Greece, a Nation of Commercial and Other Geniuses in a State Fit for Petty Traders and Poor Devils

Abstract

Discussing the concept of ‘Greek genius’ in English is by definition a daunting translation exercise. In ancient Greek, both daemon and daimonion mean ‘god’ or ‘deity’. In modern Greek, the two words, daimon and daimonion, are synonyms. In addition to the demonic in the religious sense connotations, they refer to one of the divine gifts to the human character, exceptional ingenuity, in its broader sense, which includes both logical and emotional intelligence. On a global scale, the industrial 19th century offered to the diaspora Greeks no fewer business opportunities than the 18th. Having commonly been considered an inner trait, ingenuity has never been examined as an acquired feature of the Greek temperament, as a construction that was placed there for a reason. The Greek character and its many talents, including shrewdness and cunning, have been observed and studied by many, directly or indirectly; yet such studies have tended to overlook the (re)fashioning of the ‘Greek genius’.