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Greece: Army unit flags - Part 4

Overview
1st Infantry Division (1 Merarchia Pezikou)
2nd Mechanized Infantry Division
5th Infantry Division
6th Infantry Division

See also:

Overview

The website of the Greek Armed Forces shows 66 flags, probably all the unit flags of the Greek Army. By clicking on the link below each flag, you can reach another page with a large image of the flag.

All flags have the same general design: Three horizontal coloured stripes, with a fimbriation between them, an emblem in the middle and a golden fringe.

Ivan Sache, 18 February 2002

I translated the first part of the texts from the website mentioned above, and added some minor comments.
The mottos in the emblems are mostly from ancient times, therefore in various forms of ancient Greek (e.g. from Homer's Ilias). Transliteration of Greek is according to the rules of transliterating ancient Greek into English, i.e., zeta is transliterated "z", eta "ê", theta "th", xi "x", upsilon "u" or "y", phi "ph", chi "ch", psi "ps", omega "ô", all others are straightforward. The modern pronunciation of Greek, however, is different: especially a whole set of vowels and diphthongs (y, ê, ei, oi) are pronounced as "i" (like "invincible"). If the Greek terms would have been only in Modern Greek, I would have preferred a more phonetic transliteration; for this mixture of ancient and modern Greek I prefer the more traditional transliteration. I left off all the diacriticals (accents, spiritus, iota adscriptum).

Marcus Schmöger, 25 February 2002

1st Infantry Division (1 Merarchia Pezikou)

by Marcus Schmöger

Colours: red-dark blue-red with white fimbriation, green shield.

Description: An Evzonian pointed shoe and a bayonet on the rifle.
This representation, in combination with the motto aera that is the battle cry of Greek soldiers, symbolizes the assault of the Greek soldier. The traditional and symbolic value was bigger than the practical, that means that the adamant spirit of the Greeks under the Turkish yoke wanted the pointed shoe to be powerful and suitable for kicking the conqueror. Therefore the point of the shoe ends in a sharp ledge, which is maliciously hidden in a beautiful black tuft, that lies charmingly over this part.

Motto: aera (wind).
Battle cry of the Greek soldiers (Evzonians), that was sounded by the soldiers of the Infantry at the assault, just after the command "Forward by the bayonet".

Marcus Schmöger, after the website of the Greek Armed Forces, 25 March 2002

2nd Mechanized Infantry Division

by Marcus Schmöger

Colours: green-white-green with red fimbriation, light blue shield.

Marcus Schmöger, after the website of the Greek Armed Forces, 25 March 2002

5th Infantry Division

by Marcus Schmöger

Colours: violet-yellow-violet with dark blue fimbriation, red shield.

Marcus Schmöger, after the website of the Greek Armed Forces, 25 March 2002

6th Infantry Division

by Marcus Schmöger

Colours: yellow-red-yellow with light blue fimbriation, black shield.

Marcus Schmöger, after the website of the Greek Armed Forces, 25 March 2002

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