Alexander Helladius ( el, , 1686-?) was an 18th-century
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
scholar and humanist from
Larissa
Larissa (; el, Λάρισα, , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 144,651 according to the 2011 census. It is also capital of the Larissa regiona ...
, who studied at the
Greek College of
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
and published several works on the Greek language and tradition.
Life and work
He was a student of the
Corfiote
Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek islands, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of G ...
hierodeacon A hierodeacon (Greek: Ἱεροδιάκονος, ''Ierodiákonos''; Slavonic: ''Ierodiakón''), sometimes translated "deacon-monk", in Eastern Orthodox Christianity is a monk who has been ordained a deacon (or deacon who has been tonsured monk). Th ...
Frangiskos Prosalentis. He arrived in England in 1703 as the escort of
Lord William Paget, ambassador to the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
. He saw himself as a genuine heir of an unbroken classical tradition and tried to combat Western misconceptions of Hellenism, while his excellent knowledge of the Greek language secured him valuable contacts, especially at the
University of Altdorf
The University of Altdorf () was a university in Altdorf bei Nürnberg, a small town outside the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg. It was founded in 1578 and received university privileges in 1622 and was closed in 1809 by Maximilian I Joseph of Ba ...
. In 1712 he published in
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
an older Greek grammar by
Bessarion Makris
Bessarion Makris ( el, Βησσαρίων Μακρής, 1635- 1699) was a Greek scholar and theologian.
He was born in Ioannina, northwestern Greece, center of the 17th-18th century Modern Greek Enlightenment. In 1672 Makris became the head of th ...
to which he appended a fictitious dialogue countering the arguments in favour of the
Erasmian pronunciation
Ancient Greek has been pronounced in various ways by those studying Ancient Greek literature in various times and places. This article covers those pronunciations; the modern scholarly reconstruction of its ancient pronunciation is covered in An ...
of
ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
. Later, in ''Status Praesens'', he counters the arguments of some Western scholars that the contemporary Greeks spoke a barbarian language (''barbarograeca'') and could not understand ancient Greek. Helladius sought to show the unbroken continuity of the culture of the Greek people and was adamant in his opposition to the translation of the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
into the vernacular.
Known works
*Status Praesens Ecclesiae Graecae: In Quo Etiam Causae Exponuntur Cur Graeci Moderni Novi Testamenti (1714)
See also
*
Greek scholars in the Renaissance
The migration waves of Byzantine Greek scholars and émigrés in the period following the end of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 is considered by many scholars key to the revival of Greek studies that led to the development of the Renaissance ...
References
External links
1686 births
Greek Renaissance humanists
Writers from Larissa
18th-century Greek writers
18th-century Greek educators
Year of death missing
Greek expatriates in the United Kingdom
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