Like a young boy whose big brother was the class valedictorian or a varsity jock, modern Greeks struggled for decades to emerge from the long shadows cast by their famous ancestors.
Today’s Greeks are proud that their legacy includes such useful innovations as democracy and the Olympic Games, which conclude here Sunday.
But many in this small country are more eager than ever to prove that the descendants of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle also have much to offer the contemporary world. Hosting the Olympics this month brought a growing wave of Greek patriotism to a crest.
“It’s in style to be Greek,” said Mihalis Pantazis, a volunteer at the Olympic baseball stadium.
Athens is not the first host city to look to the Summer Games for a psychological boost as well as a physical makeover.
The successful 1992 Games helped Barcelona, Spain, shake off the hangover from decades under the dictatorial rule of Francisco Franco.
Australians who historically felt insecure about their nation’s geographic isolation and its origins as a penal colony basked in the success of the Sydney Olympics four years ago.
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Similarly, the Athens Olympics came at a time when Greeks are increasingly celebrating their traditional music and cuisine and their new successes in international sports.
This new Greece is seen in the pricey “modern tavernas” offering upscale versions of Greek country recipes made with ingredients from mountain villages and islands.
It’s evident in the popularity of ellinadika, Greek nightclubs where the young sway to music with Eastern roots.
And its most common manifestation is the ubiquitous Greek flag, today flown more widely than at any time since the end of the Axis occupation 60 years ago. Designers have incorporated the blue-and-white flag into everything from dresses on runway models to the sleeveless T-shirts that are this summer’s Greek fashion craze.
These trends mark a dramatic turnaround for a country whose people once bemoaned the cultural xenomania prevalent in recent decades.
“All people used to talk about here was about the ancient Greeks and how great they were,” Pantazis said. “Greek people were down on their country. Greeks who lived in other countries were prouder than we were.”
The Greek pride movement became highly visible this year when pop singer Sakis Rouvas wore a flag on his shirt as he won third place in the Eurovision talent contest. The vast majority of Greeks watched the contest on television.
The country then erupted in patriotic fervor when its national soccer team surprised more heralded teams to win the European championship last month.
“Greeks were always looking to the ancients for tradition,” said Nikos Dimou, author of “The Misfortune of Being Greek.” “Greece is now having a revival of more recent traditions.”
Although they revered ruins of ancient monuments, modern Greeks until recently often razed post-independence buildings (Greeks won their independence from the Ottoman Turks in the 1820s) to make way for the concrete apartment blocks that spread up the mountains around Athens. In recent years, however, historic buildings in central Athens were preserved, revitalizing neighborhoods.
The Opening Ceremony reflected the confident new Greece, said Loukas Tsoukalis, a professor at Athens University. Greeks were highly sensitive to criticism that they would not be ready for the Games. Many Greeks feel vindicated because the stadiums were ready after all and no terrorist attacks have occurred.
They congratulated themselves on their national penchant for getting things done “at five minutes before the hour.” And they laughed at themselves during the Opening Ceremony, when an actor pretended to be hammering away at the last nail in Olympic Stadium just as the Games were set to begin.
“It really shows self-confidence to be able to take others’ criticism of you and joke about yourself,” Tsoukalis said.
Much of this sentiment no doubt stems from Greece’s radically improved economic situation since joining the European Union in 1980.
Gone is the “poor motherland” wracked by war and poverty, the Greece who sent her sons and daughters to labor in North America, Australia and western Europe. Immigration from Greece has slowed to a trickle. Instead, immigrants from as far as India and China flock to the country, which they see as a land of opportunity and a gateway to Europe.
The level of education has risen too. An army of young, multilingual Olympic volunteers politely assisted spectators, athletes and journalists. Their efforts went a long way toward erasing the stereotype of surly shopkeepers and cabdrivers who prey on gullible tourists.
“The image of Greeks being lazy has been thrown out,” said Victoria Kyriakopoulos, the Greek-Australian author of the “Best of Athens” guidebook. “Those volunteers have been inspirational.”
The more Greeks have become urbanized–with half the population concentrated in and around Athens–the more they have looked to the traditions of Greek villages for their identity, she said.
Many Greeks also are now wealthy enough to have the freedom to do volunteer work or engage in sports. Until recently, the country had been too preoccupied with political and economic instability to focus on leisure-time pursuits.
The current democratic system is just 30 years old. A military dictatorship supported by the U.S. ruled Greece from 1967 until 1974.
“Greece is coming of age,” Kyriakopoulos said.
The sea change began years ago, she said, but only the victories in soccer and in the Olympics, where Greece has won 14 medals, could unleash the biggest displays of patriotism.
“It took heroes,” she said. “When your last hero was Aristotle, it’s kind of sad.”
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