Demetrius Vikelas
Encyclopedia
Demetrios Vikelas, or Bikelas was a Greek businessman and writer; he was the first president of the International Olympic Committee
(IOC), from 1894 to 1896.
After a childhood spent in Greece and Constantinople
(now Istanbul
), he found fortune in London
, where he married. He then moved to Paris
, on account of his wife. Abandoning business, he dedicated himself to literature and history, and published numerous novels, short stories and essays, which earned him a distinguished reputation. Because of his reputation and the fact that he lived in Paris, he was chosen to represent Greece in a congress called by Pierre de Coubertin
in June 1894, which decided to re-establish the Olympic Games
and to organise them in Athens
in 1896, designating Vikelas to preside over the organisation committee. After the Games were over, he stepped down, remaining in Athens until his death in 1908.
, on the island of Syros
in Greece
. His father was a merchant, originally from Veria
, Macedonia (Greece)
and his mother, Smaragda, was a member of the rich Melas family. He was educated at home by his mother, possibly due to his fragile health. When he was six, the family moved to Constantinople
, and ten years after that to Odessa
. There he started working for his father's business. Already he showed signs of his literary potential. At the age of 17 he translated Esther
, a tragedy by Jean Racine
.
with his uncles Leon and Vasileios Melas, where he worked for their business, Melas Bros, first as a bookkeeper and then as a partner. He also began to maintain a weekly correspondence with his mother.
This correspondence, which was kept, is one of the most important in establishing his biography. He also kept a journal in which he recorded not only facts about his daily life but also advice from his uncle Leon and his thoughts on books he had read and plays he was able to attend.
After his day's work at his uncles' business, he took evening classes at University College London
(the only university in London which did not require students to be Anglican). There, he obtained a degree in botany
(the only subject which offered evening classes). He learned German and Italian. He also took part in fencing, horse-riding and rowing, although circumstances did not allow him to keep these up. He had also become very scholarly, and started to publish — an anthology of poems in 1862 and numerous articles in London periodicals, on the British press and the growing of cotton in Greece.
During the political events of 1863 in Greece, following the revolution which led to the eviction of Otto
and the enthronement of George I
, Vikelas led fundraising efforts in support of the provisional government. He also wrote letters to the main newspapers of the time to demand that Greece's rights be respected. He became definitively known in the British intellectual world in 1866 when he contacted authors and academics to convert them to the Cretan
cause during the insurgence of 1866-1867, for which he raised more fundraising.
Also in 1866, he married Kalliope Geralopoulou, a young sister of Katerini, the wife of one of his uncles, also a member of a rich merchant family in London. He also became a titular partner in his uncles' business.
He also met and became friends with the son of the British ambassador for Greece Spyridon Trikoupis, and future Prime Minister of Greece
, Charilaos Trikoupis
, who was just starting his political career as an attaché, then chargé d'affaires, of the Greek legation. The two men kept a busy correspondence.
He continued to gain favour in Greece — in 1868 he published a 30-page statistical article on the Kingdom of Greece
following a conference at the Royal Statistical Society
; in 1870 he founded a school for Greek children living in England. All his work — polemic, political, journalistic, historical or literary — had a double objective: to elevate the morals and level of intellect of his country but also to change its reputation with respect to the rest of the world. In his historical essay of 1874, On the Byzantines, he wrote that he wanted to restore the reputation of the Byzantine Empire
.
In 1876, in the wake of the economic crisis that had started in 1873, and in order not to lose the profits of their work, Vikelas and his uncles dissolved their business (now called "Melas Bros - D. Vikelas"). He thus found himself in command of a comfortable fortune, which allowed him to fully dedicate his time to literature.
' asylum in Ivry-sur-Seine
. True to his character, Vikelas recorded the progress of his wife's mental health daily during the twenty years which followed.
