Classics in Greece: The Constructed Classical Imagination and the People Who Live Beneath the Parthenon

Classics in Greece: The Constructed Classical Imagination and the People Who Live Beneath the Parthenon: Introduction- +1 古典学在希腊：被建构的古典想象与生活在帕特农神庙下的人们 引言

第一次来到雅典的人，往往会产生一种奇妙的熟悉感。仿佛这座城市早已存在于我们的想象之中：洁白的大理石、帕特农神庙、民主、哲学，以及那些被不断重复的“西方文明起源”叙事。人们很容易相信，现代希腊与古希腊之间存在一条自然、连续而毫无断裂的历史线索。然而，当你真正长期生活在这里，进入它的大学、博物馆、学校与公共讨论之中，就会逐渐意识到：今天人们所看到的“古典希腊”，并不是一个单纯被保存下来的过去，而更像是一种在近代不断被筛选、重塑与重新讲述的文化构造。

Those who come to Athens for the first time often feel a strange sense of familiarity. It is as though the city had long since existed in our imagination: white marble, the Parthenon, democracy, philosophy, and those endlessly repeated narratives of the “origins of Western civilization.” It is easy to believe that between modern Greece and ancient Greece there runs a natural, continuous, unbroken historical line. Yet when one truly lives here for a long time, entering its universities, museums, schools, and public debates, one gradually realizes that the “classical Greece” people see today is not a past that has simply been preserved, but rather a cultural construction continually selected, reshaped, and retold in the modern era.

这种构造不仅存在于遗址与博物馆里，它同样深刻地影响着希腊的教育体系、民族认同、公共舆论，乃至人们对于“什么才算真正的希腊”的理解。从19世纪外国考古学校的建立，到围绕古希腊语教育持续不断的政治争论，再到近年来古DNA研究与数字人文的发展，“古典”始终不仅是一个学术对象，更是一种持续参与现实社会运作的力量。

This construction exists not only among ruins and in museums; it also profoundly affects Greece’s educational system, national identity, public opinion, and even people’s understanding of “what counts as truly Greek.” From the establishment of foreign archaeological schools in the nineteenth century, to the unceasing political debates over ancient Greek education, to recent developments in ancient DNA research and the digital humanities, the “classical” has never been merely an object of scholarship. It is also a force that continually participates in the workings of real society.

The Acropolis of Athens seen from the Acropolis Museum (photograph by the author). A Carefully Designed Athens从卫城博物馆远看雅典卫城（作者摄） 被精心设计的雅典

如果你是第一次来到雅典——无论是作为游客，还是一位满怀热情的古典学研究者——你大概会产生一种微妙的满足感：眼前的一切，几乎正是你“预先被教会去期待”的样子。

If this is your first time in Athens, whether as a tourist or as an impassioned scholar of classics, you will probably experience a subtle satisfaction: almost everything before your eyes is exactly as you have been taught in advance to expect.

你会看到一座被精心“复原”的古典时期雅典卫城（Acropolis），仿佛它自始至终就该如此纯粹、如此统一。然而，这座建筑在历史上曾经经历过教堂、清真寺乃至火药库等多重形态。再往对面望去，是普尼克斯山（Pnyx），那座自公元前6世纪起承载雅典公民大会（Ekklesia）的象征性空间。沿着山坡向下，你还会遇到一个熟悉又略显荒谬的地方：“苏格拉底监狱”。考古学者早已“辟谣”，苏格拉底并非死于此处，但标牌依然安静地立在那里。于是，几乎每一位游客都会问出同一个问题：“他真的死在这里吗？”

You will see a carefully “restored” Acropolis of classical Athens, as though it had always been meant to be so pure, so unified. Yet historically this complex had passed through multiple forms: church, mosque, even powder magazine. Looking across from it, you see the Pnyx, the symbolic space that, from the sixth century BCE onward, housed the Athenian citizens’ assembly, the Ekklesia. Down the slope, you will also encounter a familiar and faintly absurd place: “Socrates’ Prison.” Archaeologists have long since debunked the claim: Socrates did not die here. But the sign still stands quietly in place. And so almost every tourist asks the same question: “Did he really die here?”

某种程度上，这正是这个城市最成功的地方。

In a certain sense, this is precisely the city’s greatest success.

