FOLLOWING the head-on clash between the new Greek socialist government and the European Union (EU) feels like seeing a classic Greek tragedy, written by playwrights Aeschylus, Euripides or Sophocles, unfolding before one’s eyes.
The main common theme of the ancient Athenian tragedy was the inevitability of fate, as determined by the gods. In these stories, there was little that the individual could do to influence his life; you could, so to speak, only undergo what fate had in store for you.
The tragedy happening in and around Greece at the moment reminds one of this. Not only do the main actors emphatically not understand each other; the background also emphasises that Greece’s relations with the EU is an accident looking for a place te happen.