In his journal, from 1872 Vikelas expressed the wish to move to Athens. In 1877, while Kalliope's condition was in remission, they took the opportunity to make the move. Vikelas started to build a home around the corner from the streets of Panepistimiou
(on which the University was situated) and Akadimias
. However, his wife's health worsened again and he accompanied her to France where she again stayed in Ivry-sur-Seine.
During his stays in Paris, Vikelas embarked on translating Shakespeare
plays into Greek: King Lear
, Romeo and Juliet
and Othello
during his wife's first stay (1878), and Macbeth
and Hamlet
during the second (1881). The public readings of his translations received an enthusiastic welcome in the literary community in Athens. He then also wrote his main literary work: Loukis Laras. The book first appeared in Athens as a series starting in 1879. The same year, it was translated into French and German. The French translation (which had its first republication in 1880) was included by the Education Minister Jules Ferry
in the list of works which could be given as prizes to good students.
Vikelas spent the following fifteen years in Paris, building up contacts with the surrounding intellectuals and literati of the French capital. Consequently, Juliette Adam
dedicated her anthology Poètes grecs contemporains ("Contemporary Greek poets"), published in 1881, to him, and he published in her Nouvelle Revue. He wrote for it, as before, numerous articles (on Byzantine history, Eastern issues and Greek political life), novels (a compendium in French and Greek came out in 1887) and even travel guides.
In the linguistic controversy in Greece between Katharevousa
and Dimotiki
, Vikelas chose the middle ground, rejecting the excesses of the Dimotikists just as much as the fierce defenders of the more intellectual language. He suggested using Katharevousa for parliamentary proceedings, for example, but popular language for poetry.
Between 1877 and 1892, he travelled, since at the worst of her crises, his wife could not bear his presence. He returned to Greece, visited Scotland, Switzerland, Spain and Constantinople.
In 1892, he bought a new plot in Athens (between the streets of Kriezotou and Valaoriti) where he built a new residence which was also his final home.
In 1893, he helped finance the construction of the Greek Orthodox Church in Paris.
In May 1894, he received a request from the Pan-Hellenic Gymnastic Club
, asking him to assist at a congress on amateurism convened the following month by Pierre de Coubertin
. After hesitation, he agreed to represent the association. Following the congress it was decided to recreate the Olympic Games
and to organise them in Athens
.
Originally, it had been De Coubertin's idea to hold the first celebration of the modern Olympics
in Paris
in 1900, but Vikelas convinced him and the newly created International Olympic Committee
that they should be held in Athens
, in order to symbolically link them to the original Games. As the constitution of the IOC at that time required the IOC president to be from the country which would host the next Games, Vikelas became the IOC's first president.
, Vikelas returned to Greece for just ten days in autumn 1894. On October the 14th, he received a telegram from doctor Luys informing him that the condition of his wife had worsened. She had œdemas in her thighs, calves and stomach. She could no longer feed herself. He urgently returned to Paris. It seems that she then died.
In November 1894, a number of young nationalist officers, advocates of the Megali Idea
, created a secret society, Ethniki Etairia
, whose aim was to revive the morale of the country and prepare the liberation of Greek peoples still under the Ottoman Empire
. In September 1895, they recruited civilians, all linked to the organisation of the Olympic Games, including Vikelas himself, although he claimed only to have given in to friendly pressure, playing a solely financial role and then quickly resigning from it. At this point he was still attracted by the possibility of rebuilding his country.
After the Games, which proved a success, Vikelas withdrew from the IOC, replaced as a member by the Count Alexander Mercati and as president by Coubertin. The defeat in the Greco-Turkish War
which came soon after dealt a serious blow to his morale. He decided to leave Paris to move permanently to Athens. There he dedicated himself to popular education. In 1899 he founded the "Society for the Spread of Useful Books" in Athens, to help the country to recover from its defeat.
In 1905, he represented the University of Athens
at the seventh Olympic Conference
in Brussels
. He also remained an active member of the Hellenic Olympic Committee. He died in Athens on 20 July 1908 "from an afflicting illness".
