Alexandros Rhizos Rhankaves

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Alexandros Rhankaves

Alexandros Rhizos Rhankaves , also Rhangabe , Rhangavis ( Greek Ἀλέξανδρος Ῥίζος Ῥαγκαβής ; * December 27, 1809 in Constantinople ; † January 16, 1892 in Athens ) was a Greek poet , literary scholar and diplomat of the 19th century .

Life

Coming from a Phanariote family of the Rhizoi Rhankavi, Rhankaves grew up in Bucharest in the palace of the prince of Wallachia, Alexandros Soutsos , who was related to him , as well as in Brașov and finally in Odessa , where he attended high school. From 1825 he studied at the Bavarian War Academy in Munich . In 1829 he joined the Greek Army in Nafplio as a lieutenant in the artillery , from which he immediately left, as he had not been given the rank to which he was entitled. He then served in various government positions: from 1831 to 1841 in the Ministry of Education, where he was involved in the organization of secondary schools and universities, and then until 1844 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was primarily concerned with the fight against piracy. In the same year he forcibly resigned from the civil service, since as a non-Greek, which he was officially, he was no longer allowed to work in the civil service, and became professor of archeology at the University of Athens .

In the following years he worked as a scholar and writer until he was appointed Greek Foreign Minister in 1856, an office that he held until 1859. Since 1845 he was a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . In 1857 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . From 1867 he was successively Greek ambassador in Washington, DC - the first of his office in the USA at all -, Constantinople , Paris and finally in Berlin , where he frequented the Elise von Hohenhausen salon . In 1887 he retired.

He married Caroline Christine Skene, a daughter of the Scottish lawyer James Skene of Rubislaw, from whose connection the Greek envoy Cléon Rizo-Rangabé comes from.

Poetic work

As early as 1831 Rhankaves came into the public eye with his romantic poem Δήμος καὶ Ἑλένη . He was known as a poet in Greece long before he achieved important political positions. He was quickly considered one of the most important representatives of the romantic First Athens School . From 1847 to 1849 he edited the literary magazine Euterpe together with Panagiotis Soutsos . From 1851 he turned more and more away from romanticism , after his prologue to his drama Φροσύνη from 1837 had in a certain way been considered the "manifesto of romanticism" in Greek literature.

Rhankaves wrote poems and short stories as well as scientific treatises, mostly on archeology and the history of modern Greek literature. In addition, he did important work as a translator: he translated works by Dante , Shakespeare , Goethe and Schiller into Greek.

From 1863 Rhankaves was an honorary member of the Greek Philological Society in Constantinople .

Publications (selection)

  • Δήμος καὶ Ἑλένη . 1831
  • Διάφορα ποιήματα. 2 vol., 1837/40.
  • Διονύσου πλοῦς . 1864.
  • Γοργός ἱέραξ . 1871.
  • Διάφορα Διηγήματα. 3 vol., 1855–59.
  • Ὁ Αὐθέντης τοῦ Μορέως . Historical novel, 1850.
  • Ἱστορία τῆς Νεοελληνικὴς Λογοτεχνίας

German

  • Demon of love . Berlin: Richard Hartmann, 1913.
  • The two sisters and other short stories . Berlin: Hillger, 1906.
  • Serlandis . Berlin: Hillger, 1898.
  • The wedding of the Kutrulis. Berlin: Dümmler 1848.

literature

  • Konstantinos Thiseos Dimaras : Ελληνικός Ρομαντισμός . Ermes, Athens 1994.
  • Konstantinos Thiseos Dimaras: Ιστορία της νεοελληνικής λογοτεχνίας . Ikaros, Athens 1975.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich von Brunn : Alexandros Rizos Rangavis . In: Session reports of the philosophical-philological and historical classes of the KB Academy of Sciences in Munich . 1892, p. 172–173 ( online [PDF; accessed March 27, 2017]).
  2. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 196.
personal data
SURNAME Rhankaves, Alexandros Rhizos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rhangabe, Alexandros Rhizos; Rhangavis, Alexandros Rhizos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek poet, literary scholar and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1809
PLACE OF BIRTH Constantinople
DATE OF DEATH January 16, 1892
Place of death Athens