Epsilon Team

The Epsilon Team (In Greek: Ομάδα Έψιλον, Omada Epsilon) is an urban legend about a probably entirely imaginary secret society consisting of an elite team of Greek engineers, academics, pilots, powerful businessmen and politicians etc. manufacturing and piloting UFOs and supposedly working for major international forces or even secretly ruling the United States of America.

First coined by a Mr. Fourakis, this term was then used by Anestis Keramidas, Nikos Kalogerakis and a few other imaginative writers in a series of eschatologist, racist, messianic books, which have now formed a mind-bogglingly complex (and irrational) urban legend.

Symbols

Their symbol is a Delphic Epsilon, looking like two Epsilons connected back to back and considered to appear on their "UFOs" and on ancient Greek and Inca monuments as well. Their "UFOs" are also supposed to have the "Ελευθερία" (Freedom, in Greek) word on them.

Also, casually or not, "Epsilon" is also the first letter of the words "Ελλάδα" and "Έλληνες" -Greece and Greeks (Hellenes), respectively- and generally of anything having to do with Hellenism and Greece.

Principles and purpose of the Epsilon Team

As stated by people autodefining themselves as members or representatives of the Epsilon Team, they are briefly:

• Spreading the influence of Greek culture all over the world.
• Projecting and promoting anything positive aspects of Greece and Greek arts, culture, language, civilization, etc. all over the world.
• Restoring the ancient Greek moral values and way of life.
• Uniting all of the people's world under the Apollonian Light (sic).
• Pursue of perfection under the perspective of Apollonian Aesthetics (sic).
• Military defence of Greece through secret, proprietary and exclusive science and technology.

Who believes in its existence?

Their existence is obstented by some (mainly Greek) mysticists, occultists, pseudohistorians and mystical nationalists as well as some ufologists.

Their Greek supporters like to present the "Epsilon Team" as a proof of the superiority of the Greek race and culture above all other cultures, by claiming that Ancient Greeks were of extraterrestrial, Hyperborean origins and had extremely advanced technology, now secretly discovered and studied by the "Epsilon Team", which is, if not of Greek origin, at least using "forbidden" and "top secret" Greek technology, either the result of rediscovering "ancient" technology or the work of scientists, members of the society.

"History" of the Epsilon team

No clear timeline of the Epsilon team can be traced, mainly because people who support its existence or claim to be members, connoisseurs or even its representatives all give very different and incoherent versions of the story.

Some of them claim that the Epsilon team has existed in some form since the first forms of Greek civilization, and that its members included ancient philosophers, historians, scientists and politicians like Plato, Aristotle, Pericles, Socrates and so on.

Others don't dwell into antiquity but claim that the "contemporary" form of the Epsilon team as a secret society dates back to the post World War II period, founded as a secret society by Greek scientists working in the United States and economically backed up by people like Aristotelis Onassis and others (mostly people already deceased at the moment of "acknowledgment").

One of the few common points is however that the Epsilon team has always helped and protected the Greek People and culture through the centuries, yet all supporters fail to give a satisfactory answer and use elusive statements when asked where the Epsilon team was when hardships such as the fall of Constantinople and the subsequent 400-year Ottoman dominion was imposed on Greece, when the burning of Smyrna took place in 1922 and when other minor or major ethnic problems like the Cyprus dispute or the Imia crisis took place.

Possible reasons behind the legend

One possible explanation for the creation of the "Epsilon Team" story is to be found in the ultra-nationalistic exaggerations promoted by a part of the Greek occultist/mysticist press, which on one side fuel irrational fears of an emerging worldwide anti-Greek sentiment and on the other side obstentate, magnify and exaggerate the achievements and the "superiority" of all Greek civilization, people and culture, by mixing historical data with crypto-nationalistic, anti-Semitic and occultist elements.

Among those circles, the "Epsilon Team" is presented as the Greek equivalent of the Jewish Golem, a sort of secret weapon meant to "protect" the Greeks from all "enemies", like a discrete but tireless and powerful Guardian ready to smite the "barbarian hordes" which secretly lurk over the Greek people, in the best of cases. In part this idea was a response to Anti-Greek ideologies that apparently seem to be spreading throughout the world – see anti-Hellenism – especially in North America and Israel. More specifically, the historical (or, rather, traditional) Israelo-Greek rivalry might be a major reason.