He had been made a knight of the Legion of Honour
on 31 December 1891, and honorary doctor
of the University of St Andrews
in November 1893 (the first Greek to receive this honour). He was a member (from 1874, and Vice-President from 1894) of the French "Association for the Promotion of Greek Studies", and of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies in London.
He left his immense library collection to Heraklion
, founding the Vikelaia Municipal Library.
Today, the Sports Center (Stadium) in Ermoupoli, bears Demetrios Vikelas' name. The stadium seats 2000 people, and has an Olympic-size swimming pool
, four tennis
courts, two gym halls, basket
and volleyball
courts, track and field
, floor football court and soccer
field.
Pierre de Coubertin
had already attempted to restart the Olympic Games at the congress for the fifth anniversary of the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques
in 1892. While he may have raised the enthusiasm of the public, he didn't manage to establish a proper commitment.
He decided to reiterate his efforts at the congress in 1894 which followed, which would openly address the issue of amateur sports, but also with the sub-text of the recreation of the Olympic Games. Six of the seven points which would be debated pertained to amateurism (definition, disqualification, betting, etc.) and the seventh on the possibility of restoring the Games. Coubertin also sought to give an international dimension to his congress. He gained support from several personalities: the King of the Belgians
, the Prince of Wales
, the Diadochus Constantine
(hereditary prince of Greece) and William Penny Brookes
, the founder of the "Olympian Games" in Shropshire, England, and Ioannis Phokianos. Phokianos was a professor of mathematics and physics and a college principal. Phokianos was also one of the propagators of sport in Greece and the organiser of an Olympic Games sponsored by Evangelis Zappas in 1875. In 1888, Phokianos organised an elite and private Games as the founder of the Pan-Hellenic Gymnastic Club
. Phokianos could not travel to Paris for financial reasons and because he was finalising the construction of his new college. He turned to one of the more eminent representatives of the Greek community in Paris, Demetrios Vikelas, to whom he wrote to ask him to take part in the congress.
(for his nephews and nieces), and various Shakespeare
plays.
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
(IOC), from 1894 to 1896.
After a childhood spent in Greece and Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
(now Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
), he found fortune in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where he married. He then moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, on account of his wife. Abandoning business, he dedicated himself to literature and history, and published numerous novels, short stories and essays, which earned him a distinguished reputation. Because of his reputation and the fact that he lived in Paris, he was chosen to represent Greece in a congress called by Pierre de Coubertin
Pierre de Coubertin
Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin was a French educationalist and historian, founder of the International Olympic Committee, and is considered the father of the modern Olympic Games...
in June 1894, which decided to re-establish the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
and to organise them in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
in 1896, designating Vikelas to preside over the organisation committee. After the Games were over, he stepped down, remaining in Athens until his death in 1908.
Childhood
Vikelas was born in ErmoupoliErmoupoli
Ermoupoli , also known by the formal older name Ermoupolis or Hermoupolis , is a town and former municipality on the island of Syros, in the Cyclades, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Syros-Ermoupoli, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...
, on the island of Syros
Syros
Syros , or Siros or Syra is a Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is located south-east of Athens. The area of the island is . The largest towns are Ermoupoli, Ano Syros, and Vari. Ermoupoli is the capital of the island and the Cyclades...
in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. His father was a merchant, originally from Veria
Veria
Veria is a city built at the foot of Vermion Mountains in Greece. It is a commercial center of Macedonia, the capital of the prefecture of Imathia, the province of Imathia and the seat of a bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church...
, Macedonia (Greece)
Macedonia (Greece)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of Greece in Southern Europe. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region...
and his mother, Smaragda, was a member of the rich Melas family. He was educated at home by his mother, possibly due to his fragile health. When he was six, the family moved to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, and ten years after that to Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
. There he started working for his father's business. Already he showed signs of his literary potential. At the age of 17 he translated Esther
Esther (drama)
Esther is the name of a play in three acts written in 1689 by the French dramatist, Jean Racine. It premiered on January 26, 1689, performed by the pupils of the Maison royale de Saint-Louis, an educational institute for young girls of noble birth...
, a tragedy by Jean Racine
Jean Racine
Jean Racine , baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine , was a French dramatist, one of the "Big Three" of 17th-century France , and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition...
.
London, from business to literature
While aged 17, in 1852, he left home to live in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with his uncles Leon and Vasileios Melas, where he worked for their business, Melas Bros, first as a bookkeeper and then as a partner. He also began to maintain a weekly correspondence with his mother.
This correspondence, which was kept, is one of the most important in establishing his biography. He also kept a journal in which he recorded not only facts about his daily life but also advice from his uncle Leon and his thoughts on books he had read and plays he was able to attend.
After his day's work at his uncles' business, he took evening classes at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
(the only university in London which did not require students to be Anglican). There, he obtained a degree in botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
(the only subject which offered evening classes). He learned German and Italian. He also took part in fencing, horse-riding and rowing, although circumstances did not allow him to keep these up. He had also become very scholarly, and started to publish — an anthology of poems in 1862 and numerous articles in London periodicals, on the British press and the growing of cotton in Greece.
During the political events of 1863 in Greece, following the revolution which led to the eviction of Otto
Otto of Greece
Otto, Prince of Bavaria, then Othon, King of Greece was made the first modern King of Greece in 1832 under the Convention of London, whereby Greece became a new independent kingdom under the protection of the Great Powers .The second son of the philhellene King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Otto ascended...
and the enthronement of George I
George I of Greece
George I was King of Greece from 1863 to 1913. Originally a Danish prince, George was only 17 years old when he was elected king by the Greek National Assembly, which had deposed the former king Otto. His nomination was both suggested and supported by the Great Powers...
, Vikelas led fundraising efforts in support of the provisional government. He also wrote letters to the main newspapers of the time to demand that Greece's rights be respected. He became definitively known in the British intellectual world in 1866 when he contacted authors and academics to convert them to the Cretan
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
cause during the insurgence of 1866-1867, for which he raised more fundraising.
Also in 1866, he married Kalliope Geralopoulou, a young sister of Katerini, the wife of one of his uncles, also a member of a rich merchant family in London. He also became a titular partner in his uncles' business.
He also met and became friends with the son of the British ambassador for Greece Spyridon Trikoupis, and future Prime Minister of Greece
Prime Minister of Greece
The Prime Minister of Greece , officially the Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic , is the head of government of the Hellenic Republic and the leader of the Greek cabinet. The current interim Prime Minister is Lucas Papademos, a former Vice President of the European Central Bank, following...
, Charilaos Trikoupis
Charilaos Trikoupis
Charilaos Trikoupis was a Greek politician who served as a Prime Minister of Greece seven times from 1875 until 1895....
, who was just starting his political career as an attaché, then chargé d'affaires, of the Greek legation. The two men kept a busy correspondence.
He continued to gain favour in Greece — in 1868 he published a 30-page statistical article on the Kingdom of Greece
Kingdom of Greece
The Kingdom of Greece was a state established in 1832 in the Convention of London by the Great Powers...
following a conference at the Royal Statistical Society
Royal Statistical Society
The Royal Statistical Society is a learned society for statistics and a professional body for statisticians in the UK.-History:It was founded in 1834 as the Statistical Society of London , though a perhaps unrelated London Statistical Society was in existence at least as early as 1824...
; in 1870 he founded a school for Greek children living in England. All his work — polemic, political, journalistic, historical or literary — had a double objective: to elevate the morals and level of intellect of his country but also to change its reputation with respect to the rest of the world. In his historical essay of 1874, On the Byzantines, he wrote that he wanted to restore the reputation of the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
.
