...And Dreams Are Dreams

“It was rumored today that Palmerston will only accept the intervention of France. It is an unofficial rumor. What is certain is that Europe took a very dim view of the actions of the English fleet. An article from the French newspaper Debates, sent from Trieste, speaks acrimoniously of England. Notes were exchanged once again between the British ambassador and the Greek government concerning the islands Sapíentza and Elafónissos. But the problem of the islets is insignificant. The important issue is to have satisfaction. The compensation of Don Pacifico is a question of honor, according to the English, and for this I fear there will be terrible consequences. As an impartial spectator, I will await, with tears in my eyes, the fate of our nation.”

The captain of the past is anything but impartial.

It is painful for him, as a neo-Hellene of unknown descent, to accept destiny “in the Greek way.” “If it be destined for this land to be enslaved again and lose its independence, then let us prepare to suffer this ordeal

‘in the Greek way.’”

It was precisely here that the problem was posed, thought the narrator. What did the captain mean by “the Greek way”? This adverbial phrase had acquired a particular significance concerning the man’s feelings.

Would a Frenchman ever say, “we are suffering this new ordeal in the French way”? It was only concerning divorces that the phrase “Italian-style” stuck, and that was because under the Catholic Church they were forbidden. So was it forbidden for one to be a Greek in Greece? Or was Greece simply an idea and not a

reality, in which case, as an idea, “in the Greek way”