Dimosthenis Valavanis (

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 ...

: Δημοσθένης Βαλαβάνης 1829–1854) was a Greek poet of 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 ...

. He was born in 1829 in

Karytaina Karytaina or Karitaina ( el, Καρύταινα or Καρίταινα) is a village and a community in Arcadia (regional unit), Arcadia, Greece. Karytaina is situated on a hill on the right bank of the river Alpheios, near its confluence with the L ...

. As a child he was orphaned and moved with relatives in

Nauplio Nafplio ( ell, Ναύπλιο) is a coastal city located in the Peloponnese in Greece and it is the capital of the regional unit of Argolis and an important touristic destination. Founded in antiquity, the city became an important seaport in the ...

where he finished school. He enrolled in the faculty of Medicine in the

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 ...

. Before graduating he contracted tuberculosis and died in 1854. As he died very young he did not manage to publish a poetry collection. Some of his poems were published in literary magazines. He is one of the few poets of the First Athenian School that wrote poems both in

Katharevousa Katharevousa ( el, Καθαρεύουσα, , literally "purifying anguage) is a conservative form of the Modern Greek language conceived in the late 18th century as both a literary language and a compromise between Ancient Greek and the contempor ...

and

Demotic Greek Demotic Greek or Dimotiki ( el, Δημοτική Γλώσσα, , , ) is the standard spoken language of Greece in modern times and, since the resolution of the Greek language question in 1976, the official language of Greece. "Demotic Greek" (w ...

. He also wrote a novel titled Two Nights which was published in ''Euterpi ''magazine and a tragedy (The death of

Papaflessas Grigorios Dimitrios Dikaios-Flessas (; 1788 – 25 May 1825), popularly known as Papaflessas () was a Greek priest and government official who became one of the most influential figures during the Greek War of Independence. The prefix () in th ...

) which is lost. Modern critics have found in his work the prospects of a creative force which was cut short because of his early death.

References

* Konstantinos Dimaras, ''Ιστορία της Νεοελληνικής Λογοτεχνίας istory of Modern Greek Literature' Ίκαρος, Athens, 1948. * M. Vitti, ''Ιστορία της Νεοελληνικής Λογοτεχνίας'' 'History of Modern Greek Literature'' ed. Οδυσσέας, Athens, 2003. {{DEFAULTSORT:Valavanis, Dimosthenis 1829 births 1854 deaths First Athenian School Modern Greek poets Romantic poets 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis 19th-century Greek poets Tuberculosis deaths in Greece