Popular Stereotypes about Greek People

I recently wrote an article debunking the popular idea that modern Greeks are not true Greeks at all but rather some other people with no relation to the ancient Greeks. This idea is, of course, wrong for all sorts of reasons that I explain in the article. In the course of researching that article, though, I came across all kinds of information about stereotypes surrounding modern Greek people.

I have therefore decided to write this article in which I intend to examine some of the more popular stereotypes about Greeks and assess how true these stereotypes really are, using evidence. Since I am not Greek myself, you can be sure that, if my analysis here is biased for any reason, it isn’t that one.

Stereotype #1: “Greek people are lazy.”

This is a stereotype that has arisen largely as a result of the Greek economic crisis. Many people have looked at how Greece has been struggling economically and they automatically assume that Greek people must just be lazy. Meanwhile, people look at how well Germany is doing and they assume Germans must be working really hard.

Thus, people have come to believe that Greek people are lazy bums who don’t want to work, while Germans are extremely hardworking and industrious. A study conducted by Pew Research Center in 2012 found that, when asked to name the most hardworking country in Europe, the top choice in every country included in the survey except Greece was “Germany.”

Meanwhile, when asked to name the least hardworking country in Europe, the top choice in the vast majority of the countries included in the survey was “Greece,” with “Italy” and “Romania” being the only other popular choices.

ABOVE Chart from Pew Research Center, showing how the top choice in the majority of European countries that were included in the survey for the “least hardworking” country in Europe was “Greece”

In reality, the actual statistics seem to strongly suggest that Greeks, on average, actually work significantly longer hours than people in other European countries, including Germany. According to an article published by The Washington Post in 2015, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that the average German worker works only twenty-six hours per week while the average Greek worker works thirty-nine hours per week. That means the average Greek worker works thirteen more hours per week than the average German worker.

ABOVE: Chart from The Washington Post showing the number of average hours worked per week by German and Greek workers, based on statistics from the OECD. On average, Greek workers actually work thirteen more hours per week than German workers.

In fact, not only do Greek workers work significantly longer hours on average than German workers, but Greek workers actually work the highest average number of hours out of any people in the entire western world. Of the countries that were included in the study, only Koreans were found to work longer hours on average than Greeks. The study found that the average Korean worker works around 2,195 hours per year, while the average Greek worker works around 2,010 hours per year. The average German worker only works a little over 1,400 hours a year.

ABOVE: Diagram from The Atlantic showing the average number of hours worked by people in various countries per year, based on data from the OECD

The OECD also found that young people in Greece were far more likely to have a college education than young people in Germany. Approximately 37% of Greeks between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four had a college education, while only around 30% of Germans between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four had a college education. That’s a difference of a full 7%.

In other words, if you look at the evidence, it seems that Greek people are significantly more likely to work longer hours than people in any other European country and are significantly more likely to have a college education than at least people in Germany.

All of this evidence strongly suggests that, while some individual Greeks may be lazy, Greek people in general are far from lazy and the problems with their economy are far more likely to be the result of widespread systemic inefficiencies than widespread laziness.

ABOVE: Chart from The Washington Post showing the percentage of Germans and Greeks between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four who have college educations

Stereotype #2: “Young Greek people live with their parents.”

This one has quite a bit of truth behind it. A study conducted in 2018 found that roughly 56.3% of people living in Greece between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four reported that they still lived with their parents, which is the third highest percentage of any country in the European Union. Meanwhile, large numbers of young adults in Greek diaspora families outside of Greece reportedly live with their parents as well, indicating this phenomenon is not purely a result of the financial crisis.

The fact that the majority of Greeks between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four still live with their parents does, however, need to be put in context. In the United States, people in their late twenties and early thirties who still live with their parents are heavily stigmatized. People in their thirties who still live with their parents—especially men in their thirties who still live with their parents—are widely seen as lazy and miserable failures who just don’t want to grow up and therefore continue living off their parents like worthless parasites.

Like many other people in the United States, I’ve grown up hearing the horror stories about that unemployed thirty-year-old loser who lives in his parents’ basement playing video games all day. We’ve all grown up being told, “Don’t be like that loser. Don’t be a burden to your parents by continuing to live under their roof and eat their food.”

Thus, when we hear that so many young people in Greece still live with their parents, we see this is a sign of laziness because that is how living with one’s parents is seen in our own culture. In Greek culture, though, a young person continuing to live with their parents is seen in a completely different way. In Greece, there is no taboo against a young person continuing to live with their parents and it is not at all seen as a sign of laziness. Many Greek people who live with their parents even have full-time jobs.