In the worst case, the "Epsilon Team" is viewed as a secret retaliation weapon meant to attack and destroy, for example, Turkey and Albania and anyone "threatening" the Greek people. Also, since there are some Anti-semitic ideas among those circles, the Epsilon Team is also viewed as a counterpart/competitor to the "Jewish lobbies" which supposedly rules the world, meant to estabilish the Greeks as the "chosen people".

Some allege that Anestis Keramidas happens to be very close to the Greek Orthodox Church, which may suggest another possible explanation: In recent years, some Greeks have started questioning the way in which Christianity was accepted by their ancestors, and the identification of Hellenism and Orthodoxy. These persons have sometimes sought to revive the ancient Greek pagan religion, while others have become atheist. It has been suggested that Keramidas took the term Epsilon Team and concocted a messianist and racist theory, on a "Judaeo-Christian" foundation, splattered with a sheen of ancient glory and ancient gods' names, and an outlook on the nature of the Greek pantheon derived from the texts of Euemerus. According to this theory, the Greek pagan movement was slandered by being associated with Keramidas' "ultra-nationalist" and "racist" writings, while those who accepted his theory allegedly did not stray off from Greek Orthodox teachings, while, in the process, Keramidas made a pretty penny out of selling his books.

Epsilon Team in popular culture

Being an urban legend, the Epsilon Team has of course supporters and detractors, with the latter being far more numerous. The Epsilon Team is sometimes mentioned in conversations as a means of sarcasm, e.g. "Yeah right. And the Epsilon Team invented feta cheese!" or, when listening to alarming news about war, terrorism etc. : "Don't worry, the Epsilon Team will run to the rescue of us Greeks!". At least one mockery song has been written about it, by some Greek music project named "Κόντρα" (Kontra), the lyrics clearly stating that the Epsilon Team is just bogus and nonsense. Also, Greek pagan circles are strongly opposed to the proliferation of this theory, which they consider nonsense, since they feel it bastardizes and distorts their ancestors' beliefs into a ridiculous mongrel.

People and publications

Most publications and people openly supporting the existence of the Epsilon team are currently found in Greece, and usually their interests are either mystical, nationalistic or both. A brief list of related publications:

• The Greek "ΕΛΛΗΝΟΡΑΜΑ" (Hellenorama) magazine, a monthly magazine with extreme nationalistic, orthodox, anti-semitic, anti-albanian and anti-turkish content also featuring articles on the existence of Greek Language elements in Hawaiian or Australian Aboriginal languages (a claim made by a German linguistics professor named Nors S. Josephson in his book "Greek Linguistic Elements iIn The Polynesian Languages – Hellenicum Pacificum") and various pseudoscientific articles with no bibliographic references. While some of their claims are true, they are usually mixed and adulterated with irrationality.
• The Greek "ΤΡΙΤΟ ΜΑΤΙ" (Third Eye) monthly magazine, mostly focusing on mysticism, National Mysticism and conspiracy theories.
• Several books, usually marketed only inside Greece and only by some particular bookstores.One of them is a book issued a in 1998 by the publisher Dion (Thessaloniki) called "Omada Epsilon" (The Epsilon Team), by Anestis Keramidas. Some other books related to National Mysticism are published by the Greek publisher "Georgiades books" (see external links). Another epsilonist writer is Nikos Kalogerakis.

Also, the Epsilon Team has been often referenced by two Greek private television channels, ALTER and TELEASTY, which also broadcast via satellite. ALTER however has referenced to it only through Kostas Hardavellas's occultistic programme "Οι πύλη του ανεξήγητου" (The gate to the unknown), in which eventually mr. Fourakis separated his term from the whole nonsense theory of Keramidas and Kalogerakis, while TELEASTY is closely affilated to Georgios Karatzaferis' nationalistic conservatory LAOS party, and often advertises many of the above books, along with others of questionable "historic" content.

In 2004 game developer Rockstar North introduced the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which contains numerous references to the Epsilon Team, called The Epsilon Program in the game. Rockstar even devoted a website to this cult.

External links

• Epsilon team is viewed as an Anti-Semitic conspiracy
• Greek publisher specializing in books of historical and nationalistic content (in Greek)