Octavios Merlier ΟΚΤΑΒΙΟΣ ΜΕΡΛΙΕ
Born 1887 in France Died 1976 in Athens
Melpo Merlier ΜΕΛΠΩ ΜΕΡΛΙΕ
Born 1889 in Xanthi Died 1979 in Athens
Section D2, Number 17
Without danger of exaggeration. Merlier was the greatest and certainly the most authentic Philhellene of the 20th century. (1)
Multiple strands of Philhellenism run through the fabric of modern Greek history, so to say that Octavios (Octave) Merlier was the greatest one in the 20th century is quite an accolade, placing him near the apex of a very long list of foreigners who fell in love with Greece, identified themselves with its people, and came to help. But it was not Octavios Merlier alone who deserves the credit. It was also his long collaboration with his Greek wife Melpo Logotheti, a musicologist. As he worked to bring the best of French culture to Greece through his stewardship of the French Institute in Athens, together they embarked on an even more significant venture: to record and create an archive of the lives of the thousands of Greek refugees from Asia minor who had poured into Greece during the population exchange in 1923 after the Smyrna catastrophe. By doing so, they gave them a voice that might otherwise never have been heard. It is an amazing story, all played out against the backdrop of France’s long historical and cultural relationship with modern Greece, a relationship that was almost completely severed by France’s role in the 1922 Smyrna debacle.
The Ties Between France and Greece until 1922.
Greece has never been independent of the influence (some might say interference) of superior powers. When the nation was formed, France, England, and Russia (then the big three western powers) became its legal guarantors. At the same time a Bavarian king and his entourage were given absolute rule over its people. Of all of these ‘minders’, it was with France that Greece would develop the closest cultural affinity. France’s interest in Greece may have originally stemmed from the study of ancient Greece and the knowledge that its ancient culture was the foundation of its own enlightenment, but it was their own experiment with revolution and republicanism that made them especially sympathetic to the Greeks fighting for their liberty in 1821.
Many volunteers came to fight for Greece. Charles Favier even became commander of the Greek tactical army from 1824 to 1828 and was also instrumental in bringing volunteer recruits from Europe.
Favier, was a sartorial Philhellene as well, emulating the dress and deportment of the Greek war lords to such an extent that he was often mistaken for one of them(2)
The French fleet participated in the decisive 1827 battle of Navarino and landed a 15,000 strong French expeditionary force in 1828 to help root out any remaining Ottoman forces. They stayed until 1833 and, significantly, their force included a cultural element - a group of experts sent by the French Academy to investigate archaeological sites, the topography and fauna, and to map the country.
Artists at home contributed to the war effort as well: two paintings of Eugène Delacroix, The Massacre at Chios (1824) and Greece on the Ruins of Messolonghi (1826) galvanized popular support for the Greeks at times when it seemed that all was lost.
Its poignant display of suffering amid death and destruction had a stunning impact on public opinion.
French literary figures did their bit too: Pierre Jean de Beranger, immensely popular at the time, immortalized the struggle in popular poems such as “Le Voyage Imaginaire” and “Psara”, literary heavyweight François-René de Chateaubriand lent his support for the Greek cause as did luminaries like Victor Hugo who wrote about the massacre at Chios in his 1829 poetry collection Orientales.
After 1830 and Statehood
In the very first elections held in Greece in 1844, Ioannis Kolettis won under the banner of the ‘French Party’.(3) He had been the former ambassador to France for many years and had forged strong cultural ties there. So it is no surprise when in 1846, under his government, the French Archaeological Institute was founded, the very first foreign archaeological institute in Greece. And there is more: Greek law was based on French law, Greek education followed many French models and, until the Second World War, the French language has been the preferred language of the Greek intelligentsia and, of course, of diplomacy. Until the 20th century, French was the only foreign language compulsory in Greek Schools. It still surprises people today when they discover that dictator Ioannis Metaxas did not say Ochi to the Italians in 1941 but, Alors, c’est la guerre!
In 1907 the French Institute was founded as an extension of the French Embassy and became the first fully fledged foreign language institute in the country. It seemed then as if nothing could alter the strong cultural ties between Greece and France.
The French Institute
But...
Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. (Thukydides)
The Rift
The downside to being the junior partner in any relationship, as Thukydides pointed out, comes when interests diverge. The love affair between France and Greece ended in 1921 when France, which had initially encouraged the Greeks to enter and occupy Asia Minor in 1919, did an abrupt volte face and entered into an alliance with Turkey in order to further their broader geopolitical goals in the Middle East. They supported the Turkish government’s demand for the immediate evacuation of Greek forces from Asia Minor and even put their ships in the Mediterranean and their arsenal at the disposal of the Turks. Italy would follow suit and Great Britain would profess neutrality, but it was the French betrayal that hurt the most.