In fact, according to Greek sources I’ve been reading, apparently many Greek parents see it as embarrassing if their adult child decides to leave home while the child is still unmarried, since it is traditionally expected that a child will remain in the home until their wedding. This cultural habit apparently arises from the strong emphasis contemporary Greek culture has on family.

Strange as it may sound to us Americans, then, it seems that the real reason why so many young Greek people still live with their parents isn’t because they’re all lazy and they don’t want to grow up, but rather because young adults living with their parents is something that has actually been considered fairly normal in Greece for quite a long time.

ABOVE: Political cartoon by South Carolina cartoonist Robert Ariail depicting the entire country of Greece personified as an obnoxious adult son who won’t leave the house

Stereotype #3: “Greek people never pay for anything and they always make others pay.”

The Greek debt crisis notoriously resulted in Greece having to get multiple bailout loans. Thus, the stereotype arose that Greek people never pay for their own stuff and they always make other people pay for them. The phrase “going Greek” is sometimes jokingly used to refer to a situation in which someone invites someone else to an event and makes the person they invited pay not just for everything they bought, but everything the person who invited them bought as well.

The irony is that this is the exact opposite of what actual Greek people are known for doing. It is a longstanding tradition in Greece that, if someone invites someone to an event, such as dinner, the inviter will insist on paying for everything. Thus, the negative stereotype about Greek people not paying for things is not only false, but the exact opposite of what actual Greek people are most likely to do.

Stereotype #4: “Greek people are all lying traitors.”

Most of the stereotypes about Greek people that are widely known today have originated within the past few decades. For instance, the stereotype of Greek people as lazy mostly arose around a little over a decade ago as a result of the Greek debt crisis. Of all the stereotypes about Greeks, though, the oldest and most enduring is the stereotype that Greeks are inherently liars and untrustworthy.

When Pew Research Center conducted their survey that I mentioned earlier in 2012, they found that Greece was not only the top choice in most countries for the “least hardworking” country in Europe, but also tied with Italy for the top choice for the “least trustworthy” country in Europe. When asked to name the “least trustworthy” country in Europe, Greece was the top choice for people in France and the Czech Republic and tied with Italy for the top choice for people in Germany.

ABOVE: Chart from Pew Research Center showing that Greece is one of the most popular choices for the title of “least trustworthy” country in Europe

This stereotype of Greek people as untrustworthy is one that can be traced all the way back to the ancient Romans. The Roman poet Vergil (lived 70 – 19 BC) famously portrayed all Greeks as lying traitors in his Latin epic poem, the Aeneid. In Book Two of the poem, the Trojan hero Aeneas tells Dido, the queen of Carthage, about how the Greeks defeated the Trojans through deceit and trickery.

Aeneas tells Dido that a Greek man named Sinon, whom the Trojans found and took as a captive, lied to convince the Trojans to bring the Trojan Horse inside the city of Troy, thus bringing about their ruin. He further tells Dido that Sinon is perfectly representative of all Greeks, who are all nothing but perfidious cheaters.

Book Two of Vergil’s Aeneid also includes this famous line, spoken by Laocoön, the Trojan priest of the god Neptunus: “Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.” (“Whatever it is, I fear the Danaans [i.e. Greeks], even bearing gifts.”) The phrase “Don’t trust Greeks bearing gifts,” derived from this line of the Aeneid, is commonly used in English to mean that you should never trust your enemies, even if they start acting nice to you.

Despite the remarkable endurance of the stereotype of Greeks as liars and traitors, there is no evidence to suggest that Greeks are more likely to be liars or traitors than people of any other nation. I’m sure there are some individual Greeks of whom Sinon is representative, but he is not representative of the entire Greek nation.

ABOVE: Illustration from the Vergilius Romanus, a fifth-century AD illustrated manuscript of Vergil’s Aeneid, depicting the lying Greek Sinon brought naked as a captive before the Trojan aristocracy

Stereotype #5: “Greek people like to party.”

There is some truth to this stereotype, since a party culture really does exist in Greece. The stereotype definitely doesn’t hold true for everyone, though. It’s also worth noting that liking parties is hardly a trait that is unique to Greek people. If you went to literally any country on Earth and asked the people there, “Do you like parties?” the majority of people would probably say, “Yes.”

The widespread perception among people outside of Greece that all Greek people like to party is probably the result of a combination of two factors. The first factor is that many people from outside of Greece go to Greece on vacation. Because people go there on vacation, they spend most of their time going to parties on islands like Santorini and Mykonos or visiting clubs in Athens and they don’t get to see much at all of what ordinary life is actually like for the vast majority of Greeks.

