The Greek Paideia and the Byzantine East: Crisis and New Perception

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issues of education and intellectual life, their significance in the history of culture in the Byzantine Empire. The most important phenomenon of ancient culture, which was adopted by the Byzantines, is "paideia" (παιδεία) – "upbringing", "education". Paideia as a concept was formed under the influence of such concepts of ancient Greek culture as "Agon", "Agonism" (ἀγών), kalokagathos (καλὸς κἀγαθός), arete (ἀρετή). The purpose of the article is to trace its evolution in the Byzantine Empire through the prism of cultural dynamics during three eras of this state; to determine the place of paideia, its role in Byzantine society, the intellectual sphere. The article is based on the important scientific groundwork in the field of ancient education, created by the German philologist Werner Jaeger, as well as on the fundamental research in the field of Byzantine humanism carried out by the French byzantologist Paul Lemerle. The research showed that the Byzantine education system withstood the social cataclysms of the Early Middle Ages and maintained continuity with the ancient paideia. Conclusions: the degradation of education in Byzantine society led to a religious schism in the 8th-9th centuries – iconoclasm; after this crisis, in the future the Byzantines were able to preserve their ancient cultural heritage thanks to their prevailing love for Antiquity. This fact very seriously contributed to the development of the Italo-Byzantine humanistic dialogue.