Religious Syncretism in Modern Greek Children's Literature

Religious elements, as formed by ideological perceptions and positions as well as modes of behavior, are prominent in modern Greek children's books and bear a close relationship to local traditional culture. Primitive pagan concepts, elements that have survived from ancient Greek religion and mythology, combine with the philosophy of the Greek Orthodox church to shape the religious messages presented to today's children. This phenomenon can be explained by looking to the long history of the Greeks. From ancient times onward, religion has been a driving force in the survival of the Greek nation, acting as a unifying agent in the face of enemy threats and inspiring great cultural achievements. Modern Greeks are well aware that religion has been a determining factor in their cultural and national identity. For them, the best way to protect and preserve the essence of religiosity is to avoid both strict dogma and excessive ritualism; they see religion rather as the diachronic and intercultural expression of a deeply founded human need.

Similarly, modern Greek children's books present religion not as a unified philosophical system but as a harmonious intermixture of diverse and even contradictory beliefs. The peaceful coexistence of Christian and pagan religious elements may be attributed to the reticent attitude that Greek society has adopted toward religion over the last twenty-five years or so. As recently as the 1970s, Christian propaganda was commonly employed in a large number of popular children's books (Kourou 158-207), but today, references to religion occur only in passing and show up far less frequently than they once did. This reserve about religion is chiefly an outcome of some dubious practices on the part of the Church of Greece, including its mismanagement of funds and its periodical intervention in political issues.

To be sure, what religion and God mean to children cannot be defined with clarity. As Robert Coles has noted, "In the lives of children God joins company with kings, superheroes, witches, monsters, friends, brothers and sisters, parents, teachers . . and on and on" (5). In Coles's view, the fictional characters in children's literature, among whom he includes God, must be viewed as a symbolic means by which children are enabled to discover the reality of their inner selves, their souls. But even for those who share the conviction that religion is an illusion that distances the child from a realistic and rational approach to life, the value of spiritual elements in books for the young may lie in the words of Ana-Maria Rizzuto: "Men cannot be men without illusions. The type of illusion we select—science, religion, or something else—reveals our personal history—the transitional space each of us has created between his objects and himself to find a 'resting place' to live in" (qtd. in Coles 5). Given the amorphous nature of the child's understanding of God, many Greek authors of children's books consider that conveying to the young reader the value of religious faith is of prime importance—but they approach this goal in an inclusive way. How an understanding of faith is to be awakened, what precise forms and representations are to be used, is of secondary importance.

For the purposes of the present article, I have selected an assortment of texts to illustrate the intermixture of diverse religious perceptions in modern Greek children's literature: a Greek folktale, "Mr. Semolina-Semolinus," which appears in George Megas's 1979 collection; three novels, Maroula of Lemnos (1986) and Doxanio (1990), both by Maria Lambadaridou-Pothou, and Astradeni (1982), by Eugenie Fakinou; two selections from The Smile of Hecate, a 1995 collection of short stories by Litsa Psarafti; and finally two stories from Magic Mother, a 1992 collection by Manos Kontoleon. All these works are very popular in Greece and have been well received by critics. And all serve to demonstrate the evolution of religious syncretism. I have chosen stories in which religion is crucial to the plot, not mere proselytizing; in each work, religion helps to develop the story and define the characters more explicitly and clearly. These literary representations of religion demonstrate considerable flexibility...