Odysseas Elytis

Cover of Complete Poems of Elytis

Odysseas Elytis (Greek: Οδυσσέας Ελύτης) (November 2 1911-March 18 1996) was a Greek poet, considered as one of the most important representatives of modernism in Greece. Although his original family name was Alepoudelis, he became famous with the pseudonym 'Elytis'. In 1979 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Biography

Descendant of an old family of Lesbos, he was born in Heraklion (Candia) on the island of Crete, 2 November 1911. His family was later relocated to Athens permanently, where the poet completed his high school studies and later attended courses as a listener at the Law School at Athens University. In 1935, Elytis published his first poem in the journal New Letters (Νέα Γράμματα). His entry inaugurated a new era in Greek poetry and its subsequent reform after the Second World War.

The war

In 1937 he served his military requirements. Selected as an army cadet, he joined the National Military School in Corfu. During the war he was appointed Second Lieutenant, placed initially in the 1st Army Corps Headquarters, he was later transferred to the 24th Regiment, on the first-line of the battlefields. Elytis continuously published poetry anthologies and essays on contemporary poetry and art during the years of the German Occupation.

Programme director for ERT

Elytis was twice named Programme Director of the Elliniki Radiophonia Tileorasi (Greek National Radio Foundation) (1945-1946 and 1953-1954), Member of the Greek National Theater's Administrative Council, President of the Administrative Council of the Elliniki Radiophonia Tileorasi (Greek Radio and Television) as well as Member of the Consultative Committee of the Greek National Tourist's Organization on the Athens Festival. In 1960 he was awarded the First State Poetry Prize, in 1965 the Order of the Phoenix and in 1975 he was awarded the Doctor Honoris Causa in the Faculty of Philosophy at the Thessaloniki University and received the Honorary Citizenship of the Town of Mytilene.

Travels

During the years 1948—1952 and 1969-1972 he settled in Paris. There, he audited philology and literature seminars at the Sorbonne and was well received by the pioneers of the world's avant-garde movement, including (Reverdy, Breton, Tzara, Ungaretti, Matisse, Picasso, Chagall, Giacometti) as Teriade's most respected friend. Teriade was simultaneously in Paris publishing works with all the renowed artists and philosophers of the time, Kostas Axelos, Jean Paul Sartre, Rene Daumal. Elytis and Teriade had formed a strong friendship that solidified in 1939 with the publication of Elytis first book of poetry entitled "Orientations". Both Elytis and Teriade hailed from Lesbos and had a mutual love of the Greek painter. Theophilos. Starting from Paris he travelled and subsequently visited Switzerland, England, Italy and Spain. In 1948 he was the representative of Greece at the International Meetings of Geneva, in 1949 at the Founding Congress of the International Art Critics Union in Paris and in 1962 at the Incontro Romano della Cultura in Rome.

In 1961, upon an invitation of the State Department, he traveled through the U.S.A.; he received similar invitations from the Soviet Union in 1963 and Bulgaria in 1965.

Death

Odysseas Elytis died on 18 March, 1996.

The Poetry of Elytis

Elytis' poetry has marked, through an active presence of over forty years, a broad spectrum. Unlike other contemporaries, he did not turn back to Ancient Greece or Byzantium for his inspiration, but devoted himself exclusively to today's Hellenism. He attempted —in a certain way based on psychical and sentimental aspects— to build up the mythology and the institutions. His main endeavour has been to rid his people's conscience from unjustifiable remorses, to complement natural elements through ethical powers, to achieve the highest possible transparency in expression and finally,to succeed in approaching the mystery of light, the metaphysics of the sun of which he was an idolater. —according to his own definition. A parallel manner concerning technique resulted in introducing the inner architecture, which is clearly perceptible in a great many works of his; mainly in the Worthy It Is (Το Άξιον Εστί). This work due to its setting to music by Mikis Theodorakis— was to be widely spread among all Greeks and grew to be a kind of the people's new gospel. Elytis' theoretical and philosophical ideas have been expressed in a series of essays under the title 'The Open Papers (Ανοιχτά Χαρτιά). Besides he applied himself to translating poetry and theatre as well as creating a series of collage pictures. Translations of his poetry have been published as autonomous books, in anthologies or in periodicals in eleven languages.

