Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer claimed that modern Greeks were unrelated to the ancient ones, except for the language. His thesis was that the modern Greeks are a mix of Vlachs, Slavs and Albanians. He expounded it in his book:
Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea während des Mittelalters (History of the Penisnula of Morea in the Middle Ages
), 1830.
Quote:
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The race of the Hellenes has been wiped out in Europe. Physical beauty, intellectual brilliance, innate harmony and simplicity, art, competition, city, village, the splendour of column and temple — indeed, even the name has disappeared from the surface of the Greek continent.... Not the slightest drop of undiluted Hellenic blood flows in the veins of the Christian population of present-day Greece.
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Theses like these smack of Classicist (in the sense of the German Classicism of the 18th century) stereotypes and commonplaces.
His work was heavily criticised by many, partially on account of his philological errors. He is especially hated in Greece.