The Modern Greek People, their Character and Racial Mix

In a book written about traditional Greece, the author (Greek) vehemently asserts that the Greek people are of a 'purely Mediterranean temperament', despite their inevitable subjection to 'Eastern influences' due to the long Ottoman occupation. This is the kind of statement that one would expect from very nationalistic Greeks, who believe in some kind of racial 'purity', and who like to forget many indisputable facts, which challenge any notion of racial purity, among them, the fact that there was no nation of Greece until 1830, following the Greek War of Independence, and that the fledging Greek nation at first included only the Peloponnese, Central Greece, and the Cyclades and Sporades island groups. The Ionian islands re-joined the nation in 1864 (ceded to it by the British). Thessaly and part of Ipiros were not added until 1881, and, added only by 1913, after the Second Balkan War, were southern Macedonia (the largest nomos/prefecture in modern Greece), part of Thrace, Crete, another piece of Ipiros, and the northeast Aegean islands. The Dodecanese islands only re-joined Greece in 1948.

Before the centuries of Ottoman occupation (roughly from around the mid15th century until the end of World War I), the regions that make up modern Greece were part of the Byzantine Empire (4th to 15th centuries), which constituted the eastern sector of the Roman Empire. Though united by Greek language, and by Greek Orthodox Christianity, not only Greeks inhabited the territories now belonging to modern Greece; nor were Greeks the only peoples who inhabited those territories during Ottoman times.

There were Vlachs (a semi nomadic shepherd people who speak a Latin based tongue), Sarakatsani, (nomadic shepherds who speak a very ancient Greek dialect), Jewish communities widespread in Hellenistic times both on what is now mainland Greece and on present day Greek islands. There were also gypsies, Slavs, Turks, Arabs, and other peoples. All of them (at least one would think) had to have had some influence on the Greeks with whom they shared common territory.

Asia Minor Greeks (The Pontious)

To make matters even more complex, Greek colonies were settled in Asia Minor and inland Anatolia at least as early as 1000 BC, as well as in present-day northeast Turkey on the south shores of the Black Sea. The 1.5 million Asia Minor Greeks who were compelled to leave the modern state of Turkey after the ill-fated Greek attempt in the early 1920s to reclaim Greek lands in Anatolia, and who flooded into Greece in 1923, were defined as Greeks only by their religion (Greek Orthodox), despite the fact that they were mostly bilingual, speaking both Greek and Turkish, and some of them only Turkish. These refugees were seen as (and were) very different from the Greeks on the Greek mainland where they were settled. Their contribution to the immensely popular music known as Rembetika, is well known and documented.

The Venetians, Genoese and Others

The Venetians and Genoese 'owned' and controlled entire Greek island groups for centuries before the Ottoman Turks, the Venetians concentrated in the Cyclades and in Crete, the Genoese more in the north Aegean. The modern Italians ruled the Dodecanese and the Ionian islands (they were also under British rule for half a century).

During the last decades of the 20th century up through the present, larger and larger numbers of immigrants from both western countries, east Europe (with the largest numbers from Albania), the former Soviet Union, and Africa, have settled in Greece. It must not be forgotten that vast numbers of Greeks have emigrated to West Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States, especially since 1950, but even before that, so that there are more Greeks living outside of Greece than in it. All of the above amply demonstrates the absurdity of denying the complexity of 'influences' upon some imagined 'Greek temperament' or some postulating of a 'Greek character' that exists in some kind of pure vacuum. It should be noted that some 400,000 Muslims were relocated to modern Turkey at the same time that the 1.5 million Orthodox Christians flooded in, in 1923, this 'exchange of populations' dictated by the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne. Muslims were allowed to remain in the Greek part of Thrace, on the islands that had been Imvros and Tenedhos (though renamed with Turkish names), and in Kos and Rhodes, in exchange for permitting the Greek population of Constantinople/Istanbul to remain in what was now Turkish soil. Many Greeks will admit that it is hard to tell a Greek from a Turk just from physical appearance, and indeed the first actual Greeks are believed to have come to what is now Greece from Anatolia, a vast land populated from ancient times by a wide mix of peoples as well.

