
Draco, also called Drako or Drakon, was the first recorded legislator of Athens in Ancient Greece. He replaced the prevailing system of oral law and blood feud by a written code to be enforced only by a court of law. Draco was the first democratic legislator requested by the Athenian citizens to be a lawgiver for the city-state, but the citizens had not expected that Draco would establish laws characterized by their harshness. Since the 19th century, the adjective draconian refers to similarly unforgiving rules or laws, in Greek, English, and other European languages.
Pausanias II
Pausanias was the Agiad King of Sparta; the son of Pleistoanax. He ruled Sparta from 445 BC to 427 BC and again from 409 BC to 395 BC. He was the leader of the faction in Sparta that opposed the imperialist policy conducted by Lysander.
Fikriye Hanım
Fikriye Hanım, posthumously Zeynep Fikriye Özdinçer, was a Turkish woman. She was a relative of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his girlfriend. Her death remained mysterious.