Like a reenactment from another world, Greece is being carved up by competing powers. The Chinese control the central port of Piraeus on the outskirts of Athens. European bureaucrats dictate terms and will oversee government finances. Multinationals, Russians, and Arabs can’t be far behind. In America, Greece has become a straight man for comics on late night TV or something that makes the markets jittery on Wall Street.
Like the petty thieves who recently burst into a museum at Ancient Olympia, they come for plunder.
But two centuries ago, when Greece faced a moment of crisis at least as great and fought its way free, the world sent a very different group of actors.
At the dawn of the 19th century Greece was like a slender maiden calling out for rescue from 400 years of oppression and abuse at the hands of the bloated, corrupt, Ottoman Empire. When Romantics of every stripe joined the revolution, they found a nation of extremely poor, extremely generous peasants, living amidst the broken ruins of a world of almost unimagined beauty.
The French artist Delacroix helped raise money. The American Samuel Howe, who later started the Perkins School for the blind, crossed an ocean and fought for six years. And when Lord Byron, English poet and nobleman set sail, hundreds of young Europeans rushed to join him. He out fitted a fleet, famously carved his name in a temple to Poseidon at Cape Sounion that can still be seen today, and died of a fever before he could fight.
The English poet Shelly summed up the age when he said “we are all Greeks.”
After the artists came the archaeologists hungering for their link to the past. Heinrich Schliemann spent his fortune digging up Troy and Mycenae to find the lost world of Homer. Sir Arthur Evans did the same on Crete, finding Ancient Minoan palaces and brilliant colored frescoes. Together they found a world that people only thought existed in myths and stories-the earliest civilizations in Europe.
They kept coming.
Painters, writers and poets came for the light and the food and the mesmerizing beauty. Even the Beatles – the ultimate paragon of newness and hipness – rented a boat a century later and looked to buy a Greek island. Home movie of the Beatles in Greece sailing and dancing
When word got out about Greece– its beauty, its cultural riches, and the freedom and sweetness of the people, everyone came. The Greek way of life leaves an indelible mark on all those who really glimpse it, however briefly. It is simply impossible to forget.
But now two centuries later,Greece is no longer young –she has aged. But wasn’t her age always part of her charm? A recent New York Times article ends with a poignant vignette. Two gentlemen are leaving a conference on the future of Greece. It’s late and all the restaurants are closed. They stop a middle aged woman descending the marble stairs and ask her where they can get a meal. Her simple reply – “Come to my house, I’ll cook for you.”
Greece will survive. The Parthenon has been a Christian Church, a Muslim Mosque, a European fortress and a Turkish munitions dump before its latest incarnation as a commercial backdrop – it is, like every archeological site in the country, for rent, if you haven’t heard.
But will Greece’s new anguish fire the imagination of a new Lord Byron – willing to risk his life for her – or some new Heinrich Schliemann willing to spend his fabulous wealth to bring her glories to life?
Clearly the character actors about to descend on Greece today- German bankers, Chinese traders and the like – are not motivated by love or inspired by beauty or any connection to the past.
These are not the open hands of the generous. These are greedy, grasping hands – their goal is gold. And they will strangle the lady in her sleep if they have to.
Home movie of the Beatles in Greece sailing and dancing
