The library of Professor Dimitris Maronitis

The library, a generous donation from the Maronitis family to the Foundation made in 2017, is estimated to contain 2,500 items. It has a strong philological character and content, with a significant focus on Homeric themes. Additionally, a substantial part of the collection pertains to contemporary philosophy. The collection is further complemented by many well-known contemporary philological journals.

Dimitris N. Maronitis (1929-2016) was a philologist, translator, and essayist, with a central focus on Homeric studies. He was born in Thessaloniki, studied at the Faculty of Philosophy at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), and pursued postgraduate studies at universities in Germany, with a scholarship from the Humboldt Foundation. He was an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy at AUTH until 1967. He was dismissed, arrested, and tortured by the military junta. From 1975, he returned and remained a professor at the same Faculty until 1996. He also taught at several prestigious universities abroad. From 1994 to 2001, he served as President and General Director of the Center for the Greek Language, and later as coordinator of the program “Classical Studies and Classical Languages in Secondary Education.” He translated both Homeric epics, the Odyssey and the Iliad, into Modern Greek. He wrote books, monographs, and articles on Homer, Hesiod, Sophocles, Herodotus, Alcaeus, and Sappho, which he partly or entirely translated. Simultaneously, he studied and published essays on major modern Greek poets and prose writers. For his works and his overall contribution to Greek literature, he received significant honours and awards.