Thus, because tourists spend all their time in Greece partying, they assume that Greek people must spend all their time partying as well. Obviously, if you take the time to think this assumption through, it becomes clear rather quickly that it is a remarkably silly one. Unfortunately, most people don’t take the time to think their own assumptions through.

The second factor I think has to do with fraternities and sororities in the United States, which normally use Greek letters for names and are collectively referred to as “Greek life.” Fraternities and sororities are known for their wild, alcohol-fueled parties. Thus, people come to associate parties with “Greek life” and, because they associate “Greek life” with Greece, they come to assume that “Greek life” somehow reflects the way people live in Greece.

In reality, though, as I explain in this article from February 2019, the reason why fraternities and sororities are known as “Greek life” is because they use Greek letters for names. The reason why they use Greek letters for name is because fraternities originated as basically honor societies at a time in the eighteenth century when the Greek language was commonly associated in the English-speaking world with academic rigor and prestige.

ABOVE: Photograph, taken from this website, of a pool party on the Greek island of Mykonos from around the mid-2010s. People often go to Greece on vacation and assume that, because they spend all their time in Greece partying, Greek people must spend all their time partying as well.

Stereotype #6: “Greek people love shouting ‘Opa!’ and smashing plates whenever they’re having a party or having fun.”

Most people think that, whenever Greek people are having a party or having fun, they shout “Opa!” and smash plates. “ώπα” (ópa) is a real word in the Greek language, but it is not especially commonly used and, when it is used, it is most often used to mean something more like “Whoa!” or “Hold on!”

People do sometimes shout out “ώπα” when they are having fun or when something exciting happens, but this usage of the word is generally less common and, nowadays, it mostly happens at gimmicky events put on for foreign tourists.

Greek people rarely ever go around smashing plates deliberately because plates can be expensive to replace. As such, smashing plates normally only happens at events put on for foreign tourists who desperately want to have the whole “Greek experience.”

It is largely as a result of these gimmicky tourist events that people have retained the notion of Greek people smashing plates and shouting “Opa!” In real life, that doesn’t really happen. It may happen at some really wild parties that the people I’ve talked to haven’t been to, but, for the most part, it’s mostly just a tourist thing.

ABOVE: Political cartoon drawn by the American cartoonist Chan Lowe and distributed by Tribune Media, depicting a Greek man smashing plates and shouting “Opa!”

Stereotype #7: “Greek people are super tolerant of homosexuality.”

This stereotype seems to be common in the English-speaking world among people who have heard the expression “Greek love,” which is a common euphemism for homosexuality, but haven’t actually been to Greece, met any Greek people, or really read anything at all about what contemporary Greece is like. The unfortunate reality is that the majority of Greek people today are not tolerant of homosexuality at all and, in fact, are strongly opposed to LGBTQ+ rights.

Even in ancient Greece, views on homosexuality were complicated. As I discuss in much greater detail in this article from June 2019, homosexual activity in ancient Greece was tolerated and sometimes even seen as a good thing, but only under certain specific circumstances. Under other circumstances, homosexual activity was seen as immoral and disgraceful.

As I discuss in this answer from November 2019, Greece today is a strongly Eastern Orthodox country. According to a poll conducted by Pew Research Center in 2017, 90% of Greeks at that time identified as Eastern Orthodox Christians. Officially, the Orthodox Church does not approve of homosexuality, which it regards as inherently sinful. Thus, many Greeks today in the twenty-first century continue to regard homosexuality as inherently sinful as well.

According to a poll conducted in May 2015, at that time, only 56% of people in Greece approved of same-sex civil marriage while 36% were opposed to it. The same poll found that only 30% of Greeks believed it should be legal for same-sex couples to adopt children, while 56% believed it should not be legal.

A more recent survey conducted in 2018 found that only 39.3% of Greek people believed that same-sex marriage should be legal, while 57.4% were opposed to same-sex marriage. The same study found that only 18% of Greeks believed that same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt children and 79.6% of Greeks—the vast majority—agreed that it should be illegal for same-sex couples to adopt children.

In other words, most Greek people today do not seem to be strongly support of LGBTQ+ rights and many Greek people are, in fact, strongly opposed to them. There are certainly some Greeks who do strongly support LGBTQ+ rights, but they do not make up the vast majority of the population by any means.

