Etiene Roland : “Ellada,agapi mou”

Greece is not only the cradle of Democracy but also a modern resourceful country. “Ellada,agapi mou” cries, through the subscribers’ column of ‘’LE MONDE,’’ Etiene Roland, former director of the French School in Athens (EFA) and Emeritus Professor of Greek Archaeology at the university Paris I- Pantheon-Sorbonne, in answer to a two-page publication of the French newspaper on 16/11/2011 entitled ‘’Greece-Europe the great misunderstanding’’,which doubts the European identity of our country! His comments were also hosted in the ‘’LE MONDE’’ subscribers’ site.

ELLADA, agapi mou

I feel profoundly humiliated as a philhellene when a newspaper dares to label Greece as “a less ‘’European” country than it appeared to be’’, and when the contents of this article is a bad summary of a history that its writers haven’t experienced at all; I am humiliated as a French whose compatriots harm history and nourish the myth of a liar, cunning (poniros) Greek.

I will consider only some points. If Greece is not a European country, then, which one deserves this title? Barbarian Germany or perfidious Albion which Byron, its greatest poet, reproaches for looting the land of Homer. Is England, which would not participate in any European solidarity act and particularly those that would cost money, more European? Isn’t England that brought the king and his army back to Greece at the end of World War II letting loose a cataclysm the country would suffer from horribly? This same country that can, at least, be proud of the most exemplary resistance against the Nazi conquerors. It’s been a short time since the idea of a united Europe was born, however, I doubt it if we can confer it any title of Europeanism. The idea as well as its geographic contents are under construction and, therefore, still intangible.

V. Giscard d’ Estaing helped Greece return to Europe because he said democracy and civilization come from this country.  Even if there is a lot to say about   that Athenian democracy of those in favour of slavery and imperialism… Nevertheless, we miss the point, because the issue is not to know where democracy was born, but to recognize that the Greek civilization, the so-called Greek Roman one, is the only common basis throughout a history comprising rivalries and world wars. This famous Greek culture nourished the Renaissance, letters as well as arts, so did with our classics of 17^th century and impregnated the élite of 18^th century that changed the world. In the 19^th century it played an essential role in the diffusion of Greek arts and letters creating a ’neo-classic’ current which we can find in Edinburgh - one of its centres where they wanted to construct a Parthenon- but also in Ratisbonne, or in Walhala, where there is a replica of a Greek temple celebrating the victory of Germans over the Napoleonic troupes.

The Contemporary Art, from 1900 onwards, has been built as a reaction against “classicism” and we have but to rejoice since the lesson of Greek art is that of competition and liberty. The culture of our elite has been modernized and the Latin language as well as the Greek one has been marginalized in our school curriculum. I do not advocate the idea of changing the elites’ culture who are fed, nowadays, by the artistic and literary diversity within a globalised context. Surely, this is an important acquisition of what we call “post modernism”. However, these transformations do not, in the least, affect the place of Greece in the centre of Europe, for being home to the most lively and brilliant culture in Europe, for having remarkable personalities to display in all domains, not only in poetry, from the original painting school of Theophilos to Tsarouchis and Engonopoulos, and philosophers like Kastoriadis. See whose works have been translated in Greece: Vermant’s, Foucault’s, Derrida’s. See where the elite is shaped: in an environment of historians, EHESS (School of Social Sciences of France) has played a great role, and we find in Greece one generation of remarkable historians participating in the renewal of the discipline.

Well, do we still believe that they are all liars and thieves whom we should defend simply because they, once, devised the word Democracy?

There are many more things to balance Philosophy (western), History, Theatre… Today in this country, there are men and women whom I would consider among the most cultured people I’ve ever met. I can’t support those barbarians who place them in the margin of Europe. As for them being shabby cheaters one can wonder: in which country are embezzlers a rare instance nowadays?

It is, therefore, pointless to judge whether Greece is less or more European, because the foundations of Europe would hardly exist without the Greeks. Let us not forget that Europe was a princess who was kidnapped by the Cretans, fact that caused one of the greatest conflicts between the West and the East. Europe is of eastern origin and this is a very useful myth in these times of hybrid populations.

Europe is not based on banks and bankers but on a culture and the Greek culture is one of the elements that keep us united. Alas, how few there are.

Hurrah for Greece! Let us not permit technocrats to humble our friends and brothers, humiliating not only them but also us.

Etiene Roland

Many thanks to Mrs Eleftheria Kakava 
for her precious help