Works

Poetry

Orientations (Προσανατολισμοί, 1940)
Sun The First (Ηλιος ο πρώτος, παραλλαγές πάνω σε μιαν αχτίδα, 1943)
An Heroic And Funeral Chant For The Lieutenant Lost In Albania (Άσμα ηρωικό και πένθιμο για τον χαμένο ανθυπολοχαγό της Αλβανίας, 1946)
To Axion Esti — It Is Worthy (Το Άξιον Εστί, 1959)
Six Plus One Remorses For The Sky (Έξη και μια τύψεις για τον ουρανό, 1960)
The Light Tree And The Fourteenth Beauty (Το φωτόδεντρο και η δέκατη τέταρτη ομορφιά, 1972)
The Sovereign Sun (Ο ήλιος ο ηλιάτορας, 1971)
The Trills Of Love (Τα Ρω του Έρωτα, 1973)
The Monogram (Το Μονόγραμμα, 1972)
Step-Poems (Τα Ετεροθαλή, 1974)
Signalbook (Σηματολόγιον, 1977)
Maria Nefeli (Μαρία Νεφέλη, 1978)
Three Poems under a Flag of Convenience (Τρία ποιήματα με σημαία ευκαιρίας 1982)
Diary of an Invisible April (Ημερολόγιο ενός αθέατου Απριλίου, 1984)
Krinagoras (Κριναγόρας, 1987)
The Little Mariner (Ο Μικρός Ναυτίλος, 1988)
The Elegies of Oxopetras (Τα Ελεγεία της Οξώπετρας, 1991)
West of Sadness (Δυτικά της λύπης, 1995)

Prose, essays

The True Face and Lyrical Bravery of Andreas Kalvos (Η Αληθινή φυσιογνωμία και η λυρική τόλμη του Ανδρέα Κάλβου, 1942)
2x7 e (collection of small essays) (2χ7 ε (συλλογή μικρών δοκιμίων))
(Offering) My Cards To Sight (Ανοιχτά χαρτιά (συλλογή κειμένων), 1973)
The Painter Theophilos (Ο ζωγράφος Θεόφιλος, 1973)
The Magic Of Papadiamantis (Η μαγεία του Παπαδιαμάντη, 1975)
Reference to Andreas Empeirikos (Αναφορά στον Ανδρέα Εμπειρίκο, 1977)
The Public ones and the Private ones (Τα Δημόσια και τα Ιδιωτικά, 1990)
Private Way (Ιδιωτική Οδός, 1990)
«Εν λευκώ» (συλλογή κειμένων), (1992)
The Garden with the Illusions (Ο κήπος με τις αυταπάτες, 1995)

Translations

Second Writing (Δεύτερη γραφή, 1976)
Sapho (Σαπφώ)
The Apocalypse (by John) (Η αποκάλυψη, 1985)

Reference works

Mario Vitti: Odysseus Elytis. Literature 1935-1971 (Icaros 1977)
Tasos Lignadis: Elytis' Axion Esti (1972)
Lili Zografos: Elytis - The Sun Drinker (1972); as well as the special issue of the American magazine Books Abroad dedicated to the work of Elytis (Autumn 1975. Norman, Oklahoma, U.S.A.)
Odysseas Elytis: Anthologies of Light. Ed. I. Ivask (1981)
A. Decavalles: Maria Nefeli and the Changeful Sameness of Elytis' Variations on a theme (1982)
E. Keeley: Elytis and the Greek Tradition (1983)
Ph. Sherrard: Odysseus Elytis and the Discovery of Greece, in Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 1(2), 1983
K. Malkoff: Eliot and Elytis: Poet of Time, Poet of Space, in Comparative Literature, 36(3), 1984
A. Decavalles: Odysseus Elytis in the 1980s, in World Literature Today, 62(l), 1988

Translations of Elytis' work

Poesie. Procedute dal Canto eroico e funebre per il sottotenente caduto in Albania. Trad. Mario Vitti (Roma. Il Presente. 1952)
21 Poesie. Trad. Vicenzo Rotolo (Palermo. Istituto Siciliano di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici. 1968)
Poèmes. Trad. Robert Levesque (1945)
Six plus un remords pourle ciel. Trad. F. B. Mache (Fata Morgana. Montpellier 1977)
Korper des Sommers. Übers. Barbara Schlörb (St. Gallen 1960)
Sieben nächtliche Siebenzeiler. Übers. Günter Dietz (Darmstadt 1966)
To Axion Esti - Gepriesen sei. Übers. Güinter Dietz (Hamburg 1969)
The Axion Esti. Trans. Edmund Keeley and G. Savidis (Pittsburgh, U.S.A. 1974)
The Sovereign Sun. Trans. Kinom Friar (Philadelphia, U.S.A. 1974)
Selected poems. Ed. E. Keeley and Ph. Sherrard (1981)

External links

From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1968-1980, Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor Sture Allén, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1993

Nobel Prize in Literature: Laureates (1976-2000)

Complete List

Laureates (1901-1925) | Laureates (1926-1950) | Laureates (1951-1975) | Laureates (1976-2000) | Laureates (2001-2025)

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