‘I beg you to tear up my letters …’ Nikos Skalkottas's last years in Berlin (1928–33)

Abstract

Nikos Skalkottas (1904–49), the Greek pupil of Schoenberg, was one of the greatest and most prolific atonal and twelve-note composers of the twentieth century, though unrecognised in Athens during his lifetime. The fifty-six letters that he wrote to his patron Manolis Benakis illuminate Skalkottas's life and his music, the financial and emotional difficulties leading to his enforced departure from Berlin, his aesthetic viewpoint, his opinions on Greece and its musical life, and his reasons for composing the popular ‘36 Greek Dances’. This is the first published account of this important documentary source.     

Dionysios Solomos: The Tree of Poetry

Abstract

Dionysios Solomos is a poet of contradictions. The fact is not often admitted either by his supporters or his occasional detractors. But there is a puzzling ambiguity about the poet which is only exacerbated by the labels that have been tied round his neck. Solomos, we are told, is one of the European Romantics, he is the father of modern Greek poetry, an epic poet manqué.     

Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer and George Finlay

Abstract

The collection of Finlay Papers in the British School at Athens though throwing invaluable light on the character of George Finlay and on conditions in the Greece and western Europe of his day, are by no means complete in their coverage. The diaries cover only certain years; the Letter Book records mainly family and business correspondence; the actual copies of surviving letters both to and from Finlay—apart from Finlay to Leake or Leicester Warren—seem to owe their preservation to chance rather than policy. Yet Finlay was no less interested in the history of Trebizond than in Greek topography or in numismatics, and a stray survival among his papers seems to indicate that he had closer relations with Fallmerayer than is suggested by the almost total omission of any reference to him in the works on the Fragmentist (as Fallmerayer called himself). The editor of Fallmerayer's collected works, his best friend G. M. Thomas (the ‘carissimus Thomas’ of the Tagebücher), does mention the generosity of Fallmerayer's attitude towards Finlay's work on Trebizond, but that is about all.     

John Milton and the Beard-Hater: encounters with Julian the Apostate

ABSTRACT

This is a study of John Milton and Julian the Apostate, last of the pagan emperors. It follows two trajectories. The first takes as its subject Julian’s “School Edict” of 362 AD, which barred Christians from traditional classical education; while the second concerns a literary text by Julian himself, the Misopogon or “Beard-Hater,” in which he ironically attacked his own aversion to Antiochene Christianity, including the performance of plays. These discussions offer an opportunity to re-examine Milton’s comments on early Christian views of drama, as well as his own drafts for sacred dramas. All these discussions turn on the question of how the Christian is to approach pagan literature, one of the oldest intellectual debates within Christianity. I argue that Milton’s attitude to Greek literature as an entire process was shaped by his attitude to this specific debate, and that this can be seen afresh by viewing it through the eyes of its most powerful critic in antiquity, Julian the Apostate. I also furnish an account of the early-modern editorial tradition of Julian.     

Civil Power and the Deconstruction of Scholasticism in the Thought of Marc'antonio de Dominis

Summary

Marc'antonio de Dominis is well known to historians as a figure in the political and religious culture of early modern Britain and Europe. This article contends that he was also a major theorist of civil power: his critique of Catholic scholastic political thought is compelling and his account of divine right kingship sheds light on conceptual problems that troubled a range of early modern thinkers. De Dominis dismantled the scholastic theory of political power on its own terms, insisting that Almain, Bellarmine, Suárez and others could not distinguish, as they sought to, between the potestas politica in general and the rule of particular princes. By this insight de Dominis could vindicate royal authority against the deposing pretensions of the Pope, the main objective of James I's supporters during the Allegiance Controversy, but his own positive account of how to think about power ran into theoretical trouble which he evidently perceived himself. If the potestas politica cannot be abstracted from a specific regime, and if the prince's absolute sovereignty depends on this fact, can politics be understood only at the level of the particular and contingent? The article closes by setting Thomas Hobbes—well versed in Jacobean polemic—in the context of this question.     

Approaching Personality through Style: The Seriously Perplexing Figure of Dezső Szabó

Abstract

Dezs? Szabó (born 1879, Klausenburg/Kolozsvár/Cluj, Austria-Hungary, died 1945, Budapest) was a towering figure of his generation. Literary critic, social pamphleteer, satirist, and novelist, he aroused strong passions on all sides with his rhetorically freighted prose and his fluid, yet forceful, political views. All accounts of his work concentrate on its intent, content, or consequences, and it is widely agreed that Szabó’s ‘style’ was his most prominent trait. And yet it is as if the political and ideological impact of the man has all but eclipsed the writing itself: with the exception of one brief monograph of 1937, we have no study devoted to the detailed examination of the ways in which he used Hungarian. Such a study is what is attempted in this essay. The method is primarily linguistic: all pertinent features of Szabó’s use of Hungarian are discussed, from the submorphemic (alliteration and other sound-patterning) through his immoderate derivational morphology, overstuffed noun phrases, and idiosyncratic lexis.     