因为你所看到的“雅典”，并不是一个简单的历史遗址，而是一套被精心编排、反复强化的叙事结构。文化部当然参与其中，但如果要追溯源头，这种叙事远早于现代国家机器的形成。早在巴伐利亚王子奥托（Otto of Bavaria）抵达希腊之前，德国古典学家弗里德里希·蒂尔施（Friedrich Thiersch）就已经开始构想“现代希腊应当成为古代希腊的延续”。随后，参与卫城修复的建筑师莱奥·冯·克伦策（Leo von Klenze）等人，将这种想象具体化为城市景观。

For the “Athens” you see is not a simple historical site, but a carefully arranged and repeatedly reinforced narrative structure. The Ministry of Culture is, of course, involved in it, but if one traces its origins, this narrative long predates the formation of the modern state apparatus. Before Otto of Bavaria ever arrived in Greece, the German classical scholar Friedrich Thiersch had already begun to imagine that “modern Greece ought to become the continuation of ancient Greece.” Later, architects involved in restoring the Acropolis, including Leo von Klenze, materialized this imagination as an urban landscape.

这不是简单的复原，而是一种选择性的重构。

This was not simple restoration, but a selective reconstruction.

古希腊，尤其是所谓“黄金时代”的遗产，在这个过程中逐渐被固定为民族身份的核心资源。它既是历史证据，也是象征资本（symbolic capital）。人们在谈论“希腊”时所想到的，并不是全部历史，而是一个经过筛选、提纯、甚至理想化的版本。正如美国作家威廉·福克纳（William Faulkner）所说：“过去从未死去，它甚至从未过去。”（The past is not dead. It is not even past.）而历史学家理查德·斯托尼曼（Richard Stoneman）则更直白地指出：这个国家与古代的关系，往往强于与当下的联系。

Ancient Greece, and especially the heritage of the so-called “Golden Age,” was gradually fixed in this process as a core resource of national identity. It was both historical evidence and symbolic capital. When people speak of “Greece,” what they have in mind is not the whole of history, but a selected, purified, even idealized version of it. As the American writer William Faulkner said, “The past is not dead. It is not even past.” The historian Richard Stoneman put it even more bluntly: this country’s relationship with antiquity is often stronger than its connection to the present.

有时候，这种关系甚至会变得有些滑稽。

At times, this relationship can even become rather comical.

我曾经真的被朋友一本正经地问过一句：“所以……希腊人是不是都长得像神一样?”这其实不是玩笑，而是一种长期文化想象慢慢形成、最后被大家默认的期待。

I was once asked, quite seriously, by a friend: “So... do Greeks all look like gods?” This was not really a joke, but an expectation slowly formed over a long period of cultural imagining and eventually taken for granted.

在现实中，这种“古典想象”的延续呈现出各种形式：一方面，你会看到一些人尝试复兴古希腊多神信仰（Hellenic polytheism），在山林间对着以神祇命名的洞穴吟唱；另一方面，媒体上不断出现“重大发现”的标题——某年发现亚里士多德之墓（2023），某年又接近确认亚历山大大帝的埋葬地（2025）。这些消息往往在学术上仍存在巨大争议，却已经在公众层面获得了某种“事实地位”。

In reality, this continuation of the “classical imagination” appears in various forms. On the one hand, one sees people attempting to revive ancient Greek polytheism, chanting in the mountains and forests before caves named after the gods. On the other, the media continually produces headlines about “major discoveries”: one year Aristotle’s tomb is discovered (2023); another year the burial place of Alexander the Great is said to be close to confirmation (2025). Such news often remains highly disputed in scholarly terms, yet at the public level it has already acquired a certain “factual” status.

更值得注意的是，这种对古典遗产的执着，有时甚至会跨越文化边界，形成一种近乎荒诞的扩张。例如，一家面向全球数千万希腊侨民的媒体Greek Reporter，曾公开宣称中国的兵马俑受到古希腊艺术的启发。这类说法通常建立在极为松散的视觉类比之上——例如“写实风格”或“人体比例”。这其实不仅仅是一种学术上的过度推演，它背后某种程度上也反映了一种文化话语的投射——人们总倾向于把其他文明的发展，重新纳入“古典希腊影响世界”这一熟悉的叙事框架之中。

Still more worthy of attention is that this fixation on classical heritage sometimes crosses cultural boundaries, forming a nearly absurd expansion. Greek Reporter, a media outlet aimed at tens of millions of Greeks in the global diaspora, once openly claimed that China’s Terracotta Warriors were inspired by ancient Greek art. Claims of this kind are usually built on extremely loose visual analogies, such as “realistic style” or “bodily proportions.” This is not merely an instance of scholarly overextension; behind it, to some extent, lies the projection of a cultural discourse. People are always inclined to reincorporate the development of other civilizations into the familiar narrative frame of “classical Greece influencing the world.”

