ABSTRACT
Greek revolutionaries adopted the modern idea of constructing public monuments to honor the war dead, “great men” or significant events. Even before the creation of the nation-state but mainly after 1830, rival local and social groups sought to control collective memory through a series of commemorative acts. Chapter 2 focuses on memorials and statues commemorating the Greek Revolution and its protagonists erected in Greek cities till the early 20th century. The main function of these monuments was their visibility, in accordance with the widespread belief that national monuments should have a pedagogical role in modeling proper behavior. Who made the decision to construct the statue or memorial, who funded the project, at which site in the city was it to be placed, and how “visible” would it be to residents? The chapter investigates not only emblematic statues of “heroes”, but also absences and policies of forgetting. The “biographies” of the monuments, the role of the state, the mnemonic practices of the University of Athens and the initiatives of local elites and diaspora Greeks are analyzed in order to understand how the memory of the War of Independence was negotiated and how the past was commemorated, represented and accommodated in the present.
