Letter from Athens: Funeral for a Former Greek King, More British Arrogance on Parthenon Marbles, Fancy Breakfast with Acropolis View
ATHENS — There will be no state funeral for the former and final king of Greece, Constantine II, who died at a private Athens hospital on Tuesday at the age of 82. The death of Constantine, a much cherished second cousin of King Charles, drew mostly muted reactions in the Greek capital, testament to a life that was both marked and marred by some of the biggest upheavals in the history of modern Greece.
He was an Olympic gold medalist in sailing who acceded to the throne in 1964, when he was only 23, but soon found himself in a political maelstrom that pushed him into exile, mainly in Britain, for decades.
That the turmoil of 1960s and 1970s Greece was at least partly of the monarch’s own making was reflected in an official statement from the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who called Constantine’s passing “the formal epilogue to a chapter that was closed and done with the 1974 referendum.” He added that “the wounds were healed by the choices, the free conscience and the maturity” of the Greeks. More obliquely, he said, “it’s up to history to judge.”
That referendum was a plebiscite after the collapse of a military junta in Greece that sealed the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the Third Hellenic Republic. Yet it was Contantine’s undeniable if indirect role in the emergence of that junta that caused his early popularity to plummet and sowed the seeds of years of political chaos in what was then and is more than ever one of the most important members of the NATO alliance.
The downfall of the elected Center Union administration of a former Greek prime minister, George Papandreou — in which Constantine played a part — triggered a period of instability that proved fertile ground for a military coup in 1967. Democracy was restored only in 1974. As the Associated Press’s Demetris Nellas neatly summed up, “reduced in the following decades to only fleeting visits to Greece that raised a political and media storm each time, he was able to settle again in his home country in his waning years when opposing his presence no longer held currency as a badge of vigilant republicanism.”
Nostalgia for the Greek monarchy today is virtually nonexistent. As Britain’s Guardian newspaper dryly noted in Constantine’s obituary, “of the seven Greek monarchs of the 19th and 20th centuries, three were deposed, one assassinated, two abdicated and one died of septicaemia after being bitten by a barbary ape in the royal gardens.” Upon learning of Constantine’s death, a Greek colleague told this correspondent, “He had a full life cheating the Greek nation. God bless his soul.”
Constantine will be buried as a private citizen on Monday outside Athens at Tatoi, the former summer residence of Greece’s royals and where his parents and ancestors are buried. The Greek culture minister, Lina Mendoni, will attend the funeral, but it was not clear whether Mr. Mitsotakis planned to be in attendance.
Originally published in The New York Sun.
We have just read one of the most pathetic “arguments” ever made for not returning the stolen Parthenon marbles back to Athens…a different era, the occupying Turks said it was ok, yadda yadda. Well, instead of endless stonewalling and blithe prevarication the British should be doing everything they can to spirit the artworks that Lord Elgin plucked from the Acropolis back to Greece. And not on some kind of long-term loan either, but for good.
Also, breakfast at the Acropolis Museum is back!