Greece is a small country in size, traditionally bound to the color blue. At the edge of Europe, its flag, its sky, and the light envelop it from end to end in a cerulean glow. This is at least dictated by the language of emotion, a common legacy shaped by the heritage of its people, a sum of glances across countless generations.
If Greece is a piece of blue, then let’s imagine it on the map. Above, in the north are the Balkans, with the green of the meadows and the gray of the mountain peaks. To the east, Asia Minor intertwines like an oriental carpet the brown-red colors of the earth. To the south, Egypt and Libya evoke golden beaches. And in the west, Italy, with its crimson, apricot, and rust colors of vineyards, against the melancholic facades of its baroque houses.
For the Greeks, their country is as light as the foam of the Aegean Sea, ethereal and timeless, while at the same time, it carries the weight of an ancient column, now pale from the rains and the sun. One might see modern Greece as an intersection of Asia Minor and Southern Italy or as an approach of the Balkans with North Africa, but in any case, one would lose the taste of truth.
Greece, perhaps more than other ancient countries, has, apart from its modern existence as a state of the Eurozone, a second nature, ethereal in time and overly protected by emotion. While for the rest of the West, Greece’s heritage is a solid legacy and inheritance, for the Greeks themselves, it is a daily reality that they grapple with feelings of pride and awe.
And if for the other Europeans antiquity is Greece, for the Greeks, antiquity is a piece of Greece. One of its many faces.
Author: DESYLLAS NIKOS, VATOPOULOS NIKOS
Language: GREEK
Year of publication: 2004