As for 'Mediterranean temperament' (returning to that original assertion by a Greek author that Greeks are a 'purely Mediterranean' people who just happened to have been subject to Ottoman influences), it can in no way be stated that all of modern Greece is a 'Mediterranean' country, despite the ubiquitous image presented to international tourists of white 'cubist' Cycladic houses and blue-domed churches, wide sandy beaches and seaside cafes. There is, in fact, a vast geographical difference between the southern part of modern Greece (indeed 'Mediterranean'in climate, topography, flora and fauna, etc, and the northern mainland regions whose landscapes and climate more resemble those of the Balkans, with high mountains, forests, large rivers, rolling land, large flat agricultural plains (Thessaly), lakes, and marshes. Geography and climate have a great influence on temperament, and the Greeks who live on the northern Greek mainland, not only differ from those in Attica or in the Peloponnese or the islands, are inevitably different from those farther south, though surely they share many common traits.

All this is pointed out to avoid the generalizations so commonly sought about countries and peoples, which goes so closely hand in hand with nationalism and, by default, outright racism. All this said, we can look at what sort of 'character', what kind of human qualities might be found with some kind of consistency in modern Greeks, keeping in mind that some of these qualities will be found in Turks as well, in the neighboring Balkan countries to the north, and in, Italians. It must be kept in mind that tourism has had a major effect on Greeks in areas where tourism is a major part of the economy, both on the large numbers of people who work in tourist related businesses (tavernas, restaurants, hotels and rooms complexes, tourist offices, etc.) as well as on local people who, though not directly connected with those enterprises, have seen their lives powerfully impacted by the presence of hordes of foreigners who come to enjoy the pleasure of their local turf, some of them with proper respect shown to the local inhabitants, but many others who merely see the place they are visiting as a kind of anonymous international playground set up for their own pleasure, and nothing in its own right. The latter are, sadly, all too common, and have had a very negative effect on the natural hospitality, or filoxenia (love of the foreigner/guest) which any Greek will tell you is the essence of Greekness (though very much noted by travelers in Turks as well, and certainly present in Balkan countries to the north). Because those working in tourist related jobs must deal with both the respectful and disrespectful foreign traveler, Greek filoxenia has been stretched to its full limits in some places, and one may find some very closed and abrupt behavior as well as the well-trained professional smile (and often one of genuine warmth).

It makes an enormous difference if you are visiting a touristic place or one that is not, and also if you speak Greek or not. Tourists are led to believe that all Greeks now know English, but this is not true if you visit a place off the beaten track, where a native might go look for some school children to help translate, since people over 35 of age were born before English became a required language in the public schools. In any case, most Greeks, if approached respectfully tend to be polite and helpful, and teenagers are mostly very polite, and happy to practice their English at the same time as offering assistance.

It cannot be overstressed, however, that tourists will see mostly the polite surface of 'Greekness' in places where foreign visitors are a large presence. Many Greeks in such places have drawn defensively into themselves when not forced to put on the public smile and carefully studied language required by their stressful, and poorly paid jobs. Probably the best way for anyone who hasn't come to live in Greece (and with a serious interest in learning the language and penetrating deeply into the culture), is to observe how Greeks are when among themselves. One of the best venues for this is the traditional Greek taverna or the sidewalk cafes (not the tourist places, where you'll see very little of the genuine article).

The behavior you will see in these places is very 'Greek', though it also very 'Mediterranean' (and very Anatolian). So we find ourselves back in shared cultural territory. It has been said that eating is the national Greek pastime, and indeed this is true. Eating and socializing go very hand in hand, and the Greeks are a very social and animated people. They tend to talk loud, talk with their hands (even when having a conversation on a cell phone), laugh a lot, and be much more physical with each other than north Europeans (or North Americans).