与此同时，近年来关于古DNA的研究也引发了不少关注。这些研究本身具有重要价值，但在实际操作中，往往依赖于数量有限且分布不均的样本，并受到时间跨度、地理范围以及数据解释模型的限制。然而，在媒体传播过程中，这些复杂条件往往被简化为一个高度确定性的结论——例如“现代希腊人与古希腊人具有直接且纯粹的血缘连续性”。这种叙述不仅忽略了历史上的人口流动与混合，也在无形中强化了一种生物学意义上的民族本质主义（biological essentialism）。

At the same time, research on ancient DNA has also attracted considerable attention in recent years. Such research is itself of great value, but in practice it often depends on samples that are limited in number and unevenly distributed, and it is constrained by time span, geographic scope, and models of data interpretation. Yet in media circulation, these complex conditions are often simplified into a conclusion of high certainty: for example, that “modern Greeks have a direct and pure bloodline continuity with ancient Greeks.” This narrative not only ignores the population movements and mixtures of history, but also invisibly reinforces a form of biological essentialism about the nation.

正如我在雅典大学的博士导师，古典考古学家迪米特里斯·普兰佐斯（Dimitris Plantzos）所指出的，这种倾向带来一种微妙的反转：希腊人不仅需要“继承”这份古典遗产，还必须不断证明自己“配得上”它。

As my doctoral supervisor at the University of Athens, the classical archaeologist Dimitris Plantzos, has pointed out, this tendency brings about a subtle reversal: Greeks not only have to “inherit” this classical legacy; they must also continually prove themselves “worthy” of it.

这种逻辑，在教育体系中体现得尤为明显。

This logic is especially evident in the educational system.

A Divided Educational System撕裂的教育体系

从历史角度看，自1821年独立战争之后，希腊开始建立公共教育体系，以在奥斯曼帝国统治的断裂之后重建民族认同与文化连续性。随着西欧君主的引入，希腊的国家建构逐渐进入一个由外部力量深度塑形的阶段。1821–1829年希腊独立战争结束后，新生国家在政治与制度上仍高度不稳定。1832年，在英、法、俄三大列强的干预下，巴伐利亚王子奥托（Otto of Bavaria）被选为希腊的第一任国王，这一安排标志着希腊从奥斯曼帝国的统治中脱离后，并未完全走向自主的民族国家模式，而是在很大程度上被纳入西欧政治秩序之中。

Historically, after the War of Independence in 1821, Greece began to establish a public education system in order to rebuild national identity and cultural continuity after the rupture of Ottoman rule. With the introduction of a Western European monarch, Greek state-building gradually entered a stage deeply shaped by external forces. After the Greek War of Independence of 1821-1829 ended, the new state remained highly unstable politically and institutionally. In 1832, under the intervention of the three great powers, Britain, France, and Russia, Otto of Bavaria was chosen as Greece’s first king. This arrangement marked the fact that, after breaking away from Ottoman rule, Greece did not move wholly toward an autonomous nation-state model, but was to a large extent incorporated into the political order of Western Europe.

在奥托尚未成年时期（1833–1835），希腊实际上由巴伐利亚摄政团统治。这一阶段不仅在行政、法律与军事制度上引入西欧模式，同时也在文化与教育领域推动一种以古典希腊为核心的国家认同建构。在某种“隐性殖民”（crypto-colonialism）的框架下（Michael Herzfeld, 2002），这种由外部主导的现代化路径，延续并强化了第一任总统卡波迪斯特里亚斯（Ioannis Kapodistrias）时期已初步形成的国家建设方向，但同时也将希腊牢牢置于一种“被想象为古典延续体”的位置。

During Otto’s minority (1833-1835), Greece was in effect ruled by a Bavarian regency. This phase not only introduced Western European models into administration, law, and the military; in the fields of culture and education, it also promoted the construction of a national identity centered on classical Greece. Within a framework of “crypto-colonialism” (Michael Herzfeld, 2002), this externally led path of modernization continued and strengthened the direction of state-building already initially formed under the first president, Ioannis Kapodistrias, while also firmly placing Greece in the position of being “imagined as a classical continuation.”

