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CONSTANTINOS PAPARRIGOPOULOS: HISTORY OF THE HELLENIC NATION Title: FΙστορία το™ FΕλληνικού JΈθνους Pπό τ§ν Pρχαιοτάτων χρόνων µέχρι τ§ν καθ’ ½µάς (History of the Hellenic nation from ancient times to the present ) Originally published: EΑθήνα (Athens), Ανέστης Κωνσταντινίδης, 1886 Language: Greek The excerpts used are from Constantinos Th. Dimaras, ed., Κωνσταντίνος Παπαρρηγόπουλος Προλεγόµενα (Athens: Ερµής, 1983), pp. 71, 72, 90, 92, 93. About the author Constantinos Paparrigopoulos [1815, Constantinople (Istanbul) – 1891, Athens ]: historian. During the persecutions following the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence, he lost his father and a number of his relatives, an experience which deeply traumatized him. Eventually, his family fled to Odessa. There, he studied at the Richelieu Lyceum. When he arrived in Greece, young Paparrigopoulos entered the administration. Soon, however, following a decision of the National Assembly in 1844 to remove from the administration all Greeks who were ‘heterochthones’ (i.e., who had not been born within the borders of the new state) he turned to history teaching and after being awarded a doctoral title in Munich went on to pursue an academic career. In the years 1851–1891 (from 1858 as a full professor) he taught ‘History of the Hellenic Nation’ at the University of Athens. Through his teaching activity he transmitted his ideas not only to his students, but also to a larger audience attracted by his rhetoric gifts and erudition. In particular, his introductory lectures each year were immediately published in the press. Paparrigopoulos considered his role as historian the fulfilment of a national duty. In consequence, he participated in meetings organized by nationalist societies, where he often gave the opening address, and he also delivered lectures abroad, often with government support. He was even invited to take part as a consultant at the Conference of Berlin in 1878. Apart from his voluminous intellectual contribution, Paparrigopoulos represents the type of the politically involved national historiographer, similar to Mihail Kogălniceanu or František Palacký. Politically minded historians in Greece since the 1970s, even if they rejected his attachment to a nationalist ideology, have considered his devotion to society as epitomizing the ideal of the historian’s vocation. CONSTANTINOS PAPARRIGOPOULOS: HISTORY OF THE HELLENIC NATION 73 Main works: Περί τyς dποικίσεως σλαβικ§ν τιν§ν φυλ§ν εkς τÞν Πελοπόννησον [On the settlement of certain Slav tribes in the Peloponnese] (1843); Τ¿ τελευταsο hτος τyς eλληνικyς dλευθερίας [The last year of Greek liberty] (1844); EΕγχειρίδιον: FΙστορία το™ FΕλληνικο™ JΈθνους [Textbook: the history of the Hellenic nation] (1853); EΕγχειρίδιον τyς γενικyς jστορίας [Textbook of general history] (1849–52); L’Église orthodoxe d’Orient. Réponse à M. Saint-Marc Girardin (1853); Les évolutions de l’histoire grecque à notre époque (1879); FΙστορικαί πραγµατεsαι [Historical essays] (1858); FΙστορία το™ FΕλληνικού JΈθνους [History of the Hellenic nation] (1860–74); FΟ µεσαιωνικός eλληνισµός καr ½ στάσις το™ Νίκα, κατά τόν κ. Πα™λον ΚαλλιγO [Medieval Hellenism and the Nikas uprising, according to Mr. Pavlos Kalligas] (1868); Histoire de la civilisation hellénique (1878); FΟ στρατάρχης Γεώργιος Καραϊσκάκης καr Tλλα jστορικά hργα [Field-Marshal Georgios Karaiskakis and other historical works] (1889). Context The concept of the ‘Hellenic’ state as elaborated in Western Europe presupposed that this was to be the heir to the ancient Greek (Hellenic) world. Since it occupied the same territory, and this territory had been liberated after the uprising of the Christian population claiming to be their descendants, it should—it was assumed—share the same culture and the same language as its ancient ancestors. Indeed, the newly born ‘Hellenic’ state originally based its legitimacy on this heritage. However, it had to undertake a difficult struggle to convince European public opinion of the validity of its claims. Moreover , the German historian Jacob Philip Fallmerayer argued that the ancient Greeks had been annihilated during the Slavic invasions of the Greek lands and the creation of new settlements in the seventh century AD. By this account , the so-called Neo-Hellenes were actually nothing more than a mixture of Slavic and Albanian populations. Not surprisingly, this theory disturbed the Romantic stream of European philhellenism. Yet it was at the same time a sop to European vanity, which found it hard to accept that these illiterate peasants were the descendants of the glorious Hellenic nation. Thus, as Greek intellectuals soon realized, the Phoenix myth proved too weak to support a national ideology. For ‘Hellenism’ as a cultural discourse corresponded to the ‘revival’ of ancient Greece, which resulted in the inevitable rejection of all the in-between periods. The forgotten periods were treated now as ‘empty pages’ to be filled in. The silence was attributed to the religious prejudices of the Catholic West against Orthodox Byzantium, an argument which in turn nurtured the Orthodox anti-Western trends. There...

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