In 1876, in the wake of the economic crisis that had started in 1873, and in order not to lose the profits of their work, Vikelas and his uncles dissolved their business (now called "Melas Bros - D. Vikelas"). He thus found himself in command of a comfortable fortune, which allowed him to fully dedicate his time to literature.
Paris, the illness of his wife, and literature
In 1874, following the death of her father, Vikelas' wife Kalliope began to suffer from mental problems and showed a number of suicidal tendencies. The couple tried travelling to ease the illness. In Paris, following another scare, doctors declared Kalliope mad and she stayed for seven and a half months in Jules Bernard LuysJules Bernard Luys
Jules Bernard Luys was a French neurologist who made important contributions to the fields of neuroanatomy and neuropsychiatry....
' asylum in Ivry-sur-Seine
Ivry-sur-Seine
Ivry-sur-Seine is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris....
. True to his character, Vikelas recorded the progress of his wife's mental health daily during the twenty years which followed.
In his journal, from 1872 Vikelas expressed the wish to move to Athens. In 1877, while Kalliope's condition was in remission, they took the opportunity to make the move. Vikelas started to build a home around the corner from the streets of Panepistimiou
Panepistimiou Street
Panepistimiou Street is a major street in Athens that runs one way for non-transit vehicles since 2002 from Amalias Avenue, Syntagma Square and Vassilissis Sofias Avenue to Omonoia Square in which is now a pedestrian crossing and before an intersection...
(on which the University was situated) and Akadimias
Akadimias Street
Akadimias Street is a major street in Athens that runs parallel to Panepistimiou Street from Vassilissis Sofias Avenue to Kanningos Square in the area of Exarcheia. Its total length is about 1.2 km. It has three lanes and runs almost diagonally from southeast to northwest...
. However, his wife's health worsened again and he accompanied her to France where she again stayed in Ivry-sur-Seine.
During his stays in Paris, Vikelas embarked on translating Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
plays into Greek: King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
, Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
and Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
during his wife's first stay (1878), and Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
and Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
during the second (1881). The public readings of his translations received an enthusiastic welcome in the literary community in Athens. He then also wrote his main literary work: Loukis Laras. The book first appeared in Athens as a series starting in 1879. The same year, it was translated into French and German. The French translation (which had its first republication in 1880) was included by the Education Minister Jules Ferry
Jules Ferry
Jules François Camille Ferry was a French statesman and republican. He was a promoter of laicism and colonial expansion.- Early life :Born in Saint-Dié, in the Vosges département, France, he studied law, and was called to the bar at Paris in 1854, but soon went into politics, contributing to...
in the list of works which could be given as prizes to good students.
Juliette Adam
Juliette Adam Juliette Adam Juliette Adam (4 October 1836, Verberie (Oise) – 23 August 1936, Callian (Var), also known by her maiden name Juliette Lambert, was a French author and feminist.- Biography :...
dedicated her anthology Poètes grecs contemporains ("Contemporary Greek poets"), published in 1881, to him, and he published in her Nouvelle Revue. He wrote for it, as before, numerous articles (on Byzantine history, Eastern issues and Greek political life), novels (a compendium in French and Greek came out in 1887) and even travel guides.
In the linguistic controversy in Greece between Katharevousa
Katharevousa
Katharevousa , is a form of the Greek language conceived in the early 19th century as a compromise between Ancient Greek and the Modern Greek of the time, with a vocabulary largely based on ancient forms, but a much-simplified grammar. Originally, it was widely used both for literary and official...
and Dimotiki
Dimotiki
Demotic Greek or dimotiki is the modern vernacular form of the Greek language. The term has been in use since 1818. Demotic refers particularly to the form of the language that evolved naturally from ancient Greek, in opposition to the artificially archaic Katharevousa, which was the official...
, Vikelas chose the middle ground, rejecting the excesses of the Dimotikists just as much as the fierce defenders of the more intellectual language. He suggested using Katharevousa for parliamentary proceedings, for example, but popular language for poetry.
