You get plenty of definitions about this word; it’s been labeled: an “esthetic movement”, “the Greek people and their culture”, “the academic study of ancient Greece”, or even “the proper use of the Greek language”.
Studying the definition of this word is worth considering since is only by refuting doing that it could be used on developing a far fetched propaganda, whose Hellenism is the foundation. The strange thing is that you never get a definition what Hellenism really is: an ideology.
The Hellenism embodies a hypothesis (now on “widely accepted”) for the natural connection between mysterious Ancient Greek race and today’s population of the so called Modern Greeks. This ideology was created around 18-19th century with the sole purpose: developing a new national conscience over people who were living in a territory “academically” described by some western scholars as the land of the “Ancient Greeks”.
The unusual thing with it, is that this ideology was never been created by its own people (the so called Hellenes) elite, as expected to be. This was created from foreigners, and the Francophile puppet Adamantios Korais, motivated by Great Powers interest especially by British and French. Like any other ideology Hellenism has been used as a far fetched propaganda without absolutely any ground but very powerfully supported by different subjects, whose interest was spreading this tale.
No common so-called Hellene knew about their ancestry, until they were taught about this. A forgotten history of an almost mythical race, was carefully picked, elaborated to be credible and then written by the foreigners. The people living in modern Greece were literally told what they didn’t know they were. These people were told to embrace the new artificially created reality, to forget their present that was anything, but Hellenic. This population composed from people of many ethnically origins like Albanian, Vlach, Slavic, Turkish etc were taught (sometime forcibly) how to speak the language based on the so-called Koine (which means common Greek[???]), a semi-artificial supposedly ancient language, spoken only by some high ranking Christian Church clergy and a small minority of Christian educated.
Choosing the character of newly created nation was done along with the establishment of the Modern Greece state territories, which would coincide as much as possible the spooky Ancient Hellene’s ones.
So everything was set to match those in the past:
1. the name (Hellenes)
2. the language
3. the territories
The creators of this ideology knew that the appearance (name, imposed language, territories) somehow communicates the essence (the ethnicity), so once the Hellenic national conscience created among these people the mission was completed. Using people’s ignorance, absence of other nation’s states, and supported by the local orthodox clergy, France and England successfully completed the transition from one reality to a false one, which would suit their political interest. Thus Modern Ellada was created to be a continuation of the phantomlike Ancient Greece, even though nobody heard from it and its inhabitant since long ago.
Thus despite the very big 2500 years historical gap to join artificially two very different realities, the creators of this tale found the way of giving this tale a credible appearance. This was made possible through the language. The teaching of the ‘church language’ aka Hellenic, was made compulsory in the school system after the independence. Once the language started being spoken, the evolved Hellenism claimed: our Greek language
had to be no more inferior version of the ancient language. Thus they created the ‘monster’ Katharevousa a perfect imitation of the Attic language mixed with thousand of newly coined words. This language remained official until 1976 and heavily influented the spoken language which was a monster ‘per se’.
But coming up with the new nation from the ground zero resulted in not an easy task, the experiment called “Hellenic national conscience” was not easy to be perceived by the common people, who not only were ethnically different from the intended one, but also were belonging to different religious groups. The “Greekness” concept was nevertheless fitting some brainwashed orthodox community interest, but was completely disfavorable for the Muslims. To surpass this problem, the “Greeks” and their allies have choosen to fight against everyone religiously different from them. Thus they employed a warlike race: Sulliotes, the brigand orthodox Albanian tribe. These people were the first ones who embraced the Hellenism ideology. Providing military support to them, England and France were aiming the creation of a new ally state, which they could place against Ottomans. Sulliotes were the first claiming themselves (Filiki Eteria-Nichola Mavrocordatos): ‘a race purely Hellenic’ (????).
It’s obvious that ethnically the Filiki Eteria wasn’t composed from people of a Hellenic descent, but what was forging their ideals in one alone was the religion, the orthodoxy.
From Albanian to Romanian, from Slavic to Turkish they were all orthodox fighting for the creation of an orthodox state. None of the participants was Greek by descend, they simply couldn’t be, the word ‘Hellenes’ was newly coined, based on a phantomatic idealized past. These people, in a status of self-hypnosis, claimed they were a race of pure Hellenes.
How was that possible?
Wasn’t the Hellenic race (if it ever existed), a race dying off at least 2000 years ago?
Why was the Albanian-Greek dictionary created then? Why did they need it for?
How come some people of “pure Hellenic blood” and “pure Hellenic tongue” need to learn a ““foreign”” language like Albanian?
Marko Boçari’s Greek-Albanian Dictionary
Were they really of ‘pure Hellenic blood’ descending?
It might be easy for them to believe in their own lies, but it’s just a story of low credibility for us, thinking it comes from people’s mouth who coined the word xenophobia. These people must not forget that the “Filiki Etaria” initiation level was called αδελφοποιητοί (brothers) in the newly adopted language (Greek), but along with that these people were using the word βλάμηδες (vllamides), which is the Hellenized plural of the Albanian word Vllam (brother) in their mother tongue.
The truth is that most of the so-called Hellenes didn’t know how to speak Greek. Their natural language was Albanian. That’s why the dictionary was serving for.
Now the question is: Do they have the right to create a national ideology like most other nations do? This sort of question could be placed for any national ideology, but the Hellenism is the most notorious non-realistic among them.
Hellenism as ideology being not solid at all, because it is based only on mythical accounts, tends to discriminate anything other than Hellenic, other people histories and interests. They must understand that even if the Hellenism ever existed, now it’s not its time. Hellenism is not theirs (Modern Greeks); the Hellenism belongs to the Ancient Hellenes, if they ever existed, to start with.
