Can anybody tell me about Gerostathes by Leon Melas? I found this old book from 1894 in a used bookstore. Using a Liddell & Scott intermediate lexicon, I’m able to work through the first paragraph. Beyond this, I don’t know much about it except that its a modern classic.
Is it attempting ancient prose?
My results so far:
“In a certain village-town of Western Greece (Hpeirou), near Ioanin,
Gerostathes lived before the Greek rebellion, an old man of seventy … (peripou?) years, but he was strong and healthy. His cheeks were always rosy-red (?), his eyes …(?)…” k.t.l.
Anything anybody can tell me will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
Well not really. You have to remember that we’re talking about the early years after the liberation of Greece and the creation of the Greek state (by the way he died before that time so his book must have been published and written around the 1860 or something).
There was a huge debate about the road our language would have to take even before the Revolution of 1821. Most educated people you see used a more “antiquated” way of writting and some times talking. From those we got Katharevousa. Others were for “the language of the people” and from those we got Demotike. The whole subject is more complicated than how it is usually depicted but if you google these two words you will get an idea (biased probably but an idea ).
So, no, he wasn’t trying for ancient prose. If he did there would be no “peripou” (almost, thereabouts). If you are interested in such writings check Papadiamantis. His is not so ancient style but still readable I think (in the Greek wiki you can see that after the first paragraph which is in MG Demotike, there’s one from his autobiography in Katharevousa (20th century).
Edit: It just hit me: Are you also asking for information about the writer and/or the book?
With what alacrity the scholars took their books when Miss Vlachou said, " Gerostathes " ! This little volume, written by Leon Melas, has become a modern classic in Greek schools. " Gerostathes " is the supposed name of a grand old man who is mentor to all the boys in the village in which he lives. They love to gather round him and listen to stories about the old times and talks about how to get on in life. Without being priggish or prosaic, he weaves excel-lent counsel from his experience, and the biographies of Greek leaders and heroes and philosophers are drawn upon for pleasing illustrations. Benjamin Franklin is introduced as an American philosopher of practical wisdom. The virtues of order, courtesy, bodily exercise, reverence, temperance, self-control are skilfully used to color and tone the narrative. It is a kind of Greek " Telemaque," with something of the modernness of " Francinet," a popular book in French schools. I have asked a good many adult Greeks if they had read Gerostathes," and never found one who did not recur to it with pleasure. In general, the textbooks in Greek schools are of good quality and modern methods are employed in teaching. Music was skilfully taught with European notes, and when Miss Muir wished to pay a compliment to the American visitor the school sang " Hail, Columbia; " but the hymn itself compares poorly with the ode of the Zante poet, Solomos, which, set to music by Mantzeros, another Ionian, has become the national hymn of Greece. It is one of the most inspiring of national airs, ranking almost with the Marseillaise.
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