[1] A self-described "urban anthropologist", he wrote on aspects of Greek life that were rarely considered fit objects for serious study, including the subcultures, slangs, and music of homosexuals, drug users, and criminals.
Under the Greek military junta of 1967–74, some of his books were regarded as immoral, resulting in fines and jail terms and ultimately in his decision to leave Greece and live permanently in France.
According to anthropologist Christos Panagiotopoulos, the young Petropoulos did not appreciate the restyling of the house, an incident that will return in his late work as an example of how, by rejecting the Ottoman heritage and claiming for their country a “European” one, the Greeks ended up sacrificing what had become distinctive characters of their culture and even of their food.
[1] In 1979, Petropoulos published The Manual of the Good Thief ("Το εγχειρίδιο του καλού κλέφτη"), a satirical but accurate description of the criminal underworld, the abusive practices of the police, and the state of the Greek prisons.
[5] Because of the book, Petropoulos was tried in absentia in Greece and sentenced to eighteen months in jail, which led him to decide to remain in Paris, where he realized his old dream of studying Turkology and the Turkish language at the École pratique des hautes études.
[1] This scene was captured on film in the 2004 documentary "Elias Petropoulos: A world underground" ("Ηλίας Πετρόπουλος: Ένας κόσμος υπόγειος"), directed by Kalliopi Legaki.