Konstantinos Asopios () was a

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

scholar and academic teacher of the 19th century from

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Biography

Konstantinos Asopios was born in Grammeno near

Ioannina Ioannina ( ' ), often called Yannena ( ' ) within Greece, is the capital and largest city of the Ioannina (regional unit), Ioannina regional unit and of Epirus (region), Epirus, an Modern regions of Greece, administrative region in northwester ...

around 1790 as Konstantinos Dsolbas. He grew up poor. After the death of his father, he followed his mother to Ioannina, where she had found work in the Melas family house. Thanks to his good performance at school he received a scholarship by the benefactor Zois Kaplanis. Later, he was given the surname “Asopios” by the school principal,

Athanasios Psalidas Athanasios Psalidas (; 1767–1829), was a Greek author, scholar and one of the most renowned figures of the modern Greek Enlightenment. Life Early years and diaspora Psalidas was born at 1767 in Ioannina, where he completed ground level education ...

, which he adopted. Alongside his studies, he worked as a private teacher and used the earned money to go, together with Christoforos Filitas, to

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to study medicine. However, a health problem forced him to go to

Corfu Corfu ( , ) or Kerkyra (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands; including its Greek islands, small satellite islands, it forms the margin of Greece's northwestern frontier. The island is part of the Corfu (regio ...

in 1813 to recover. He went to

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after his recovery, where he worked as a translator. Later, he moved to

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

teaching for five years at the Greek school of the city. Subsequently, he studied at the universities of

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and

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at Lord Guilford’s expenses, who knew him from Ioannina, in order to become a professor of the

Ionian Academy The Ionian Academy () was the first Greek academic institution established in modern times. It was located in Corfu. It was established by the French during their administration of the island as the ''département'' of Corcyre, and became a univer ...

that the English nobleman intended to found, which he did in 1824. After the death of Lord Guilford and the decline of the Ionian Academy that followed, Asopios accepted the proposal of the

Greek state Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

to join the

University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; , ''Ethnikó kai Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the University of Athens (UoA), is a public university in Athens, Greece, with various campuses alo ...

, where he served as a dean three times. He retired in 1866 due to a serious health problem and died on 19 November 1872. A big crowd attended his funeral. He was married to Eleni Asimakopoulou, whom he met during his stay in Trieste. They had two children, Irinaios and Evridiki.Anastasios N. Goudas, 1874, p. 235 - 236.

References

Bibliography

Anastasios N. Goudas (1874). Βίοι Παράλληλοι των επί της Αναγεννήσεως της Ελλάδος Διαπρεψάντων Ανδρών, τ. Β'. Αθήνησι: Τύποις Χ. Ν. Φιλαδελφέως.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asopios, Konstantinos 1790s births 1872 deaths People from Zitsa Greeks from the Ottoman Empire Greek scholars Academic staff of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens