CIRCA - ~1800 🇬🇷 - 9 alternating, equal width, horizontal stripes of blue (top + bottom) & white, with white cross extending to the edges of a blue canton (rectangular emblem @ top left)
HISTORY: The flag was 1st flown by the Kallergis family, before the revolution(once the most powerful nobles of Crete) - with
the motto EN TOYTΩ NIKA" ( "in this sign thou shalt conquer") on the horizontal bar of the cross.
The blue 🔍 & white stripes were drawn from the background of the family's Byzantine🔍
inspired dual-headed ☬ eagle ⛉ coat of arms. (still found all over the island @ churches e.g)
A version of just the white ✚ cross entirely occupying on a blue field, was being used by the
Hellenic navy by 1807, and was then adopted as the ensign for the 1822 revolutionary navy in the
war for independence from the Ottomans, (and the inverse, blue ✚ cross on a white field, was
used even earlier in the uprisings against Russia in 1769.)
This variation, sans stripes, persisted through the establishment of the modern state in 1830 all the way up to 1970, (with
the only minor alterations being a temporary monarchical addition of a ♔ crown.) And during that time, the current version,
with stripes & the cross in the canton, was flown on naval vessels & for foreign service until it was established as the sole
national flag in 1978 following the abolition of the monarchy.
VEXILLOLOGY:* Drawing on Greece's maritime heritage of 67+ improvised ensigns flown @ sea🔍 in the fight for independence;
The 9 STRIPES ☰ symbolize the 9 syllables of the revolutionary motto: "Eleftheria i thanatos" ("Freedom or Death")
The Canton ORTHODOX ✚ CROSS represents Eastern Orthodox Christianity's central role in mobilizing insurgents against Muslim domination, also honored in the...
The BLUE & WHITE motif, also colors of the Greek Orthodox faith, symbolizes the 🌊 Aegean🔍 - but heraldically in the originally Kallergis flag, BLUE = loyalty & truth + WHITE = ☮︎ peace & sincerity.