Philhellenism
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Philhellenism ("the love of Greek culture") was an intellectual movement prominent mostly at the turn of the 19th century. It contributed to the sentiments that led Europeans such as Lord Byron, Charles Nicolas Fabvier and Richard Church to advocate for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire.
The later 19th-century European philhellenism was largely to be found among the
Philhellenes in antiquity
In antiquity, the term philhellene ("the admirer of Greeks and everything Greek"), from the (
Some examples:
- Evagoras of Cyprus[3] and Philip II were both called "philhellenes" by Isocrates[4]
- The early rulers of the Parthian Empire, starting with Mithridates I (r. 171–132 BC), used the title of philhellenes on their coins, which was a political act done in order to establish friendly relations with their Greek subjects.[5]
- Following the example of the Parthians, Tigranes adopted the title of Philhellene (friend of the Greeks). The layout of his capital Tigranocerta was an example of Greek architecture.
Roman philhellenes
The literate upper classes of Ancient Rome were increasingly Hellenized in their culture during the 3rd century BC.[6][7][8]
Among Romans the career of Titus Quinctius Flamininus (died 174 BC), who appeared at the Isthmian Games in Corinth in 196 BC and proclaimed the freedom of the Greek states, was fluent in Greek, stood out, according to Livy, as a great admirer of Greek culture. The Greeks hailed him as their liberator.[9] There were some Romans during the late Republic, who were distinctly anti-Greek, resenting the increasing influence of Greek culture on Roman life, an example being the Roman Censor, Cato the Elder and Cato the Younger, who lived during the "Greek invasion" of Rome but towards the later years of his life he eventually became a philhellene after his stay in Rhodes.[10]
The lyric poet
Roman emperors known for their philhellenism include
Modern times
In the period of political reaction and repression after the fall of Napoleon, when the liberal-minded, educated and prosperous middle and upper classes of European societies found the Romantic nationalism of 1789–1792 repressed by the restoration of absolute monarchy at home, the idea of the re-creation of a Greek state on the very territories that were sanctified by their view of Antiquity—which was reflected even in the furnishings of their own parlors and the contents of their bookcases—offered an ideal, set at a romantic distance. Under these conditions, the Greek uprising constituted a source of inspiration and expectations that could never actually be fulfilled, disappointing what Paul Cartledge called "the Victorian self-identification with the Glory that was Greece".[11] American higher education was fundamentally transformed by the rising admiration of and identification with ancient Greece in the 1830s and afterward.[12]
Another popular subject of interest in
In
During the later 19th century the new studies of archaeology and anthropology began to offer a quite separate view of ancient Greece, which had previously been experienced second-hand only through
According to the Classicist
The Philhellenic movement led to the introduction of Classics or Classical studies as a key element in education, introduced in the Gymnasien in Prussia. In England the main proponent of Classics in schools was Thomas Arnold, headmaster at Rugby School.[citation needed]
Philhellenism and art
Philhellenism also created a renewed interest in the artistic movement of Neoclassicism, which idealized fifth-century Classical Greek art and architecture,[21] very much at second hand, through the writings of the first generation of art historians, like Johann Joachim Winckelmann and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.
The groundswell of the Philhellenic movement was result of two generations of intrepid artists and amateur treasure-seekers, from Stuart and Revett, who published their measured drawings as The Antiquities of Athens and culminating with the removal of sculptures from Aegina and the Parthenon (the Elgin Marbles), works that inspired the British Philhellenes, many of whom, however, deplored their removal.
Philhellenism in the Greek War of Independence and later
Many well-known philhellenes supported the Greek Independence Movement such as
Some, notably Lord Byron, even took up arms to join the Greek revolutionaries. Many more financed the revolution or contributed through their artistic work.
Throughout the 19th century, philhellenes continued to support Greece politically and militarily. For example, Ricciotti Garibaldi led a volunteer expedition (Garibaldini) in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897.[23] A group of Garibaldini, headed by the Greek poet Lorentzos Mavilis, fought also with the Greek side during the Balkan Wars.
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Depiction of Philhellenes in Greece in 1822
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List of philhellenes who contributed during the Greek War of Independence (National Historical Museum). The first two columns from the left are the names of those having died.
-
Louis Dupré's depiction of Greek irregulars hoisting the flag at Salona
-
Panagiotis Kephalas plants the flag of liberty upon the walls of Tripolizza (Siege of Tripolitsa)" by Peter von Hess
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A statue of Lord Byron in Athens
Notable 20th- and 21st-century philhellenes
- Albert Einstein, a German-born theoretical physicist widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest physicists of all time[24][25]
- Stephen Fry, English actor and writer[26]
- Giuseppe Garibaldi II, Italian soldier and revolutionary, grandson of Giuseppe Garibaldi and son of Ricciotti Garibaldi[23]
- Ricciotti Garibaldi, Italian soldier, son of Giuseppe Garibaldi[23]
- David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom[27]
- Boris Johnson, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom[28]
- Dilys Powell, film critic, author of several books about Greece, and president of the Classical Association 1966–1967
- Gough Whitlam, 21st Prime Minister of Australia[29]
- Christopher Hitchens, British-American author and journalist[30]
Notes
- ^ a b Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert. "φιλ-έλλην". A Greek-English Lexicon. Tufts University. Archived from the original on 2021-09-17. Retrieved 2021-09-17 – via Perseus Digital Library.
- ^ "Xenophon "Agesilaus" (7.4)". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
- ^ "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, page 54 (V. 2)". Archived from the original on 2005-12-31. Retrieved 2006-03-06.
- ^ "Search Tools". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
- ^ Dąbrowa 2012, p. 170.
- ISBN 0715610430.
- ^ A. Momigliano, 1975. Alien Wisdom: The Limits of Hellenization.
- ^ A. Wardman, 1976. Rome's debt to Greece.
- ^ A modern assessment is E. Badian, 1970. Titus Quinctius Flamininus: Philhellenism and Realpolitik0
- ^ "Plutarch • Life of Cato the Younger". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
- ^ Cartledge
- ^ Winterer, Caroline (2002). The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780-1910. Johns Hopkins University Press.
- ^ S2CID 144461534.
- ISBN 978-0-8018-5779-9.
- ^ The history of pedagogically conservative philhellenism in German high academic culture has been examined in Suzanne L. Marchand, Down from Olympus: Archaeology and Philhellenism in Germany, 1750–1970 (Princeton University Press, 1996); she begins with Winckelmann, Wolf and von Humboldt.
- ^ S. L. Marchand, 1992. Archaeology and Cultural Politics in Germany, 1800–1965: The Decline of Philhellenism (University of Chicago).
- ^ Cartledge, Paul. "The Greeks and Anthropology." Anthropology Today, vol. 10, no. 3, 1994, pp. 3–6. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2783476. Accessed 9 June 2023.
- ^ Cartledge, Paul. "The Greeks and Anthropology." Anthropology Today, vol. 10, no. 3, 1994, pp. 3–6. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2783476. Accessed 9 June 2023.
- ^ Η δυστυχία του να είσαι Έλληνας, 1975.
- ^ Cartledge, Paul. "The Greeks and Anthropology." Anthropology Today, vol. 10, no. 3, 1994, pp. 3–6. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2783476. Accessed 9 June 2023.
- Hellenisticin origin, and appreciated through the lens of Roman copies: see Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Antique Sculpture 1500–1900 (1981).
- ISBN 9780198032908.
- ^
- ^ Tucci, Nicolo (15 November 1947). "The Great Foreigner". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2021-01-01.
- ^ "Classics" (PDF). Stanford University.
- ^ Stephen Fry [@stephenfry] (April 21, 2021). "Truly, one of the great honours of my life. With thanks to the Ambassador, to President Sakellaropoulou and to the people of Greece" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Stavridis, Stavros T. (2019-07-09). "Hail, Lloyd George". The National Herald. Archived from the original on 2020-08-09. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
- ^ "Will Boris Johnson right our colonial wrongs and return the Elgin Marbles? Don't make me laugh". Independent. 13 November 2019.
- ^ "Former Australian MP, and noted philhellene Gough Whitlam passes". The TOC. 2014-10-21. Archived from the original on 2020-07-04. Retrieved 2020-07-03.
- ^ "Philhellene Writer Christopher Hitchens Passes Away". 20 December 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
References
- Paul Cartledge, Clare College Cambridge, "The Greeks and Anthropology" Archived 2006-10-22 at the Wayback Machine in Classics Ireland 2 (Dublin 1995)
- Dąbrowa, Edward (2012). "The Arsacid Empire". In ISBN 978-0-19-987575-7. Archived from the originalon 2019-01-01. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
Further reading
- Thomas Cahill, Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (Nan A. Talese, 2003)
- Stella Ghervas, « Le philhellénisme d'inspiration conservatrice en Europe et en Russie », in Peuples, Etats et nations dans le Sud-Est de l'Europe, (Bucarest, Ed. Anima, 2004.)
- Stella Ghervas, « Le philhellénisme russe : union d'amour ou d'intérêt? », in Regards sur le philhellénisme, (Genève, Mission permanente de la Grèce auprès de l'ONU, 2008).
- Stella Ghervas, Réinventer la tradition. ISBN 978-2-7453-1669-1
- Konstantinou, Evangelos: Graecomania and Philhellenism, Institute of European History, 2010, retrieved: December 17, 2012.
- Emile Malakis, French travellers in Greece (1770–1820): An early phase of French Philhellenism
- Suzanne L. Marchand, 1996. Down from Olympus : Archaeology and Philhellenism in Germany, 1750–1970
- M. Byron Raizis, 1971. American poets and the Greek revolution, 1821–1828;: A study in Byronic philhellenism (Institute of Balkan Studies)
- Terence J. B Spencer, 1973. Fair Greece! Sad relic: Literary philhellenism from Shakespeare to Byron
- Caroline Winterer, 2002. The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780–1910. Johns Hopkins University Press.