For ancient Greeks the centre of the world was Delphi, where an oracle foretold the future. For modern Greeks, the focus is Syntagma, the square in central Athens where thousands mass each day to vent their fury at a political establishment they hold to be as bankrupt as the nation’s public coffers.

“I can’t bear it when the politicians say: ‘We understand you.’ None of these politicians has ever felt a pang of hunger,” says protester Constantinos, 47 and unemployed.

Particular contempt is reserved for Theodoros Pangalos, deputy prime minister in the socialist government, which is fighting a desperate battle to avoid a sovereign debt default. He enraged Greeks last year by declaring on television that the people were as culpable as the politicians for pillaging the Greek state. “We ate the money together,” he said.