From the Greek point of view, the Smyrna catastrophe, and the resulting population exchange of 1923, could be attributed to France’s betrayal. This was the situation when the Merliers came to live in Greece in 1925 – not the best moment to celebrate the relationship.
Their Lives before
Arriving in Greece in 1925
Octavios was born in Roubaix in north eastern
France in 1897. He was a brilliant student and Greek scholar. Studying first at
the prestigious Lycée Henri-IV,
he received his diploma in 1915 in classical literature and philosophy. The First World War interfered and he
volunteered, was wounded, and awarded for bravery. After the war he continued
his studies at the Sorbonne. In 1920, while just in his early thirties, he was
elected professor. In 1921 he joined the Society of Greek Studies where in 1923
was honoured with the title of Specialist
in Grammar. In 1923 he married Melpo Logotheti.
Melpo, the daughter of doctor Miltiadis Logothetis, was born in Xanthi and raised in Constantinople (both then part of the Ottoman empire). She studied at the Zappeion Girl’s school in Constantinople and continued her education in musicology in Vienna and Geneva before going on to Paris in 1919. There she studied at the Institute Neo-Hellenique under its director Hubert Pernot, a specialist in modern Greek studies who had an interest in recording songs and traditional folk dance, an interest Melpo shared. (4) In Paris she met and married Octavios. In that same year Octavios was seconded to the French Institute of Athens. They decided to make Greece their home.
The Merliers in Greece
Merlier’s professed goal was to use the Institute to promote the French language, culture, (5) to foster mutual understanding, and to repair the rift between the two nations. It was a very personal crusade: to make Greeks, as he put it, know the untainted face of France. That seems like a hopelessly quixotic attempt to be undertaken by one man. What is incredible is that he accomplished so much of his goal. He would become director of the Institute in 1935.
The Merliers and the Asia Minor Refugees
Once in Greece, he and Melpo travelled to Samos and heard first hand the stories of the refugees and their bitterness against France. When, in 1929, Melpo’s former teacher Hubert Pernot arrived in Greece, under the aegis of the University of Paris and asked Melpo to assist him in recording Greek traditional music, an opportunity arose. A goodly part of their recording involved music from Asia Minor, so it was a small step to hand over the microphone to Asia Minor refugees struggling to make their new home in Greece. In the course of their research, they recorded the voices and stories of over 5,000 refugees. What had started as the Musical Folklore Archives in 1930 became what is now The Centre for Asia Minor Studies.
Today these archives (films, recordings, newspapers, and artifacts collected over many years) are housed in an impressive neoclassical building on Kydathinaon Street in the Plaka and are under the control of the Greek Ministry of Culture. For many years, they were housed in the French Institute and the collection was funded by France. Without this funding, a record of the Greeks of Asia Minor may never have been made. In the 1930s the Greek population were far too traumatized by defeat and the government too enmeshed in the problem of settling 500,000 Asia Minor refugees to undertake such a task or, perhaps, to even want to.
So, it happened that the Merliers, with French government funding and a growing number of helpers, both French and Greek, were responsible for preserving an entire era. (6)
Listening...
The Second World War
When the war broke out, Merlier made the decision to remain in Athens and did his utmost to keep the French Institute open. During the occupation, the French Institute did not close its doors and as a result became a centre for the Greek resistance movement. Merlier himself became a secret representative of Charles de Gaulle, was arrested in 1941, and sent to France where he remained under house arrest until 1944. He used the time to gain his doctorate and to translate the poems of Angelos Sikelianos into French. (7)
In July 1945 he returned to Greece and continued his work as director of the French Institute in Athens where he oversaw a huge expansion of both the Institute’s facilities and student enrolment.
1945 and the Mataroa
Merlier and Roger Milliex,(8) his deputy director at the French Institute were instrumental in persuading the French government to charter a ship, the Mataroa, to take 150 young people between the ages of 20 and thirty to Paris, on scholarships granted by the French government to study and hopefully to return and make their contribution to Greece. The idea was to save some of the best minds of the era from the horror of the civil war and poverty in Greece. There was opposition. Many of the young people were leftists, anathema to the Greek government at the time. The French government saw it as an opportunity to attract more students to study in France rather than in post war England or Germany.
