Authors: Patrick Leigh Fermor
The ancients were a theme for pride; they were also a cause for self-reproach. How could the Greeks compete with these antique resurrected wonders? (How can any of us?) Their inadequacy suggested a hopeless falling-off; those stony faces were a standing rebuke. An inspiration to some, to others they were a source of bewilderment, and for a few, a subject for resentment, almost for anger: why not blow up the Parthenon? The new trends seemed to put the whole of
Romiosyne
, all that made life worth living, in the wrong. Anyway, the Romaic Pantheon was full. The spirit of Byzantium was enthroned there, and Constantine and Helen and Basil the Bulgar-Slayer and the last
Palaeologue; a whole phantom parade of emperors whose City was still in bondage. There, too, were the Virgins, the saints and the martyrs of Orthodoxy: their ikon lamps burned in all their houses; their frescoes, dark with incense and blurred by the kisses of a thousand years, covered the walls of their churches. It was not for their mystical significance that this painted army was loved, but for the miracles they wrought, and their ghostly succour in dark days. To these had been added the mountain chiefs and the sea captains of the War of Independence: Kolokotrones, Karaïskakis, Athanasios Diakos, Miaoulis and Kanaris and many others. These whiskered heroes were
RomaÃoi
to the backbone. Apotheosis crowned them; theirs were the yataghans, the long guns and the fireships that had delivered Greece from the Turks. Leonidas and Miltiades, meanwhile, could look after themselves. They had performed brave deeds against the Persians, it was said. But it was such a long time ago.
[5]
There is a purpose behind this preamble: to lull the reader into receptivity before launching a private theory of my own which I shall call the Helleno-Romaic Dilemma. The cornerstone of this theory is the supposition that inside every Greek dwell two figures in opposition. Sometimes one is in the ascendant, sometimes the other; occasionally they are in concord. These are, of course, the
Romiòs
and the Hellene; and for the sake of the present theory, the word “Hellene” is distorted to mean only the exact antithesis to “
Romiòs
.” All Greeks, according to my theory, are an amalgam, in varying degrees, of both; they contradict and complete each other. But it is the antagonism of the two which concerns us here, not their possible synthesis.
“Two souls, alas,” my hypothetical Greek might exclaim with Goethe, “live in my breast.” It suggests a lifelong Zoroastrian war in which the Hellene is Ormuzd and the
Romiòs
, Ahriman. I advance all this with diffidence. Greek friends on whom I have tried out the Helleno-Romaic Dilemma were interested and amused by the idea and thought there might even be something in it. The easiest way to present it is by drawing up two parallel lists of characteristics, allegiances and symbols taken at random from a larger catalogue which could cover many pages. Some, for the sake of illustration, are purposely slight and frivolous. Here they are.
