Past and present in the history of modern Greek diaspora

Until recently most of what has been written about various aspects of the history of modern Greek diaspora has been strongly coloured by their authors’ ideological or theoretical preconceptions. On the one hand, we have the older, idealistic interpretations of ‘continuity’, which, firmly entrenched in the style of traditional Greek historiography, view the historical evolution of the Hellenic diaspora as an inseparable, continuous and unbroken process, from the time of the ancient colonies to the present day (Dendias 1919; Fossey 1991). Of a similar type are those who seek the agents of the Greek migration phenomenon in areas like the ‘nature’ of the Greek ‘ethnic characteristics’ or – even worse – in the unique psychography and temperament of ‘Ulysses the Greek’.