Rethinking Greek Genius: Reflections on Demon Entrepreneurs

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• Rethinking Greek Genius:Reflections on Demon Entrepreneurs¹
• Thomas W. Gallant (bio)

This fascinating collection of essays examines "Greek genius" from various angles and interpretive stances. The concept is rooted in two stereotypes: the resourceful and clever Odysseus from Homer's epics and the deceitful Sinon from Virgil's works. Collectively, the essays argue that the Greek genius is closely tied to economic success, with shipping and commerce playing a crucial role in spreading Enlightenment ideas and fostering political emancipation in Greek lands. The argument suggests a reciprocal relationship between economic success and education, with each reinforcing the other. The volume also emphasizes the persistence of the Greek genius stereotype as a myth of redemption despite Greece's limited resources and uncertain prospects. Nations have traditionally crafted self-images of their character that define them and distinguish them from others. British reserve and stalwartness, for example, are captured in the phrase "stiff upper lip." Americans have crafted a self-conception around concepts such as "rugged individualism" and "the self-made man." For Greeks, the equivalent is the idea of the Greek genius, and this richly textured collection explores the content and impact of the concept on the political, social, and economic levels. It contributes to the broader discussion surrounding the history of Greek identity, particularly its complex interplay with cultural stereotypes, economic factors, and education.

In addition to discussing the structure and content of the volume, Gounaris, in his introduction, grapples with the thorny issue of what constitutes the "Greek genius" and how the phrase's meaning has changed over the ages. Translating Ἑλληνικὸν δαιμόνιον from ancient Greek to modern English is a challenging task because it was polyvalent and context-dependent. Gounaris argues that, in ancient Greek, both daimon and daimonion signify "god" or "deity." In modern Greek, they are likewise synonymous and encompass religious and [End Page 95] divine connotations as well as exceptional ingenuity in the broader sense of logical and emotional intelligence. Despite the nineteenth-century business opportunities available to diaspora Greeks, the acquired feature of ingenuity in the Greek temperament has been largely overlooked. The Greek character, with its various talents such as shrewdness and cunning, has been well studied, but there has been a tendency to neglect the (re)fashioning of the Greek genius as a constructed trait rather than an inherent one.

Part 1 of the book, "Beware of the Greeks: From Antiquity to Rediscovery," contains chapters by Evangelos Sakkas, Constantine Theodoridis, Ioannis Zelepos, Tatiana Triantafyllidou, and Alexis Dassios. What unites them is their emphasis on how other cultures—British, German, and Russian, for example—understood the Greek genius during the Early Modern period. A focus on the Greek daimonion resulted from two encounters: one was the classicizing imperative that accompanied the West's "discovery" of ancient Greece, and the other was the actual interaction between Greek and Western merchants and travelers. As Westerners increasingly imagined themselves as descendants of an idealized ancient Greek culture, they simultaneously had to craft an understanding of who the contemporary Greeks were. On the one hand, these Greeks demonstrated many characteristics exemplified by Homer's Odysseus—clever, ingenious, shrewd, freedom-loving, and skilled in the marketplace. On the other hand, many of the actual Greeks Westerners encountered from day to day were more akin to Virgil's Sinon—cunning, immoral, sly, deceitful, subservient, and corrupt. These two perspectives created a Janus-like stereotype of Greeks, with foreigners generally focusing on the negative, darker version of the Greek genius trope, especially where merchants and businessmen were concerned. Meanwhile, as Greeks themselves internalized the genius concept, they also created two contrasting identities, one as Hellenes and the other as Romaioi.

Sakkas's chapter, "Greek Subtlety and Ingenuity," explores the historical evolution, in Early Modern Europe, of an ancient stereotype depicting Greeks as eloquent fraudsters. Originating from the Virgilian character Sinon, this Latin trope resurfaced during the Renaissance, cautioning against the dangers of rhetoric. As interest in Greek texts grew, however, the concept of genius was transformed, becoming associated with the subtlety inherent in using the Greek language in the arts and theology. The classical Greeks' celebrated linguistic ingenuity created a dilemma for their descendants, who were judged against historical standards and...