Explaining Greeks

A buddy of mine once asked: "What's with this thing you have about being Greek?" I've asked the same question of myself. It's kind of an obsession. Can't seem to shake it. When I was a kid I was an avid reader, just about everything I could get my hands on including cereal boxes. My Dad bought a complete set of the Britannica Encyclopedia for us and I tried to read it in one night. Guess where I started? The volume with the section on Greece. 

Other kids wanted to be baseball players, I wanted to join the Evzones (kilt wearing elite Greek soldiers skilled in mountain warfare). I talked my mother into sewing an Evzone uniform for me so I could wear it to the Greek Independence Day parade. Boy, did I look good in it. Dad even got me some genuine tsarouhia (traditional shoes). So there I was all decked out, ready to strut down 5th Avenue while adoring crowds of xeni (foreigners) clapped. Only one slight problem, before I could walk down the avenue, I had to walk the ten blocks to church, alone,  since we didn't own a car. It was rather early, so I managed to sneak out at a low crawl from our tenement building and run undetected around the corner before any of my friends saw me. Swift, silent and deadly, just like a real Evzone. Unfortunately I ran right into a buck toothed kid I knew from 4th grade named Joey.  "Hey, why the heck are you wearing a dress and shoes with pom poms on them? he asked smilingly.  "It is not a dress, jackass, it's a foustanella (kilt)  and these are tsarouhia. It's a uniform and only the bravest Greeks wear it" I exclaimed in utter disgust at his complete ignorance.  "Yea well you gotta be brave to wear tights around here."  He definitely had a valid point.  That's when I decided to run like the winged messenger of the Gods, Hermes, all the way to Church without stopping. Any other kid would have been emotionally traumatized by this event. Not me. I spent most of the time contemplating where I could get my hands on an appropriate sword or rifle to match my uniform.  I finally got to march in the parade carrying the blue and white Greek flag. Mamma and Baba (Father) were there with assorted  relatives all clapping like crazy people. 

My Aunt Fereniki is a living example of Greek patriotism. She was born in 1918, about the time that the modern Greek state was at its peak and was expanding exponentially to bring all Greeks back in to the fold.  Greeks had a leader with guts and a vision.  My maternal grandfather, Panagiotis, an ardent Venizelist,  fought as a guerrilla in the  Balkan War of 1912 and  would soon serve in Asia Minor.  He named his second born, "Fere Niki"or Bring Victory. All Greeks are weaned on patriotism while still in the cradle. They are patriotic to a fault. They love the (Patrida) Fatherland and the flag but they generally despise the state: "to kratos."  They show their disdain for its inefficiency and ineffectiveness by breaking as many of its regulations and laws as they can without ending up in jail. When I first arrived in Greece, my cousin came over to the hotel I was staying at to drive me to his home. After getting in, out of habit I reached over and put on my seat belt. Surprised he looked at me and said: "Are you worried about my driving?" Greece has a mandatory seat belt law, but you would never realize it by living in Greece. It's just one of those inconvenient rules that Greeks may or may not obey.   As much as they complain about the "kratos, " every parent wants their kid to work for it.   Becoming one  of those lazy inefficient state bureaucrats means earning  a comfortable salary and pension for minimal expenditure of effort.

Greek patriotism is particularly on display when Greeks are rooting for one of their national sports teams. All internal differences are immediately set aside in a show of unity reserved only for those times when  invaders coming knocking at the door. Patriotism is very much associated with Greek's strong link with the past. My parents used to regularly drum into our heads the glorious events of Greek history. I think Greek patriotism is a defense mechanism learned from childhood that has evolved over the millenia to ensure national survival. It's rather hard to ignore your past when it is constantly reminding you of its presence. I don't think one can travel in Greece for more than a few minutes without running into reminders of past history in the form of ruins. The whole country is a museum. As a matter of fact,  just digging a hole is apt to bring one face to face with the past. Construction projects such as the Athens Metro have uncovered thousands of ancient artifacts. Greek ingenuity just builds around them and has transformed the Metro into part transportation network, part archaeological museum.  This ability to meld the past and the present together into one entity is the essence of Greekness.

