There are some people whose lives seem to have been taken from a novel. Hélène Glykatzi-Ahrweiler undoubtedly belongs to this category.

Life took her from her humble home in Vyronas to the prestigious Sorbonne University in Paris, from the Resistance through the ranks of the EPON to rubbing shoulders with some of the most important political and intellectual figures in modern history.

From the very beginning of her career, she had to contend with gender discrimination and the ideological rigidities of the time. However, armed with education, perseverance, and hard work, her journey was a constant challenge to prejudice.

The first female rector of the Sorbonne University in its 700-year history, rector of the University of Europe, academic in France and Greece, she has served as president of many cultural organizations in Greece and abroad.

Nevertheless, her passion remained Byzantine history, contributing to science with her rich body of work and opening new avenues for study and research. Her emblematic works include: Research on the Administration of the Byzantine Empire in the 9th and 10th Centuries (1960), Byzantium and the Sea (1966), Studies on the Administrative and Social Structure of Byzantium (1971), Byzantium, the Country and the Territories (1976), The Political Ideology of the Byzantine Empire (1976)…

The life and work of Hélène Glykatzi-Ahrweiler will remain a point of reference and an example.

Her name will rightly be included among those of the great Greeks.