And, in more recent times, no less than the word-wizard William Shakespeare made reference to the difficulties of getting what the Greeks were going on about:
CASSIUS: Did Cicero say any thing?
CASCA: Ay, he spoke Greek.
CASSIUS: To what effect?
CASCA: Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' the face again. But those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads. But, for mine own part, it was Greek to me. I could tell you more news too: Marullus and Flavius, for pulling scarfs off Caesar's images, are put to silence. Fare you well. There was more foolery yet, if I could remember it.
But by and large the modern day European Union and its media was doing ok in recent years at making intelligible sense of Greece’s political statements – that is until Syriza were elected. Hardly surprising, when even the party's name sounds like it might be a sausage.
Last week there was a baffling array of mixed signals that bankers, investors and the likes of Loan Ranger had to unravel.
On Wednesday we were being told that Syriza was going to stick one to the EU by blocking sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict. They were fed up of being pushed around and were making this a standing point, or leverage for negotiating their debt (depending on who you asked).
“This is like honey on the soul for Russia,” one loans banker told Loan Ranger. “They will love the chance to start unpicking the threads holding the EU together – and they are desperate to have any ally they can get in Europe. They might even offer to help Greece with its debt.”
It wasn’t immediately clear to Loan Ranger that Russia, given its other financial pickles, would be that keen to take on a big load of Greece’s achievements too. But otherwise there could be something in this.
And even by the time European foreign ministers had held an emergency meeting in Brussels on Thursday, prominent financial publications (not GlobalCapital) were reporting that Greece had scuppered affirmative action against Russia.
Later that same day it transpired that no such blocking move had come from Greece. On the contrary, the EU had extended its existing sanctions on Russia by six months and Greek foreign minister Nikos Kotzias had said he was happy to do so. “We are not the bad boy,” he said (apparently, who knows?)
By Friday we were all being told that Greece’s finance minister Yanis Varoufakis had said point blank – in Greek admittedly – that Greece would no longer deal with the Troika (the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund). Yet when we heard him that same day speaking in English he was able to make it very clear that he had said no such thing.
What he Varoufakis seemed instead to be saying was that he wasn’t keen to have to keep welcoming over a bunch of Troika auditors. Well who would be?
It’s all become very confusing and quickly. The reason for this may turn out to be traceable back to Alexis Tsipras’s first address after the Greece election victory. There his tough talking was translated for English speaking audiences by someone who sounded rather like Frank Spencer from that classic British comedy Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.
Little wonder, perhaps, that there have been linguistic mishaps.
As for loans bankers, such references - and indeed the entire meaning of Greece events - may pass over their heads with little care.
Three years ago Greece might have been a problem for banks, but now it is just a problem for governments, seems to be the loan bankers’ line. We were unlikely to take on any Greece exposure anyway, but even less now. If Greece wants to throw things around for a bit, then so be it. The loan market will be unmoved by day-to-day dodgy signals.
That message is coming across loud and clear.