A unique historical study of the dynamic reappearance of ancient nomenclature, from the pre-revolutionary years to the present day.
In what time period and under what circumstances did the Greeks start giving their children the names of Christian saints, stopping naming them after their grandparents? What happened in the first half of the 15th century in Mystras and how is it connected to the activity of the phratry of Plethon Gemistos? For what reason, on the eve of the Revolution of 1821, did Patriarch Gregory V in his encyclical criticize the "improper abuse" of the Greeks, referring to the ancient naming practices they carried out following the cries of the Enlightenment ideas? What are the reasons for the return of the phenomenon at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century in unredeemed – at that time – regions of Greece and Greece. Asian? And, finally, using official data from the registries of our country, how to explain the dynamic reappearance of ancient Greek names during the last decades, a practice that bypasses established habits for Greek society?
The journalist and historical scholar, Minas Papageorgiou, presents briefly and with the help of the sources of each era, an unexpectedly fascinating topic, which runs through the last seventeen centuries of Greek history. From the strategies of John Chrysostom to the spiritual preparations of the 21st century and from the emancipation of regions that had not been integrated into the national body at the dawn of the 20th century until today, the ancient Greek names are at the center of an underground controversy that in its essence is directly linked to the formation of the modern Greek identity.
On the cover, an artistic creation in the traditional village of Olympos in Karpathos, by Giannis, Manolis and Antonis Chatzivasilis.
Reviews
Minas Papageorgiou leads us with accessible logic to the nomenclature of persons or even to names as ideological signifiers of an era of relative liberation of the consciousnesses of the rising urban social strata. Read it and it will enlighten you.
Petros Pizanias, Emeritus Professor of History at the Ionian University
A century and a half before George Orwell's insightful 1984, Patriarch Gregory V had grasped the same great truth: you must begin by replacing words (in this case, names) if you aim to completely erase collective memory. Minas Papageorgiou guides us through this fascinating and terrifying journey of the coordinated attempt from above to perpetuate ragiadism and consolidate national oblivion.
Petros Tatsopoulos, writer
reviews
There is no review yet.