Greeks having many endearing qualities. They tend to be exuberant, passionate, enthusiastic, easily offended, loud mouthed and pig headed.  For some people that may take some getting used to. One of Baba's Greek friends was given the option of shaving his mustache or losing his job as a waiter.   His famous last words were: "I 'd rather cut my head off. " And so he did. He got canned but he never shaved it off. When you grow up around as many Greeks as I did,  you come to expect that as the norm.  My first visit to Greece was in 1956.  I was five years old. My parents had just left Turkey with literally nothing but a couple of suitcases of clothes and whatever meager savings they were allowed to leave with. All of a sudden I found myself in a place where everyone spoke the language I spoke.  Nobody was speaking that other funny language I didn't understand. There was something else about this new place. They had icons everywhere. Even the bus drivers had them on their buses.  Just like the icons in our home. It's funny the things that one remembers. Thirty years later I would return to Greece.  I had arrived in a country that I had been studying about  all my life. There was hardly anything strange or new and everyone reminded me of relatives or friends that my parents had spent all their time with. I'd get in a cab and feel like the driver was a distant cousin. It was a very strange yet comforting feeling.

The amazing thing about Greeks is that contrary to what others may try to make us think about ourselves, we have tremendous cultural and linguistic continuity with our past.  Europeans will swear up and down that present day Greeks can't possibly be related in any way shape or form to our ancient ancestors.  In fact, the Greek language has changed and evolved yet retained much of its essential form, alphabet and many of its words. Despite the changes wrought by Christianity, and successive foreign invasions, Greeks have managed to preserve their innate Greekness.  Anyone who reads Greek history cannot help but come away with an appreciation for the continuity of  the Greek spirit and ethnic identity. Greeks are not only inheritors of the past they are also its victims.  The experience of Turkish and German occupation has left deep scars on the Greek psyche and the upheavals foisted upon Greeks have given them a sense of being alone in the world.  This has given rise to the notion of the " Ethnos Anadelfon" or Brother-less Nation concept. Greeks have always been very interested in politics. Not only do they spend a great deal of time arguing about the subject, they love to express their views as they gesticulate wildly. As if just carrying on a normal conversation will fail to adequately get their message across. Greeks are seldom violent unless of course politics is involved. Then it can get quite nasty. The two worse "no holds barred" conflicts in Greek history were not with the Turks. they were between fellow Greeks.  The Greek Civil War and the Peloponnesian Wars  were laboratories where Greeks devoted their considerable  and prodigious intellectual talents to the task of killing Greeks who disagreed with them. Sad but true.

The center of  Greek life is  the family. Greek families are usually very close. In Greece, parents go out of their way to do anything and everything for their children, even well into their thirties.  God forbid Maria and Yiorgaki should have to make their way in the world without the help of the family.  Kicking your little sparrows out of the nest is akin to child abuse.  Greek parents in turn do expect a lot from their kids. Education is highly valued and a ticket for upward mobility in a class conscious society.  The scholar or professional, who unlike the working man, never gets his hands dirty, used to be very important role models for parents who wanted their kids to rise above their station in life.  I remember my mother, who worked in a sweat shop as a seamstress, being absolutely appalled at some of the summer jobs I did: washing dishes in a restaurant, busing tables, driving a taxi. "We didn't come to America so you could wash dishes," was a frequent refrain.  Parents also strive to instill the unique trait of "Filotimo" in their children. Filotimo means friend of honor.  It is the Greek sense of doing the right thing and not bringing shame on the family honor. In some areas of Greece, like the island of Crete, this sense of family honor can result in feuds called vendettas between families that last for generations and sometimes involve gun play.

As far as I am concerned, the glue that keeps the Greek family together is its emphasis on food and the family meal. Greeks look upon food as more than just sustenance.  It's our way of establishing a communal bond. It is the love a woman has for her family. Greeks will go to absurd lengths to find that special cut of meat or the tastiest olives or the creamiest cheese. Processed foods are looked down upon and the Greek woman is expected to shop almost on a daily basis for fresh ingredients for the family table. That along with many other sacred traditions of the Greek family are changing with the encroachment of modern, if not better, ways of doing things. The image  of family members each talking loudly,  laughing happily and gathered around a table laden with delicious foods is one of the enduring memories of  my childhood.

I hope that I haven't given the impression that Greeks are running around shooting each other over slights to the family honor and do nothing except eat all day.  Life in Greece is quite laid back and violence is the exception rather than the rule. Greeks just don't have the same outlook on the work ethic, which is central to the Protestant Anglo-Saxon.  Nor do they look at time in the same way that we do. As a new arrival in Greece I was invited to a dinner party in the home of a well to do Greek. Dinner was at nine. I arrived promptly at nine. I was the first to arrive and a rather embarrassed hostess had to explain that in Greece when they say nine they mean ten.  So that's why my parents were always late. Greeks may not always be prompt but they invariably get things done. After all when honor is involved we don't like to look bad.  That's why the Olympic Games went off without a hitch, even though Greeks were scrambling right down to the wire to complete everything on schedule. They certainly have a capacity for hard work as attested to by the success rate of the average  Greek immigrant. What Greeks are really good at is enjoying life; they love to play hard. Go out any evening during the work week in Greece and you will find restaurants, cafes and nightclubs packed to the gills with frolicking, bleary eyed Greeks intent on living life to the fullest. They love to sit outside, drinking, socializing and talking incessantly.  Many walk together, taking in the night air while the boys and girls flirt. On thing is for sure, Greeks are never boring, life is too short and maybe that's why they fascinate me so much.

