Grigor Parlichev

Grigor Stavrev Parlichev
200px
Native name	Григор Пърличев
Born	18 January 1829 or 1830 Ohrid, Ottoman Empire
Died	25 January 1893 (aged 63 or 64) Ohrid, Ottoman Empire
Pen name	Γρηγόρης Σταυρίδης (for his Greek works)
Occupation	poet, writer, teacher, public figure
Language	Bulgarian
Ethnicity	Buglarian
Period	Bulgarian revival
Notable works	Ο Αρματωλός Σκεντέρμπεης 1762 leto Autobiography
Notable awards	1st prize, Athens University Greek Poetry Competition (1860)
Spouse	Anastasiya Uzunova
Children	Konstantinka Parlicheva Luisa Parlicheva Kiril Parlichev Despina Parlicheva Georgi Parlichev

Grigor Stavrev Parlichev (also spelled Prlichev, Parlitcheff or Prličev; Bulgarian: Григор Ставрев Пърличев, Greek: Γρηγόριος Σταυρίδης, Macedonian: Григор Прличев) was a Bulgarian writer and translator. He was born January 18, 1830 in Ohrid, Ottoman Empire and died in the same town January 25, 1893. Although he thought of himself as a Bulgarian, presently he is considered an ethnic Macedonian in the Republic of Macedonia.

Biography

Parlichev studied in a Greek school in Macedonia. In the 1850s he worked as a teacher of Greek in the towns of Tirana, Prilep and Ohrid. In 1858 Parlichev started studying medicine in Athens but transferred to the Faculty of Linguistics in 1860. The same year Parlichev took part in the annual poetic competition in Athens winning first prize for his poem "O Armatolos" (Ο Αρματωλός, in Bulgarian "The Serdar"), written in Greek. Acclaimed as "second Homer", he was offered scholarships to the universities at Oxford and Berlin but declined both.

File:The house of Grigor Prličev in Ohrid, Macedonia.JPG

The house of Grigor Prličev in Ohrid, Macedonia

In 1862 Parlichev joined the struggle for independent Bulgarian church and schools, though he continued to teach Greek. After spending some time in Constantinople in 1868 acquainting himself with Old Slavonic literature, he returned to Ohrid where he advocated the substitution of Greek with Bulgarian in the town's schools and churches. The same year Parlichev was arrested and spent several months in an Ottoman jail after a complaint was sent by the Greek bishop of Ohrid.

From 1869 Parlichev taught Bulgarian in several towns across Ottoman Empire, including Struga, Gabrovo, Bitola, Ohrid and Thessaloniki. He initiated the creation of the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki. In 1870 Parlichev translated his award-winning poem "The Serdar" into Bulgarian in an attempt to popularize his earlier works, which were written in Greek, among the Bulgarian audience. He also wrote another poem "Skenderbeg", and his autobiography.

From this time until his death Parlichev continued writing only in Bulgarian, publishing a number of poems and newspaper articles and an autobiography (1884). Parlichev was the first Bulgarian translator of Homer's Iliad, though critics were highly critical of his style and choice of dialect. In translating the Iliad, Parlichev was among the first authors to write in his native Ohrid dialect. He is therefore also regarded as a founding figure of the literature of the later standardized Macedonian language.

Parlichev's son Cyril Parlichev was also a prominent member of the revolutionary movement in Macedonia and a Bulgarian public figure.

Further reading

Parlichev's Autobiography

• Parlichev, Grigor. Автобиография. Сборник за народни умотворения, наука и книжнина, book IX, Sofia (1894). ( Media related to at Wikimedia Commons) (Bulgarian)
• Parlichev, Grigor. Автобиографија. Skopje, 1967 (scan)(Macedonian).

Biographies

• Parlichev, Cyril. Към характеристика на Григор С. Пърличев (Towards a Characteristic of Grigor S. Parlichev), Macedonian Review 4, book 2, p. 99 (1928). (Bulgarian)
• Matov, Dimitar. Гр. С. Пърличев. Книжовно биографически чертици (Gr. S. Parlichev: A Literary and Biographical Outline), Balgarski Pregled, book 4-5 (1895). (Bulgarian)

Historical context

• Shapkarev, Kuzman. Материали за възраждането на българщината в Македония от 1854 до 1884 г. Неиздадени записки и писма (Materials about the Bulgarian Revival in Macedonia from 1854 to 1884. Unpublished Notes and Letters). Balgarski Pisatel, Sofia (1984) [1] (Bulgarian)
• Sprostranov, Evtim. По възражданьето в град Охрид (On the Revival in the City of Ohrid), Сборникъ за Народни Умотворения, Наука и Книжнина, book XIII, Sofia, pp 621–681 (1896) [2] (Bulgarian)