Origins of the modern 'Greek' flag

[Daniel the Great]

Well i was on holiday in the historical town of Echuca, Australia i noticed this flag, it was everywhere around the town. Obviously the reason i am showing the flag is because the stripes depicted on it are very similar to the stripes on the modern Greek flag.

I was very curious about this flag so i asked a local old man about the history behind this flag and he said that the flag was adopted around the 1830's, the stars symbolize the five colonies, the union jack in the top left corner obviously from the British and the stripes symbolized the famous Murray river.


Upper Murray river flag (flag of Echuca)


Lower Murray river flag


Flag waving on the banks of the Murray river


Here is a description of the flag by the Australian register:

"The flag bears a red cross with four horizontal blue bars. The cross being charged with five stars as emblems of the Colonies while the upper corner, is taken up with British connections which is depicted by the Union Jack. It has been named, we understand, the Murray River Flag."

I would like to see Greece claim this (British in origin) flag as there's and say the Anglo Australians have no right to use it.

[Ottoman]

Hmm interesting stuff.

[DirtyCodingHabitz]

Theft of symbols and history


In 1995 in order to end the two years of Greek embargo on Macedonia, we were forced to change the Macedonian flag. The Greek state claimed that Macedonia stole the 16 ray Star of Kutlesh, saying that it belonged to them, because it belonged to Ancient Macedonia (little do they know that Ancient Macedonia was never Greek).

Ancient Macedonia was the Arch Enemy of the Greek City-States, so this would be like the Nazis claiming that the Star of David was their symbol.

But speaking of theft, here is something very interesting. Do you know who does this flag belong to?



This is the flag of the British East India Company (BEIC), a company which was founded in 1600 and whose main trade was in cotton, silk, indigo dye, saltpetre, tea and opium. The company was defunct in 1858. So when Greece was still a fledgling country they needed a flag. They chose the flag of the BEIC, adapted it with the Bavarian colors in honor of Ludwig I the King of Bavaria who had envisioned the creation of a Greek state (a state that had never existed before). And certainly in a even stronger gesture of gratitude towards Ludwig I, his son Otto became Otto Of Greece and was crowned as the first King of Greece in 1832.



Back to the Star of Kutlesh, the sun symbol, with this design was unknown in Greece before 1977 when professor Manolis Andronikos discovered what is believed to be the resting place of Philip II of Macedonia. On the other hand it is important to note that the sun symbol was often featured in the old folklore art of the ethnic Macedonians, on their historical flags and other artifacts.





Here are a couple of flags used by Macedonians before and after the Balkan Wars, this reputes the Greek nonsense that Macedonia and it's citizens were created by Tito in 1945 (a claim apparently made by illiterate people).




Left: flag of the emigrant ethnic Macedonian revolutionary society in St. Petersburg, Russia, 1914 featuring Alexander’s horse Buchephalos, represented as an unicorn, and a sun symbol in the bottom left angle;
Right: Insurgent flag against the Ottoman rule, 1903 feat. a sun symbol on the left.

The 16 ray Sun is even on the coat of arms of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, which includes a rising sun with 8 visible rays (the other 8 from the Star of Kutlesh being hidden behind the mountain).



Maybe that's why when Robert Rossen was preparing Alexander the Great in 1956 he sought inspiration in Macedonia, not Greece. And in this movie, Richard Burton, who played Alexander was equipped with a shield that had the sun on it, 21 years before Andronikos "discovered it".



I guess that in this way Andronikos is like Columbus, he "discovered" something that millions of people already knew existed.

http://darvel-unitedmacedonia.blogsp...d-history.html

I recommend you read this page: The Flag Dispute between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia.

[Daniel the Great]

The ensign/flag of Van demons land from the 1850's, now Tasmania, an Australian state.

Another flag that looks similar to the modern Greek one.

[George S.]

Why was macedonia divided in the first place.Macedonia was divided up so they could all get MORE land.Did they asked the macedonian people what they wanted no they just took it all from them.This includes lying to the world that the 16 ray sun belongs to them when prior to 1978 they never knew anything about it.Also the 3 other countries that took macedona serbia,bulgaria ,albania why didn't they complain about macedonia using the 16 ray sun.Why because they never knew about it in the first place.Greece is going on with it's silly charade how everything macedonian belongs to them when in reality it never did.They are lying,Thieving people.they are only too happy to say that macedonia is the one stealing greek symbols & has an irrendist claim on greece.The hard reality it's the other way around.

[George S.]

Everybody seems to say just because the greeks discovered the star of kutlesh that it's the only place that it appears.The star of kutlesh appears everywhere in ROM in churches on gravestones everywhere.Also the golden larnarx god casket with the16 ray sun is supposed to be exclusive to the greek find in kutlesh.That's totally wrong in germany they have a gold larnax exactly like the kutlesh one found on ROM territory during the 2nd world war & taken to germany by the nazis.To what extent are the greeks prepared to falsify macedoonian history.Well only recently on ROM territory was found a macedonian army helmet.The greeks said they were prepared to pay 1million marks to buy it so that they can say they found it on greek territory.Lucky the people didn't sell it to them.I wonder how much material has gone from ROM teritory to greece like that.

[Voltron]

The topic of the Greek flag has got to be one of the most trivial sujbects I have come across. Half of Europe has the tri-color, Russia changed theirs from the hammer and sickle to the tri-color as well. The Turks have the Crescent and Star which also have inspired theories from Sumerian, Greek, Mongol etc. Who cares ?

George, The sunburst is a politcally motivated subject between Greece and ROM. It has been commonly used by the ancient Greeks. The Andronikos arguement is part of the propaganda war between both countries. Below is a Spartan Amphoreus 6th century BC at the Louvre Museum. Many other examples exist throughout the ancient Greek world. It is just as Greek as Macedonian. Its been done to death and quite frankly trivial as well. I personally prefer it in Blue but its also nice in Red.

[Soldier of Macedon]

These sun or starburst symbols have also been found on artefacts in Thrace. The point here is that only the Macedonians used it as a national symbol, while others used it for decorating pottery.

Anyway, this thead is in relation to the shabby origins of the modern Greek flag, and it shouldn't be diverted to the original Macedonian flag (or the shabby origins of the newly imposed Macedonian flag).

[Voltron]

Youre right, didnt mean to divert the topic. If it makes anybody feel better out there. We got it from the British Maritime Trading company. Sleep tight, Im going to call it a day.

[Onur]

The topic of the Greek flag has got to be one of the most trivial sujbects I have come across. Half of Europe has the tri-color, Russia changed theirs from the hammer and sickle to the tri-color as well. The Turks have the Crescent and Star which also have inspired theories from Sumerian, Greek, Mongol etc. Who cares ?

Symbols like crescent, star, sun and various animal forms usually comes from antiquity when people was pagans or shamans who admired to the objects in the sky or to some animals.

On the other hand, dual or tri-color flags are modern interpretations. If you check flags of historical states like Romans or early germanic states, all of them contains either sky objects or various animals, none of them are like today`s tri-color flags.

So, this makes the flag of Greece as rather a modern interpretation.

[tchaiku]

The tree on it.

[Liberator of Makedonija]

Bump.................

[Liberator of Makedonija]

The flag of Maryland (now apart of Liberia) from 1854-57

[Liberator of Makedonija]

Supposedly the 9 stripes on the Greek flag are a syllabic representation of 'Eleitheria i Thanatos' (Freedom or Death). Talk about clutching at straws.

Also noticed similarities with the Malaysian flag, which apparently is an adoptation of the British East India Company flag.