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282 Mirage of Greek Continuity
Guys’ analogies between the toilet of modern and ancient
Greek women (1772, i. 69) also depend on a highly hypothetical
reconstruction of ancient costume and a collage of many heterogeneous
texts: the head-band comes from Plutarch’s Life of
Phocion, from two Latin texts concerning Greek characters
(Terence’s Andria and Ovid’s letter of Sappho to Phaon),
and from a declamation of John Chrysostom against the women
of his time (i. 79–83); the fan, from Anacreon, Pausanias’ description
of a marble tomb, the False Eunuch of Terence, and
Claudian; the veil, from Nonnos and Valerius Maximus (i. 85–6).
It was also commonly accepted that the Greeks still retain
some resemblance to the character of their ancestors. Their
hospitality is praised by Guys: ‘hospitality is another excellent
quality in which the Greeks are never deficient’ (1772, i. 285).
Together with tact, it is perceived by Riedesel (1744/1802, 327),
as a relic of ancient times: ‘quelques vertus, telles que l’hospitalité
et la discrétion, se sont maintenues des anciens temps’.
Choiseul-Gouffier also acknowledges that the inhabitants of
Sigaeum ‘conservent quelques traces des moeurs de leurs ancêtres
et surtout l’hospitalité envers les étrangers’ (1782, 365).
Moreover, some distinctive characteristics of the different
cities are supposed to survive. According to Tournefort (1718,
159), the inhabitants of Paros who were famed for their wisdom
in antiquity (the Milesians are said to have chosen one of them
‘to put their city into a form of government’) are still chosen as
arbitrators by the Greeks of the neighbouring islands. ‘The
Thebans of this day, as formerly, are accounted by their neighbours
though brave and honest the least sprightly among the
Greeks’ (Charlemont (1749/1984), 149). Above all, the Maniots,
who are said to be the true heirs of the Spartans and ‘have always
preserved their liberty’ (Pococke 1743, i. 178), serve as an illustration
of this continuity. According to Lord Sandwich (1799,
31), ‘[these] descendants of the ancient Lacedemonians . . . still
preserve their love of liberty so great a degree, as never to have
debased themselves under the yoke of the Turkish empire’. This
reappears in Riedesel: ‘les habitants actuels du mont Taygète,
connus sous le nom de Mainottes soutiennent leur liberté avec
fermeté et courage contre la puissance ottomane . . . leur pays . . .
parait avoir été constamment la véritable patrie de la liberté’
(1774/1802, 223–5). Choiseul-Gouffier (1782, p. ix) is even