The politics of Greek tragedy in Samson Agonistes

ABSTRACT

This essay charts Milton’s engagement in Samson Agonistes with Greek political thought as critiqued in Athenian tragic drama, particularly that of Euripides. In early modern Europe, Euripides’ plays were not only understood to denounce tyranny but also to remain rigorously sceptical about the workings of Athenian democracy (in itself a highly limited kind of representational politics). Milton knew well the commentary tradition that framed Euripidean tragedy in such terms, and found a corollary to his own political views within it, most notably in the writings of Gasparus Stiblinus whose prefaces are included in the 1602 Stephanus edition of the playwright’s works, which he used heavily. Stiblinus shows how Euripides relentlessly scrutinizes corruption, which his tragedies reveal to be not only characteristic of tyrants but also to pervade democratic systems. Milton’s allusions to Euripidean tragic form in Samson Agonistes evoke these commentaries to denounce political corruption.     

The Kelly naval mission to Greece,May 1919–October 1921

Abstract

This article focuses on the activities of the Kelly naval mission to Greece between 1919 and 1921, the period when the geographic importance of Greece from the naval perspective and the potential of her navy attracted the interest of Britain. Notwithstanding the fact that plans to institute a pivotal Anglo–Greek naval partnership in the Eastern Mediterranean were frustrated because of the Asia Minor catastrophe, the Kelly naval mission to Greece was largely successful in developing the Greek Navy. During its term in Greece, work was expedited at the Ministry of the Marine, the recruiting law was revised and a significant number of Greek naval officers were admitted to British naval schools. Moreover, the syllabus of Greek naval colleges was updated and the Greek Naval Air Service developed on solid foundations. Financial difficulties and political complications hindered the realization of the more ambitious projects of the mission, i.e. the establishment of a new arsenal at Skaramanga and the procurement of sorely needed naval units. However, maintaining the many old Greek warships in working condition would have been impossible had it not been for the success of the mission in developing the organization and infrastructure of the Salamis arsenal.     

A note on the death of Leo Sgurus in A.D. 1208

Abstract

Leo Sgurus, archon and ‘tyrant’ of Argolis and Corinthia from c.1200 with an impressive career in the period until c.1208, succeeded in establishing an extensive albeit short-lived Territorialstaat in the NE Peloponnesus following the Latin capture of Constantinople on 12/13 April 1204 and the subsequent Latin onslaught in Greek territories. Truly among the most outstanding figures of the late Byzantine era, Sgurus has been characterized by Dionysios A. Zakythenos as one of the last 'defenders of Greek independence’ following the Frankish conquest of 1204, for this local archon seems to have constituted the sale realistic hope of the mainland Greece populations for an effective stance against the marching crusaders of Boniface of Montferrat, though, as the late George Kolias observed thirty years ago, he unwisely directed his activities rather against his compatriots than against the Latin invader. Yet, it has recently been said by Michael J. Angold that Sgurus ‘almost certainly enjoyed local backing in his expeditions’.     

SEKE,the KKE and the language question

Abstract

This article presents an overview of SEKE and the KKE's views on the language question between 1918 and 1936. By examining unpublished sources, shifts in the party's views become discernible which cannot be attributed solely to changes in the language debates. The article introduces two innovations: it argues that there is a correlation between political changes within the KKE and transformations in its views on language, and analyses these with reference to ideas on language in the USSR. Studying these views augments our knowledge of a relatively neglected dimension of the language question. Moreover, as the influence of Marxism on some Greek intellectuals increased in this period, its findings can be used to elucidate aspects of literary production.     

The uses of Greek Orthodoxy in the early poetry of Yannis Ritsos

Abstract

The influence of Greek Orthodoxy on Ritsos' poetry, previously neglected because of the poet's political commitments, is examined. Against the backdrop of the poet's Orthodox upbringing and his early conversion to communism, Ritsos' uses of Orthodoxy in certain poems written before 1948 are considered. The diversity is demonstrated during this period of Ritsos' conception and treatment of the tensions and oppositions between Orthodoxy and Marxism. The ideological influence of Varnalis on the earliest collection, Tρακτ?ρ, can be contrasted with the more nuanced use of Orthodox material in Eπιταφιο? and the sympathetic depiction of childhood religion in Mια πυγολαμπιδα φωτιζ?ι τη νυχτα. Only in the particular conditions of wartime Greece does Ritsos manage a bridge between Orthodoxy and Marxism: H Kυρα Aμπ?λιων synthesizes Ritsos' liberation message with images rooted in popular religion.     

Humour and Status Reversal in Greek Shadow Theatre

Abstract

Traditional plays of the Greek shadow theatre deal with the adventures of Karaghiozis, a poor Greek who is the embodiment of <inline-graphic href="splitsection7_in1.tif"/>(cunning, slyness). Plays of the comic type, and more specifically, plays in which Karaghiozis assumes a position requiring certain skills, have a standard narrative structure or plot which can be summarized as follows: A wealthy Turkish pasha or vizier, looking for a person to perform a job which requires certain skills, meets Hadziavatis, the subservient town crier, and asks for his help in finding such a person. Hadziavatis agrees at once, sets off, and invariably meets Karaghiozis, who, upon learning of the position the Turk is trying to fill, immediately claims to possess the prerequisite skills. With much humour and cleverness Karaghiozis convinces first Hadziavatis and then the Turk that he can in fact perform the job. Karaghiozis then appears on stage as the skilled person with the appropriate costume or equipment (cook's hat, doctor's bag, secretary's writing implements, etc.). He is transformed from a poor uneducated man of low status into a skilled educated man of high status. In that position he deceives several stock characters, such as Omorphonios, Dionysios and Stavrakas, until his deceit is finally exposed and he is chased off stage.     

