ABSTRACT
The most striking development to have taken place in Greek national ideology during the nineteenth century is the complete metamorphosis of attitudes towards the Byzantine period. In this paper I shall examine the views of Greek scholars on the language of medieval Greek texts and the relation between these views and the modern Greek language controversy. I shall focus first on Adamantios Korais in the early decades of the nineteenth century, and secondly on the controversy between G. N. Hatzidakis and Giannis Psycharis at the end of the century, and I shall show how the difference between the earlier and the later views reflects the changes that occurred in mid-century in the Greek intellectual elite's attitude to Byzantium and its place in Greek history.
