Yesterday they were the latest casualties in Johann Lamont's bid to spoil the launch of Alex Salmond's independence campaign.
The connection probably wasn't obvious to any Greeks watching. Little did they know that, aside from getting the blame for all of Europe's ills, they were also being nominated as Unionism's warning to little nations with big ideas.
"Isn't the real lesson of the euro crisis," asked Ms Lamont, "that you cannot share a currency, you cannot have monetary union, without a fiscal union and a political union?"
Silly me: I thought the real lesson was that you can't trust bankers.
What the Labour leader was driving at, by the scenic route, was that the SNP is taking a big risk if it thinks it can keep the pound while attempting to control the Scottish economy.
But guess what: Mr Salmond disagreed. Or rather, he preferred to talk about the past and the present rather than the future. First there was Labour's "absolute responsibility" for one dose of recession, then the Coalition's second helping amid big cuts to the capital spending on which the First Minister pins all hopes.
Ms Lamont was sticking to the tested Labour tactic of forecasting doom, even if this week's doom sounded very like something dreamed up by Alistair Darling in one of his Morningside "councils of war".
Mr Salmond meanwhile ignored the full five-act Greek tragedy. "It will be of huge, substantial financial assistance to the Scottish economy," he said, "if we have fiscal control."
Strangely enough, neither leader acknowledged the implications of what was being said. Are we to take it from Ms Lamont that Labour now supports a United States of Europe as the best way to save the poor Greeks? Has anyone asked Mr Salmond what will remain of "independence in Europe" if that is the outcome of the eurozone crisis? It's no longer beyond the bounds of possibility. Some call it inevitable.
Ruth Davidson of the Tories meanwhile got a tartan flea in her ear for demanding to know when a new Sick Kids hospital will be built in Edinburgh.
Those Coalition cuts to Scotland's capital budget, 30% by common consent, made a mockery of her indignation.
