Greek tragedy

If Sophocles were to hear how the financial crisis in Greece is breaking families, the ancient tragedian would be inspired to pen a greater opus than Oedipus the King.
With their health and social services in tatters, the debt-stricken Greeks are struggling to provide for their characteristic large families. In Athens, some parents have abandoned their children in orphanages, church charities and even kindergartens. That the crisis had become really serious became evident when it was reported that Dimitris Gasparinatos, a father of ten, had put in an official request for his four children to be taken into foster care. According to him, it was the only way to save them.
Last month, a kindergarten teacher received a note about one of her four-year-old pupils. It read: “I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her. Please take good care of her. Sorry. Her mother.” Father Antonios, an Orthodox priest who runs a shelter for the destitute, found four children, including a baby just days old, abandoned on his doorstep. “These families,” he said, “will be judged for their action.”
However, Antonios's is an opinion that an increasing number of Athenians are at odds with. Said Sofia Kouhi of The Smile of a Child, a charity: “It is very sad... but [the parents] know it is for the best, at least for this period.”