Odysseas Elytis

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Odysseas Elytis : biography

November 2, 1911 – March 18, 1996

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.

Death

Odysseas Elytis had been completing plans to travel overseas when he died in Athens on 18 March 1996, at the age of 84. He was survived by his niece Myrsene and his older brother Evangelos, who received a writ of condolence from the mayor of Athens on behalf of the nation at the funeral at the First National Cemetery.

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 with an emphasis on the expression of that which is rarefied and passionate. He borrowed certain elements from Ancient Greece and Byzantium but devoted himself exclusively to today’s Hellenism, of which he attempted—in a certain way based on psychical and sentimental aspects—to reconstruct a modernist mythology for the institutions. His main endeavour was 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 a "worshiper" –idolater by his own definition. A parallel manner concerning technique resulted in introducing the inner architecture, which is evident in a great many poems of his; mainly in the phenomenal landmark work It Is Truly Meet (Το Άξιον Εστί). This work due to its setting to music by Mikis Theodorakis as an oratorio, is a revered anthem whose verse is sung by all Greeks for all injustice, resistance and for its sheer beauty and musicality 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 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, 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 Oxopetra (Τα Ελεγεία της Οξώπετρας, 1991)
  • West of Sadness (Δυτικά της λύπης, 1995)
  • Eros, Eros, Eros: Selected and Last Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 1998) (translated by Olga Broumas)

Prose, essays

  • The True Face and Lyrical Bravery of Andreas Kalvos (Η Αληθινή φυσιογνωμία και η λυρική τόλμη του Ανδρέα Κάλβου, 1942)
  • 2×7 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)
  • Report to Andreas Empeirikos (Αναφορά στον Ανδρέα Εμπειρίκο, 1977)
  • Things Public and Private (Τα Δημόσια και τα Ιδιωτικά, 1990)
  • Private Way (Ιδιωτική Οδός, 1990)
  • Carte Blanche («Εν λευκώ» (συλλογή κειμένων), 1992)
  • The Garden with the Illusions (Ο κήπος με τις αυταπάτες, 1995)
  • Open Papers: Selected Essays, (Copper Canyon Press, 1995) (translated by Olga Broumas and T. Begley)

Translations

  • Second Writing (Δεύτερη γραφή, 1976)
  • Sappho (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: Analogies 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