Guardian
June 21, 2011
City analysts were showing off the benefits of a classical education as they waited on Tuesday for the Greek parliament to decide whether it would accept tough new conditions for a bailout. The country faced a Sisyphean task, said one, namechecking the king of Corinth who was condemned to roll a rock up a hill only to see it bounce down again, then repeat the task for eternity. Another scribbler compared the challenge facing Greece to the 12 labours of Hercules.
Top prize for erudition, though, went to Nick Parsons of National Australia Bank, who chose the longest day to compare the long Hellenic power struggle to the story of King Theseus and his bride-to-be Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The European Union and the International Monetary Fund had handed enormous power to the Greeks, Parsons argued, just as Theseus handed power to Hippolyta by agreeing to lay down his sword.
For now, at least, that assessment is absolutely spot on. The Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, looked to have enough votes to win the crucial vote of confidence in parliament and go on to pass the latest austerity measures next week, but it doesn't really matter because Brussels and Washington now have little choice but to pony up the cash. The stakes are big for the long-suffering Greek people, who are expected to swallow a further dose of austerity, but they are even higher for the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF.
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