Abstract
This chapter deals with the journal Ελλάς/Hellas (Leiden, Holland, 1889–1897). It examines the broader frame of the periodical's publication and the intentions of its editorial board. Ελλάς/Hellas was the organ of the Philhellenic Society in Amsterdam, which was founded in April 1888. The Society's basic aim was the support and promotion of the modern Greek language (katharevousa, an archaic, purified form of Greek used for official and literary purposes) as an international language, in opposition to the appearance and diffusion of invented languages such as Volapuk and Esperanto. The Society and its journal make also a special plea for substituting modern Greek, and the modern pronunciation with it, for the ancient Greek taught in elementary instruction in Europe. This chapter examines this experiment as a utopian effort in the late nineteenth century.
Keywords: H.C. Muller, Ελλάς/Hellas, Philhellenic Society of Amsterdam, Volapuk, Esperanto, Erasmian pronunciation
Holland geht uns urplötzlich voran! In such a celebratory tone regarding the leading role of the Netherlands did the then prominent, albeit now forgotten, German philologist and linguist August Boltz (1819–1907) complete his book Hellenisch die internationale Gelehrtensprache der Zukunft. The Netherlands had long been associated with the cultivation of classical studies, in which Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, better known as Erasmus (1466–1536), was a leading figure, while classical studies in the nineteenth century were dominated by Professor C.G. Cobet (1813–1889), who published the important journal Mnemosyne (Leiden, 1852 onwards) from 1856 and was a teacher of, inter alia, Konstantinos S. Kontos (1834–1909), a Greek philologist and professor at the University of Athens, with whom they jointly published the scholarly journal Λόγιος Ερμής (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1866–1867 and Athens, 1876).
Boltz by no means praises the Netherlands for these past endeavours, but rather for the initiative that led to the spring 1888 establishment of the Philhellenic Society of Amsterdam, which aspired to become the unifying association of philhellenes worldwide. The history of its foundation, its objectives and its initiatives will be presented in detail below. The journal Ελλάς/Hellas, which will also be examined in the present essay, was the printed expression of this Society's aims and aspirations.