ABSTRACT
Classics has incorporated social and cultural patterns in society as a whole and has reflected them back, to provide powerful support for the notion of Europe possessing a categorical superiority over all other continents, which in turn justifies imperialism or neo-colonialism as missions civilisatrices. In northern Europe, the years from 1815 to 1830 were outstanding for their political reaction and their religious revival. By the end of the eighteenth century the Ancient Greeks were felt in some way to represent the childhood of Europe. European expansion and the arrogance and optimism that flowed from it were also important in the new predominance of the notion of progress, which itself affected attitudes towards the Ancient Model. In the new period, the image of the Greeks changed from one of intermediaries, who had transmitted some part of the civilization and wisdom of the East to the West, into one of them as the creators of civilization.
