[KS] Classical and Byzantine Greece

[Eugene Y. Park]

Hey Woo,

I can, however, add that these 18th-19th century western European
intellectuals clearly admired the classical Greek tradition, which to them
was the only real "Greek" stuff.  This meant that Byzantine Greek
civilization and history were either ingored or denigrated.  Hence we get
Edward Gibbon's _The Decline and Fall of Roman Empire_ which tends to
regard the thousand-year history of Eastern Roman/Byzantin empire as a
long period of decline and decadence after the trule Roman history had
ended.  Then there was Fallmarayer, a German, who declared that there's
not a drop of Greek blood flowing in the veins of modern Greeks.

Aside from the issue of historical, cultural, or racial continuity between
the classical Greeks and the medieval/modern Greeks, Greeks and non-Greeks
continue to disagree on the origins of Greek nationalism.  Whilte the
Greeks trace it as far back as the final centuries of the Byzantine empire
when it had become an almostly entirely Greek state rather than a
universalistic empire, non-Greek scholars regard Greek nationalistm as a
modern construct.  Kind of similiar to the argument between the Korean and
non-Korean scholars on the origins of Korean nationalism, huh?  Anyway, I
tend to side with the Greeks on the earliest traces of Greek national
identity.  At the same time, I don't think one can deny that the
19th-century Greek independence movement benefitted not only from the
major western powers' strategic interests in the region (and this also
helped the Slavic peoples win their independence from Ottoman empire) but
also from the West's fascination with things Greek (i.e. classical Greek).
And the Greeks took full advantage of this, I feel.

Today the Greeks obviously acknowledge and are very prooud of their two
very different heritages, those of classical Greece and medieval Byzantium
(especially as manifested through the eastern orthodox Christianity). It
is interesting, though, that to the West, including contemporary America,
what laymen commonly think of as being "Greek" continues to be things from
classical antiquity.  Just look at all these travel brochures!

Talk to you later.

Gene


 





  







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