{{Short description|Greek priest and scholar}} thumb|Neophytos Doukas '''Neophytos Doukas''' or '''Dukas''' ({{langx|el|Νεόφυτος Δούκας}}; 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 [puristic Greek] and Dimotiki).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Silk|first=Michael|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KpXeCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT395|title=Standard Languages and Language Standards – Greek, Past and Present|date=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-05058-2|pages=395|language=en}}</ref>
==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<ref>{{Cite book|last=Spiers|first=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XCl-DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA87|title=The Culture of the Publisher's Series, Volume 2: Nationalisms and the National Canon|date=2011-02-18|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-230-29939-9|pages=87|language=en|quote=[...] and Neophytos Doukas in Vienna are among the first Greek editors of ancient Greek texts.}}</ref> or Aromanian<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Doukas|first=Neophytos|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=385YAAAAcAAJ|title=Peri tēs hellēnikes glōssēs|date=1840|pages=2|language=el}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0">Mutavdžić, Predrag (2010). [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Predrag-Mutavdzic/publication/266469553 ОN THE FORMER AND PRESENT STATUS OF THE AROMANIAN LANGUAGE IN THE BALKAN PENINSULA AND IN EUROPE].</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Doukas|first=Neophytos|title=Η κατ' επιτομήν γραμματική Τερψιθέα|url=https://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/metadata/2/a/f/metadata-39-0000286.tkl|access-date=2021-09-26|website=Anemi - Digital Library of Modern Greek Studies|page=43|language=el|quote=Ως έργον ενδοξότατον και φιλογενέστατον έστι μάλιστα το εξαλείψωσιν εκ της Ελλάδος την οποιαδήποτε εκεί σπερματικώς σωζώμενην Βλάχικην διάλεκτον [...] (Translation: The eradication from Greece of any excremently surviving Vlachic dialect is the most illustrious and most patriotic act [...])}}</ref> 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".<ref>Theodorescu, Răzvan; Barrows, Leland Conley (2001). [https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.110.2541&rep=rep1&type=pdf Politics and Culture in Southeastern Europe].</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGmJqMflYgoC|title=Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies|date=2013-07-15|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-25076-5|pages=205|language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref>[http://www.helleniccomserve.com/greecebksnwritersmain.html Greece: Books and Writers (2001)]. [http://www.greece2001.gr/docs/67-132.pdf Section III: The Era of Enlightenment] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526142245/http://www.greece2001.gr/docs/67-132.pdf |date=2011-05-26 }}, page 73.</ref> 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 ([http://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/metadata/2/a/f/metadata-39-0000286.tkl Anemi]); 5th ed., 1832 ([http://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/metadata/1/8/b/metadata-86-0000274.tkl Anemi]); 1833 ([http://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/metadata/7/c/6/metadata-39-0000232.tkl Anemi]) * <!-- [ΠΕΡΙ` ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗΣ ΓΛΩΣΣΗΣ] -->''Peri` tēs hellēnikes glōssēs'' [About the Greek language] (([https://books.google.com/books?id=385YAAAAcAAJ Google]))
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * Podskalsky, Gerhard, Griechische Theologie in der Zeit der Türkenherrschaft, {{ISBN|978-3-406-32302-7}}, 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, {{ISBN|0-631-17180-0}}, Oxford: Blackwell (1976), pp. 261–2. * Ο Νεόφυτος Δούκας και η συμβολή του στο νεοελληνικό Διαφωτισμό, {{ISBN|960-8321-15-8}}, Publisher: Κυβέλη (2002), Αuthor(s): Νεόφυτος Χαριλάου (in Greek)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Doukas, Neophytos}} Category:1760 births Category:1845 deaths Category:Greeks from the Ottoman Empire Category:Greek Eastern Orthodox priests Category:Greek people of Aromanian descent Category:Pro-Greek Aromanians Category:Anti-Aromanian sentiment Category:Aromanian clergy Category:19th-century Greek philosophers Category:People of the Modern Greek Enlightenment Category:19th-century Eastern Orthodox priests Category:People from Zagori