Merlier would say years later: They were impoverished youngsters. I have never forgotten them; If some of them succeeded, it (his contribution) was little enough... (9)
The Exhibition in 1949 Honoring the Greek Resistance
In 1949 the French Institute held an exhibition of paintings donated to Greece by the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Bonnard, Marquet, Picabia, Masson, Bourdelle, Laurens, and others to commemorate the heroism of the Greek resistance against the Nazis. This was a daring exhibition considering that the civil war had just ended, and one of the few contemporary efforts to acknowledge the efforts of the entire spectrum of Greek resistance fighters. These paintings are now housed in the National Gallery.
The Merliers in 1950 In 1960, at least from the point of view of the French government, Merlier went a step too far. He refused to hand over to the French Ambassador the archives of the Centre for Asia Minor Studies which had been funded by France and were still housed in the French Institute. He argued that they were the property of the Greek people. It was a principled, not to mention very pro-Greek position and it probably cost him his job.
He was recalled to France a short time later and became a professor of Modern Greek Studies and Philosophy at the University of Aix-en-Provence until his retirement in 1971. He never forgot his love of Greece. From France, he published the Journal of Modern Greek Studies and he was made a corresponding member of the Athens Academy in 1964. Upon his retirement, he and his wife returned to spend the rest of their lives in Greece, a country that owes him a great deal.
He died in 1978 and Melpo in 1979. They left a legacy of good will and service. The Asia Minor Archives have had a major role in forming the Greek cultural memory; no small thing. (10)
The Grave
Section D2, Number 17
The Map
.
(1) Κουζέλη Λαμπρινή, Μικρασιατικές μνήμες – Η Μέλπω, ο Οκτάβιος, το Κέντρο και το Ινστιτούτο, https://www.tovima.gr/2022/01/06/books-ideas/mikrasiatikes-mnimes-i-melpo-o-oktavios-to-kentro-kai-to-institouto/
(2) Favier was not the only Philhellene to emulate Greek dress. It was, after all, the romantic era and many Philhellenes fell in love with the exotic aspects of the oriental style! Also, a surprising number of philhellenes married Greek wives and, over time, identified as Greek to one degree or another.
(3) The other two parties were the English and Russian parties. Back then Greek politicians saw themselves as aligned to one of the ‘big’ powers
(4) In the summer of 1922, Melpo visited Roumeli in Greece to study their folk songs.
(5) Μποζώνη Αργυρώ, Γαλλικό Ινστιτούτο: Μια μυθιστορηματική ιστορία 110 ετών. https://left.gr/en/node/180794
(6) People such as Nίκος Σκαλκώτας, Πέτρος Πετρίδης, Γιώργος Πονηρίδης, Nικόλαος Xρυσοχοΐδης, Aγλαΐα Aγιουτάντη, Δέσποινα Mαζαράκη,and Samuel Baud-Bovy. Others include Κωνσταντίνος Δημαράς, Γεώργιος Θεοτοκάς και ο συγγραφέας Παντελής Πρεβελάκηςm all French speakers and friends of France.. And that is not to mention the many scholars who continuously used and even add to the archive, even today.
(7) Merlier remained a scholar all of his life. In 1945 he was awarded his doctorate for his thesis on the style and language of the Gospel of John.
(8) For a detailed list of passengers on the Matario and their biographies, see https://docmataroa.wordpress.com/main-protagnists/. It makes fascinating reading.
French writer and philhellene Roger Milliex became Merlier’s assistant in 1938. He and his Greek wife are buried in the First Cemetery and will shortly be a subject for our cemetery project.
(9) «Ήταν φτωχά παιδιά… Δεν θα τους ξεχάσω ποτέ. Οτιδήποτε κι αν επιτύχει κανείς για τέτοιους ανθρώπους θα είναι λίγο».
(10) From The Greek Collapse in Asia Minor by Adamantios Polyzoides in Current History (1916-19400 Volume 17, October 1922. P. 96
Sources
The Greek Collapse in Asia Minor by Adamantios Polyzoides in Current History (1916-19400 Volume 17, October 1922
https://docmataroa.wordpress.com/main-protagnists/.
Στεργιόπουλος Βαγγέλης, "Οκτάβιος Μερλιέ: Ο «πρεσβευτής» της Γαλλίας στον ελληνικό λαό",
https://www.in.gr/2021/05/07/life/stories/oktavios-merlie-o-presveytis-tis-gallias-ston-elliniko-lao/
Helpers and supporters of merlier
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