Re-imagining the past: antiquity and modern Greek culture

439 Pages·2014·94.77 MB·English

by  Tziovas

CLASSICAL PRESENCES
GeneralEditors
LornaHardwick JamesI.Porter
CLASSICAL PRESENCES
Attemptstoreceivethetexts,images,andmaterialcultureofancient
Greece and Rome inevitably run the risk of appropriating the past
in order to authenticate the present. Exploring the ways in which
the classical past has been mapped over the centuries allows us to
trace the avowal and disavowal of values and identities, old and
new. Classical Presences brings the latest scholarship to bear on
the contexts, theory, and practice of such use, and abuse, of the
classical past.
Re-imagining the Past
Antiquity and Modern Greek Culture
Edited by
DIMITRIS TZIOVAS
1
3
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Preface
ThisbookhasitsoriginsinaconferenceIorganizedattheUniversity
ofBirminghaminJune2011andrepresentsaselectionofthepapers
presented there. The conference was a wide-ranging and exciting
event, bringing together speakers from the UK, USA, Australia,
Greece, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Georgia, and
Turkey. It was the first of its kind, and its scholarly importance is
attestedbythefactthatmorethan120scholarsrespondedtothecall
for papers and submitted abstracts for peer-review selection. Above
all it was multidisciplinary, including contributions from historians,
archaeologists, classicists, and specialists in art, drama, and literature.
Iwouldliketothankallthespeakers,delegates,andsponsorsinvolved
inthisevent,especiallytheJohnS.LatsisPublicBenefitFoundation,the
Michael Marks Charitable Trust, the Hellenic Foundation in London,
the Ouranis Foundation, the European Society of Modern Greek
Studies, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Greece, and the
MinistryofEducationandCultureoftheRepublicofCyprusfortheir
generous support. I am also grateful to Dr Vassiliki Kolocotroni of
Glasgow University for bringing to my attention the image used on
thecover,andforprovidingmewithadigitalcopy.
Thestudyofancient,medieval,andmodernGreeceunderoneroof
hasbeenparticularlypopular attheUniversityof Birminghamsince
the 1930s; it was fostered by scholars such as the classicist George
Thomson (1903–87) and the linguist Nikolai Bakhtin (1894–1950),
whobothtaughtClassicalandModernGreekthere.InJune1938the
firstissueofthejournalTheLink,editedbyNikolaiBakhtin,beganits
editorialby emphasizing the diachronic unity of Greek culture: ‘The
mainobjectofTheLinkistointerpretthepastofGreecethroughits
presentanditspresentthroughthepast,andthustorevealthebasic
unityofGreekcivilizationinallitsmanifestationsandthroughoutits
wholedevelopment.’AfewdecadeslaterGeorgeThomsonpublished
his article on the continuity of Hellenism (Greece and Rome, 18(1),
1971,18–29),andProfessorMargaretAlexiou,atthattimealecturer
in Byzantine and Modern Greek in Birmingham, explored the
history of the lament from Homer to the present in her influential
studyTheRitualLamentinGreekTradition(1974),whiletheroleof
vi Preface
theclassicaltraditionin Byzantiumwasthetheme oftheThirteenth
SpringSymposiumofByzantineStudiesheldinBirminghamin1979.
TheconferenceinJune2011andthepresentvolumecanbeseenasa
continuationofthisfruitfulengagementwiththestudyoftherecep-
tionofantiquityinByzantiumandModernGreece.
DimitrisTziovas
UniversityofBirmingham
Contents
Illustrations x
NotesonContributors xii
1. Introduction:DecolonizingAntiquity,HeritagePolitics,
andPerformingthePast 1
DimitrisTziovas
PartI. Antiquity,Greece,andEurope
2. CollectingthePast:GreekAntiquariesandArchaeological
KnowledgeintheVenetianEmpire 29
AnastasiaStouraiti
3. Re-imaginingGreekAntiquityin1821:Shelley’sHellasin
itsLiteraryandPoliticalContext 47
RoderickBeaton
4. ASyncreticAntiquityinTranslation:PolisandPolitical
ModernityinConflictinNineteenth-CenturyGreek
Antigones 59
AlexandraLianeri
PartII. Hellenisms,Institutions,andPolitics
5. AntiqueNamesandSelf-Identification:Hellenes,Graikoi,
andRomaioifromLateByzantiumtotheGreekNation-State 81
TassosA.Kaplanis
6. TheChristianHellenismandLinguisticArchaismof
NeofytosDoukas 98
PeterMackridge
7. TheUniversityofAthensandGreekAntiquity(1837–1937) 112
VangelisKaramanolakis
8. AntiquityasColdWarPropaganda:ThePoliticalUses
oftheClassicalPastinPost-CivilWarGreece 128
AlexanderKazamias
viii Contents
PartIII. MaterialCultureandPerformancesofthePast
9. DeadArchaeologists,BuriedGods:Archaeologyasan
AgentofModernityinGreece 147
DimitrisPlantzos
10. PossessingAntiquity:ReconnectingtothePastinthe
GreekPresent 165
EleanaYalouri
11. PostcardsfromMetaxas’Greece:TheUsesofClassical
AntiquityinTourismPhotography 186
KaterinaZacharia
12. BetweenTextsandContexts:ModernsagainstAncientsin
theReceptionofAncientTragedyinGreece(1900–1933) 209
EleniPapazoglou
PartIV. LiteraryReceptionsofAntiquity
13. SinandtheCity:AMid-Fifteenth-CenturyLamentfor
theFallofAthenstothe‘Persians’ 229
GondaVanSteen
14. LucretianMomentsinModernGreekPoetry 252
DavidRicks
15. RethinkingtheGreekLegacy:DoriansinModernGreek
Fiction 266
GunnarDeBoel
16. YannisRitsos,MarxistDialectics,andtheRe-imagining
ofAncientGreece 282
MarinosPourgouris
17. TheWoundofHistory:RitsosandtheReceptionof
Philoctetes 297
DimitrisTziovas
18. Plato,SeferisandHeaney:PoetryasRedress 318
RowenaFowler
Contents ix
PartV. GreekCultureandClassicalReception
19. ExceptionalitiesandParadigms:AncientandModern
GreekCulturesinClassicalReceptionResearch 333
LornaHardwick
References 350
Index 401