He may have been Greece’s favourite war-time hero, and been the inspiration behind the catch-cry “this is Sparta” but King Leonidas had no choice but to sit back and take the mockery that was bestowed upon him after Grid Maps put a defaced picture of his statue on their front cover. The image of a defaced King Leonidas on the cover of the 2010 – 2011 edition of the Brunswick Grid Maps, has offended many in the Greek community and the traders of Sparta Place, Brunswick, Victoria.
The image sees the King Leonidas statue – which graces the entrance to Sparta Place – wearing a pair of iron glasses and two colourful buttons. Chris Paikopoulos, president, Pallaconian Brotherhood of Melbourne and Victoria, Leonidas Inc told Neos Kosmos that many members of the Greek community, particularly the Spartan community, were offended because this statue is also a war memorial.
“There is a plaque attached to it which clearly states that it’s a war memorial,” explained Paikopoulos, “it’s dedicated to all people who lost their lives dying for freedom. So to deface a war memorial is a pretty offensive thing.” But a spokesperson from Grid Maps said the statue was already defaced when the picture was taken, however, Paikopoulos said there are constantly members of the Pallaconian community who spend a lot of time in the area said they had never seen the statue defaced in this manner, prompting him to believe the picture may have been photo shopped by Grid Maps.
Traders of Sparta Place also confirmed that they had never seen the statue defaced with glasses and buttons. Paikopoulos said some of the respoinsiblity should lie also with Metlink as “being a semi-government organisation (they have) a moral obligation to remove (the defaced images) when they’ve been photographed”.
When Neos Kosmos contacted Metlink, they were told that Metlink does not work in association with Grid Maps. Although the Metlink logo appears on the guides themselves, Metlink said that it’s purely there to ensure to members of the community that the public transport information is correct. A spokesperson from Metlink said that “they have no say over the productions, design or any control over images used” for Grid Maps.
However, Paikopoulos will still be petitioning to Metlink to have all the Grid Maps recalled and all defaced images of King Leonidas on any collateral to be recalled.