Nineteenth-Century British Travellers' View of the Greek Character

Abstract

This chapter attempts to present the different ways in which 19th-century British travellers to Greece perceived and presented the theme of Greek ‘national character’. From their perspective, the Greek character was a composite of various elements of which ingenuity appears to top the list, in both positive and negative terms. Genius, benign or evil, co-existed with adaptability, ambition and mendacity. These traits, combined with love of freedom and boldness, sketch the quintessential stereotype of the Greek merchant as a gifted retailer. The same features gradually applied to all Greeks, irrespective of their occupation. It is argued that, drawing on the Ottoman and post-independence period as well as the ancient past, the British composed a promising account of the Greek character. It was a nation no less gifted than the Britons, suited for freedom fighting and commercial enterprise; and this nation had survived with all its talents adapted to the exigencies of alien rule but without losing its genius. The cunning Greek merchant, a stereotype reproduced well into the 20th century, was the living proof of this theory explaining British no less than Greek success.