Adamantios Korais

Adamantios Korais (Greek: Αδαμάντιος Κοραής – Adamántios Koraís, also Koraés; April 27, 1748 in Smyrna, Asia Minor, Ottoman Empire – April 6, 1833 in Paris) was a Greek scholar and writer. Korais is considered a reformer of Greek literature.

Korais was born in Smyrna, but his father came from the island of Chios, and Korais felt a strong connection to the island. Korais graduated from the Evangelical School of Smyrna and spent most of his life not in Greece, but in Western Europe. He devoted himself early on to the study of ancient and modern languages, and then, at his father’s wish, learned the trade of merchant in Amsterdam. From 1782 onwards, he studied medicine and natural history in Montpellier. In 1788, Korais settled in Paris to devote himself entirely to literature. Although he became a French citizen, he remained true to his Greek origins. Korais was interested in the church, schools, science, and politics. From Paris, he fought verbally and in writing for the spiritual rebirth of Greece.

His main goal was the development of a national, universal Greek language into a written language; the standards he established for this are still largely the authoritative ones today. Korais tried to raise Greek awareness of their historical heritage, their Hellenistic origins. He stated that general education was the key to an independent Greece. Above all, however, Korais is known for his decisive role in the Greek language question: He attempted to strike a balance between the antiquarian standard language and the popular language, and went down in Greek linguistic history as the inventor of the Katharevousa (= the pure; the purified popular language).

In his letters and publications, Korais criticized the Greek Orthodox Church, which dominated the lives of his countrymen in the Ottoman Empire. The church strictly opposed an independent Greece. Korais’s expertise in classical antiquity developed from his study of the works of ancient Greek writers. His marble bust adorns the Lyceum on the Greek island of Chios, to which Korais bequeathed his valuable library, the present Korais Library (Δημόσια Κεντρική Ιστορική Bιβλιοθήκη Χίου Κοραή), which bears his name.

Adamantios Korais died on April 6, 1833, in Paris and was buried in the Montparnasse Cemetery (Division 2). In 1877, at the request of King George I of Greece, he was reburied and now has an honorary grave in the First Cemetery of Athens. In 1895, a cenotaph was erected in his honor at the site of his grave in the Montparnasse Cemetery.

The chair of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at King’s College London, the Koraes Professor of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature, is named after him.