Stilian Korovilas
26 Heilbronner Str.
Esslingen, BW 73728
Germany
The Pluralism Project
Harvard University
2 Arrow St, 4th Floor
Cambridge MA
02138
Your page on Hellenismos
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
Recently, I read your page on Hellenismos, and I have to honestly admit that I was shocked.
As an ethnic Hellene, the appropriation of Hellenismos by paganism and other Western movements is not news to me. And given the experiences we have had with pagan colonialists, white supremacists and confused people who define their identity based on the melanin in their skin, I expect nothing different from them. But with your page, the distortion of Hellenismos or Hellenism, as my culture is called in the Western world, has reached an unprecedented level.
The reason for this lies in your affiliation with Harvard University that gives your page a semblance of credibility; but this appearance is quite illusory, since the entire premise of your text is wrong.
This is why I would like to set the picture straight:
1. Hellenismos is not a reconstructed religious practice. It is the indigenous culture of the Hellenic people, including our language, customs, ethnic religion and identity. The revitalization of Hellenic religion is embedded in a general effort of re-indigenizing Greek identity, known as “epanellinisi” (re-Hellenization).
2. Hellenismos is not linked in any way to “Hellenic Pagans” and their religious beliefs. Our religion is in no way affiliated with paganism or the New Age movement. On the contrary, we are well aware that paganism and the whole New Age industry lives on cultural appropriation and distortion that often manifests itself in the denial of Greek genocide or the effort to usurp our ethnonym (“Hellenic Pagans”) or eliminate our sovereignty over our own culture using the narrative of “Western civilization.” After all, this is why we defend our ways against colonialism. After our encounters with Turkish nationalism (1914-1923), Italian fascism (1940-1941), German nazism (1941-1944) and Bulgarian nationalism (1941-1944), we tend to react sensitively when it comes to our self-determination.
3. Our religion, like the rest of our culture, is constantly evolving in accordance with the state and needs of the Hellenic people. However, changes of this kind take place under the pressure of internal necessities and changing external conditions. They are not the result of other people’s individual desires and whims.
4. “Historical accuracy” and “innovations” are not contradictions. The best example of this is Georgios Gemistos-Plethon or the Hellenic Jacobins of the Ionian Islands during the years from 1797 to 1799. Against the background of the Hellenic understanding of tradition as a living presence, this is hardly surprising. However, we do not depend on paganism’s “innovative” or rather “Westernizing” ideas, since every re-indigenization begins with the decolonization of our minds.
5. Our ethnic religion remains important for us, no matter how “the modern world” views it. One of the reasons for this is that ethnic religions are an organic part of their people’s ethnic identity, natural environment and collective ethos. That is why Hellenic religion cannot be addressed separately from the larger context of Hellenic culture because it always entails our history, collective ethos and imagination. Paganism is a relatively new phenomenon that arose from occultism, which in turn arose from Western esoteric Christianity, encompassing all the Christian stereotypes of ethnic religions. Paganism is not part of Hellenismos and “Hellenic Pagans” are not participating in Hellenic ethos.
Therefore, I would like to ask you to stop giving the public a completely misleading and false image of Hellenismos. Please correct your text or remove the whole page.
It’s basically an affront to Hellenic culture but also a “slap in the face” for the scientific research of Greek history. Given your affiliation with Harvard University, your page on “Hellenismos” is weird and tragic.
Kind regards,
Stilian Korovilas
Hellenismos heute 