Between 1877 and 1892, he travelled, since at the worst of her crises, his wife could not bear his presence. He returned to Greece, visited Scotland, Switzerland, Spain and Constantinople.
In 1892, he bought a new plot in Athens (between the streets of Kriezotou and Valaoriti) where he built a new residence which was also his final home.
In 1893, he helped finance the construction of the Greek Orthodox Church in Paris.
In May 1894, he received a request from the Pan-Hellenic Gymnastic Club
Panellinios Gymnastikos Syllogos
-Depth Chart:-Honors and titles:*Total National Titles: 6**Greek Championships : 1929, 1939, 1940, 1953, 1955, 1957**Runners up : 1935, 1950, 1951, 1954**Greek Cup Runners up : 1987**Greek A2 Championships : 1987, 2004...
, asking him to assist at a congress on amateurism convened the following month by Pierre de Coubertin
Pierre de Coubertin
Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin was a French educationalist and historian, founder of the International Olympic Committee, and is considered the father of the modern Olympic Games...
. After hesitation, he agreed to represent the association. Following the congress it was decided to recreate the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
and to organise them in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
.
Originally, it had been De Coubertin's idea to hold the first celebration of the modern Olympics
Summer Olympic Games
The Summer Olympic Games or the Games of the Olympiad are an international multi-sport event, occurring every four years, organized by the International Olympic Committee. Medals are awarded in each event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition that...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1900, but Vikelas convinced him and the newly created International Olympic Committee
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
that they should be held in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, in order to symbolically link them to the original Games. As the constitution of the IOC at that time required the IOC president to be from the country which would host the next Games, Vikelas became the IOC's first president.
Permanent return to Greece
With his responsibility for the 1896 Summer Olympics1896 Summer Olympics
The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, was a multi-sport event celebrated in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to April 15, 1896. It was the first international Olympic Games held in the Modern era...
, Vikelas returned to Greece for just ten days in autumn 1894. On October the 14th, he received a telegram from doctor Luys informing him that the condition of his wife had worsened. She had œdemas in her thighs, calves and stomach. She could no longer feed herself. He urgently returned to Paris. It seems that she then died.
In November 1894, a number of young nationalist officers, advocates of the Megali Idea
Megali Idea
The Megali Idea was an irredentist concept of Greek nationalism that expressed the goal of establishing a Greek state that would encompass all ethnic Greek-inhabited areas, since large Greek populations after the restoration of Greek independence in 1830 still lived under Ottoman rule.The term...
, created a secret society, Ethniki Etairia
Ethniki Etairia
The Ethniki Etaireia was a secret Greek nationalistic organization created in November 1894, by a number of young nationalist officers, advocates of the Megali Idea...
, whose aim was to revive the morale of the country and prepare the liberation of Greek peoples still under the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. In September 1895, they recruited civilians, all linked to the organisation of the Olympic Games, including Vikelas himself, although he claimed only to have given in to friendly pressure, playing a solely financial role and then quickly resigning from it. At this point he was still attracted by the possibility of rebuilding his country.
After the Games, which proved a success, Vikelas withdrew from the IOC, replaced as a member by the Count Alexander Mercati and as president by Coubertin. The defeat in the Greco-Turkish War
Greco-Turkish War (1897)
The Greco-Turkish War of 1897, also called the Thirty Days' War and known as the Black '97 in Greece, was a war fought between the Kingdom of Greece and Ottoman Empire. Its immediate cause was the question over the status of the Ottoman province of Crete, whose Greek majority long desired union...
which came soon after dealt a serious blow to his morale. He decided to leave Paris to move permanently to Athens. There he dedicated himself to popular education. In 1899 he founded the "Society for the Spread of Useful Books" in Athens, to help the country to recover from its defeat.