此后，尽管奥托于1863年被废黜，由丹麦王子威廉（Prince William of Denmark，后为乔治一世King George I）继位，希腊在王权更替与领土扩张中逐步巩固国家结构（如1913年巴尔干战争后获得伊庇鲁斯、马其顿、克里特等地区），但这种早期由西欧主导的制度与文化框架并未根本改变。

Thereafter, although Otto was deposed in 1863 and succeeded by Prince William of Denmark, later King George I, and although Greece gradually consolidated its state structure through changes in monarchy and territorial expansion, including the acquisition of Epirus, Macedonia, Crete, and other regions after the Balkan Wars in 1913, this early institutional and cultural framework led by Western Europe did not fundamentally change.

受德国“古典学体系”（Altertumswissenschaft）以及巴伐利亚国王路德维希一世（Ludwig I）的古典理想影响，希腊教育被塑造成高度以古典为中心的结构。例如，早期学校教材普遍使用古希腊语，随后演变为“纯正语”（katharevousa），并一直持续至1976年才被废除。正如斯托尼曼所批评的，这种教育模式“充满古典主义的怀旧情绪，却对现实中的人民缺乏关注”。

Under the influence of the German system of classical studies, Altertumswissenschaft, and the classical ideals of the Bavarian king Ludwig I, Greek education was shaped into a highly classicocentric structure. Early school textbooks, for example, commonly used ancient Greek; this later evolved into katharevousa, or “purist” Greek, which was not abolished until 1976. As Stoneman criticized, this educational model was “full of classicizing nostalgia, yet lacking concern for the people in reality.”

这种教育模式在20世纪之后逐渐发生调整。随着经济发展以及加入欧盟，技术与职业教育逐步发展，教育路径也更加多元。然而，人文主义与古典教育依然处于核心位置。正如埃夫斯塔西奥斯·凯萨雷亚斯（Efstathios Kessareas, 2021）所指出的，古典古代构成了“希腊民族连续性意识形态(diachronic continuity)的基础”。因此，围绕古希腊语教学的争论，从来不只是课程设置问题，而是一个关于国家认同的结构性冲突。1976年首次改革后，1992年在围绕“马其顿命名争议”的民族主义背景下，古希腊语重新进入初中课程。此后，关于古希腊语教学的争论愈发激烈，尤其是在2016年前后，左翼政党SYRIZA试图减少古希腊语课时、取消书面考试，并以社会学取代拉丁语课程，引发保守派与民族主义者（尤其与东正教传统相联系者）的强烈反对。在更深层来看，它实际上体现了两种不同的国家想象之间的对抗：一方试图将希腊重新置于现代社会语境中，强调教育的开放性、实用性与社会包容性；另一方则坚持一种以古典传统为核心的文化本质，认为语言与古代文本是维系民族存在的根基。这种分歧很快被政治化，并被压缩为极端的标签对立：

This educational model gradually changed after the twentieth century. With economic development and accession to the European Union, technical and vocational education gradually developed, and educational pathways became more diverse. Yet humanistic and classical education remained at the center. As Efstathios Kessareas (2021) has pointed out, classical antiquity constitutes the foundation of the ideology of “diachronic continuity” of the Greek nation. Thus the debate around ancient Greek instruction has never been merely a matter of curriculum design, but a structural conflict over national identity. After the first reform in 1976, ancient Greek reentered the junior high school curriculum in 1992, amid the nationalist context surrounding the “Macedonia naming dispute.” Thereafter, the debate over ancient Greek instruction became ever more intense, especially around 2016, when the left-wing party SYRIZA attempted to reduce class hours for ancient Greek, abolish written examinations, and replace Latin courses with sociology, provoking fierce opposition from conservatives and nationalists, especially those connected to the Orthodox tradition. At a deeper level, this in fact embodied a confrontation between two different imaginations of the nation: one side sought to reposition Greece within the context of modern society, emphasizing openness, practicality, and social inclusion in education; the other insisted on a cultural essence centered on classical tradition, regarding language and ancient texts as the foundation that sustains national existence. This divergence was quickly politicized and compressed into an extreme opposition of labels:

“崇古者”（Αρχαιολάτρες）vs.“反古者”（αρχαιομάχοι）。

“Worshippers of antiquity” (Archaiolatres) versus “fighters against antiquity” (archaiomachoi).