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| THE ROMIÃS | THE HELLENE | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Practice | Theory |
| 2 | The Concrete | The Abstract |
| 3 | The real | The ideal |
| 4 | Private ambition | Wider aspiration |
| 5 | Argument | Rhetoric |
| 6 | Concentration | Diffusion |
| 7 | Instinct | Principle and logic |
| 8 | Improvisation | System |
| 9 | Empiricism | Dogma |
| 10 | Love for the recent past | Love for the remote past |
| 10 a | Admiration for Western material progress, distrust of Western theories | Admiration for European civilization, rooted in ancient Greek liberal ideas. Some distrust of Western materialism |
| 11 | Retention of Romaic customs | Adoption of Western customs, abhorrence of Romaic orientalism |
| 12 | Distrust of the law. Readiness to bypass it by manÅuvre, favouritism or by any of the bad old short-cuts | Respect for the law. Hesitation, on principle, to bypass it by the means opposite |
| 13 | Self-reproach about Greece's material limitations | Self-reproach about Greece's Romaic blemishes |
| 13 a | Respect for learning as a means to advancement | Respect for learning for its own sake |
| 13 b | Belief in quick returns | Reliance on the long view |
| 14 | Reliance on inherited precedent and proverb | Search for analogy in the ancient world |
| 15 | Seeing the outside world as a field to be exploited | Travel in search of knowledge or legitimate commerce |
| 16 | Evaluation of things in terms of money | Admission of other values |
| 17 | Reluctance to admit ignorance | Admission that there are things beyond his range of knowledge |
| 18 | Compulsive labelling of everything, whether accurate or not [6] | Compulsion to define, explain and classify |
| 19 | Looking on Greece as outside Europe | Looking on Greece as a part of Europe |
| 20 | Seeing Europe as the region of alien “Franks” | Europe the region of fellow-Europeans |
| 20 a | Reaching agreement by bargaining | Settlement by negotiation |
| 21 | Belief in the sacredness and indestructibility of Romiosyne | Belief in the destiny of Hellas |
| 22 | Strong regional loyalty, distrust of people from different provinces, e.g. Crete v . Mani | Centripetal tendency towards Athens. Contempt for provincial rivalries and limitations |
| 23 | Certainty of every Romiòs of his own suitability for the office of Prime Minister | Decent self-confidence |
| 24 | Shrewdness, impaired by ( a ) credulity and ( b ) needless suspicion | Circumspect acumen |
| 25 | Tendency to resolve political difficulties by revolution | Belief in constitutional method, with revolution only as a last resort |
| 26 | Lack of scruple to gain personal ends | The soul of honour |
| 27 | Fatalism | Philosophic doubt |
| 28 | Quick wits | Lively intelligence |
| 29 | Marriage wholly determined by dowries and parental bargaining | Milder version of the same, modified by romantic and aesthetic factors |
| 30 | Blind tribal allegiance to a political party, based on regional bias or personal allegiance to a figurehead | Strong political partisanship with a greater chance of its being based on private deliberation |
| 31 | A passion for newspapers, especially the political sections | A passion for newspapers, especially the political sections |
| 32 | Unquestioning belief in the printed, as opposed to the written or spoken, word. This is corrected intermittently, by the remark: “Nothing but lies in the newspapers.” The attitudes are often reconciled by the paradoxical ability to believe two contradicting statements simultaneously | A stricter approach, and a reduced capacity for the reconciliation of opposites |
| 33 | Abhorrence of a naked fact, and haste to clothe, amplify and elaborate: “The mythopoetic faculty” | Comparative absence of this bias |
| 34 | Daemonic capacity for exertion under stimulus of enthusiasm, interest, patriotism, friendship, ambition | The same, tempered by 7, 8, 9 |
| 35 | Tendency to flag if stimulus and urgency are removed. Dread of boredom | The same, corrected or mitigated by 7, 8, 9 |
| 36 | Procrastination due to 34, and lack of sense of time. Dislike of routine | Climatic influences, corrected or mitigated by 7, 8, 9 |
| 37 | Trust in improvisation (8) and the tendency to allow things to fall into decay through feeling of impermanency of human affairs | Belief in maintenance and up-keep, due to greater hope for establishment and security |
| 38 | Sensitiveness to insult, which leads to rash, violent and self-destructive acts, or enduring and implacable feud | Same sensitiveness, but reaction less violent and calling for milder sanctions |
