Greeks like to think of themselves as a nation apart from all the rest. They believe they are direct descendants of their illustrious ancient forebears and they are very proud of their history and past. They tend to think that the rest of the world, although it revolves around them, is constantly conspiring against them and never understands them.
If you avoid questioning the...obvious correctness of these views, most Greeks will lean over backwards to please you as a guest. If you go out to dinner with locals, there is no way you will be allowed to pay your share of the bill and if they ask you to stay over at their house, they will in all likelihood offer you their own bed, in order to make you feel as comfortable as possible.
This is known as ‘filotimo’, a Greek word without an exact equivalent in English, meaning something between a sense of honour, dignity and pride and is a highly-praised virtue in Greek society.