希腊教育改革派认为，在经济危机与后独裁时代背景下，应推动教育的民主化，反对古典教育的“精英主义排他性”；强调当代社会的实用性需求；并批评古希腊语教学流于形式，缺乏对“本质”（οὐσία）的理解，与现代希腊社会现实脱节。而持反对意见的人士则强调，古希腊语是民族自豪感与身份认同的核心。如语言学家巴比尼奥提斯（Babiniotis）所言，它承载着“希腊精神与生活经验”（βίωση），体现了“希腊性”（Ελληνικότητα）的本质。在他们看来，希腊学生天然具备与古代语言的“历时连续性”，学习成本远低于外国人。

Greek educational reformers believe that, against the background of economic crisis and the post-dictatorship era, education should be democratized and the “elitist exclusivity” of classical education opposed. They emphasize the practical needs of contemporary society and criticize ancient Greek instruction for becoming formalistic, lacking an understanding of “essence” (ousia), and being disconnected from the realities of modern Greek society. Those who oppose them stress that ancient Greek is central to national pride and identity. As the linguist Babiniotis has said, it carries the “Greek spirit and lived experience” (viosi) and embodies the essence of “Greekness” (Ellinikotita). In their view, Greek students naturally possess a “diachronic continuity” with the ancient language, and the cost of learning it is far lower for them than for foreigners.

舆论愈演愈烈，一些支持古典教育的公众人物会强调古希腊语对思维能力的提升，甚至声称其有助于“神经突触发展”；而反对者则批评这种教育方式排他、形式化，并脱离现实生活。双方的语言逐渐升级：改革者被称为“反希腊人”（ανθέλληνες），而传统主义者则被讽刺为“民族狂热的古典迷恋者”（εθνοβαρεμένοι αρχαιόπληκτοι）。它将复杂的教育问题转化为道德判断：要么你捍卫“神圣传统”，要么你背叛民族。

Public opinion intensified. Some public figures who supported classical education emphasized ancient Greek’s capacity to improve thinking, even claiming that it contributed to “the development of neural synapses.” Opponents criticized this mode of education as exclusionary, formalistic, and detached from real life. The language of both sides gradually escalated: reformers were called “anti-Greeks” (anthellenes), while traditionalists were mocked as “nationalistically deranged classical obsessives” (ethnovaremenoi archaiopliktoi). The effect was to transform a complex educational issue into a moral judgment: either you defend “sacred tradition,” or you betray the nation.

The key to this debate lies not in who is “right” or “wrong,” but in the deeper problem it reveals:这场争论的关键，不在于谁“对”谁“错”，而在于它揭示了一个更深层的问题：

古典遗产究竟是一个可以被重新诠释的文化资源，还是一个必须被守护的神圣本体？如果雅典是一种被建构的古典图景，那么问题并不在于它是否真实，而在于：谁在建构它，又为何必须如此被建构。

Is classical heritage a cultural resource that can be reinterpreted, or a sacred ontology that must be guarded? If Athens is a constructed classical image, then the question is not whether it is real, but rather: who is constructing it, and why must it be constructed in this way?

Foreign Archaeological Schools and Local Educational Practice外国考古学校与本土教育实践

在高等教育与研究层面，希腊拥有约17所外国考古学校：最早的是1846年的法国学校，其后有1872年的德国学院、1881年的美国古典学院，以及2024年新成立的中国古典学院。这些机构虽以考古与物质文化为主，但实际上也广泛参与古典文学与历史研究。相比较，普林斯顿与哈佛大学在雅典设有的研究中心则更专注于古典学与人文传统。从长时段来看，外国考古学校在希腊不仅在学术领域，也在公共层面深刻影响了人们对“古代”的理解方式。一方面，这些机构通过公开讲座、儿童教育活动、遗址导览等形式持续面向社会开展传播，同时在雅典建立并维护高水平的图书馆与档案资源，使古代史与考古学的知识得以超越学术圈层，进入更广泛的公众视野。它们主持或参与的长期发掘项目，往往转化为具有标志性的考古遗址，例如法国雅典学院（École française d'Athènes）与德尔斐（Delphi）的关联、德国考古研究所（German Archaeological Institute）与奥林匹亚（Olympia）的发掘，这些关系甚至通过博物馆标识与现场说明被明确呈现，进一步强化了其国家研究所在公共记忆中的存在。

