GREECE

The Greek economic crisis didn't just destroy jobs — it destroyed the philotimo that structures Greek manhood. When a man can't afford the dowry for his daughter, can't host the Easter dinner, can't maintain the family house on the island, he fails not just as a provider but as a Greek man. The crisis-era suicides — some of them public, like the retired pharmacist who shot himself in Syntagma Square — were acts of protest against an economy that made traditional masculine honor impossible.

Greece's geography compounds the crisis: island men face extreme seasonal isolation. During tourist season, they serve visitors and perform hospitality; during winter, they face empty hotels and empty lives on islands where the ferry comes twice a week. The Orthodox Church maintains cultural authority but offers men a framework of fasting, ritual, and celebration that doesn't include psychological support. The kafeneio (traditional café) where men gather to play backgammon and drink coffee is disappearing, replaced by nothing — eliminating the last informal space where Greek men practiced a version of communal emotional processing, even if they never called it that.