Neophytos Doukas

Neophytos Doukas or Dukas (; 1760 – 1 January 1845) was a Greek priest and scholar, author of many books and translations from ancient Greek works, and one of the most important personalities of the modern Greek Enlightenment (''Diafotismos'') during the Ottoman occupation of Greece. His contributions to Greek education have been neglected because of the traditional ideas he advocated concerning the Greek language question (being an "archaist", supported the use of classical Greek over Katharevousa uristic Greekand Dimotiki).

Life

Doukas was born in the village of Ano Soudena, in the mountainous Zagori region of Epirus, northwestern Greece. He has been described as of Greek or Aromanian descent. Nevertheless, he held negative views about Aromanians' culture and language, while he espoused notoriously pro-Greek views and he self-identified strictly as Greek. In one of the works that he would publish later in his life, Doukas called Aromanian a "filthy" and "stinking language" which he wanted to "eradicate any trace of" from Greek territory.Mutavdžić, Predrag (2010)
ОN THE FORMER AND PRESENT STATUS OF THE AROMANIAN LANGUAGE IN THE BALKAN PENINSULA AND IN EUROPE
On the other hand, declared that the Aromanians did a better work at preserving " Hellenic culture" than the Greeks themselves, this being because of their "dynamism" and "generosity".

As a child, Doukas lived inside a monastic community and became a priest when he reached adulthood. He started his studies in Ioannina and Metsovo and then continued in Bucharest, in Wallachia. His major interests were ancient Greek philosophy and literature as well as religious Greek and Latin documents.

At 1803 he moved to Vienna and became one of the most significant personalities of the Greek community there, in which he lived for 12 years. His career as a teacher started in 1812 in Bucharest, when he became director of the Eponym School (Greek: Επώνυμη Σχολή). In 1815, in a letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople Cyril VI, he urged for a “cultural crusade” to extend the boundaries of the Greek language and culture amongst the Bulgarians, the Vlachs and the Albanians, as well as in Asia Minor. His teaching methods were so popular that the number of his students increased rapidly in a 6 months period: from 60 to 400. His work was recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. In 1820 he became a member of the Filiki Eteria organization.

With the creation of the Greek independent state, he returned to Greece and undertook the administration of the orphanage of Egina, after being invited to do so by Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias. He made a donation of 11,000 books to the orphanage's library. In the same period, he became director of Rizarios Seminary (a religious institution of higher education) in Athens. He died in Athens before he could take up the duties of this position.

Work

His significant educational and writing activity remained mostly unknown (until the late 20th century), mainly because of his conservative ideas and his promotion and use of the classical Greek language in education.Greece: Books and Writers (2001)Section III: The Era of Enlightenment
page 73. He was accused by Adamantios Korais of being an "anti-philosopher". His contributions to Greek bibliography and to the Greek Enlightenment were, however, crucial.

Among many other works (over 70 books), he edited many ancient Greek authors, including Aristophanes, the '' Bibliotheca'', Homer, Pindar, Euripides and Sophocles.

Works

* ''Ē kat' epitomēn grammatikē Terpsithea'', 1812
Anemi
; 5th ed., 1832
Anemi
; 1833
Anemi

* ''Peri` tēs hellēnikes glōssēs'' bout the Greek language
Google
)

References

Further reading

* Podskalsky, Gerhard, Griechische Theologie in der Zeit der Türkenherrschaft, , München: C.H. Beck (1988), pp. 361–362 (in German).
* Clogg, Anti-clericalism in pre-independence Greece, in: Baker, Derek (ed.): The Orthodox Churches in the West, , Oxford: Blackwell (1976), pp. 261–2.
* Ο Νεόφυτος Δούκας και η συμβολή του στο νεοελληνικό Διαφωτισμό, , Publisher: Κυβέλη (2002), Αuthor(s): Νεόφυτος Χαριλάου (in Greek)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Doukas, Neophytos
1760 births
1845 deaths
Greeks from the Ottoman Empire
Greek Eastern Orthodox priests
Greek people of Aromanian descent
Pro-Greek Aromanians
Anti-Aromanian sentiment
Aromanian clergy
19th-century Greek philosophers
People of the Modern Greek Enlightenment
19th-century Eastern Orthodox priests
People from Zagori