At the level of higher education and research, Greece has approximately seventeen foreign archaeological schools. The earliest was the French School, founded in 1846; it was followed by the German institute in 1872, the American School of Classical Studies in 1881, and the newly established Chinese Institute of Classical Studies in 2024. Although these institutions are primarily concerned with archaeology and material culture, in practice they also participate extensively in research on classical literature and history. By comparison, the research centers established in Athens by Princeton and Harvard focus more specifically on classics and the humanistic tradition. Over the longue duree, foreign archaeological schools in Greece have profoundly influenced, not only in the academic sphere but also at the public level, the ways people understand “antiquity.” On the one hand, these institutions continue to communicate with society through public lectures, children’s educational activities, guided tours of sites, and other forms, while also establishing and maintaining high-level libraries and archival resources in Athens. In this way, knowledge of ancient history and archaeology has been able to move beyond academic circles and enter a wider public field of vision. The long-term excavation projects they lead or participate in often become emblematic archaeological sites: for example, the association of the Ecole francaise d’Athenes with Delphi, and the excavations of the German Archaeological Institute at Olympia. Such relationships are even explicitly presented through museum labels and on-site explanations, further strengthening the presence of these national research institutes in public memory.

另一方面，这些外国学校也深度嵌入希腊本土的学术与职业体系之中。它们不仅提供奖学金与培训机会，也创造了大量本地就业岗位，其中不乏在海外接受教育后回流的希腊学者。同时，其研究活动受到希腊国家严格监管——尤其是在《3028/2002号法》框架下，所有古物被界定为国家不可转让的财产，发掘许可、保护与展示均由文化部集中管理，外国机构必须通过正式审批程序方可开展工作。在这一制度环境下，外国考古学校的作用并不能简单理解为推动“古物崇拜”（antiquarianism）。相反，它们在很大程度上通过引入实验室考古与跨学科方法，提升了希腊考古研究的整体水平。例如英国雅典学院的Fitch实验室与美国古典研究学院的Wiener实验室，推动了希腊考古学与化学、地质学、生物学、人类学等领域的交叉融合。可以说，这些机构一方面延续并强化了古代在公共文化中的核心地位，另一方面也在方法论层面不断重塑“如何研究古代”，从而对希腊乃至国际考古学实践产生了深远影响。

On the other hand, these foreign schools are also deeply embedded in Greece’s local academic and professional systems. They not only provide scholarships and training opportunities, but also create a large number of local jobs, including positions for Greek scholars who return after being educated abroad. At the same time, their research activities are strictly regulated by the Greek state. Under Law 3028/2002 in particular, all antiquities are defined as inalienable property of the state, and excavation permits, protection, and display are centrally managed by the Ministry of Culture. Foreign institutions can carry out work only through formal approval procedures. In this institutional environment, the role of foreign archaeological schools cannot be understood simply as the promotion of “antiquarianism.” On the contrary, to a great extent they have raised the overall level of archaeological research in Greece by introducing laboratory archaeology and interdisciplinary methods. The Fitch Laboratory of the British School at Athens and the Wiener Laboratory of the American School of Classical Studies, for example, have promoted the integration of Greek archaeology with chemistry, geology, biology, anthropology, and other fields. It can be said that, on the one hand, these institutions continue and strengthen the central position of antiquity in public culture; on the other, at the methodological level, they continually reshape “how antiquity is studied,” thereby exerting a far-reaching influence on archaeological practice in Greece and internationally.

