Ποσειδωνιάται
Ποσειδωνιάταις τοις εν τω Τυρρηνικώ κόλ-
πω το μεν εξ αρχής Έλλησιν ούσιν εκβαρβα-
ρώσθαι Τυρρηνοίς ή Ρωμαίοις γεγονόσι και
την τε φωνήν μεταβεβληκέναι, τα τε πολλά
των επιτηδευμάτων, άγειν δε μιαν τινα αυ-
τούς των εορτών των Ελλήνων έτι και νυν,
εν η συνιόντες αναμιμνήσκονται των αρ-
χαίων ονομάτων τε και νομίμων, απολοφυ-
ράμενοι προς αλλήλους και δακρύσαντες
απέρχονται
ΑΘΗΝΑΙΟΣ
ΠΟΣΕΙΔΩΝΙΑΤΑΙ
Την γλώσσα την ελληνική οι Ποσειδωνιάται
εξέχασαν τόσους αιώνας ανακατευμένοι
με Τυρρηνούς, και με Λατίνους, κι' άλλους ξένους.
Το μόνο που τους έμενε προγονικό
ήταν μια ελληνική γιορτή, με τελετές ωραίες,
με λύρες και με αυλούς, με αγώνας και στεφάνους.
Κ' είχαν συνήθειο προς το τέλος της γιορτής
τα παλαιά τους έθιμα να διηγούνται,
και τα ελληνικά ονόματα να ξαναλένε,
που μόλις πια τα καταλάμβαναν ολίγοι.
Και πάντα μελαγχολικά τελείων' η γιορτή τους.
Γιατί θυμούνταν που κι' αυτοί ήσαν Έλληνες
-Ιταλιώται έναν καιρό κι' αυτοί·
και τώρα πώς εξέπεσαν, πώς έγιναν,
να ζουν και να ομιλούν βαρβαρικά
βγαλμένοι -ω συμφορά!- απ' τον ελληνισμό.
Κωνσταντίνος Π. Καβάφης
POSEIDONIANS
"The Poseidonians forgot the Greek language
after so many centuries of mingling
with Tyrrhenians, Latins, and other foreigners.
The only thing surviving from their ancestors
was a Greek festival, with beautiful rites,
with lyres and flutes, contests and wreaths.
And it was their habit toward the festival's end
to tell each other about their ancient customs
and once again to speak Greek names
that only few of them still recognized.
And so their festival always had a melancholy ending
because they remembered that they too were Greeks,
they too once upon a time were citizens of Magna Graecia;
and how low they'd fallen now, what they'd become,
living and speaking like barbarians,
cut off so disastrously from the Greek way of life."
C. Cavafy
translated by E. Keeley and P. Sherrard
How true for some of our Poseidonians abroad, although very few consider themselves living among barbarians.
Is it possible that Hellas itself is becoming another Poseidonia?
It is not a changed identity that the poet is sad for.
It is not its enrichment with fertile soil for it to further grow.
It is a faded identity that concerns him.
It is the willful selection, by some, of a new identity that merged the worst elements of the old world with the worst elements of the new.
It is the absorption and assimilation, the growth in material property while shrinking culturally and spiritually.
The Ancient Hellenes were not calling "barbarians" only the ones that were living in far away lands, unable to speak the Hellenic Language, ignorant of the Hellenic culture and History but also the ones that lived amongst them.