The Battle of Greece lasted a total of 216 days, marking the first victory for the Allies against the Axis forces. The Greek victory was hailed with enthusiasm by the entire fighting world. The Germans themselves even admired the Greeks' achievement.

Moreover, it had enormous importance as it broke the myth of the omnipotence of the Axis, encouraged determined but wary people to resist, and destroyed the prestige of Mussolini while delaying Hitler's scheduled attack on Russia.

With the outbreak of the Greek-Italian war in October 1940, the cultural life in the country was synchronized with the course of the war. To encourage Greek soldiers, and to console people who stayed behind worrying, intellectuals, artists, actors, singers and script writers, focused their activities on the events of the war.

In the first days of the invasion certain Greek intellectuals, such as Kostis Palamas, Angelos Sikelianos, Stratis Myrivilis and Grigorios Xenopoulos, submitted a written statement protesting against the 'dastard claim of Fascist violence'.

Variety-type performances promoted a repertoire that celebrated Greek victories, parodied the abortive attempt by Italians to occupy Greece and exhorted all Greeks to demonstrate courage and patience. Apart from theatre, cartoons were also inspired by military communiqués and reports from the front with well-known cartoonists such as Phokos Dimitriadis and Antonis Vottis making their best to reinforce the morale of the population through laughter.

In addition, many plastic artists such as Konstantinos Parthenis, Yorgos Gounaropoulos, and Periklis Vyzantios produced several works inspired by the period 1940-41; many painters, such as Alexandros Alexandrakis and Yannis Tsarouchis, immortalized their experiences in their works while serving as soldiers.