在希腊本土，最重要的古典研究机构包括：希腊考古局、雅典大学古典语学系、雅典考古学会，以及较新的雅典科学院与国家研究基金会。此外，雅典大学近年来推出的英文授课本科项目，将考古学、历史与古典语学整合为一体，强调学生直接阅读古希腊原典，并正在筹备在塞浦路斯设立分支，逐渐受到国际关注。对于希腊本地人，想要进入各大学的语文学或历史与考古学系学习，学生必须通过一项较为严格的“最低录取基准”（EBE）。这一制度在近年来直接导致相关专业的报考人数明显下降。与此同时，在社会观念层面，这些学科也逐渐被视为“就业前景有限”的选择，许多希腊家庭更倾向于鼓励子女进入技术性更强、收入更高的职业路径（Markantonatos, 2024）。不过，这并不意味着古典学在人们心中完全失去价值。相反，在求职市场中，拥有古典学或语文学背景的毕业生，依然被认为具备较高的文化素养与综合能力，因此在一些不要求特定专业技能的岗位申请中，仍然具有一定的优势与社会认可度。

Within Greece itself, the most important institutions for classical research include the Greek Archaeological Service, the Department of Philology at the University of Athens, the Archaeological Society at Athens, and the newer Academy of Athens and National Research Foundation. In addition, the English-taught undergraduate program launched in recent years by the University of Athens integrates archaeology, history, and classical philology, emphasizes students’ direct reading of ancient Greek originals, and is preparing to establish a branch in Cyprus; it has gradually attracted international attention. For local Greeks who wish to enter departments of philology or history and archaeology at universities, students must pass a relatively strict “minimum admission threshold” (EBE). In recent years, this system has directly led to a marked decline in the number of applicants to related majors. At the same time, at the level of social attitudes, these disciplines have gradually come to be seen as choices with “limited employment prospects,” and many Greek families are more inclined to encourage their children to enter more technical and higher-income career paths (Markantonatos, 2024). This does not mean, however, that classics has entirely lost its value in people’s minds. On the contrary, in the job market, graduates with backgrounds in classics or philology are still considered to possess relatively high cultural literacy and broad capacities; therefore, in applications for some positions that do not require specific professional skills, they still enjoy a certain advantage and degree of social recognition.

如果具体来看希腊语授课的本科课程设置，可以发现其内部结构呈现出一种相对稳定的学科分布。除语言学理论课程与教育学训练等辅助性内容外，课程体系在古典语文学（古希腊与拉丁文学）、拜占庭文学以及现代希腊文学之间维持着一种“结构性的平衡”。例如，在雅典大学的一年级课程中，古希腊文学课程通常为4门，而现代希腊文学为3门，拜占庭文学为2门。这种课程安排与英美体系形成了鲜明对比。在后者中，语言学往往逐渐成为核心方法论之一，而在希腊语境下，它更多作为支持性工具存在。更重要的是，这种课程结构本身并不仅仅是学科划分的结果，而是在制度层面上体现出一种特定的知识观：即通过让学生在古代、拜占庭与现代之间不断往返，来强化一种文化与语言“连续性”的认知。即便学生在后期选择古典方向进行专业化学习，他们仍然必须在整个学习过程中接触多个历史阶段。然而，这种“全时段覆盖”的培养模式，也在一定程度上带来了反向效果。一部分学生会选择前往英美等国家继续深造，因为这些体系通常提供更为聚焦的训练路径，例如直接以古典学为核心展开深入研究，而非在多个历史阶段之间进行分配式学习。这种对“专业化”与“集中性”的追求，也在某种程度上反映了不同学术传统之间的结构性差异。

If one looks specifically at the structure of Greek-taught undergraduate curricula, one finds a relatively stable distribution of disciplines. Apart from auxiliary content such as theoretical linguistics courses and pedagogical training, the curriculum maintains a “structural balance” among classical philology (ancient Greek and Latin literature), Byzantine literature, and modern Greek literature. In first-year courses at the University of Athens, for example, there are usually four courses in ancient Greek literature, three in modern Greek literature, and two in Byzantine literature. This arrangement forms a sharp contrast with the British and American systems. In the latter, linguistics often gradually becomes one of the core methodologies, whereas in the Greek context it exists more as a supporting tool. More importantly, this curriculum structure itself is not merely the result of disciplinary division; at the institutional level, it embodies a particular conception of knowledge: by having students constantly move back and forth among antiquity, Byzantium, and the modern period, it reinforces an understanding of cultural and linguistic “continuity.” Even if students later choose to specialize in classics, they must still encounter multiple historical periods throughout their studies. Yet this model of training through “full-period coverage” also produces a reverse effect to some extent. Some students choose to go to Britain, the United States, and other countries for further study, because those systems usually provide a more focused training path, such as in-depth research centered directly on classics, rather than distributed study among multiple historical periods. This pursuit of “specialization” and “concentration” also reflects, to some extent, structural differences among academic traditions.

