The blue, blue palette of the Aegean

When it’s the sea, it’s turquoise shallows that turn royal blue further out. “The deeper, the better,” they say.

When it’s an Orthodox church or the Greek flag, it’s the whitest of white on sky blue.

When it’s a flag on a boat headed out to sea, it’s a blue that shouts out loud, “I’m free!”

There are different theories about the design of the Greek flag: In one, the nine stripes represent the syllables of the phrase “Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος” (“Freedom or Death”). Or maybe they represent the nine muses, the goddesses of art and civilization. As usual, there are no hard answers, only theories.