Our Story
About SPGH
Welcome From Our Chair
Welcome Letter
Baltimore, February 5, 2024
Dear members and friends of the Society for the Preservation of the Greek Heritage,
Welcome to our webpage. Here you will find a lot about our organization and its vision, our various iterations and activities in the five decades of our existence, and our published books and recorded past events.
As some historians of the future might say, we are well into the post pandemic era, with the world around us trying to regroup amidst a multitude of crises in culture, politics, economic security and livelihood of people, and international peace.
In our own corner of cultural heritage, there is widespread perception of growing indifference to the lessons of the past, increasing reliance on the pseudo-intelligence of computers and their derivatives, and further fragmentation of peoples' sense of self with devastating consequences on well-being and mental health.
Now more than ever societies like ours need to redouble efforts to preserve the great lessons of the past. Not at all in an archival or academic way, but as a fertile source of wisdom and inspiration. Our own Greek heritage has achievements that changed human lives and formed the foundations of prosperity, stable and collaborative ways of living in organized and just societies and, very importantly, human creativity and personal fulfillment.
It is our duty, but also great honor, to accept this challenge as a mission and move forward to rally our communities, preserve the wisdom and bring it to light, showcase its significance for the modern Western world, and help inspire a more creative and fulfilling future for everyone.
We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events and hearing your reactions and your thoughts. And we invite you to join us as members and friends and share the excitement of debating and forming a robust Hellenic viewpoint for the modern world.
Vassilis E. Koliatsos, M.D.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Our Purpose
The Contributions of Hellenism
Classical Greece is universally viewed as the cradle of Western civilization, primarily through its contributions to philosophy, democratic governance, visual arts and architecture, theater and poetry, science and medicine, and sports and athletic competitions, including the Olympic games.
Less is known about the great contributions of Greek civilization during Roman and medieval history as the main intellectual force in the 1000-year Byzantine Empire.
In all these periods and various manifestations of Hellenism, one can find the same diachronic values tracing back to classical times. These values and lessons from the experiences of Hellenism remain of central importance to Western civilization.
«Τοσοῦτον δ' ἀπολέλοιπεν πόλις ἡμῶν περί τό φρονεῖν καί λέγειν τούς ἄλλους ἀνθρώπους, ὥσθ' οἱ ταύτης μαθηταί τῶν ἄλλων διδάσκαλοι γεγόνασι»
"So far has Athens left the rest of mankind behind in thought and expression that her pupils have become the teachers of the world." — Isokrates, Panegyric 50.1
Heritage in Action
Modern Greece and Cultural Heritage
Modern Greece was founded on the basis of its cultural heritage. The Nobelist George Seferis quotes an episode involving Yannis Makriyannis, a legendary general of the Greek War of Independence from the Ottomans.
The old warrior had no schooling and he taught himself to write only so that he could record his memoirs for successive generations. Seferis describes an incident in which Makriyannis found out that some of his soldiers intended to sell two ancient statues.
"I took these soldiers aside and told them this: 'You must not give away these things, not even for ten thousand talers; you must not let them leave the country; it was for them we fought.'"
Seferis writes: "It is not Lord Byron, or a great scholar, or an archaeologist speaking; it is a son of shepherds from Roumeli, his body covered with wounds: 'It was for them we fought'."