Flag of Greece of alternating blue and white - or silver - stripes on (several centuries-old) Kallergis' coats of arms is well documented, no depiction of the above described pattern (with the nine stripes and the cross) survives. The stripe-pattern of the Greek flag is visibly similar to that used (though with different colors) in several other flags that have appeared over the centuries, most notably that of the British East India Company's pre-1707 flag or the flag of the United States. Flags as they are known today did not exist in antiquity. Instead, a variety of emblems and symbols ("semeion", pl. "semeia")
Flag of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Byzantine Empire. The double-headed eagle was historically used as an emblem in the late Byzantine period (14th–15th centuries), but not on flags; rather it was embroidered on imperial clothing and accoutrements by both the Palaiologos emperors of the Byzantine Empire and the Grand Komnenos rulers of the Empire of Trebizond, descendants of the Byzantine imperial family of the same name. The actual flag of the Palaiologan-era Byzantine Empire was based on the tetragrammatic cross in gold on a red background. This design also forms the basis for another flag used by the Orthodox Church of Greece, with the