Friderikos Versakis - My Favourite Planet People

Friderikos Versakis (or Frederikos Versakes, Φρειδερίκος or Φριδερίκος Βερσάκης, 1880-1921) was a Greek archaeologist born in Piraeus, of Italian parents or descent [1]. He was known to his English-speaking colleagues as Frederick, and to Germans as Friedrich.

At the age of 25 he went to Germany to study architecture, but later switched to archaeology. He first studied in Berlin, then Munich and finally in Würzburg, where he submitted his thesis in 1908.

Following his return to Greece, he published studies of ancient monuments south of the Athens Acropolis:

the Theatre of Dionysus (1909) [2];

the Odeion of Herodes Atticus (1910);

the Temple of Olympian Zeus (1910) [3];

the Stoa of Eumenes (1912);

the Asklepieion (1908-1913) [4];

the Choragic Monument of Nikias (1913).

In December 1910 Versakis was appointed Ephor of Antiquities for Corfu, where he helped to establish the archaeological museum (see below). In 1911, during his excavation of the Archaic "Temple of Artemis" at the Monastery of Agios Theodoros Stratias, Garitsa, just to the south of Corfu Town centre, he discovered the famous Gorgon pediment. [5] Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, who had purchased the nearby Achilleion palace and was visiting the island at the time, took an active interest in the dig.

Versakis' success in Corfu was somewhat tinged by controversy, particularly concerning his poor relationsip with the German archaeologist Wilhelm Dörpfeld, who had publicly criticized the quality of his archaeological work in Athens [see note 2]. Both considered themselves to be in charge of the Corfu excavations, causing a competitive friction which led to several disagreements. Following a confrontation between the two men, Versakis was dismissed from his post as ephor in April 1911, perhaps due to the influence of Wilhelm II on the Greek king George I, and replaced by Konstantinos Rhomaios. The excavation of the "Temple of Artemis" was continued under Dörpfeld and financed by the kaiser. [6]

After leaving Corfu, Versakis returned to Athens to continue work on his studies of the south Slope of the Acropolis. He was then sent to the southern Peloponnese to conduct excavations at Lakonia, Messinia and Kythira. [7] Following the description by Pausanias, in 1915 he discovered and excavated the sanctuary of Apollo Korynthos (Κορύνθος Απόλλωνος), near Koroni (Κορώνη) in Messenia. [8] Between 1914 and 1916 he wrote studies of Byzantine churches in northern Epirus, northwestern Greece [9], as well as Byzantine churches in Messenia, the last of which was published posthumously. [see note 7] In 1916 he worked on his final excavation at Lechaion (Λέχαιον), the seaport of ancient Corinth, where he discovered a temple and tombs. [10]

During political upheavals at the end of the First World War, he was dismissed from the Greek Archaeological Service along with many other employees of the Ministry of Education. (According to one account he resigned due to ill health.) He went abroad, only returning to Greece at the end of 1920, shortly before his death.

The few published biographical summaries of his life and work are short, sketchy and rather vague. None reveal what he was like as a person, why he first went to study in Germany at the late age of 25, or why he died so young at 41, apart from mentions of poor health. One recent author wrote of "ill-fated" Versakis without elucidation.

Criticisms of Verskis' work by other archaeologists, especially Wilhelm Dörpfeld, are rarely mentioned. It has been suggested that the antagonism between the two men was essentially a political matter. Many Greeks believed that they should be in charge of archaeological matters in their own country rather than foreigners, a cause of tension which had earlier soured relationships between archaeologists such as Kyriakos Pittakis and Ludwig Ross (see Athens Acropolis gallery page 12).