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Ancient and modern

Syriza could have learned from Aristophanes. Instead it's headed for Greek tragedy

Come on, Tsipras, remember your ancient birthright. Set an example for us all

31 January 2015

9:00 AM

31 January 2015

9:00 AM

The German chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed her desire for Greece to remain part of the European ‘story’. Since Greeks — together with the Romans and Jews — actually created that story over the past 2,500 years, it is hard to see how they could not.

With help from the Romans, they laid the foundations of western history, philosophy, politics, education, architecture and literature, this last including epic, tragedy, lyric, pastoral and, especially, comedy.

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