One of the salient differences in this realm seems to be very related to the intensely close knit family in Greek culture and to the consequent lack of equating of physical expression of affection with sex. This needs some elucidation. Perhaps one of the things that attracts many foreigners to Greece is the sense of being among people who are very comfortable with themselves and each other, and this comes from the deep sense of family.

The language reflects this, in such common terms of affection as 'paidhi mou' (literally, 'my child'), or 'manna mou' (literally, 'my mother'), the use of the enclitic 'mou' ('mine') after someone's name when addressing them (as in 'Yianni mou' when talking to Yiannis), or in the use of diminutive endings for names (Yiannaki, which literally means, 'Little Yiannis'), or terms like Koukla (literally, 'doll') when addressing a girl or even a woman, made even more affectionate by the use of the diminutive ending followed by the 'mou' ( 'Kouklitsa mou). It should be noted that a man can call another man 'mana mou', and a child address his mother as 'paidhi mou', all of these common expressions indicating a kind of easy affectionateness with others that is linguistically connected with the family. If you watch parents with their children, you will get an even better understanding of how much affection is a way of being among most Greeks. Though foreigners may find it odd to hear of 30 year olds (or older) children living with their parents, this is not seen as odd in Greece (though it is not something found only in Greece, either).

Let's look at physical expression of affection and how this is seen differently in Greece than in, say, north Europe, but remember that generally, as you get into both the Mediterranean countries, and the Balkans in general, as well as farther east, that there is a different perception of physical touch than there is in north Europe or in the United States. You will see girls walking hand in hand, or arm in arm, or with arms around each other, boys with arms around each other, or around each others necks, and you will see a man reach out and squeeze another man's cheek or put his hand around his neck or on his leg, and there is absolutely nothing sexual about these actions, which are purely expressions of affection. Something that goes with this is the sense of directness and intense contact in conversation among Greeks, a feeling of immediacy and intimacy. People of all ages love to converse and joke, eat and drink, and tease each other, and it is all very warming, but again, it is not a way of being that belongs only to Greeks. The traditional dancing and the music (that will be dealt with further on) and much of which is connected with the Orthodox church and its many saints' days festivals and holidays, are also a deep expression of this intimacy, animation, love of life; the feeling of connectedness.

Something that goes with all this is a different sense of time, which can be maddening to foreigners, who expect everything to proceed as in their own countries. For months the clock in the post office didn't work (and still doesn't). The first response given by a postal employee when asked why the clock didn't give the correct time, was this it was up too high on the wall. It was in fact, perhaps ten feet above the floor, requiring only a small step ladder to reach it . The second response (from a second employee, when asked maybe a month later about that same clock) was that someone had to come from Athens and replace the clock, as it was broken. The fact that the clock had been nonfunctional for months, despite the arrival twice daily of boats from Athens, seemed of absolutely no importance to anyone who worked there.

Similarly, electricity can stop suddenly in a village with no warning, and with no one having any idea why it quit, to come on again in a little while. Or the bus fails to show up one day and one later learns that it broke down on the way into town from one of the villages, but the driver didn't think to phone the main bus office and have them check to see if someone was waiting for it at the bus stop. When reprimanded for this, the man at the bus station states that he was just about to send a taxi for the passenger, who had been left wondering for a half hour if it would ever come, before finally phoning the office. Such things are typical occurrences in Greece, though less so in the cities. All of this goes with a looser sense of time that comes from living very much in the moment. The wonderful exception to this is the very modern and immaculate metro system in Athens, in which only a child could get lost, and with the trains running absolutely on time, with stops announced by a most pleasant voiced woman in both Greek and unaccented English over the sound system.

