Athanasios Angelou () is a Greek university teacher of Byzantine Literature, and has served as Dean of the School of Philosophy at the

University of Ioannina The University of Ioannina (UoI; Greek: Πανεπιστήμιο Ιωαννίνων, ''Panepistimio Ioanninon'') is a public university located in Ioannina, Greece. The university was founded in 1964, as a charter of the Aristotle University of ...

and artistic director of cultural presentations.

Biographical

He was born on October 2, 1951. He completed his schooling at

Athens College Athens College (; formally Hellenic-American Educational Foundation (HAEF), Ελληνο-Αμερικανικό Εκπαιδευτικό Ίδρυμα) is a co-educational private preparatory school in Psychiko, Greece, a suburb of Athens, par ...

in 1970. He studied philosophy and classical philology at the

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in the United States, gaining a Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) cum laude. From 1974 to 1975 he attended classes in philosophy at the

Paris-Sorbonne University Paris-Sorbonne University (also known as Paris IV; ) was a public university, public research university in Paris, France, active from 1971 to 2017. It was the main inheritor of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Paris. In 2018, it m ...

under

Ferdinand Alquié Ferdinand Alquié (; 18 December 1906 – 28 February 1985) was a French philosopher and member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques from 1978. In the years 1931 to 1945 he was a professor in various provincial and Parisian lycees ...

and

Yvon Belaval Yvon may refer to: * Yvon Chouinard, American mountain climber (born 1938) * Yvon (given name), a masculine given name * Yvon (surname), a surname See also * Chapelle-Yvon * Evon * Ivon * Jaille-Yvon * Pierre-Yvon * Yvan Yvan is a given name. Not ...

. After 1975 he turned to Byzantine studies and in 1981 he received a Doctorate at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

having prepared his thesis under the guidance of the British Byzantinist,

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian literature, Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentar ...

, on Nicholas of Methone's ''Refutation of the Elements of Theology'', a 12th-century philosophical and theological response to the

Neoplatonist Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common id ...

philosopher

Proclus Proclus Lycius (; 8 February 412 – 17 April 485), called Proclus the Successor (, ''Próklos ho Diádokhos''), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major classical philosophers of late antiquity. He set forth one of th ...

. For the next eight years of his time in England he taught

Byzantine Literature Byzantine literature is the Greek literature of the Middle Ages, whether written in the Byzantine Empire or outside its borders. It was marked by a linguistic diglossy; two distinct forms of Byzantine Greek were used, a scholarly dialect based ...

and Greek

Palaeography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...

at Birkbeck,

King's Kings or King's may refer to: *Kings: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations. *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'', an 11th-century epic Persia ...

and

Royal Holloway Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

Colleges as well as at the Institute of Classical Studies,

. In 1985 he founded with Julian Chrysostomides and Joseph A. Munitiz the Byzantine Literature Seminar at the

Warburg Institute The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London in central London, England. A member of the School of Advanced Study, its focus is the study of cultural history and the role of images in culture – cros ...

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

which brought together the interests of many students and researchers. In 1987 on the initiative of

Jonathan Riley-Smith Jonathan Simon Christopher Riley-Smith (27 June 1938 – 13 September 2016) was a historian of the Crusades, and, between 1994 and 2005, Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge. He was a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Ea ...

, Julian Chrysostomides and Athanasios Angelou the joint diploma / MA programme in Byzantine Studies was established at Royal Holloway College. In 1989 he returned to Greece to take up his post as assistant professor of Byzantine Literature at the

. From 1995 he has been associate professor at the same university. He undertook administrative duties as Chairman of the Department of

Philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

from 2005 to 2009 and as Dean of the School of Philosophy from 2008 to 2013.

Research activities

His research interests focus upon Byzantine rhetoric and the history of Late Byzantine literature. In particular he has been engaged with the Histories of

Niketas Choniates Niketas or Nicetas Choniates (; – 1217), whose actual surname was Akominatos (), was a Byzantine Greek historian and politician. He accompanied his brother Michael Akominatos to Constantinople from their birthplace Chonae (from which came h ...

and

John Kantakouzenos John VI Kantakouzenos or Cantacuzene (; ; – 15 June 1383) was a Byzantine Greek nobleman, statesman, and general. He served as grand domestic under Andronikos III Palaiologos and regent for John V Palaiologos before reigning as Byza ...