| 39 | Despair and melancholia ( stenachoria ) if things go wrong. May be mitigated in time by fatalism, proverbs and a saving resilience | Same tendencies considerably reduced, corrected by comforts of philosophy |
| 40 | Fondness for leventeiá , i.e. the dash and fire of youth, a cheerful temperament, courage, speed, quick reactions, good looks, skill in singing, dancing, marksmanship, capacity for wine drinking and fun, often accompanied by meraklidilÃki , its sartorial expression | An acknowledgement of the characteristic with a distinctly more restrained and sober approach |
| 41 | Importance of philotimo , “honour-love,” i.e. honourable conduct between humans, in chaos of Romiosyne , and, above all, private amour propre , like the Spanish pundonor , or personal dignity. It is wounds to thisâ“he touched my philotimo ”âwhich must often lead to 37 | Honour regarded as a precious legacy from the ancient Greeks |
| 42 | Bessa: a word of Albanian origin, meaning the inviolability of an oath, especially in guerrilla warfare. The opposite of treachery | Probably the same as above |
| 43 | Settling the world's problems over endless cups of Turkish coffee in cafés | Settling the world's problems over endless cups of Turkish coffee in cafés |
| 44 | Fondness for cards, backgammon, etc. | The same |
| 45 | Sobriety and frugality relived by dionysiac interludes | Interludes likely to be less dionysiac |
| 46 | Addiction to amané songs, i.e. wailing, nasal rather melancholy melopees in oriental minor mode | Violent abhorrence of amané as alien and barbaric survivals |
| 47 | Urban addiction to rebétika songs and dances: i.e. Athenian low-life, fatalistic, near-apache hard luck stories, accompanied by special stringed instruments. Supposed to have originated in hashish dens. Complex solitary dances, perhaps from Asia Minor. The choreographic expression of the songs | Distaste, based roughly on the same reasons as the foregoing. Tendency towards Western music |
| 48 | Rustic devotion to mountain, island and country dances (usually a chain of dancers led by a solo performer) | Toleration of these as “wholesome” and as part of heroic tradition and folklore and for their possible descent from the ancient Pyrrhic dance |
| 49 | Rustic devotion to klephtika or Klepht songs: long, fierce and semi-oriental in style, celebrating mountain warriors' feats of arms | Toleration of the same in theory if not in practice, as humble mementoes of Hellenism's triumph over barbarian occupation: “Wholesome”: unlike amané and rebétika |
| 50 | Outward disapproval, but secret sympathy, in the distant past, for brigandage and piracy; survivals of a lively and anarchic life | Understandable condem nation of these as stumbling blocks to government and the functioning of a European state: “ Romaikès douliès ” at their worst |
| 51 | Fondness, among the old, for smoking narghilés | Disapproval, for obvious reasons |
| 52 | Addiction to the komboloi : amber beads strung together like a rosary, and clicked rhythmically as a nerve-settler, like chain-smoking | Faint disapproval, even if addicted |
| 53 | Fondness of a small, raffish minority (urban low-life rebétika world, see 47) for occasional hashish smoking, as accompaniment to singing and dancing | Proper abhorrence of this oriental survival |
| 54 | Belief in miraculous properties of certain ikons | Enlightened disbelief |
| 55 | Resort, among isolated rustic communities, to magical remedies administered by old women. Retention of many pagan superstitions, practices and beliefs | Scorn of obscurantism, even though magical practices and superstitions are of ancient descent. Trust in medical science |
| 56 | Indifference to ethical and mystical content of religion, but semi-pagan attachment to the Orthodox Church as the unifying guardian of Romiosyne in times of trouble | Comparative indifference to ethical and mystical content of religion, but tolerance of Orthodox Church as symbol of Hellenism |
| 57 | Strict observance of religious fasts and feast days and instinctive, tribal retentions of many of the external signs of Orthodoxy | A tendency to disregard these, except at holidays of Christmas and Easter |
| 58 | Patriotism based on 21 (R), and inspired, in wartime, by the memory of the Klephts | Patriotism based on 21 (H), and inspired, in wartime, by the heroes of the ancient world |
| 59 | War seen in terms of guerrilla | Military science |
| 60 | Rule of thumb | Text book |
| 61 | In general, impulsive readiness for anything that is not vetoed by some hallowed taboo | More restraint and a more cerebral approach to the problems of life |
| 62 | Homesickness for Byzantine Empire | Nostalgia for the age of Pericles |
| 63 | Demotic | Katharévousa |
| 64 | The Dome of St. Sophia | The columns of the Parthenon |