At One Place

The flag of Greece

The flag of Greece
Nine alternating horizontal stripes of blue and white, with a white cross on a blue square in the upper hoist corner.
Ratio 2:3 · current design adopted 1978
Greece

Field and colours only. Not shown: nine blue and white stripes with a white cross on a blue canton.

The nine stripes are traditionally read as the nine syllables of Eleftheria i Thanatos — "Freedom or Death" — the motto of the war of independence, though no founding document says so and the count may simply be a design choice. The blue has changed shade repeatedly by decree, from a pale sky blue in the 1820s through a very dark navy under the 1967-74 junta to today's mid-blue, with no legal Pantone value even now. The nine-striped flag was originally the naval ensign and a plain blue cross flag was used on land; the two were merged in 1978. It is the only national flag with a cross in a canton rather than across the field.

What the colours mean

  • Blue #0D5EAF The sea and sky
  • White #FFFFFF The waves, and purity

Flag laws usually specify a Pantone chip, a CMYK mix or just a colour name. Converting any of those to sRGB is lossy, which is why published hex values disagree.

The symbols on it

What What it stands for
Cross The Greek Orthodox Church
Ratio
2:3
Current design adopted
1978
Colours
blue, white

No Greek law specifies the blue. #0D5EAF is the most-cited modern value; official flags in use range from roughly #005BAE to a much darker #0F3B78.

Common questions

What does the flag of Greece look like?
Nine alternating horizontal stripes of blue and white, with a white cross on a blue square in the upper hoist corner.
What do the colours of the Greece flag mean?
Blue: the sea and sky. White: the waves, and purity.
When was the Greece flag adopted?
The current design dates from 1978, and its official ratio is 2:3.

Related pages

Sources

  1. Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place

How these figures are compiled and checked