“The personification of the change of minds, of awakening and action himself to enlighten and motivate society, in the Prefaces of the four rhapsodies of Iliad he emerges as a clergyman, ‘Papatrehas’, the priest of Volissos in Chios. The presence of this fictional character shall determine the form of the Prefaces. It is a narrative text oscillating between the limits of prose, the conventions of the epistolary philological preface and the technique of dialogue – forms of expression familiar both to Korais and to his times – and where the three characters – axes of the narrative (the publisher of Iliad, Papatrehas and T.B. (thinking being: typical signature of Korais), the first lived temporarily in Volisso, the third one in Paris, correspondent of the volissian publisher and editor in charge of the entire publication) intertwine to such an extend that at times they become unidentifiable and the distinction between creator and creation, author and narrative vector to disappear. Papatrechas for instance eventually distinguishes himself as a faithful spokesman and perfect substitute of the author Korais; […] the fact that Korais used the example of a middle-aged representative of the clergy, and actually of the lower clergy, to reveal the transforming effects of education and to get across the messages of the Enlightenment was a conscious key choice. The battle to make acceptable the necessity and furthermore to spread a modernized educational ideal, which would combine ancestral values and modern times needs, first of all had to break the resistance of those traditional forces that monopolized the intellectual manipulation of Greeks and was usually suspicious, if not hostile, towards any type of innovation. In the case of Papatrechas the desired goals were sought by Korais as far as possible: although he represented an immovable and for centuries dominating world order and institutions, the church, the hero, making his personal journey towards self-knowledge and redefining the role of his function, eventually takes a leading part in the movement of enlightenment in the small space of his intellectual power. (pp. xvi – xvii)