Comments

[Scruffy]

Stavro,

What's the deal with Windex? You didn't mention why you Greeks love to spray Windex on everything.

[Stavros]

Scruff,

We may have to give up our love affair with Windex, I think people are starting to look askance at swarthy types like myself holding a fluid filled bottle and spraying it on other people.
I think a blonde haired, blue eyed wannabe Greek like you will be OK doing it though.

[GreekAmericanNYC]

Re: "They tend to be exuberant, passionate, enthusiastic, easily offended, loud mouthed and pig headed."

Ha -- I definitely qualify on the first four -- and there are a couple of guys on Phylax who fit the bill on the last last two...

[Scruffy]

I have to find out if they even have Windex over here. Windex seems more like a Greek-American thing.

Or I could just put grape juice in my windshield wipers and turn the sprayer toward the street and spray the unsuspecting pedestrians like I used to do in my teen years.

[demonax]

You should have kicked that Joey kid in the shins with your tsarouchia and showed him in this way the purpose of these fighting shoes, useful weapons in close up, hand-to-hand combat.
I’m not too sure how much Greek patriotism is a defence mechanism.
1. How is it possible for someone with even a rudimentary knowledge of Greek culture and history not to be swollen with pride at being Greek – much more, I think, than if you were Belgian, Canadian, Danish, Latvian or whatever. Greeks are unique, are they not?
2. I wonder how much ethnic pride associated with sons and daughters of Greek immigrants doesn’t stem from love for parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles – the ones who came over and by definition existed on the margins of society when their big hearts, intelligence and all the exemplary virtues you mention demanded much greater respect and social status. What I’m trying to say, I think, is that perhaps a lot of the pride second/third generation immigrant Greeks feel is as much pride in Greek families and Greek family history than pride in nation and national history.

[Stavros]

I was not necessarily talking about Greek immigrants, just Greeks in general terms. As a group I think Greeks are much more patriotic than say, Italians, regardless of where they live. Part of the reason, I believe, is that it is drummed into our heads from birth. Greek parents have been doing it for a long time. Even when Greeks lived in separate competing city states they had a sense of nationhood and pride in their Greekness.

You are absolutely right to suggest that the connection that 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants is a function of family and knowledge. There is a spectrum of connectedness/knowledge that runs from strong to non-existent.

How strong is Greek patriotism among the diaspora community? That depends on how much immigrants identify with their adopted country and how much they identify with Greece. Again there is a spectrum of possibilities. You and I are obviously at different points in that spectrum.

[demonax]

‘You and I are obviously at different points in that spectrum.’

Stavros
Only in as much you have strong identification with your ‘adopted’ country whereas I have very little for mine. I’m sure your pride in being Greek is as deeply felt and sincere as mine. I say this not to praise you but to point out that I reckon you’re as ‘sick’ (arrostos) with Greece as I am. Don’t deny it. It’s a common malady and rarely fatal.
The two most patriotic peoples I’ve come across are the Greeks and Italians with, as you say, the Greeks just pipping the Italians to the post in the pride stakes.
Of course, patriotism is not necessarily good in itself and not all patriots are worthy individuals.
Turkish patriotism, for example, is a result of indoctrination, uncritical thinking and mendacity and is expressed as fanaticism. Greek patriotism, on the other hand, is the patriotism of free men and women. Greek patriotism is worthwhile and enduring because of the virtues it teaches and celebrates: human liberty, culture, human progress.

[Stavros]

Demonaki,

Na po teen alithea, eme apogoitevmenos thia teen simerini katastasi. Evhome na allaxoune ta pragmata pros to kalitero.

I couldn't agree more with your last graph. Remember Herodotus’s description of Thermopylae, where Persian soldiers in the royal army of Xerxes were being whipped to fight, whereas Leonidas and the Spartans said they were there because they were obedient to the law that they themselves had created. What kind of army would name their triremes “Free Speech” or “Freedom” like the Athenians did at Salamis, or have a play by Aeschylus that says, "We rowed into battle saying, freedom, freedom, freedom." That is real and unadulterated patriotism. Gia kai hara.