In 1905, he represented the University of Athens
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens , usually referred to simply as the University of Athens, is the oldest university in Southeast Europe and has been in continuous operation since its establishment in 1837. Today, it is the second-largest institution of higher learning in Greece,...
at the seventh Olympic Conference
Olympic Conference
The Olympic Conference is an athletic conference consisting of public and private high schools located in Burlington County, Camden County and Gloucester County, New Jersey. The Olympic Conference operates under the aegis of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.-Participating...
in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. He also remained an active member of the Hellenic Olympic Committee. He died in Athens on 20 July 1908 "from an afflicting illness".
He had been made a knight of the Legion of Honour
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
on 31 December 1891, and honorary doctor
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
of the University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
in November 1893 (the first Greek to receive this honour). He was a member (from 1874, and Vice-President from 1894) of the French "Association for the Promotion of Greek Studies", and of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies in London.
He left his immense library collection to Heraklion
Heraklion
Heraklion, or Heraclion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete, Greece. It is the 4th largest city in Greece....
, founding the Vikelaia Municipal Library.
Today, the Sports Center (Stadium) in Ermoupoli, bears Demetrios Vikelas' name. The stadium seats 2000 people, and has an Olympic-size swimming pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
, four tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
courts, two gym halls, basket
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
and volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
courts, track and field
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
, floor football court and soccer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
field.
First Olympic Congress
Pierre de Coubertin
Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin was a French educationalist and historian, founder of the International Olympic Committee, and is considered the father of the modern Olympic Games...
had already attempted to restart the Olympic Games at the congress for the fifth anniversary of the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques
Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques
Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques is a former French sports governing body. During the 1890s and early 1900s it organised numerous sports including athletics, cycling, field hockey, fencing, croquet and swimming...
in 1892. While he may have raised the enthusiasm of the public, he didn't manage to establish a proper commitment.
He decided to reiterate his efforts at the congress in 1894 which followed, which would openly address the issue of amateur sports, but also with the sub-text of the recreation of the Olympic Games. Six of the seven points which would be debated pertained to amateurism (definition, disqualification, betting, etc.) and the seventh on the possibility of restoring the Games. Coubertin also sought to give an international dimension to his congress. He gained support from several personalities: the King of the Belgians
Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II was the second king of the Belgians. Born in Brussels the second son of Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the throne on 17 December 1865 and remained king until his death.Leopold is chiefly remembered as the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free...
, the Prince of Wales
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
, the Diadochus Constantine
Constantine I of Greece
Constantine I was King of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. He was commander-in-chief of the Hellenic Army during the unsuccessful Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and led the Greek forces during the successful Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, in which Greece won Thessaloniki and doubled in...
(hereditary prince of Greece) and William Penny Brookes
William Penny Brookes
Dr. William Penny Brookes was an English surgeon, magistrate, botanist, and educationalist especially known for his promotion of physical education and personal betterment...
, the founder of the "Olympian Games" in Shropshire, England, and Ioannis Phokianos. Phokianos was a professor of mathematics and physics and a college principal. Phokianos was also one of the propagators of sport in Greece and the organiser of an Olympic Games sponsored by Evangelis Zappas in 1875. In 1888, Phokianos organised an elite and private Games as the founder of the Pan-Hellenic Gymnastic Club
Panellinios Gymnastikos Syllogos
-Depth Chart:-Honors and titles:*Total National Titles: 6**Greek Championships : 1929, 1939, 1940, 1953, 1955, 1957**Runners up : 1935, 1950, 1951, 1954**Greek Cup Runners up : 1987**Greek A2 Championships : 1987, 2004...
. Phokianos could not travel to Paris for financial reasons and because he was finalising the construction of his new college. He turned to one of the more eminent representatives of the Greek community in Paris, Demetrios Vikelas, to whom he wrote to ask him to take part in the congress.
Novels and short stories
- Poems., London, 1862.
