Alexandros Rizos Rangavis or Alexander Rizos Rakgabis
["] ( el, Ἀλέξανδρος Ῥίζος Ῥαγκαβής; french: Alexandre Rizos Rangabé; 27 December 180928 June 1892), was a
Greek man of letters
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...
, poet and
statesman
A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level.
Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to:
Newspapers United States
* ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a n ...
.
Early life
He was born in
Constantinople to a
Greek Phanariot family. He was educated at
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
and the military school at
Munich. Having served as an officer of artillery in the
Bavarian army, he returned to Greece, where he held several high educational and administrative appointments. He subsequently became ambassador to Washington, D.C. (1867), Paris (1868), and Berlin (1874–1886), and was one of the Greek plenipotentiaries at the
Congress of Berlin in 1878.
Literary work
He was the chief representative of a school of literary men, known as the
First Athenian School
The term First Athenian School ( el, Α΄ Αθηναϊκή Σχολή) denotes the literary production in Athens between 1830 and 1880. After Greek Independence, the basic intellectual centres of the Greek world were the Ionian Islands (with ...
, whose object was to restore as far as possible the ancient classical language. He was also a founding member of the
Archaeological Society of Athens.
Of his various works, ''Hellenic Antiquities'' (1842–1855, of great value for epigraphical purposes), ''Archaeologia'' (1865–1866), an illustrated ''Archaeological Lexicon'' (1888–1891), and the first ''History of Modern Greek Literature'' (1877) are of the most interest to scholars. He wrote also the following dramatic pieces: ''The Wedding of Koutroulis'' (comedy),
''Dukas'' (tragedy), ''The'' ''Thirty Tyrants'', ''The Eve'' (of the Greek revolution); the romances,'' The Prince of Morea'', ''Leila'', and ''The Notary of Argostoli''; and translated portions of
Dante,
Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...
,
Lessing Lessing is a German surname of Slavic origin, originally ''Lesnik'' meaning "woodman".
Lessing may refer to:
A German family of writers, artists, musicians and politicians who can be traced back to a Michil Lessigk mentioned in 1518 as being a lin ...
,
Goethe and
Shakespeare.
After his recall he lived in
Athens, where he died on 28 June 1892. He had married Caroline, the daughter of
James Skene of Rubislaw, near Aberdeen.
A complete edition of his philological works in nineteen volumes was published at Athens (1874–1890), and his ''Memoirs'' appeared posthumously in 1894–1895.
See also
*
Modern Greek literature
Modern Greek literature is literature written in Modern Greek, starting in the late Byzantine era in the 11th century AD. It includes work not only from within the borders of the modern Greek state, but also from other areas where Greek was widel ...
* ''
Black is the Night
Black is the Night ( el, Μαύρη είναι η νύχτα, ''Mavri einai i nychta'') or The Klepht ( el, Ο Κλέφτης, ''O Kleftis'') is a marching song of the Hellenic Army. The lyrics are by Alexandros Rizos Rangavis. The music is based ...
''
*
First Athenian School
The term First Athenian School ( el, Α΄ Αθηναϊκή Σχολή) denotes the literary production in Athens between 1830 and 1880. After Greek Independence, the basic intellectual centres of the Greek world were the Ionian Islands (with ...
*
Katharevousa
Notes
External links
*
*
*
Entry on Alexandros Rizos Rangavis at WikiMedia Commons
1809 births
1892 deaths
Ambassadors of Greece to the United States
Ambassadors of Greece to France
Ambassadors of Greece to Germany
Greek dramatists and playwrights
Modern Greek poets
First Athenian School
Foreign ministers of Greece
Constantinopolitan Greeks
19th-century Greek poets
19th-century Greek dramatists and playwrights
Burials at the First Cemetery of Athens
Writers from Istanbul
People from Brașov
People from Odesa
People from Munich
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