Greece’s national flag has nine alternating blue and white horizontal stripes with a white cross on a blue canton in the upper hoist corner. Blue and white are the country’s national colors.
What does the Greek flag look like?
The flag has five blue stripes and four white stripes, making nine in total. A white cross appears on a blue square at the upper left. The cross is linked with Greece’s Orthodox Christian heritage.
What do the nine stripes mean?
Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that the nine stripes correspond to the nine syllables of the independence-era motto “Eleftheria i Thanatos,” meaning “Freedom or Death.” The ministry describes blue as symbolising the Greek sky and seas and white as the purity of the independence struggle.
History of the Greek flag
Blue-and-white flags became closely associated with the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s. Different land and naval forms were used during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries before the striped cross flag became the sole national flag in its current role.
Greece flag facts
- Colors: blue and white
- Stripes: nine
- Symbol: white cross
- Motto linked to stripes: Eleftheria i Thanatos (“Freedom or Death”)
Source
Primary reference: Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs — State Symbols.
