Odysseas Elytis – The Greek Poet of light (1911-

1996)

8th High School of Trikala

April 2014

Life - AwardsOdysseas Elytis was born on the island of Crete in a town called Heraklion on November 2, 1911. His real surname was Alepoudellis. Elytis’ family was from Mytilene. They later moved to Athens, where he graduated from high school and then attended courses at the Law School of the University of Athens. He wrote his first poem after one of his friends, Giorgos Seferis, prompted him to do so. In 1937 he served his military requirements, and he even fought on the first-line of the battlefields of the Greco – Italian war on 1940. He loved travelling, so he visited many countries, like Switzerland, Italy and Spain. He settled in Paris during the years 1948 – 1952 and during the period of the Greek junta (1969 – 1972).

Due to his unparalleled talent and his exceptional works, Odysseas Elytis received many awards. Those were:

The First State Poetry Prize (1960)

The Order of the Phoenix (1965)

The Doctor Honoris Causa from the university of Thessaloniki (1975)

The Honorary Citizenship of the town of Mytilene (1975)

The Literature Nobel Prize (1979), the greatest of them all.

Odysseas Elytis died in Athens on 18 March 1996, at the age of 84. His body is dead but his memory and his work still remain in the minds of all people.

Achievements

At first, Odysseas Elytis wrote mainly literary works, but, after the Greco – Italian War, he started writing more poems. Generally, his work consists of collections of essays, critical essays and poems.

Literary Works

The True Face and Lyrical Bravery of Andreas Kalvos (1942)

2x7 e (collection of small essays)

My Cards To Sight (1973)

The Painter Theophilos (1973)

The Magic Of Papadiamantis (1975)

Report to Andreas Empeirikos (1977)

Things Public and Private Carte Blanche (1990)

The Garden with the Illusions (1995)

Open Papers: Selected Essays (1995)

Works of Poetry

Odysseas Elytis’ poetic works were basically inspired by the following three themes

The Sun

The Sea

Love

Orientations (1939)

Sun The First Together With Variations on A Sunbeam (1943)

A Heroic And Funeral Chant For The Lieutenant Lost In Albania (1946)

To Axion Esti—It Is Worthy (1959)

Six Plus One Remorses For The Sky (1960)

The Light Tree And The Fourteenth Beauty (1972)

The Sovereign Sun (1971)

The Trills Of Love (1973)

The Monogram (1972)

Step-Poems (1974)

Signalbook (1977)

Maria Nefeli (1978)

Three Poems under a Flag of Convenience (1982)

Diary of an Invisible April (1987)

The Little Mariner (1988)

The Elegies of Oxopetra (1991)

West of Sadness (1995)

Eros, Eros, Eros: Selected and Last Poems (1998)

Reason whyWe chose to write about Odysseas Elytis, because he is one of the most significant Greek poets of all times. He is the second Greek poet to be awarded with a Nobel prize, and the last to date. He created a personal poetic style, and he is considered one of the rejuvenators of Greek poetry. Many of his poems were set to music, while collections of his have been translated in many foreign languages. The themes of his work are connected deeply with Greece; its people, its beauty and its spirit.

Everlasting valueOdysseas Elytis was one of the last representatives of the literary “Generation of the 30’s”, one of the characteristics of which was the ideological dilemma between the Greek tradition and the European modernism. Elytis himself thought his position in this generation was weird, stating notably: “ On the one hand, I was the last of a generation who was searching the sources of Hellenism, and, on the other hand, I was the first of another who was accepting the revolutionary theories of a modern movement”. It is understandable that Elytis’ work was balancing between those two ideas; the faith in tradition and the search of something fresh, new. Through his works and ideas, the following generations would appreciate the value of their national identity and gain respect for tradition, at the same time being open to new ideas and views.

“ If you cannot find spring, make it.”