Competition: Country music

In Competition No. 2753 you were invited to submit a new national anthem for Greece.

The entry was split between those who present Greece’s woes as being mostly self-inflicted and a more sympathetic bunch, who acknowledge the wider forces that may have helped to bring this once great nation to its knees. Both camps are represented in the winning line-up. W.J. Webster takes the bonus fiver. His fellow winners pocket £25 each.

Hellas! Hellas!
All Hellenes cry ‘Hellas!’
Our great descent is known to all
Who’ve heard of Europe’s story,
From giants too many to recall
Who laid our claim to glory.
Here history first got its name,
We gave the epic birth;
Geometry owes us its frame,
We even measured Earth.
Democracy was our idea,
And where hubris may lurk:
Our tragedy showed men should fear
How nemesis will work.
Hellas! Hellas!
All Hellenes cry ‘Hellas!’
W.J. Webster

Hellas, Hellas, first of nations,
Motherland of thought and art,
Never mind the defalcations,
Feel the living, beating heart.
Greeks, recall our country’s story,
Sing this hymn of praise aloud:
Hellas, Hellas, land of glory,
Broke we may be, but we’re proud.

Plotinus and Aristotle
Taught the planet how to think.
Malagousia by the bottle
Helps us when we turn to drink.
Though the euro’s past salvation,
Hail the blue and white unfurled!
Hellas, Hellas, foremost nation
Of a fluctuating world.
G.M. Davis
(To the tune of: ‘Deutschland Uber Alles’)

We knew thee of old,
O drachma we love,
Olympian currency,
Euro above.

Our Attic economy
Grieves in abasement.
We mourn thee, O drachma,
And hate thy replacement.

Under the yoke
Of the Union we groan.
We dream the rebirth
Of a zone of our own.