, examining questions which relate to the structure and organisation of the works. Especially, among other things, he has occupied himself with the personality and thought of Gennadios Scholarios, giving emphasis to the use in his work of the word "

Hellene Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Anatolia, parts of Italy and Egypt, and to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea. They also fo ...

, as well as to the position which the event of the

Fall of Constantinople The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 55-da ...

in 1453 took in his thought.

Cultural activities

He has also developed extensive activities in the artistic field. Through a series of presentations combining music, words and images, he aimed to project Byzantium not only as geographical space but also as a synthesis of musical and literary phenomena in the tradition of the Greek East. He has collaborated with the musical ensemble En Chordais of

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

and Kyriakos Kalaitzides, the actors Dimitri Kataleipho, Lydia Koniordou, Karyofyllia Karampeti,

Moni Ovadia Salomone "Moni" Ovadia (born Solomon Ovadia on 16 April 1946) is a Bulgarian-born Italian Jewish actor, musician, singer, theatrical author and activism, activist. His theatrical performances recall the lost world of Eastern European Jewish cul ...

Alan Bates Sir Alan Arthur Bates (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the Cinema of the United Kingdom#The 1960s, 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from ''Whistle Down the Wind (film), Whistle Down ...

, the singers Melihat Gülses from Turkey, the Lebanese Ghada Shbeir and musicians from Turkey, Lebanon, Italy and England with performances in London, Brussels, Venice (

Saint Mark's Basilica The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark (), commonly known as St Mark's Basilica (; ), is the cathedral church of the Patriarchate of Venice; it became the episcopal seat of the Patriarch of Venice in 1807, replacing the earlier cathed ...

), Athens and

Plovdiv Plovdiv (, ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, second-largest city in Bulgaria, 144 km (93 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia. It had a population of 490,983 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is a cultural hub ...

. The concert of religious music organised with the English musician, Guy Prothero, in

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

was attended by

Charles, Prince of Wales Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, a ...

, and reported in the leading article of

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

newspaper. The artistic exhibition in Venice was televised with a special dedication by the Greek state television (ET3), while the performance "Resonance World Wide" at the Megaron Concert Hall Athens 2006 was televised by ET1.

Cultural presentations

*''Byzantine Festival in London'' (with Guy Prothero), St Paul's Cathedral, Hellenic Centre London, 1998. στον κύκλο Σταυροδρόμια, Μέγαρο Μουσικής Αθηνών, 2000. *''Sounds from the Byzantine East'', in the cycle Crossroads, Megaron Concert Hall Athens, 2000. *''Memory of Byzantium'', Basilica of San Marco, Palazzo Querini Stampalia and Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 2001. *''Voice of Byzantium'', Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 2003. *''Resonance World Wide'', Byzantium and the Greek East, Megaron Concert Hall Athens, 2006.

Publications

*''Nicholas of Methone, Refutation of Proclus' Elements of Theology''. A Critical Edition with an Introduction on Nicholas' Life and works, Athens/Leiden, Academy of Athens/E. J. Brill, 1984. *''Manuel Palaiologos, Dialogue with the Empress - Mother on Marriage''. Introduction, Text and Translation, Vienna, Academie der Wissenschaft, Vienna 1991. *«Ο Γεννάδιος Σχολάριος και η Άλωση», στο Η Άλωση της Πόλης επιμ. Ευάγγελος Χρυσός, 2η εκδ. Αθήνα, Εκδόσεις Ακρίτα, 1994. *"Who am I?" Scholarios' answers and the Hellenic identity», in Φιλέλλην. Studies in honour of Robert Browning, Venice 1996, p. 1-19. *«Rhetoric and History: The case of Nicetas Choniates', in History as Literature in Byzantium, ed. Ruth Macrides, Farnham, Ashgate 2010, p. 289-305. *«Subversion and Duplicity in the Histories of John Kantakouzenos», in Power and Subversion in Byzantium, ed. Dimiter Angelov, Farnham, Ashgate 2013, p. 263-279. *«Word and Deed: Types of Narrative in Kantakouzenos's Histories», in Pour une poétique de Byzance. Hommage à Vassilis Katsaros, ed. S. Efthymiadis,Charis Messis, P. Odorico, I. Polemis, Paris 2015, p. 57-74.

References

External links

Βιογραφικό του Α. Αγγέλου στην Ιστοσελίδα του Πανεπιστημίου ΙωαννίνωνAthanasios Angelou Onassis Cultural Centre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Angelou, Athanasios Greek Byzantinists 1951 births Living people Yale College alumni 20th-century Greek writers Scholars of Byzantine literature