I do not claim to say anything new about the Greek Revolution - most things have been said and will be said by others, who are much more knowledgeable. But I feel the need to reflect, not so much with my measured historical knowledge, but rather with the paradoxical knowledge that literature bestows, on what this miracle is in which the seed of tragedy nests from the beginning: suddenly the oldest country in Europe, which was thought dead, rises from its ashes. And yet, this miracle will not cease to be undermined, to be frustrated - but also to be reborn - again and again in the two hundred years of modern Greek life. What does this radical rupture mean for us, the Greeks of today, in the three-thousand-year history of this country? What does such a disruptive break represent for timeless Greece in the primordial way of our common life? How deeply has it transformed us in two centuries? What have we gained and what have we lost since we were inevitably included in the dance of the nations of modern Europe? Do the impressive progress we have made since then, through countless trials, refutations, contradictions, and disasters, justify our existence in today's world? And what can this story teach Europe about itself?

G. K.