与此同时，也存在众多民间组织，如希腊古典语学者协会、泛希腊古典语学者联盟等。在跨文明比较研究的启发下，由我与来自希腊、美国和德国的多位学者共同发起的“雅典跨学科人文与考古中心”（Centre for Interdisciplinary Humanities and Archaeology），则致力于通过密集课程，将古希腊哲学与考古与中国文明进行比较研究，探索更加多元的古典学路径。

At the same time, there are many civil organizations, such as the Association of Greek Philologists and the Panhellenic Union of Philologists. Inspired by comparative research across civilizations, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Humanities and Archaeology, which I initiated together with several scholars from Greece, the United States, and Germany, is committed to using intensive courses to place ancient Greek philosophy and archaeology in comparative study with Chinese civilization, exploring more plural paths for classics.

最后，从新兴的数字人文学科发展来看，相较于美国或英国，希腊在数字技术与人文学科的整合仍处于发展阶段，但已经逐步展开。当前的发展主要集中在数字文本编辑、文本编码以及在线语料库的建设。同时，全国范围内的档案与馆藏数字化工作也在推进，这些项目往往依托欧洲层面的基础设施，例如DARIAH（欧洲数字人文研究网络）以及CLARIN（语言资源与技术基础设施），为语言数据与人文研究提供支持。在教育层面，相关项目仍然相对有限。其中较具代表性的，是由雅典大学、雅典娜研究中心与塞浦路斯大学联合开设的数字人文硕士项目，其课程涵盖增强型文本研究、地理信息系统以及三维技术，体现出跨学科整合的趋势。

Finally, from the perspective of the emerging development of the digital humanities, Greece, compared with the United States or Britain, is still at a developing stage in the integration of digital technology and the humanities, but this integration has already begun to unfold. Current development is mainly concentrated in digital text editing, text encoding, and the construction of online corpora. At the same time, digitization of archives and collections is also being advanced nationwide. These projects often rely on European-level infrastructures, such as DARIAH, the European digital humanities research network, and CLARIN, the infrastructure for language resources and technology, which provide support for language data and humanities research. At the educational level, related programs remain relatively limited. One representative example is the master’s program in digital humanities jointly offered by the University of Athens, the Athena Research Center, and the University of Cyprus; its curriculum covers enhanced textual studies, geographic information systems, and three-dimensional technologies, reflecting a trend toward interdisciplinary integration.

在研究实践方面，也已出现一些具有代表性的项目。例如，由希腊研究者参与开发、并与Google DeepMind合作的Ithaca项目，致力于修复残缺铭文文本，被视为人工智能与古典学结合的重要突破（https://predictingthepast.com/ithaca）。此外，克里特大学正在推进的TALOS项目，则聚焦于语义标注、文物分类以及基于自然语言处理（NLP）与机器学习（ML）的语料分析，旨在进一步推动人文学科的数据化与数字化发展。

In research practice, some representative projects have also appeared. For example, the Ithaca project, developed with the participation of Greek researchers and in collaboration with Google DeepMind, is devoted to restoring fragmentary inscriptional texts and is regarded as an important breakthrough in the combination of artificial intelligence and classics (https://predictingthepast.com/ithaca). In addition, the TALOS project currently being advanced by the University of Crete focuses on semantic annotation, artifact classification, and corpus analysis based on natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML), with the aim of further promoting the datafication and digitization of the humanities.

总体来看，在希腊语境中，古典学正逐渐与考古学及文化遗产研究发生更为紧密的交叉与融合，但与此同时，它依然作为一个具有强大制度基础与学术影响力的核心学科而存在。

Overall, in the Greek context, classics is gradually entering into closer intersection and integration with archaeology and cultural heritage studies. At the same time, it continues to exist as a core discipline with a powerful institutional foundation and scholarly influence.

笔者手持里拉琴站在雅典学院前：左侧为19世纪重新塑造的柏拉图雕像，后方立柱上的雅典娜象征着城市守护神，而整座建筑则以新古典主义风格重构了人们对于“古希腊”的视觉想象。

The author stands holding a lyre in front of the Academy of Athens: on the left is the statue of Plato reshaped in the nineteenth century; Athena, atop the column behind, symbolizes the city’s patron deity; and the entire building reconstructs, in neoclassical style, people’s visual imagination of “ancient Greece.”

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