Origin and Evolution of the Greek Flag

in: F. Blakolmer (ed.), Current Approaches and New Perspectives in Aegean Iconography. Aegis 18 (Louvain) , 2020

This paper focuses on a carnelian lentoid (M6621), housed in the Cabinet des Médailles of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, which was rejected as a forgery by Henri and Micheline van Effenterre when they compiled CMS IX (1972). The study presents a summary account of the collection's history, together with an assessment of the scholarly milieu in which the authors of the volume worked. There follows a detailed evaluation of the seal in question, in which material, shape, size, technique, composition, pose and style are all assessed. Comparisons are made with seals in circulation when the seal was acquired in 1907, as well as the repertoire known to the van Effenterres. These lead to the conclusion that the seal must be regarded as authentic, a view supported by recent discoveries. This case study thus helps to underscore the changing attitudes toward Aegean glyptic in the last century and the benefits we enjoy today with a substantial percentage of the extant repertoire now documented systematically in the CMS series, permitting comparisons to be drawn between pieces now widely dispersed. The opportunity of viewing images greatly enlarged on computer screens also facilitates the scrutiny of minute details that can lend weight in the rehabilitation of pieces previously regarded as suspect because they lack a secure provenance or have a murky past.

In the year 1939, Rudolf Wittkower began his article about the eagle and the serpent 1 with an important remark on the methods of the »diffusionist« ethnologists. These scholars dealt with the migration of symbols as such, regardless of the historical period in which they evolved and got transformed. Wittkower rightly criticizes this approach because, for the good understanding of a symbol, it is not enough to know where it comes from and where it leads, but also, and mainly, it is of a great importance to understand how it works and worked in the different cultures and historical periods in which it is present. Thus, the »diffusionism« must be supplemented by the »functional« approach: the attempt to understand the meaning of a particular symbol in a given context. This shall be the target of the present article: an approach to the significance of one of the symbols with the strongest presence in the history of humankind: the eagle and the snake.

Macedonian Herald, 2007

the dragon is a symbol of the Slavic god of the cattle named Volos/Veles. And the Miaks are predominantly cattle breeding people. The wolf and the snake in folk mythology are referred to as underground creatures, and the dragon as the commander of the snakes has been in close relation to the nature of the underground god Volos/Veles.c The cult of the wolf is very much related to the cult of the underground world and the moon.d It is a common heraldic symbol in the coats of arms,stamps and belts ofsome medieval Serbian feudal rulers,such as Balsha II, Gjurgje Stracimirovic etc.e The Balshic’s had land in Albania and their coat of arms is presented in the collection of Albanian arms published by Gjin Varfi.f The position of the crescent and the star differs from the one on the Turkish flag, where the crescent is turned north-south , These are much older symbols that may be found on the barrierstones of Mesopotamia, where they stood for the moon, the son, the goddess Ishtar etc. Identically combined as on our flag (a star entering the arch of the crescent), positioned above the god of the sun can be seen on the stella of king Urnamu from Ur (2022-2004 B.C.).g These two signs combined in a different way may be associated with the Bogumils who used them on their grave stones. There is another possibility to relate them to the Illyrian coat of arms created in the 16th C. and published in the Minster’s Cosmography in Basel in 1544.h This coat of arms has been invented as part of Slavic propaganda, as a symbol of the cultural revival of the South Slavs, since its creators believed it to originate from the Illyrians. So the same crescent and star we see in the corner of the Miaks flag where it is placed on red. According to Solovyev, the moon and the star, or the sun,stand for the heavenly ships, in other words the place where the souls of the righteous dwell before departing to heaven.i The star, crescent and crossbow are found in Huns’ flag, whose kingdom existed until three decades ago. Predominant unnatural green color of the sky combined with black and white on the mounts was probably due to the influence of surrounding Islamic countries. Their arms is a combination of the flag and a lion. This is interesting since the lion’s hair is similar to that on the flag of Razlovec Uprising. If the wingless double headed eagle is read as intertwining snakes, we can talk about an archetypal symbol of dualism, the good and the evil, or heretics. We see it on the church doors of St. Nicholas of the Hospitals in Ohrid, and the church door of the monastery in Treskavec, Prilep. If the wings are missing only on these two flags, or are not actually visible due to the bad quality of printing, and if a light color had been applied, then they can stand for the Byzantine state symbol of the 14th C., actually the coat of arms of the Palaeologue family, or as the symbol of the Orthodox Church and also the coat of arms of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The double headed eagle, the lion, the gryphon, and many other fantastic animals originated in the East and became popular in Europe, Russia and Byzantium throughout the Middle Ages by the import of luxurious fabrics used for cloths, curtain, tapestries and covers for altar tables. For instance we see the double headed eagle embroidered on the cloth of the Bulgarian Tsar John Alexander in a 14th C. manuscript illumination,j also on the clothes of Macedonian ruler Duka (in the church of St. Panteleimon in Ohrid) from the 3rd decade of 14th C.k The dragon and the lion may be read as symbols of the defeat of evil by Christ, since they flank his symbol, the cross, the way they have been represented on the bottom of the Large Iconostasis cross from the 16th C. onwards. The confronted dragon and the lion can be seen as well on the wood carved arches of the large throne icons of the iconostases. lt is again the old Christian composition and the dragon may be replaced with a snake, or with a fish.

2004

The new Albanian migration, 2005

Espaços e paisagens: antiguidade clássica e heranças contemporâneas: Vol.3 História, Arqueologia e Arte, 2010

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Research Handbook on Visual Politics, 2023