The Byzantine Humanists and the Rebirth of Hellenic Thought

The song is Μαζί σου - Mazi sou (with you), from Peggy Zina (Πέγκυ Ζήνα).

The Byzantine Humanists were intellectuals who gave birth to the last Byzantine Renaissance, with their zeal and love for Ancient Greek learning. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, most of them moved to Italy and Corsica, where they taught Ancient Greek to Italians. They also taught the works of Plato and Aristotle. It was through a rediscovery of Greek learning that Europe made achievements in science. This period was known as the Renaissance (literally, the Rebirth).

Humanists comes from the term Humanitas, used for the all encompassing education that was the foundation of Ancient Greek civilization.

These individuals include:
Theodore Methochites (Θεόδωρος Μετοχίτης), who was a great patron of the Arts, George Plethon Gemistos (Γεώργιος Πλήθων Γεμιστός) who was the greatest and last revivalist of Greek philiosphy in the middle ages, Barlaam of Calabria who taught ancient Greek to Petrarch and Boddaccio, Manuel Chrysoloras the first Ancient Greek teacher in Italy, Basilios (also known as John) Bessarion (Βασίλειος Βησσαρίων) who was a scholar and translator in Italy, and John Argyropoulos, who was a teacher of philosophy.

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[ameroffsky]

Yanitsaros, I love your videos because they show the greatness of Greek civilization, but the picture of AtaTurk at the end, with statement saying that barbarians live in darkness, confusing conquest glory, is totally infounded and out of place, because Ata Turk was the man brought his nation OUT of darkness and into modernity. He was actually an admirer of the West, which originated partly from Greek civilization.

[Yanitsaros]

@ameroffsky , you have a point. Ataturk did want to bring Turkey out of its medieval mindset of conquest. But at the same time, modern Turkey, even if it is secular, acts very much like an empire with an itch to see greatness attached to expansive borders. Had the people in the balkans not fought for their freedom, they would be speaking Turkish today by forced assimilation, just like the people of Anatolia today, even after Ataturk.

[ameroffsky]

*unfounded* not infounded.

[AegeanKing]

@Yanitsaros Actually, from what I read in the book "sailing from Byzantium" many Orthodox monks valued ancient Greek ideals. They said that when reading about the Greek pagan philosophies, you should only draw out the secular wisdom and leave the pagan ones. it's a good book, you should get it.

[AegeanKing]

@Yanitsaros btw, you make great videos...

[AegeanKing]

@Yanitsaros I am not saying that Christianity did not play its part in the decline. It certainly played a major part. But to say that it was completely destroyed because of Christianity is going a bit too far.

[AegeanKing]

@Yanitsaros Thats true. But, many of those hellenic ideals had pagan influences and thus not conducive to monotheism. Try and understand the mindset of those Greeks. They had just been convert to Christianity, and any new converts to any religion can tend to be zealots. I don't think you should blame Christianity for the decline of Hellenic ideals. I believe that the decline was natural and would have come anyway at some point in time.

[AegeanKing]

@Yanitsaros I didn't know you were so anti-christian. Orthodox played a large part in keeping our identity under the Ottomans and also helped foster the revolution.