Georgios Vizyinos
Greek writer and poet (1849–1896)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Georgios Vizyinos (Greek: Γεώργιος Βιζυηνός [viziiˈnos]; born as "Georges Syrmas";[1] March 8, 1849, Vize – April 15, 1896, Athens) was a Greek short story writer and poet.[2] His poems, which are considered influential in Greek literature, focus on ethnography and he was referred to as a "painter of souls".[1] Most of his writings are self-narrative and self-investigative in nature.[1]
March 8, 1849
Georgios Vizyinos | |
|---|---|
| |
| Born | Georges Syrmas March 8, 1849 |
| Died | April 14, 1896 (aged 47) Psychiatric Hospital Dromokaition, Athens, Greece |
After a rough childhood and unsuccessful attempts to marry a 14-year old student while he was in his 40s, Vizyinos tried to commit suicide and was admitted to a mental institution, where he died in 1896 at age 47, likely from syphilis.
Biography
Vizyinos was born as Georges Syrmas in Vize, to the north-west of Constantinople.[1][2] He was one of five children from a destitute family.[1] His father, Michael Syrmas, worked in lime kilns and died of typhus when Vizyinos was five years old;[3] two of his sisters died in early childhood, including Anna, who died from accidental suffocation by her mother, and one of his brothers, who died in mysterious circumstances.[4]
In 1860, at age 10, he was sent to Constantinople to live with his uncle and learn tailoring.[2][1] When he was 18, as a protégé of the Archbishop of Cyprus, Sophronios II, he moved to Cyprus.[3] In 1872, he was admitted to the Halki seminary on the island of Halki, where he studied religion and literature under poet Ilias Tantalidis.[3][2]
He was introduced to George Zarifis, who funded his studies of philology in Athens; in 1874 and 1875, he studied at the Athens School of Philosophy. He was awarded a doctorate in Leipzig, Germany, where he studied under Wilhelm Wundt.[2][1] In 1881, he completed his dissertation paper, titled "The Relation of Psychology and Pedagogy with the Children’s Play".[1] He returned to Athens, where he was met with disbelief and ridicule by literary circles.[3] He moved to Paris in 1882 and then London, where he mingled with Greek authors and changed his focus from poems to short stories.[3]
After Zarifis died in 1884, Vizyinos had to earn a living on his own.[5] He became a secondary school teacher and, from 1890, a professor of rhythmics and drama at the Athens Conservatoire.[5] There, he fell in love with a 14-year old student, Bettina Fravasili, but his love was unrequited. After proposing to her, he was rejected by the student's mother, which was said to have triggered his mental illness.[5][3]
In 1892, Vizyinos was in such a state of delusion that he dressed up and prepared for a wedding. When it did not happen, he tried to commit suicide - he was saved by a friend.[3]
Vizyinos was admitted to the psychiatric hospital Dromokaition in Athens in April 1892.[4]
He died there four years later in 1896, aged 47, desolate, likely from syphilis.[4][1][3] He received a public funeral with eulogies given by Aristotelis Kourtidis and Kostis Palamas. After his death, Vizyinos' mother was said to have cried so much that she went blind.[3]
Works
- To Ptochon tis Kyprou (Το πτωχόν της Κύπρου) (1867) - describes eating halloumi cheese in a village.[6]
- Poetica Protoleia (Juvenile Poems) (1873) - won first prize in the Voutsinaios Literary Competition (1874)
- Diamanto (1875)
- Ares, Mares, Koukounares (renamed Vosporides Avra) (1876)
- Araps and his Camel (1879) - a children's story
- My Mother’s Sin (1883) - focuses on themes of forgiveness, guilt, and atonement; inspired by the accidental suffocation of his sister by his mother[1]
- Between Piraeus and Naples (1883)
- Who was my Brother’s Murderer (1883)
- The Only Journey of His Life (1884)
- Intellectual Geniuses (1885)
- Moskov-Selim (published 1895) - published while he was institutionalized; set in Thrace, it contains ethnographic and psychobiographic elements, narrating the adventures of Moscov-Selim, a Turkish soldier who is persecuted and tantalized.[1]
