The case of the angels.Tthe relevance of the research by classical scholar John Cuthbert Lawson (1874-1919) on modern Greek culture Cover Image

The case of the angels. The relevance of the research by classical scholar John Cuthbert Lawson (1874-1919) on modern Greek culture
The case of the angels.Tthe relevance of the research by classical scholar John Cuthbert Lawson (1874-1919) on modern Greek culture

Author(s): Michał Bzinkowski
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature
Published by: KSIĘGARNIA AKADEMICKA Sp. z o.o.
Keywords: Modern Greek literature; Modern Greek folk poetry; demotic songs; Modern Greek folklore; folk eschatology; personification of Death; Byzantine eschatology; Byzantine orthodoxy; reception of Antiquity

Summary/Abstract: In my paper I focus on the well-known John Cuthbert Lawson’s study about Modern Greek folklore (1910) and I venture to verify if it may be regarded as a reliable source of information about Greek folk beliefs. I base my argument on the eschatological remarks Lawson made concerning the personification of Death – Charos and his relationship to the Christian Angels. Confronting Lawson’s views and his source material with other similar demotic songs, mainly from the collections he had had access to, I try to show in what way the older collections of folk-songs might have distorted or falsified the eschatological images of Charos and the Angels, and what he overlooked while analyzing the sources. I also shed some light on possible influences of Byzantine orthodoxy on Modern Greek folk tradition to which Greek demotic songs belong.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 18
  • Page Range: 83-110
  • Page Count: 28
  • Language: English