(Shkrimtari Grek – Greek writer Nikos Dimou)
Eshte faji i nje Gjermani, tha z. N.Dimou rreth krenarise Greke ne ke te ceshtje. Ai i referohej Johann Winckelmann, nje historian arti Gjerman i shekullit te 18, vizioni i te cilit rreth Greqise se lashte si “e populluar nga njerez te bukur, te gjate, bjonde, te zgjuar, symbol i perfeksionit” ishte ne nje fare menyre e detyruar ne vend ne menyre qe te formonte identitetin modern Grek.
“Ne flisnim Shqip dhe e quanim veten Roman, por Johann Winckelmann, Gete, Hugo, Deloakrua na thane “jo ju jeni helene, pasardhes direkt te te Platonit dhe Sokratit” dhe kjo i vuri kapakun. Nese nje vend i vogel dhe i varfer ka nje peshe te tile mbi supe, nuk do te mekembet kurre.
Ky mit e beri te nevojshmei qe germuesit ne Akropoli gjate shekullit te 19, te fshinin gjurmet e osmaneve dhe te paraqisnin ate si vend i clasicismit.Erekteoni kishte qene harem dhe Parthenoni xhami. “Por arkeologjia greke ka qene gjithmone nje lloj fantazie” tha Antonis Lakos nje historian i degjuar grek. Argumenti i repatriation (rikthim ne vendin e origjines), bazimi ne pretendimet e integritetit historik, e deformon historine.
———————————– ENGLISH ———————————
It’s the fault of a German,” Mr. Dimou said about Greek pride in this cause. He was referring to Johann Winckelmann, the 18th-century German art historian whose vision of an ancient Greece “populated by beautiful, tall, blond, wise people, representing perfection,” as Mr. Dimou put it, was in a sense imposed on the country to shape modern Greek identity.
“We used to speak Albanian and call ourselves Romans, but then Winckelmann, Goethe, Victor Hugo, Delacroix, they all told us, ‘No, you are Hellenes, direct descendants of Plato and Socrates,’ and that did it. If a small, poor nation has such a burden put on its shoulders, it will never recover.”
This myth required excavators on the Acropolis during the 19th century to erase Ottoman traces and purify the site as the crucible of classicism. The Erechtheion had been a harem, the Parthenon a mosque. “But Greek archaeology has always been a kind of fantasy,” Antonis Liakos, a leading Greek historian, noted the other day. The repatriation argument, relying on claims of historical integrity, itself distorts history.
source www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/arts/design/24abroad.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
