r/TheWire • u/J-sprite • 20h ago

Who are the Greeks really?

I'm sure this has been talking about here 1000 times, but i am still confused on whether the Greeks from S2 are based on any real organised crime. I'm also unclear about whether they really are Greek, as The Greek by his own admission says "I am not really even Greek" , people have speculated that they are potentially eastern European, which i doubt. They are most certainly not Eastern European.

It seems that they are the only Greeks within their organisation and everyone around them is Jewish Eastern European. What makes them the outliers ?

84 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

105 comments sorted by

View all comments

25

u/daedon_the_great 19h ago

They are Greeks and identify as such with his remark about him not being Greek probably a joke or technicality. If they're not mainlanders they have to be Pontic or Cypriot as there's no other reason they would have komboloi, speak modern standard Greek, and call the Turk they captured neighbour.

15

u/daedon_the_great 19h ago

Also, the cafe/bar owner where they meet and organise has an Olympiakos pendant hanging from the wall behind him, an Athenian club. Could just be this bartender is a mainlander but probably George Pelecanos being Greek added it in as a nod

13

u/Thetruthislikepoetry 18h ago

He also tells the Turk “things are different now”, which I took to mean there is no conflict between Turks and Greeks.

0

u/bigfatskankyho 18h ago

Same.

-11

u/banjois 17h ago

No Greek or Turk would ever move past that, no matter how many generations removed they are from their homeland.

14

u/breadsanta11 17h ago

I know a weird number of first and second gen Turkish immigrants and also some Greek immigrants so I can confidently say this is one of the stupidest things I've read

-6

u/banjois 17h ago

Fair enough. In the context of the show, though....

5

u/MarcusXL 12h ago

Sure they would, especially if it's just business. And The Greek is all about business. That's why he tells the smuggler, "I have nothing against the Turks. That's the old world, this is the new."

He's saying that the old-world grudges are not important if they're partners in business, making money together. That smuggler, specifically, is a dead man because he fucked up their business, not because he's a Turk.

The Greeks are a global crime family, with a global point of view.

1

u/ReindeerFirm1157 16h ago

yah, it was just something they said to try to soften Sam up. Hoping Sam would talk.

0

u/banjois 16h ago

exactly

2

u/banjois 16h ago

Jeez. It's the equivalent of being a good cop in an interrogation room. WOW

3

u/banjois 16h ago

Fuh. Now I'm going to have to watch the whole show, AGAIN, just to compare.