The neo-Hellenism can not represent a continuation of the Classical one, it simply uses the name as a cover for the diabolic purposes of its creators. Both tend to influence upon and against other people and cultures but the Neo-Hellenism is completely different from Classical one which used to be an ‘ideology’ of the esthetics, at least among art’ historians . The Neo-Hellenism is the ideology of assimilation, changing the ethnic affiliation using the most unscrupulous methods. The ultimate aim of the Hellenism is the creation of the Greek homogeneous nation. They are trying to homogenise in one alone the ethnic mixture of the Greek population (with different backgrounds), because of the panic from a possible discovery of their non-Hellenic roots, and the falsity of the Hellenic account.
Nowdays the “”purity”” of the race is being ”guaranteed” by the hand of the Greek Government in cooperation with Orthodox Church . Greece is now the only country in Europe with not-claimed ethnic minorities(!!!).
The Neo-Hellenism must not be its continuation, because otherwise anyone of them would nomore represent the values we believed on. The Modern Greeks are not descendent of the Ancient ones; theirs is a tale, a beautiful one, but unfortunately not true.
Everything culturally valuable the Modern Greeks possess cannot compete with those of the Ancient Hellenes (if they really represent the ancient population of that land). They don’t possess that cultural potential, which was so obvious and radiant at the ancient inhabitant of their land, if they really have been called Hellenes. The cultural heritage of the Modern Greeks today totally belongs to their neighbours especially to the Albanians.
The eagerness of the Modern Greeks for new territories, encouraged few centuries ago from the Great Powers based on the Hellenism ideology shows the opposite of this gleamy culture. The truth is that their intention is not capturing of new territories,but they are desperate to preserve those ones already acquired at the time of the excessive refreinless greed of taking somebody’s else possession (After the independence)
Now is the time for them to face the pure truth that not longer than two centuries ago their Albanian (and other minorities) grandparents consciously believed on the tale of Ancient Greeks, finding it very suitable for their hate against muslim population.
The Hellenism was spiritually created by the network of Greek-speaking merchants – (Thessalonica, Smyrna, Constantinople, & inland) and Orthodox clergy but academically supported by western scholars. Schools were established teaching Greek language, and the “”Greek character and culture”” under Turkish rule with their strange tolerance.
But a creation of the Greek state wasn’t an issue, at that time.
The main internal reason for the creation of the new state was the Greek speaking merchant class aspiration for a greater share of political power.
It was through this Greek speaking merchant class that the Turkish Muslim World was making all the trade affairs especially with the western countries. But since these “”Greeks”” was paying most of their commercial profits as a tax toward the Ottoman Empire, that made them hostile against the empire.
This merchant class (the core of the Greek nation) would have needed an ideological foundation, a sense of nationhood to share a greater political powers and possibly to create an independent state. That was the reason why Hellenism was created.
The creation of the new nation was fully supported by the Great Powers, so when the Greek revolution broke out in 1821, the first thing the “”Greeks”” did was to address the European states and Russia, proclaiming the independence of the phantasmatical Greek nation, and the creation of the new state to become inherent even before military victories made it apparent. It’s a fact that on the ground no military victories brought about Greek independence.
The “””Greek’”” ethnicity was illusory, phantasmatical, non-existent, but ironically they had Great Powers support. That was the reason it was made a fact despite the fact that militarily Sultan overpowered them in most of the cases. It was the politics blowing the winds in the Hellenism favour not a real renaissance of the Hellenic consciousness
On the other hand the interest of the Greek speaking merchants, orthodox intellectuals and Orthodox Church became diabolically alter in a movement for nationalism. It took an international character which gradually won over the ottoman possibility to hold the status quo. That movement was helped by Albanian Ali Pasha’s rebellion against Sultan. The “”Greeks”” took advantage of the Ali Pasha tolerance towards them and their activities, and so they joined forces with completely different purposes between them.
Sultan overpowered Ali Pasha and the “” Greeks””, but the Great Powers had decided on independence & they simply imposed it and with it the symbiotic ideology Hellenism.
Since then much ink has been spilled, writing about the Hellenism claiming it an ideal cultural movement, but it’s not, at least not the modern one. The Hellenism now is merely a chauvinistic movement. The reasons are not far to seek and the memories of the atrocities caused from the people who fought in the name of this ideology are still fresh. They start on the 19-th century which is the crucial starting point for the Hellenic nation. Although the roots of the Hellenic nations don’t go beyond that time, considerable efforts is made to develop the “ancient Hellenic” ethnogennesis theory ever since.
But now it’s the time to disclose the true character of the Hellenism. The Hellenism is the ideology of the newest race in the Balkan: the Greeks.
Although the conviction among most of today’s scholars that the Modern Greek language represent some kind of a ‘undiluted’ dialect of the Ancient one, nobody amongst them is disclosing evidences about the ways this language followed up to reach the mouth of the Modern Greek speakers. The truth is that it came through all the ‘paths’ but the family hearth. Through many millenniums, from Peloponnesus to Danube and wider, it was another language which has never stopped to be spoken in the family hearth, this is now called Albanian language and it’s eventually the same with the so called Ancient “”Greek””, which for my opinion was the language of the Pelasgians.
If the Hellenism its a term used to represent the Greeks and their language then Hellenism is not Ancient at all, because the Greeks are a new nation and their tongue is an artificial imaginative recreation of the ancient and medieval language, and it is the main component on the efforts to manipulate the history.
