Un rayon de soleil de la Grèce en Italie.

This paper explores the profound, multi-layered, and enduring integration of the Greek language, literature, and cultural models within the Italian peninsula from antiquity to the twentieth century. Tracing this historical trajectory, the study maps the evolution of Hellenic influence across distinct epochs, beginning with the Mycenaean trade routes and the subsequent massive colonization wave of the eighth and seventh centuries BC that established Magna Graecia in southern Italy and Sicily. During the Roman expansion, these Greek foundations provided foundational literary, theatrical, and philosophical frameworks that thoroughly permeated Roman institutions and high culture. Following the division of the Roman Empire and the onset of the Byzantine era in Italy, the Greek linguistic tradition survived predominantly within monastic walls during the early Middle Ages. It experienced a dramatic and systematic revival through the philological endeavors of Late Medieval and Renaissance humanists - such as Boccaccio, Manuzio, and Poliziano - who re-established ancient Greek as a pinnacle of intellectual and moral philosophy. This classical lineage subsequently culminated in the literary movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, profoundly inspiring poets like Ugo Foscolo and Giacomo Leopardi, and persisted into the modern era through the decadent poetry of Gabriele D'Annunzio, the alexandrian compositions of Giovanni Pascoli, and the evocative translations of Salvatore Quasimodo. Interspersed with original architectural sketches of Venice and Rome rendered by the author, the study analyzes classical and Renaissance Greek texts - including epigraphs from Ischia and Pozzuoli, historical excerpts from Strabo and Procopius, and humanistic poems - to demonstrate that the core of Italian cultural identity remains inextricably bound to its Greek heritage.