Cropsey on Plato and the Unity of Philosophy

Abstract

Cropsey's book, Plato's World, contains his longest and most sustained reflections on a set of Platonic dialogues, but it is not the first work he published on Plato or the last he intended to write. His last collection of essays, On Humanity's Intensive Introspection, shows that in his writings on Plato Cropsey was attempting to answer a broader question: What is philosophy?     

The Greeks as an alien minority at the outset of Ethiopia's economic development, 1880–1910

Abstract

Between 1880 and 1910, Greeks constituted one of the largest foreign ethnic communities, in Ethiopia and as such they played an important role in the modernization efforts of Emperor Menilik II (1889–1913). During his reign, Ethiopia's modern economic development had its rudimentary beginnings when, with the participation of resident foreigners, he embarked on an ambitious, although haphazard program to raise his country's material standards. The Italian defeat at Adua in 1896 not only secured Ethiopian independence, but the absence of a single colonial ruler enabled Menilik to seek among various foreign groups the skills and resources necessary for economic development which were then lacking among the indigenous population. Greek participation in construction, internal and external commerce, and in petty retailing contributed to the foundation of Ethiopia's economic growth in the twentieth century.     

Attitudes towards Heroin Addicts and Addiction in Inter-War Greece

Abstract

This article concentrates on the ‘drug scare’ caused by the introduction of heroin to Greece in the inter-war period. It will first retrace the story of heroin’s introduction into the Greek drug scene and assess the reasons for its speedy diffusion among drug users. Following this, it will examine some central themes in the discourse on drugs and heroin in particular, such as the actual or projected harm caused to individuals, society, or the nation as a whole. Then the focus will shift to perceptions of heroin and its users, considering broader debates which circulated in Greek inter-war society, for example, the country’s identity and its position within two parallel and interrelated conceptual frameworks: traditional vs. modern and ‘East’ vs. ‘West’. The paper will conclude by addressing drug users’ self-representations that were influenced, to a certain degree, by the prevailing approaches to drug addiction.     

Alexander Raven Thomson,Philosopher of the British Union of Fascists

This study surveys the career and political philosophy of Alexander Raven Thomson, one of Sir Oswald Mosley's lieutenants in the British Union of Fascists (BUF), the largest party on the extreme right in Britain in the interwar era. It explores key issues relating to the BUF, such as: What type of society did Thomson and the Blackshirts wish to establish in Britain? Who were some of the major domestic and international intellectual influences on him and the BUF? Was the BUF essentially a homegrown movement or was it, as critics argued, an imitation of Italian and German fascism? What does Thomson's career reveal about the inner politics of the movement? The aim of this article is to provide a better understanding of Thomson, one of the lesser-studied BUF officials, and of the movement to which he devoted his life.     

Naked wax and necessary existence: modal voluntarism and Descartes’s motives

ABSTRACT

Descartes’s commitment to modal voluntarism was one of his most notorious and controversial doctrines. The reaction of contemporaries was hostility and incredulity; the reaction of modern scholars has been little different. Yet, though the issue has fomented considerable discussion and disagreement in the literature, the overwhelming majority of scholarly output has focused on questions of whether Descartes actually upheld the doctrine, or what he was committed too if he indeed did. Surprisingly, the underlying question of why Descartes would have upheld such a doctrine in the first place has gone almost entirely unnoticed and unasked. This paper proposes several possible answers to this question, each of which provides at least a partial explanation for Descartes’s attraction to modal voluntarism. The ultimate motive, however, was likely not one of positive attraction, but driven by Descartes’s anxieties over the thorny and deeply heretical implications of his conception of matter.     

Culture builders: A historical anthropology of middle-class life

ABSTRACT

James Boswell (1740–1795) is most famous for writing the masterly biography of his friend and mentor The Life of Samuel Johnson, published in 1791, only a few years before his own death. However, during Boswell’s own lifetime he was far more famous for his other major work, the Account of Corsica (1768). The Account of Corsica has been rather neglected by modern scholarship. This article will attempt show its importance in the context of the mid eighteenth century. Boswell’s Account was in fact the latest in a series of British publications concerning the island of Corsica during the eighteenth century. This article will attempt to trace the evolution of the ideas of Corsica that developed in Britain; beginning with the outbreak of the Corsican revolt in 1728, and culminating with the publication of Boswell’s Account of Corsica in 1768. Corsica became an important case study for British self-reflection, concerning the type of Empire they would become. The main question raised by the case study of Corsica was whether Britain should be an empire that protects liberty across the globe, or a metropolitan commercial state?