In Greece there is an ambiguous and historically complex relationship with Europe and “Western” culture. “Modern Greeks”: As the writer Nikos Dimou explains in his book “Apology of an Anti-Greek” (in Greek), Europe asked them to be European, while foreign lovers of Greek asked them to be ancient Greeks.

And, as Herzfeld pointed out in his work “Anthropology Through the Looking-Glass”, it should not be forgotten that today’s Greece needs to put the word “modern” or “contemporary” before its name, in order to convince its “admirers” that in Greece one can still find people [note -ancient Greeks, that is] who are still alive (Herzfeld 1987).

Reference

Cretan Music. “Unraveling Ariadne’s Thread”. Maria Hnaraki. Publisher: Kerkyra, 2007