Posted 12 years ago
BHock45
(807 items)
"Chandris Line was a Greece-based shipping company founded in 1960 by Anthony Chandris to operate ocean liners between Greece and Australia.[1] Initially the company also traded under the names Greek Australian Line, National Greek Australian Line and Europe-Australia Line. Following a period of expansion, in 1974 Chandris Line merged with Chandris Cruises—a separate company founded in 1960 by Anthony Chandris' brother Dimitri Chandris to operate cruises in the Mediterranean—to form Chandris Line Chandris Cruises. After 1977 the company concentrated solely on cruising and was rebranded Chandris Cruises.In 1985 Chandris Cruises acquired Fantasy Cruises, and subsequently their North American operations were rebranded as Chandris Fantasy Cruises.The company ceased trading in 1996. All of the company's ships had a chi, a letter of the Greek alphabet, on their funnels. The chi also acted as a logo for them and their subsidiary Celebrity Cruises."
This is from wikipedia, so is the picture of the ship used above. Maybe someone could help me, but I think these are called GREEK KOMBOLOI? They are also called Greek Worry Beads. Maybe this was a souvenir from the trip. I found these in a box of junk I bought for ten dollars. Many other little findings, but these may be the best. They are missing the tassel at the end. They were so tangled in other yarn, rope and beads I had to cut them loose to see what they were. Interesting and educational find.
Good Evening
My name is Stelios and I’m Greek
Its a Greek KOMPOLOI
The word “KOMPO” means “Knots” and the word “LOI” came from the word “LOGIOS” and mean “SPEECH”
In purist Greek: “KOMPOLOGION”, after 1982 in Modern Greek the word became “KOMPOLOI”
The KOMPOLOI that you have I believe is promotional gift item from the Chandris Company (or souvenir from the trip as you say)
Have 9 Blue & 9 White beads alternate as the Flag of Greece. The blue color is the color of Greek (Aegean) sea & the white is the color of Seawaves and Greek sky. The 9 blue beads symbolize the word “Freedom” & the 9 white beads symbolize the word “Death”, FREEDOM or DEATH (Greek War of Independence in the 1820s)
In the label of KOMPOLOI have a blue flag (as the Greek Navy Flag) without the East Orthodox cross but with the letter “X” that’s the first letter of the name Chandris (XANDRHS) and was a trademark of Chandris Lines.
The tassel at the end was seriously blue & white!!!! as you understand the colors of greek flag!!!
The kompoloi i beleive is between 1960-1980 (the last trip to Aus. was at 1977)
Until 1976 Chandris Lines was the biggest companies with the most ocean liner.