Από τις πολιτισμικές σταθερές : συλλογική ταυτότητα και κείμενο
Part of : Τεκμήριον : επιστημονική επετηρίδα του Τμήματος Αρχειονομίας και Βιβλιοθηκονομίας ; Vol.4, No.1, 2002, pages 109-136
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109-136
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Collective identity and text
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In this case-study the author deals with the ways collective identity is expressed during a long period of about two thousand years in the field of religion by means of symbolic personalities deriving or related to texts corresponding to values of élite and accepted by the local society.During the pagan period the members of the ruling class of the prosperous island of Corfu (Kerkyra, Greece), actually a Corinthian colony, chose to declare their resolution to turn backs on their burdensome metropolis by establishing the cult of the legendary Homeric king Alkinoos of the Phaeakes, completely correspondent to the naval skills and wealth of the locals:After the adoption of Christianity the local leading class, eager to produce a symbol relating the population to the triumph of Christianity, adopted as its champion the legendary personality of Saint Kerkyra, a Saint whose name is identical to that of the island. It is remarkable that most of Saint Kerkyra’s features were overlapping those of Sophocles’ Antigone, as the Saint’s Vita seems to be an outcome of the 10th century byzantine intellectual movement towards the study of classic literature.During the next centuries, when splintering tendencies were more and more apparent all over the Byzantine Empire, the local leading class, mainly Greek and Latin feudal lords, adopted a new symbol expressing their main political value, that is release from central authority. The new patron of the island since the 12th century was Arsenios, a renowned local bishop (actually the author of Saint Kerkyra’s Vita), incarnating the gradual emancipation of the local feudal class from central authorities either byzantine or angerin.
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