Translated from french by Grok

It’s hard to analyze why the feeling of being Greek has persisted for so long. Yet it’s a proven fact: entire generations, despite crushing occupations, have held on to this precious feeling. Even more remarkably, some people have never even set foot on the soil of present-day Greece. It’s as if this feeling exists completely independently of geography, supported solely by two very distinctive pillars: language and memory. Two seemingly abstract things, yet in Greece they’re incredibly popular. The people love them because they represent the treasures of the poor—much like the sun, the sky, and the sea—the fundamental elements of Greek poetry.

The more I study popular memory, the more I see it as a trace of pain. This becomes even clearer when you realize that so many of our memories and songs are records of defeats rather than victories. They aren’t praises or glorifications—they’re simply apologies for suffering. Our battles aren’t conquests; they’re resistances.

Among us, legend is born from sadness. Our most beautiful hymns are essentially laments, dirges. And the greater the sadness, the more beautiful the legend becomes. That’s why we possess some of the most beautiful legends in the world.

Of course, at first glance this might seem like a naive way to behave, but after all, purity comes from simplicity. Sure, there’s a certain recklessness in embracing so many lost causes, but it’s stronger than we are—it’s our nature. As the master said: we can do what we want, but we cannot want what we want. And so our history is filled with sacrifices and lost homelands.

Greece owes much of its fate to the great powers, yet it owes its greatness to no one. That greatness comes solely from its resistance—so often described as heroic by the very foreigners who exploit us, the way a chess player exploits his pieces and sacrifices them to win the game. But why should we always be a pawn on the global chessboard? Why should we remain slaves to our fate? Is it really a utopia for a Greek to be the master of his own destiny?

No matter what we choose in the moment, our people have always chosen resistance. So let us be worthy of them through our language and our memory.

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