Home life in Hellas, Greece and the Greeks - eBooks4Greeks.gr

ACHAPTER IIITYPES AND TRAITSGREEK says he is going to Europe whenhe is going to France or Italy. He callsEnglishmen, Germans, or any other Westernpeople who happen to visit or reside in Greece,Europeans in contradistinction to the Greeks.The occidentals in Greece do likewise. Theyare Europeans, and by implication, the Greeksare not. When they leave the Pirasus for Triesteor Naples or Marseilles they speak of going toEurope, inferring thereby that Greece is not inEurope. This is, on the face of it, an anomaly,but it is common sense. The Constantinoplemerchant, when he reaches his home at Moda,does not change from a European to an Asiaticbecause his office is in Galata, and he wouldbe deservedly laughed at if, on wishing hisGalata friends good-bye, he said, ' ' I am startingfor Asia." The Greek is racially and geographicallyEuropean, but he is not a Western. That iswhat he means by the term, and the significationis accepted by both Greek and foreigner. He isOrientalin a hundred ways, but his Orientalismis not Asiatic. He is the bridge between Eastand West, and he may claim to have moulded the132