History Main / GratuitousGreek

* In {{Xena: Warrior Princess}}, in the episode "The Titans", Gabrielle supposedly chants in Greek. What she says is actually a mix of casual Greek salutations, like "Hello" and "Good morning" along with some weird stuff like the Spanish word for "night" ("noche") and the name of a Greek olive oil company. This was very puzzling for Greek people when it first aired as it did sound familiar, but unless one would access the internet for the script, Gabrielle was just speaking utter crap with a horrible Greek accent.

* In {{Xena The Warrior Princess}}, in the episode "The Titans", Gabrielle supposedly chants in Greek. What she says is actually a mix of casual Greek salutations, like "Hello" and "Good morning" along with some weird stuff like the Spanish word for "night" ("noche") and the name of a Greek olive oil company.

* Omega, the legendary Time Lord from ''DoctorWho''

*** In fact, it could be either "Πλανήτες" or "Πλανήτης", since for some reason the letter Eta "η" is transcribed as "e" in English.

** ''The Omega Directive'' (but the PrimeDirective is interestingly NOT called the Alpha Directive)

[[AC:Γιαπωνεζικα Ανιμε]] [[hottip:*:Anime]]

* It would be at a higher level, but we can't make it any [[IncrediblyLamePun beta]].

** [[Oh, I'm sure they're kicking themselves now.]] That's pretty common with alternate alphabets that have the occasional similar character, writers just transliterate words from the original language into whatever [[AsLongAsItLooksForeign looks suitably foreign]].

** There has to be more.

* The final chapter of ''{{Xenogears}}'' is named 'Alpha and Omega.'

Common Greek letters to be used are Αα Alpha, Ββ Beta, Γγ Gamma, Δδ Delta, Εε Epsilon, Ζζ Zeta and Ωω Omega. Other Greek letters like Ππ Pi or Χχ Chi will rarely get used because it would confuse viewers while letters like Ηη Eta or Κκ Kappa would rarely get used for risk of the [[ViewersAreMorons viewer not understanding]] the connection and think maybe they're referring to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Etna mountain?]] Or the [[http://www.mariowiki.com/Kappa_Mountain other mountain]]? Or perhaps the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa Composer?]] Or even a [[{{Kappa}} river turtle that likes cucumbers]]?

** Caesar's only words confirmed by the contemporary sources were "Ista quidem vis est!", "[[CaptainObvious This is violence]]!", when one of the senators grabbed his toga.

** Making unnamed planets called "Star Constellation Orbit": Gamma Hydra IV, Epsilon Canaris 3, Omicron Ceti 3, with [[AdaptationDecay some fuzzyness]] turning into Ceti Alpha 6, Beta Niobe, Psi 2000, etc.

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* Sigma, BigBad of the ''MegaManX'' series

*** Omega-Xis, the main character's alien partner from ''MegaManStarForce''
**** Not to mention, the third through fifth installments of ''MegaManBattleNetwork'' used Greek letters to refer to the different boss tiers. The weakest version was not marked with a Greek letter, though.
** You're forgeting Gamma (the final boss) from ''[[Game/MegaMan Mega Man 3]]''.

* The most powerful spells - including one literally named "[[KillItWithIce Kosmike]] [[LiterallyShatteredLives Katastrophe]]" (Κοσμικη Καταστροφη) - in ''MahouSenseiNegima'' all have incantations in High Ancient, the series' term for Ancient Greek. The {{Omake}} features entire pages listing out incantations written in Greek and explaining the terminology (and occasionally, [[FunctionalMagic the physics behind the magic]]). Not for nothing does KenAkamatsu take frequent research breaks.

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** Caesar's only words confirmed by the contemporary sources were "Ista quidem vis est!", "This is violence!", when one of the senators grabbed his toga.

* Lenin in Soviet and Russian films is [[IncrediblyLamePun particularly]] fond of the Greek superlative particle άρχι- or ''archi-'' (think "archdeacon" and "arch-nemesis"). His speeches and conversations in these films are filled with words like ''arkhivazhno'' ("arch-important", of utmost importance) and ''arkhislozhno'' ("arch-difficult"). TruthInTelevision, OrSoIHeard.

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* Romans were big fans of this; according to contemporary and later sources, Romans of the late Republic and early Imperial era tended to use quite a lot of Greek in their speech (which was seen as a sign of cultivation and intelligence, and no doubt they also thought it was downright cool). Caesar is said to have quoted a Greek play in Greek when crossing the Rubicon. Caesar also gave the world its most refined case of BeamMeUpScotty ever after [[WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]] reported his dying words as the Latin "''Et tu, Brute''?" If Caesar said anything at all, it was the Greek ''καὶ σὺ τέκνον''? (that reads "Kai su, teknon?"), which translates to "You too, my son?" in English and "''Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi''?" in Latin. Incidentally, one of Caeasar's assassins, Casca, himself called for his brother's help in Greek when Caesar seized his arm.