Eighty-six years ago today, Greece gave an answer that changed the course of World War II, and it was the same answer Gr...

Eighty-six years ago today, Greece gave an answer that changed the course of World War II, and it was the same answer Greeks had been giving to enemies for thousands of years. When Italian ambassador Emanuele Grazzi knocked on Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas's door at three in the morning on October 28, 1940, he carried Mussolini's ultimatum demanding free passage for Italian troops through Greek territory. Metaxas answered in French, the diplomatic language of the day: "Alors, c'est la guerre," which translates to "Then, it is war." The people of Athens distilled it into one word, OXI. Mussolini had reason to think Greece would fold. He saw a small neutral country and assumed fear would do the rest. He was wrong on both counts. Metaxas had already fortified the northern borders, knowing the Italians would struggle in the high mountains of Epirus, and Greek fury was already running hot. An Italian submarine had sunk the Greek cruiser Elli at Tinos on August 15, 1940, during the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, a sacred national holiday. The Italian offensive began at 5:30 a.m. in Epirus, Pindos, and Kalpaki. Within three weeks, the outnumbered Greek army had not only stopped the invasion but pushed back into Italian-held Albania. Metaxas had told his people on the radio that morning to prove they were worthy of the ancestors who had secured their freedom. That spirit was nothing new. OXI was on the lips of Leonidas at Thermopylae when he faced the Persian army, and behind the strategy of Themistocles when he destroyed the Persian navy at Salamis. Greece has nearly always been the David in these encounters, but the answer has rarely changed. Even the culture fought back. Singer Sofia Vembo, known as the singer of victory, wrote songs mocking Mussolini and kept the morale of both soldiers and civilians burning through the war. #OxiDay #Greece #WWII