Odysseas Elytis
Born	November 2, 1911 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Died	March 18, 1996 Athens, Greece
Occupation	Poet
Nationality	Greek

Odysseas Elytis (Greek: Οδυσσέας Ελύτης) (November 2, 1911 – March 18, 1996) was a Greek poet, considered as one of the most important representatives of romantic modernism in Greece and the world. In 1979 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Elytis_Complete_Poems_Cover. ... is the 306th day of the year (307th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... For other uses, see Heraklion (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Crete (disambiguation). ... is the 77th day of the year (78th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... This article is about the capital of Greece. ... This article is about work. ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ... In English usage, nationality is the legal relationship between a person and a country. ... is the 306th day of the year (307th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 77th day of the year (78th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... This article is about the art form. ... // Kingsley Amis - Collected Poems Ted Hughes - Moor Town Craig Raine - A Martian Sends a Postcard Home See 1979 Governor Generals Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards. ... Nobel Prize in Literature medal. ...

Biography

Descendant of an old industrial family from Lesbos, he was born Odysseas Alepoudelis 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 an auditor at the Law School at Athens University. In 1935, Elytis published his first poem in the journal New Letters (Νέα Γράμματα) at the prompting of such friends as George Seferis. His entry asssisted to inaugurate a new era in Greek poetry and its subsequent reform after the Second World War. Lesbos (Modern Greek: Lesvos (Λέσβος), Turkish: Midilli), is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. ... For other uses, see Heraklion (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Crete (disambiguation). ... is the 306th day of the year (307th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ...

The war

In 1937 he served his military requirements. Being selected as an army cadet, he joined the National Military School in Corfu. During the war he was appointed Second Lieutenant, placed initially at the 1st Army Corps Headquarters to later be transferred at the 24th Regiment, on the first-line of the battlefields. Elytis was sporadically publishing poetryand essays after his intial foray into the literary world. Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the Greek island Kerkyra known in English as Corfu or Corcyra. ...

Programme director for ERT

He has twice been Programme Director of the Greek National Radio Foundation (1945-46 and 1953-54), Member of the Greek National Theatre's Administrative Council, President of the Administrative Council of the Greek Radio and Television as well as Member of the Consultative Committee of the Greek National Tourist's Organisation 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. Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi (Greek: —Hellenic Radio [and] Television) is the Greek state-owned public radio and television broadcasting corporation. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... January 7 - President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb. ... Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi (Greek: —Hellenic Radio [and] Television) is the Greek state-owned public radio and television broadcasting corporation. ... // Eric Gregory Award: Christopher Levenson Queens Gold Medal for Poetry: John Betjeman National Book Award for Poetry: Robert Lowell, Life Studies Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: W. D. Snodgrass: Hearts Needle January 14 - Ralph Chubb Poetry List of poetry awards Categories: | ... Year 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1965 Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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 (Reverdy, Breton, Tzara, Ungaretti, Matisse, Picasso, Chagall, Giacometti) as Teriade's most respected friend. Teriade was simultaneously in Paris publishing works with all the renowned artists and philosophers (Kostas Axelos, Jean Paul Sartre,Francoise Gilot, Rene Daumal...) of the time. 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. Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1952 (MCMLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1969 (number) 1969 (movie) 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Inscription over the entrance to the Sorbonne The front of the Sorbonne Building The name Sorbonne (La Sorbonne) is commonly used to refer to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France or one of its successor institutions (see below), but this is a recent usage, and Sorbonne has actually... A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ... Pierre Reverdy (13 September 1889 - 17 June 1960) was a French poet associated with surrealism and cubism. ... André Breton André Breton (French IPA: ) (February 19, 1896 – September 28, 1966) was a French writer, poet, and surrealist theorist, and is best known as the main founder of surrealism. ... Tristan Tzara () (April 16, 1896 – December 25, 1963) was a Romanian poet and essayist. ... Giuseppe Ungaretti. ... Self-Portrait in a Striped T-shirt (1906). ... A young Pablo Picasso Pablo Picasso, formally Pablo Ruiz Picasso, (October 25, 1881 - April 8, 1973) was one of the recognized masters of 20th century art. ... Marc Chagall as photographed in 1941 by Carl Van Vechten Marc Chagall (July 7, 1887 - March 28, 1985) was a Belarusian painter of Jewish origin. ... Alberto Giacometti (October 10, 1901 - January 11, 1966) was an important surrealist sculptor and painter. ... Tériade (real name Stratis Eleftheriades - Στρατής Ελευθεριάδης) (1889-1983) was a native of Mytilene who went to Paris in 1915 at the age of eighteen to study law, but who instead became an art critic, patron, and, most importantly, publisher. ... Costas Axelos (also spelled Kostas Axelos) was born on the 26th of June 1924, and attended high school at the French Institute and the German School of Athens, Greece. ... Jean Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Sartre (June 21, 1905–April 15, 1980) was a French existentialist philosopher, dramatist, novelist and critic. ... Françoise Gilot (born 1921) is a French born painter and is known as a companion of Picasso between 1944 and 1953. ... René Daumal (1908 - 1944) was a French surrealist writer, philosopher and poet, born on March 16, 1908 in Boulzicourt, Ardennes, France. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1961, upon an invitation of the State Department, he traveled through the U.S.A.; and —upon similar invitations— through the Soviet Union in 1963 and Bulgaria in 1965. Year 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see 1963 (disambiguation). ... Year 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1965 Gregorian calendar. ...

Death

Odysseas Elytis died in Athens at the age of 84. He was survived by his older brother Evangelos, who was bestowed the writ of condolence from the nation at the funeral.

