Hellas v's Greece 1
Kytherians, as diaspora Greeks, have entered very enthusiastically and passionately into debates such as the return of the Parthenon Marbles by the British Museum to the Hellenic Republic.
We should be encouraged to enter into all such debates - including another that has raged for centuries - are we Ellines - (Hellenes)- or Greeks.
In the January/February 2004 issue of Odyssey, Tania Kollias, reported on Chritos Alexopoulos's campaign to change the name Greece to Hellas.
Campaigning for a change in the country's name.
Along with the Parthenon Marbles, the man who put Hellenic Republic on Greek passports would like to see another major restoration in time for the Olympic Games this summer: the name Hellas instead of Greece.
Christos Alexopoulos, a Harvard-educated economist, has been campaigning to have his country known by its ancient name, and for Greeks within the borders and throughout the Diaspora, referred to as Hellenes, ever since experiencing, while living in the US, what he calls a "dichotomy" between the Greeks'image of themselves and how foreigners viewed them.
Alexopoulos sees the Olympic Games as an unprecedented opportunity to aquaint the world with the illustrious names that reflect the native people's image of themselves and firmly anchor the cultural continuity from antiquity to the present.
"Ï'm not trying to promote any theory that the ancient Greeks were a pure race or that the Modern Greeks are 100%descendants in terms of blood", he says, "but I support the case of continuity in terms of culture, history and language."
Alexopoulos, 54, believes that while the words have Greek roots, Greece and Greek are foreign-imposed identities that have negative connotations, pointing out that in some dictionaries Greek also means 'an avaricious thief.'
He believes that the name of the nation should officially be changed to one that is already familiar to foreigners through words like philhellene and Hellenic.
"I'm not totally negative about Greece and Greek - they're synonyms for Hellenic and Hellene", Alexopoulos concedes. "But...each people, each nation, has its own right to determine its own identity and its own name. This is self determination."
Alexopoulos thinks that a series of small steps can make a big difference. Germany for instance is known internally and officially as Deutschland, and the letter "D" appears on cars, and "de" is the dot-com designation. Yet the Hellenic Republic's cars have "G" and use "gr" on the Internet. "I'm asking my compatriots why they should be such xenophiles and accept the name others give to us."
Alexopoulos also points out that there is already a haphazard use of the words Greece and Hellas, from embassy stationery and company names like Hellenic Post, to finding information on the web. "Let's put some order in our name," he says. "We're in a digital civilization, and to be exact is very important....And if we have to choose, let's choose the right one."
Like multinational company names that remain the same, regardless of the countries they set up in, Alexopoulos believes that Hellas should be officially adopted and safeguraded before a private firm or anyone else ('Macedonia-fashion') decides to "copyright" it.
"Nobody can stop them from doing that", he says, "because Hellas is not officially registered with international organizations."
Alexopoulos is pleased with some progress that he has made: an Hellas society was set up by the Foundation of Hellenic Culture
(see, www.foundationhellenicculture.com) in 1996, passports now read Hellenic Republic ("thanks to my efforts, I think") and his meeting with President Costis Stephanopoulos and Athens Olympic Committee President Gianna Angelopolou have been favourable, though not clinching. His fervent hope now is that "the state will make an official decision that Hellas is our official name, and that's how we're going to appear everywhere."
As for how tourists would take to Greece's "new" name, Alexopoulos thinks they'd soon get used to it. "I'm not of the opinion that I should use the name that's well-known abroad just because some officials or customs officers don't know what the Hellenic Republic is, or that for marketing purposes I should satify them. No. This is a great chance for them to know what I already know."
Oddysey Magazine. No. 63. Jan/Feb edition. p. 24.
See, http://www.odyssey.gr
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Thank you, John Vickers, for granting kythera-island.net permission to reprint material from Odyssey magazine.
