Adamandios Korais

Adamandios  Korais,                                                         ΑΔΑΜΑΝΤΙΟΣ ΚΟΡΑΗΣ

Born: 27 April 1748 in Smyrna                                     Died April 6, 1833 in Paris

Section 2, Number 110

Adamantios Korais was a humanist scholar born in 1748 in Smyrna, Asia Minor. His advocacy of a revived classicism laid the intellectual foundation for the Greek struggle for independence. His views were influenced by the enlightenment, his own early education and, no doubt, by his experience as a translator. He believed that the language spoken by his people in the 18^th and early 19^th century, while recognizably Greek, was simply not honed sharply enough to shape the consciousness he believed the people of a newly independent Greece required. He would ‘remedy this by creating a new tool that would help his people: Katharevousa, a purified form of the Greek of the day which would be “consistent with the grammar and 'intuition' of the modern spoken language” and yet combine its best elements with classical Greek,  the natural heritage of all Greeks. Education and this purified language were to be the keys. (1) For him, katharevousa was the necessary prerequisite for self determination.

His Life

Koraïs was the studious son of a Smyrna merchant. He was educated in an excellent school in Smyrna, the Elliniko Frontisterio. (Aristotle Onassis is another alumni). This was a private school originally set up by a local bishop and funded with private donations. At the time Korais would have attended, it was under the protection of the British Consulate because the Greek residents feared it might otherwise be tampered with or confiscated by the Ottomans. There his love of literature and the classics began.  Korais eventually studied medicine at the University of Montpellier in France although he never practiced. Nor did he ever return to his homeland after 1788. 

 His amazing influence emanated from Europe where, long before the first shots were fired, he raised the European consciousness about the plight of Greeks under the Ottomans, and the European debt to Greek ideals. His influence in Europe was a vital contribution to the cause. During the War of Independence he wrote pamphlets, raised funds, and was one of the founders of the Paris Philhellenic Society.

 His Atakta, composed between 1828 and 1835, was the first dictionary of  Modern Greek.  

Korais, died in 1833. He lived long enough to see Greek Independence recognized but not long enough to see Athens declared its capital. His body was interred in the Montparnasse cemetery with this epitaph: “I, Adamantios Korais from Chios, am buried in the foreign land of Paris, which is as dear to me, as Greece, my land of birth”.

His bust in Montparnasse today

 No longer: his bones were repatriated in April 4, 1877 and his imposing monument financed by a committee of well known Greeks (Stefanos Zafeiropoulos, Ambrosios Rallis, Leondas Argentis and M. Melas) who believed that Korais should be Athens along with other heroes of the modern Greek state.(2)  

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It is very grand. Note the exedra shape, the sphinxes, the palms, the stele, the flaming torch, the elaborate beading and metrope motif under the acroterion, - trappings fitting for a man who was both anticlerical and a firm believer that modern Greeks were the true descendants of ancient Greeks.
If you look hard, you will see one small cross was placed on the acroterion – just for form.

His Grave is in section 2, number 110 just west of Agios Lazarus Church.

Footnotes

(1)  In 1976, katharevousa was replaced by demotic as the official language.  Katharevousa was deemed too old fashioned and cumbersome.  That makes it hard to remember that Korais’ idea was progressive at the time: he had argued against Greek intellectuals who believed that the new nation should speak a form of ancient Greek or that the language of the New Testament then (and still) used by the Orthodox Church in liturgies was adequate.

(2) It is not surprising that these four men, themselves distinguished and wealthy members of the Greek diaspora should have taken upon themselves this task. Patriotism, philanthropy, and concern for cultural heritage of the Greek state were a constant concern of their class in the 19^th century. It is also true that these men, Rallis in particular, favoured the continued use of Kathaevousa, so Korais would have been a particularly important hero in their eyes. Bringing him ‘home’ to Greece would be a declaration of their opposition to the use of the demotic language. Katharevousa versus the use of the demotic was a hotly debated issue even at that time…