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Greece: Burgees of yacht clubs

Last modified: 2005-07-09 by ivan sache
Keywords: yacht club | burgee | piraeus | star: 8 points (yellow) | palaion faliron | chevron (white) | thessaloniki | anchor: fouled (yellow) | cross (blue) | kalamaki | mykonos |
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Yacht Club Piraeus

[Burgee of YC Piraeus]by Ivan Sache

The industrial city of Piraeus (c. 200,000 inhabitants) is close to Athens. During the Medic wars (against the Persians, Vth century BP), Piraeus became the main port of Athens, to which it was linked by the so-called 'long walls'. Piraeus is still the main port of Athens, and most ferries serving the Greek islands are stationed there.
Piraeus is the seat of the sport-club Olympiakos (football and basket-ball, inter alia).

Piraeus is well-known in French for the expression prendre Le Pirée pour un homme (literally, to take Piraeus for a human being). In La Fontaine's fable Le Singe et le Dauphin ("The Monkey and the Dolphin"), the Monkey attempts to impress the Dolphin by speaking of one of his famous friends named ... Le Pirée. Therefore, prendre le Pirée pour un homme means to be of very deep ignorance.

The pun was reused by Goscinny in Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques, as follows:

  • Panoramix (rowing on the boat that carries the Gauls to Greece): "Guys! We'll land tomorrow! Piraeus is waiting for us!"
  • Panoramix again: "Weird. I had expected someone to make a comment."
  • Obélix: "Panoramix..."
  • Panoramix: "Yes?"
  • Obélix (out of the image): "Who is Piraeus?"
  • Panoramix: "Ah well!"

The same kind of pun is reused later with Acropolis (Obélix: "Who's that Cropolis?")

The burgee of YCP is a very dark blue, 3:5, triangular flag with a yellow emblem made of a eight-pointed star with the northern, western, southern, and eastern points longer than the four other ones and a point added to the northern branch.

Source: YCP website.

Ivan Sache, 27 July 2001

Nautical Club of Palaion Faliron

[NC Palaion Faliron]by Ivan Sache

Palaios Faliron is located south of Athens and east of Piraeus, on