- Loukis Laras was his main work, a historical, patriotic and moral novel. The style is naturalistic, as opposed to his heavy romantic works which were written as they were in GreeceGreek literatureGreek literature refers to writings composed in areas of Greek influence, typically though not necessarily in one of the Greek dialects, throughout the whole period in which the Greek-speaking people have existed.-Ancient Greek literature :...
. It is written in simple language to make it accessible to a wider audience. The action unfolds as the Greek War of IndependenceGreek War of IndependenceThe Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between...
enters SmyrnaSmyrnaSmyrna was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey...
, ChiosChiosChios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...
, SyrosSyrosSyros , or Siros or Syra is a Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is located south-east of Athens. The area of the island is . The largest towns are Ermoupoli, Ano Syros, and Vari. Ermoupoli is the capital of the island and the Cyclades...
and the CycladesCycladesThe Cyclades is a Greek island group in the Aegean Sea, south-east of the mainland of Greece; and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name refers to the islands around the sacred island of Delos...
. An old rich Greek merchant in London reflects on the adventures of his youth. The novel was published as a series from 1879 in the literary Athenian magazine EstiaEstiaEstia is a national newspaper published daily in Athens, Greece. It is generally considered a broadsheet of a conservative, right-wing political alignment, and an advocate of free-market policies...
. The book was translated into eleven languages. - Nouvelle grecques, translated by the Marquis de Queux de Saint-Hilaire, 1887.
- "Philippe Marthas (Nouvelle grecque)" appeared in La Nouvelle Revue., September–October 1886. read at Gallica (French)
- Tales of the Aegean.
Books and historical articles
- Articles on PalaiologosPalaiologosPalaiologos , often latinized as Palaeologus, was a Byzantine Greek noble family, which produced the last ruling dynasty of the Byzantine Empire. After the Fourth Crusade, members of the family fled to the neighboring Empire of Nicaea, where Michael VIII Palaiologos became co-emperor in 1259,...
, the last dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, in the Athenian journal Pandora, 1859-1860. - On the Byzantines., London, 1874.
- "Les Grecs aux conciles de Bâle et de Florence.", La Nouvelle Revue., May–June 1882. read at Gallica (French)
- "La Grèce avant la révolution de 1821", La Nouvelle Revue., January–February 1884. read at Gallica (French)
- De Nicopolis à Olympie. Lettres à un ami., 1885. (following his correspondence with the Marquis de Queux de Saint-Hilaire)
- "The Byzantine Empire", Scottish Review, no. 8:16, October 1886.
- "Byzantism and Hellenism", Scottish Review, no. 9:17, janvier 1887.
- "The Subjects of the Byzantine Empire", Scottish Review, no. 9:18, April 1887.
- "Greece before 1821", Scottish Review, no. 13:26, April 1889.
- "The Formation of the Modern Greek State", Scottish Review, no. 14:27, July 1889.
- "L'Empereur Nicéphore Phocas", La Nouvelle Revue., July–August 1890. read at Gallica (French)
- Seven Essays on Christian Greece., 1890.
- "Le Philhellénisme en France.", Revue d'Histoire diplomatique., III, 1891.
- "La Littérature byzantine", Revue des deux mondes, March–April, 1892. read at Gallica (French)
- Grèce Byzantine et moderne., Firmin Didot, Paris, 1893.
Political and polemic works
- "Journalism in England", Eunomia (Athènes), 1864.
- "Statistics of the Kingdom of Greece", Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, no. 31, September 1868.
- Le Rôle et les aspirations de la Grèce dans la question d'Orient., Cercle Saint-Simon, Paris, 1885. read at Gallica (French)
- "Vingt-cinq années de règne constitutionnel en Grèce", La Nouvelle Revue., March–April 1889. read at Gallica (French)
- "The Territory of the Hellenic Kingdom", no. 14:28, October 1889.
Translations
He translated into Greek the stories of Hans Christian AndersenHans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
(for his nephews and nieces), and various Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
plays.
External links
- Biography of Demetrius Vikelas on the IOCInternational Olympic CommitteeThe International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
website