Demetrios Bernardakis ( el, Δημήτριος Βερναρδάκης, ''Dimitrios Vernardakis'', also transliterated ''Dimitrios Bernardakis''), (3 December 1833—25 January 1907) was a polymath writer and Professor of History at the

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; el, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Ethnikó ke Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the Univers ...

Biographical sketch

He was born at Agia Marina, Lesbos (just south of Mytilene).Βερναρδάκης Δημήτριος
, ΕΚΕΒΙ His father was Nikolaos Vernardakis, originally from Crete, while his mother was Melissini, of the Trantalis family. His brothers were the learned Athanasios Bernardakis and

Gregorios Bernardakis Gregorios N. Bernardakis ( el, Γρηγόριος Ν. Βερναρδάκης, translit. ''Grigorios N. Vernardakis'', Neo-Latin language, Neolatin ''Gregorius N. Bernardakis'', b. Mytilene 1848, d. 1925) was a Greek people, Greek linguist, philol ...

. He studied on a scholarship given to him by Patriarch Alexandros Kallinikos from present-day Skotina, Pieria. A prolific writer, he translated and annotated the tragedies of Euripides ('' The Phoenician Women, Hecuba, Hippolytus'', and '' Medea)'', but he became known chiefly for the sake of his own verse dramas, with which he wanted to create a romantic Greek theatre, taking as his example Shakespeare, Greek mythology, and

Greek history The history of Greece encompasses the history of the territory of the modern nation-state of Greece as well as that of the Greek people and the areas they inhabited and ruled historically. The scope of Greek habitation and rule has varied throu ...

. His works had success in his own era, but were quickly forgotten, chiefly by reason of their archaizing language. His university career ended on 27 August 1869 when Bernardakis was compelled to resign by reason of continuing student reactions (the so-called ''Vernardakeia''), which he attributed to collusion with his university rivals and their political power at the time. His brother, Athansios Bernardakis, nominated Demetrios twice — in 1904 and 1905The Nomination Database for the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1901–1950
nobelprize.org — for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Selected works

Theatrical

* Μαρία Δοξαπατρή (''Maria Doxapatri'' 1857) * Κυψελίδαι (''The Beehive'', 1858) * Μερόπη (''Merope'', 1865) * Ευφροσύνη (''Euphrosyne'', 1876) * Φαύστα (''Fausta'', 1893) * Αντιόπη (''Antiope'', 1895) * Νικηφόρος Φωκάς (''Nicephorus Phocas'', 1905)

Linguistic

* Ελληνική Γραμματική εις χρήσιν των Ελληνικών σχολείων (''Greek Grammar for use in Greek schools'', 1864–1865) * Ψευδαττικισμού έλεγχος (''The control of illusion'', 1884)

Historical

* Γενική Ιστορία (''General History'', 1867)

Theological

* Ιερά Κατήχησις (''Sacred Catechisis'', endorsed in 1872 by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople as the best available biblical catechesis recommended for schooldchildren)

References

External links

Vernardakis Dimitrios
– ''Pandektis'' profile from the Institute for Neohellenic Research
Η αποκατάσταση του Αριστοτέλη του Κώστα Γεωργουσόπουλου (mention in "The Restoration of Aristotle" by Kostas Yorgopoulos
'' Ta Nea'', 20/10/07, preview only, subscription required)
List of quotes listed in the Lexicon of Quotes and Aphorisms under Dimitrios Vernardakis (in Greek)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernardakis, Demetrios 1833 births 1907 deaths Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to Greece Academic staff of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens People from Mytilene 19th-century Greek educators 19th-century Greek writers 19th-century Greek dramatists and playwrights