Untitled - UTSC Humanities Research Projects server - University of ...

Mirage of Greek Continuity 275
is still stressed: ‘dans un pays où il n’y a guère que des ignorants,
il ne faut pas être beaucoup savant pour y faire quelque
bruit’ (Spon (1678), i. 116; see also i. 159, 271; ii. 49, 63,
139). Similarly their lack of taste: the most beautiful convent
of Greece would be considered as ‘fort médiocre dans nos
quartiers’ (ii. 59). In his disparaging description of Athens
Spon piles up negatives: ‘Athènes n’est plus qu’un grand
et pauvre hopital qui contient autant de miserables qu’on
y voit de chrétiens sous la domination des Turcs . . . on n’y
voit plus . . . on ne remarque plus . . . On ne voit aucun fondement
. . . on ne sait . . . on ignore . . . ’ (ii. 236). Like him, his
companion, George Wheler points some negative continuities:
‘yet this old humour of jealousy still continues’ (Wheler
(1682), 349).
Nonetheless Spon and Wheler often acknowledge the survival
of positive characteristics such as freedom and cleverness
among the Athenians. They are among the first to explain
the modern Athenians by reference to their climate as well
as their ancestors. Spon quotes an Athenian who told him:
‘Voyez vous’, dit-il, ‘nous avons toujours été brouillons,
mais vous savez que nous n’avons jamais pu soufrir ceux qui
prenaient de l’autorité sur nous . . . l’air du pays porte à cela,
et c’est en partie l’héritage de nos ancêtres’(ii. 135). Wheler
admits that ‘their bad Fortune hath not been able to take
from them what they have by nature, that is, much natural
subtlety, or wit, of which the serenity and goodness of the air
they enjoy may be a great natural cause’(p. 347). Relying on
traditional Athenian hospitality, they expected to be welcomed
and were not disappointed: ‘nous nous imaginâmes même d’être
entrés dans un pays plus poli que ceux où nous avions passé;
et en effet nous ne rencontrions ni berger ni laboureur qui
ne nous dit que nous étions les très bienvenus . . . ’ (Spon
(1678), ii. 75).
Eighteenth-century Hellenism is characterized by a growing
interest in modern Greece. R. Chandler (1776) suggests that
‘the traveler who is versed in antiquity may be agreeably and
universally employed in studying the people of Athens’ (p. 145),
and Riedesel (1767) is commended by his English translator for
giving ‘a very good idea of the modern state’ of the countries he
visited. As they look below the surface, travellers like Lord