List of Officers and Members

Abstract

I have been called upon to take the chair at this first meeting of the Society which professes to have for its object the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. Now by Hellenic Studies we do not mean merely the study of Greek texts, grammars, and lexicons. It is generally acknowledged that, besides the printed texts of the ancient Greek authors, and the commentaries of the scholiasts on these texts, many other sources of Hellenic Study are opening up every day. The monuments of the Greeks, their architecture, sculpture, and other material remains, deserve our study not less than the texts of the classics, and we must bear in mind that the history of the Hellenic language itself may be traced for at least twenty-five centuries, and that between the Greek speech of the present day, and the first utterances of the early Greek poets, there is a connection which, though not obvious to the common observer, may be as clearly demonstrated by science as the connection between the flora of the geologist and the living flora of the botanist of to-day. In order to trace out this connection, we must not regard the language of the ancient Greeks alone; we must study the Byzantine literature, as well as the Greek language still current in the mouths of the peasants, and we must also study their existing manners and customs. The space of time, therefore, over which our Hellenic Studies may range, may be computed as about twenty-five centuries, or perhaps something more. The province of this Society has next to be limited geographically. After much consideration I have come to the conclusion that our proper geographical limitation is that which has been followed in the Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum of Böckh. In that great work he includes Greek inscriptions, wherever they may be found, not only in Hellas itself, but outside the Mediterranean, and beyond the Pillars of Hercules. And therefore I think that as we study Greek inscriptions wherever they are found, whether in Greece, Italy, Sicily, or elsewhere, so we may study the Greek monuments and language wherever these are to be met with. Now as to the chronological range of our subject, I have already said that it extends over at least twenty-five centuries. It will be convenient to consider this space of time as divided into three periods. There will be first the Ancient period, terminating with the downfall of paganism; then the Byzantine period down to the taking of Constantinople in 1453; and then what I will call the Neo-Hellenic period.