Dimitris Liantinis Bio

Dimitris Liantinis (23 July 1942 – 1998) was a professor of the School of Philosophy of the University of Athens. His academic field was the Philosophy of Education and Didactics of Ancient and Modern Greek Literature. He is also the author of nine books with philosophical and educational background.

His surname was Nikolakakos, but changed to Liantinis, to honour his birthplace, the village Liantina of the prefecture of Laconia (Sparta).

He finished High school in Sparta and in 1966 he graduated from the Department of Literature of the School of Philosophy of the University of Athens. He served as a teacher of literature in the secondary education from 1968 to 1970 and from 1973 to 1975. From 1970 to 1972, Liantinis stayed in Munich, Germany to learn and study the German Language. At the same time he served there, as a teacher of Classical Literature, at the private Greek high school «Otto Geselschaft».In 1975 he pursued graduate studies in the School of Philosophy of the University of Athens and was appointed Teaching Assistant at the Laboratory of Education. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1978 with honours and the subject of his thesis was «The presence of Hellenic spirit in the Duino elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke».
As a professor, he gave several training seminars and lectures to teachers of the secondary education in Greece.

On June, 1st 1998 Liantinis disappeared, leaving a letter to his daughter, Diotima, where he stated his decision to vanish by his own free will after a lifelong and step by step preparation. As it was natural, his unexpected disappearance, evoked public opinion and led to many controversial speculations .After seven years (July 2005), Panagiotis Nikolakakos, cousin of Liantinis, revealed to Diotima the crypt in the mountain Taygetos, where her father layed,as has been instructed to do so by Liantinis himself prior to his «departure». After several thorough forensic tests and analyses, the skeleton found in the crypt, has been undoubtedly identified as being Liantinis’ but the exact date (it is estimated that occurred between 1st and 5th of June 1998) and cause of death still remain undetermined since no lethal substance was found. Despite his will, for his remains to rest in Taygetos, he was finally buried at the cemetery of Kechries, near the city of Corinth.

He wrote the following books, all in Greek.

«Exipnon Enipnion» (1977) A philosophical interpretation of Rilke’s collection, «The Duino Elegies» and their influence from ancient Greece. This book served as the basis of his Ph.D. thesis.

«Ηasma Sismou» (1977) A philosophical interpretation of the poetry of   Dionysios Solomos.

«Ecce Homo» (1979) A translation in Greek of the well known book by Nietzsche.

 «Nefomanes» (1982). A study on the poetry of G.Seferis.

«Homo Educandus» (1984) A manual of the Philosophy of Education.

«Polychroniο» (1987) A study on the influence of Stoicism on Ancient Rome.

«Didaktike» (1989) A manual of principles and methods of Teaching.

«Ellenika» (1992) A book for teachers of Modern Greek literature

«Gemma» (1997) The final work,-«the jewel» as he used to call it- where in the 16 individual chapters, Liantinis deal with 16 crucial questions for mankind.