Demetrios Bernardakis


Demetrios Bernardakis, was a polymath writer and Professor of History at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Biographical sketch

He was born at Agia Marina, Lesbos. His father was Nikolaos Vernardakis, originally from Crete, while his mother was Melissini, of the Trantalis family. His brothers were the learned Athanasios Bernardakis and Gregorios Bernardakis.
He studied on a scholarship given to him by Patriarch Alexandros Kallinikos from present-day Skotina, Pieria. A prolific writer, he translated and annotated the tragedies of Euripides '', but he became known chiefly for the sake of his own verse dramas, with which he wanted to create a romantic Greek theatre, taking as his example Shakespeare, Greek mythology, and Greek history. His works had success in his own era, but were quickly forgotten, chiefly by reason of their archaizing language.
His university career ended on 27 August 1869 when Bernardakis was compelled to resign by reason of continuing student reactions, which he attributed to collusion with his university rivals and their political power at the time.
His brother, Athansios Bernardakis, nominated Demetrios twice — in 1904 and 1905 — for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Selected works

Theatrical