ECB to release new euro with an old Greek face

As if the euro currency hasn’t been through enough, now the European Central Bank says it’s going to issue new notes next year.

The new notes, redesigned to improve security, will feature images from Greek mythology. For example, the note’s watermark will don a portrait of Europa, the princess who, according to the myth, was abducted by Zeus.

The irony is not lost on analysts who have been relying on Greek mythology to describe the region’s debt crisis — Sisyphus pushing his stone uphill, for example. Some wonder about the timing of the new note, given Greece’s precarious standing in the euro zone.

Michael Arghyrou, a Greek professor at Cardiff business school, says, “It would be quite ironic if the European Central Bank were using these Greek symbols and by some accident or by some wrong policies, Greece was outside this monetary union.”