Something should be said about the relation between village and city that explains so much of modern Greek life. The present population of Greece is somewhere over 11 million, with some estimated 4-5 million people living in Athens, and another half million or so in Thessaloniki. Other smaller cities absorb much of the remaining population, making Greece, a largely rural country up until World War II, a very urban country. Massive depopulation of villages followed that war and the horrendous Greek Civil War that followed (1946-49), with more people leaving the villages for the big cities (mostly Athens) during the decades that followed, and huge numbers emigrating to North America, Australia, West Europe to find work and a better life. The devastating effects of these wars upon Greece cannot be overstated, and it would do well for travelers to Greece to read some of the excellent historical information offered in some of the better books about Greece, in order to better understand the Greek people. The rapid building of characterless high rises in Athens is also explained by these historical events.

Something which very much remains with most modern urban Greeks is the connection with village (or larger town) and region of origin. Many still have relatives living in those places and whom they visit on holidays such as Christmas, Greek Orthodox Easter, and during summer vacations, and many go their home towns to vote. In addition, many Greeks restore the ruined family homes in those places for vacations, often expanding them to fit other members of the extended families, and sometimes houses are newly built as well. For those who still have parents living in the home village who are not too old to work the land, olive oil, olives, nuts, fruit, vegetables, are often sent on the boat or on the train to the relatives in the city, or the city dwellers without relatives go to the village to maintain trees and harvest olives.

Children may go to spend a summer with the grandparents in the village-that too. Greek people with these roots (though there are some who have been for generations Athenians), have a strong sense of regional identity, manifested in their knowledge of the songs and dances of their place, performed both during visits and in the city as well. In all Greek cities are found cultural organizations (syllogi) founded with the purpose of preserving and perpetuating local traditions, sponsored and supported by city dwellers from villages and regions all over Greece. Many such syllogi sponsor events such as feasts with music and dancing, or finance recordings of traditional music, sometimes made in the villages/towns of origin. There are also syllogi devoted to preservation/perpetuation of traditional crafts and other aspects of village life. In many senses, despite the ubiquitous concrete in Greek cities, there remain many village aspects, such as the produce markets that open on designated days of the week in city neighborhoods, in the sidewalk cafes, and even in the high rises, many of them built for , and lived in, by extended families.

The movement from city back to village or town is also now a common occurrence, one of the positive effects of tourism the return of many Greeks to their place of origin, with the various livelihoods offered by the tourist trade. Some move back to open restaurants, cafes or shops, others to restore the old family home and add some tourist rooms on, or to open a tourist office.

Greece presents a wide spectrum of life styles that reflect the vast cultural changes of recent decades. It is in both the urban professional Greeks and in the young people growing up now, both in cities and in the provinces, that one can point to a specifically 'Greek character', which has been molded by this recent national history. The older, traditional way of life, does in fact still exist in Greece, but mostly in places little visited by tourists. One of these was, for a long time, the village of Olymbos, on the Dodecanisian island of Karpathos, which was much touted as an untouched mountain village with a fascinating folk culture, and accordingly much studied by ethnomusicologists, folklorists, ethnologists and the like, but once the secret was out, it became a showcase in summer, with some of the local women putting on their traditional embroidered costumes just to please the crowds. There are, however, and even on islands visited by tourists, many villages where people still take their produce to market on donkeys, plough with horses, harvest green weeds for animals fodder, make wine, olive oil, raise meat animals, and live in the old ways, even though almost all now have television sets and relatives who live in Athens or other cities, and children who go to English lessons at the private schools geared to getting them into the highly competative free Greek universities.

The urban professionals, meanwhile, live in modern apartments, listen to western classical music, and send their kids to ballet and piano lessons (though they visit the old folks in the village and dance the old dances). The teenage girls both in cities and elsewhere wear tight pants with their midriffs (and more) exposed, and many dye their hair blond. Greek women almost anywhere who are under 50 , show up at weddings in astounding outfits of the flashiest type, with painted nails and lots of makeup. Such is modern Greece (and the modern Greeks), a combination of old rural and modern urban, very much altered with the advent of the Euro and the modern world, but still with a hard-to-define (but unique) essence of 'Greekness'.