ABOVE: Tondo from an Attic red-figure kylix dating to c. 480 BC depicting an erastes and an eromenos kissing

Stereotype #8: “Greek people really like anal sex.”

This is one of the most bizarre modern stereotypes about Greek people. The stereotype seems to have arisen from the preexisting widespread association in the English-speaking world of Greece with male homosexuality. Because people have long associated male homosexuality with anal sex (even though surveys have actually found that a significant percentage of gay men do not engage in anal sex at all), they came to associate Greeks with anal sex as well.

There is, however, no evidence that Greek people are any more likely to like anal sex than people of any other nationality. In fact, most authorities within the Greek Orthodox Church strongly condemn all forms of sexual relations aside from vaginal intercourse between a husband and his wife. An article on the website Orthodox Christian Information Center, written by Father Josiah Trenham, an Orthodox priest, declares:

“Marriage itself does not make legitimate all forms of sexuality. The sexual intercourse of the married is to be modest, and within its proper limits. Moderation is determined both by regulation of time and method of sexual relations. Relations on fast days, on the eve prior to one’s reception of Holy Communion, and on days on which one receives the Holy Gifts are forbidden as an illegitimate indulgence to the flesh. Anal and oral intercourse, as well as the use of pornography and sexual toys, are sexual perversions and are always sinful, even for married Christians. The unnatural prolongation of sexual desire, through the use of drugs such as viagra [sic], is forbidden. On the contrary, such decline in sexual desire is to warmly welcomed by aging Orthodox Christians as a divine help in one’s life long preparation for departure from this life.”

This is the official view promoted by clergy affiliated with the Orthodox Church. Obviously, not all Greek people will agree with this declaration. Some Greek people will no doubt laugh and say that this strict view of what is sexually permissible is absurd. Nonetheless, the Orthodox Church has a great deal of influence both within Greece and within Greek communities abroad. This means that the views that the Orthodox Church chooses to promote tend to be highly influential.

Stereotype #9: “Greek people smoke a lot.”

This one is, unfortunately, mostly true. A survey taken by the European Commission for World No Tobacco Day in 2017 found that approximately 37% of Greeks are regular smokers and only 44% of Greeks had never smoked a cigarette. The survey concluded that Greeks are more likely to smoke than people in any other European country and are far less likely to have never smoked a cigarette than people in any other European country.

The Greek government has passed laws in effort to reduce smoking, but none of these laws have been enforced. In 2010, Greece passed a law banning all tobacco consumption in all public work places, transportation centers, public vehicles, hospitals, and university buildings. The law mandates heavy fines for anyone who violates the law against smoking.

Nevertheless, this legislation is completely unenforced and widely ignored. It is extremely common for people to smoke in places where smoking is technically supposed to be illegal and hardly anyone ever reports it when they do. The law is such a joke that, in 2016, Greece’s deputy health minister Pavlos Polakis—who is a professional surgeon—broke the law against smoking in public buildings by smoking indoors at a press conference inside the Ministry of Health headquarters where he knew there were cameras and he would be being photographed.

Oh, but that’s not all; it gets even worse, because it turns out the press conference at which Polakis chose to flagrantly defy Greece’s anti-smoking laws was a press conference for World No Tobacco Day. This shows just what an absolute joke Greece’s anti-smoking laws are. Even the deputy health minister acts like the laws don’t even exist.

It would be easy to laugh at the absurdity of this if it weren’t for the fact that smoking is proven to be extremely harmful to a person’s health. There are some hopeful indications that smoking may be gradually becoming less popular in Greece, but the change is happening slowly and it is unfortunately likely that smoking will remain common in Greece for at least the next decade or so, probably even longer than that.

ABOVE: Photograph of Pavlos Polakis, Greece’s deputy health minister, breaking the law by smoking indoors at a press conference at the Ministry of Health headquarters on World No Tobacco Day. This shows just what a joke Greece’s anti-smoking laws are.

Conclusion

There’s no truth behind the vast majority of the most popular stereotypes about Greek people. There’s no evidence that Greek people are more likely to be lazy than people of other European nationalities and, in fact, quite a bit of evidence to suggest the opposite. The idea that Greek people always make other people pay for things is also completely false.

There is some truth behind some of the popular stereotypes surrounding Greek people, like the stereotype about young Greek adults living with their parents and the stereotype about Greek people smoking a lot, but, even with these, there are many people who don’t follow the stereotype.

Obviously, just because the majority of young Greek adults still live with their parents doesn’t mean they all do. Likewise, it is worth pointing out that, although many Greeks do smoke, the majority of Greeks are not currently regular smokers.