Odysseas Elytis

The Greek Poet of light

(1911-1996)




8th High School of Trikala
April 2014
Life - Awards
Odysseas 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 EstiIt 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 why

We 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 value

Odysseas Elytis was one of the last representatives of the literary Generation
of the 30s, 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.