This design, from the 14th century during the Palaiologan dynasty, is the only attested flag of the Byzantine Empire.įlags as they are known today did not exist in antiquity. Although the use of alternating blue and white - or silver - stripes on (several centuries-old) Kallergis' coats of arms is well documented, no depiction of the above described pattern (with the nine stripes and the cross) survives. This pattern (according to not easily verifiable descriptions) included nine stripes of alternating blue and white, as well as a cross, assumed to be placed on the upper left. This flag was based on their coat of arms, whose pattern is supposed to be derived from the standards of their claimed ancestor, Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus II Phocas (963–969 AD). It has been suggested by historians that the current flag derived from an older design, the virtually identical flag of the powerful Cretan Kallergis family. Every part of it, including the blue and white colors, the cross, as well as the stripe arrangement can be connected to very old historical elements however, it is difficult to establish "continuity", especially as there is no record of the exact reasoning behind its official adoption in early 1822. The origins of today's national flag with its cross-and-stripe pattern are a matter of debate.
White and blue symbolise the colours of the Greek sky and sea. The nine stripes is also said to represent the letters of the word "freedom" (Greek: ελευθερία). The nine stripes do not have any official meaning the most popular theory says that they represent the syllables of the phrase Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος ("Freedom or Death"), the five blue stripes for the syllables Ελευθερία and the four white stripes ή Θάνατος. It was officially adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus on 13 January 1822. The shade of blue used in the flag has varied throughout its history, from light blue to dark blue, the latter being increasingly used since the late 1960s. The blazon of the flag is Azure, four bars Argent on a canton of the field a Greek cross throughout of the second. There is a blue canton in the upper hoist-side corner bearing a white cross the cross symbolises Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The national flag of Greece, popularly referred to as the "blue and white one" ( Greek: Γαλανόλευκη, Galanólefki) or the "sky blue and white" ( Κυανόλευκη, Kyanólefki), is officially recognised by Greece as one of its national symbols and has nine equal horizontal stripes of blue alternating with white. Nine horizontal stripes, in turn blue and white a white Greek cross throughout a blue canton.
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