Concepts and Functions of Philhellenism: Aspects of a Transcultural Movement (Trends in Classics: Pathways of Reception)

Hardcover, viii + 292 pages, NOT ex-library. Book is clean and bright throughout with unmarked text, free of inscriptions and stamps, firmly bound. Minor handling wear. Issued without a dust jacket. -- Spanning 15 specialist studies framed by an extensive editorial introduction, the book traces how admiration for Greek culture has been conceptualized, mobilized, and reshaped from classical antiquity to the 19th century and, in the process, clarifies why that history remains relevant for contemporary work on identity, intercultural transfer, and political imagination. The opening essay sets out the volume's guiding claim that European philhellenism drew lasting energy from Roman receptions of Greece, and sketches three chronological focal points that structure the book: first, ancient Rome, where Latin authors negotiated authority, emulation, satire, and aesthetic theory in dialogue with Greek art and thought; second, the decades surrounding the Greek War of Independence, when British, German, French, and Greek writers, travelers, and constitutional activists embedded Hellenic references in debates about freedom, nationhood, and reform; third, the wider 19th-century European public sphere, where committee networks, geopolitical arguments, and irredentist projects used philhellenic vocabulary to articulate early forms of continental cooperation and to test competing models of Europe. Part I analyzes literary case studies ranging from Livius Andronicus to Longinus, showing how Roman authors used Greek material to legitimize innovation, critique contemporary taste, or signal political allegiance; these chapters provide close textual readings and synthesize relevant scholarship. They also track how terms like "philhellene" evolved from political labels to literary self-positioning tools. Part II explores the long Restoration era: essays on Horace's reception in Britain, Wilhelm Müller's negotiation of Byron, French travel writing, Korais's linguistic program, visual idealizations of the Greek landscape, and the influence of Enlightenment constitutional theory collectively demonstrate how philhellenic rhetoric functioned as a language of solidarity, a vehicle for self-definition, and a lens for evaluating Ottoman rule. Historians and literature scholars can draw on this section for comparative perspectives on nationalism, orientalism, and cultural memory. Part III turns to transnational organization and political thought, examining volunteer committees as proto-European networks, Thiersch's policy proposals as media interventions, and the tension between Greece's irredentist Megali Idea and waning Western enthusiasm. Readers interested in the pre-history of European integration will find reconstructions of fundraising mechanisms, print campaigns, and diplomatic projects that predate familiar 20th-century models. The case studies emphasize how philhellenism moved beyond literary discourse into the institutional and bureaucratic spheres. A closing essay by Glenn W. Most revisits ancient evidence to reassess Greece's role in shaping European self-understanding. Throughout, contributors combine philology, intellectual history, art history, and political analysis; footnotes, quotations in the original languages with English translations, and thematic indexes facilitate use as a reference tool. The volume foregrounds key concepts (philhellenism, enthusiasm, mimesis, patriotism, European identity) and demonstrates their functions across disparate media. It can support syllabus design in reception studies, offer comparative frameworks for research on cultural transfer, and supply empirical cases for work on transcultural movements. The book provides researchers and advanced students with a single, well-documented source for the vocabulary, frameworks, and archival material central to studies in classical reception, nation-building, and cross-regional intellectual exchange. …