The lecture will focus on an aspect of the Greek War of Independence that calls for answers to questions as basic as they are elusive. What role did the Byzantine heritage play in conceptualizing, representing, or animating the struggle against the Ottoman Empire? What strands of Byzantium were foregrounded and through which mechanisms did they find a place in the collective imaginary of the period? In what ways was that process of reception and signification manifested, and to what extent? How can it be studied and properly understood today?

The event is co-sponsored by the UCLA SNF Hellenic Center and Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC. Her Excellency Alexandra Papadopoulou, Ambassador of Greece to the United States will provide opening remarks.

Nikos Panou is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and Peter V. Tsantes Endowed Professor in Hellenic Studies in the Department of English at Stony Brook University. His current research focuses on articulations of power and authority in pre-modern moral and political discourse, with emphasis on advice literature and related genres. He has written on topics ranging from Byzantine historiography to seventeenth-century satire, and has co-edited a volume on conceptions of tyranny from Antiquity to the Renaissance with Oxford University Press.

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