The Poetry of Elytis

Elytis' poetry has marked, through an active presence of over forty years, a broad spectrum of subject matter and stylistic touch. Unlike others, he did not turn back to Ancient Greece or Byzantium but devoted himself exclusively to today's Hellenism, of which 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 people's conscience from unjustifiable remorses and 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 —by 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 phenomenal work Worthy It Is (Το Άξιον Εστί). This work due to its setting to music by Mikis Theodorakis is a revered anthem whose verse is sung by all Greeks for all injustice, resistance and for its sheer beauty of form. Elytis' theoretical and philosophical ideas have been expressed in a series of essays under the title The Open Papers (Ανοιχτά Χαρτιά). Besides creating poetry 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. The term ancient Greece refers to the periods of Greek history in Classical Antiquity, lasting ca. ... Byzantium (Greek: Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city, which, according to legend, was founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas or Byzantas (Βύζας or Βύζαντας in Greek). ... The Culture of Greece has evolved over thousands of years, with its beginnings in the Mycenaean and Minoan Civilizations, continuing most notably into Classical Greece, through the influence of the Roman Empire and its Greek Eastern successor the Byzantine Empire. ... For other uses, see Mythology (disambiguation). ... Mikis Theodorakis (Greek: Μίκης Θεοδωράκης) (b. ...

Works

Poetry

• Orientations (Προσανατολισμοί, 1939)
• Sun The First Together With Variations on A Sunbeam (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)

// Last issue of The Criterion is published. ... // Ottawa native Elizabeth Smart moves permanently to England. ... // W.H. Auden becomes a U.S. citizen Cleanth Brooks, The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry Roy Campbell, Talking Bronco Walter De la Mare, The Traveller Henry Reed, A Map of Verona, including Naming of Parts Dylan Thomas, Deaths and Entrances, including Fern Hill and A... // Aldous Huxley turns down the offer of a knighthood. ... // Eric Gregory Award: Christopher Levenson Queens Gold Medal for Poetry: John Betjeman National Book Award for Poetry: Robert Lowell, Life Studies Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: W. D. Snodgrass: Hearts Needle January 14 - Ralph Chubb Poetry List of poetry awards Categories: | ... // John Betjeman becomes Poet Laureate A.R. Ammons: Briefings: Poems Small and Easy Collected Poems: 1951-1971, winner of the National Book Award in 1973 John Ashbery, Three Poems Ted Berrigan, Ron Padgett, and Tom Clark, Back In Boston Again John Berryman, (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Elizabeth Bishop and... Aleksandr Tvardovsky, who died this year, was a Soviet poet who, as editor of Novy Mir, fought for more independence and published Alexandr Solzhenitsyns One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in 1962 // This Magazine founded by Robert Grenier and Barrett Watten The Canterbury Tales, a film directed... // Adrienne Rich, Rape Derek Walcott, Another Life See 1973 Governor Generals Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards. ... // John Betjeman becomes Poet Laureate A.R. Ammons: Briefings: Poems Small and Easy Collected Poems: 1951-1971, winner of the National Book Award in 1973 John Ashbery, Three Poems Ted Berrigan, Ron Padgett, and Tom Clark, Back In Boston Again John Berryman, (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Elizabeth Bishop and... // The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics is founded by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman. ... // British publication Gay News successfully prosecuted in the United Kingdom for blasphemy and libel for publishing James Kirkups The Love that Dares to Speak its Name Samuel Beckett, Collected Poems in English and French Elizabeth Bishop, Geography III, which includes In the Waiting Room, The Moose, and the villanelle... // L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Magazine, edited by Bruce Andrews and Charles Bernstein, first published Stevie, a film based on a play about the poet Stevie Smith is released Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise Paul Blackburn, translator (posthumous), Proensa: An Anthology of Troubadour Poetry Odysseus Elytis... // Final edition of This Magazine published. ... // December 19 - Philip Larkin turns down the British Poet Laureateship, and Ted Hughes becomes Poet Laureate. ... // Charles Bukowski, fictionalised as alter ego Henry Chinaski, becomes the subject of the film Barfly starring Mickey Rourke. ... // Joseph Brodsky, To Urania Federico García Lorca, Poeta en Nueva York first translation into English as A Poet in New York this year (written in 1930, first published posthumously in 1940) Philip Larkin, Collected Poems Michael Palmer, Sun The New British Poetry, a poetry anthology, jointly edited by Gillian... // Forward Poetry Prize created John Ashbery, Flow Chart W.H. Auden, Collected Poems Gwendolyn Brooks, Children Coming Home Billy Collins, Questions About Angels (ISBN 0-8229-4211-9), the winner of the National Poetry Series competition in 1993 Wendy Cope, Serious Concerns Odysseus Elytis, The Elegies of Oxopetras (Τα Ελεγεία της Οξώπετρας) Howard Nemerov... // February 16 — Announcement that 300 poems by S.T. Coleridge have been discovered February 17 — Sothebys announces discovery of four Walt Whitman notebooks John Ashbery, Can You Hear, Bird? Odysseus Elytis, West of Sadness (Δυτικά της λύπης) (his last book) Carl Rakosi, Poems, 1923-1941 Richard Howard edits The Best American Poetry...

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)

Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the song by James Blunt, see 1973 (song). ... For the song by James Blunt, see 1973 (song). ... Year 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ...

Translations

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

Year 1976 Pick up sticks(MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ...

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. Kimon Friar (Philadelphia, U.S.A. 1974)
• Selected poems. Ed. E. Keeley and Ph. Sherrard (1981)

External links

• Official site of Nobel Prize
• Site dedicated to Elytis
• Biography
• Biography in the site of Greek National Book Centre
• Recitations of poems by Elytis
• Parts of works of his
• Books in Greek about Elytis

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