Odysseus Elytis - Biography
Descendant
of an old family of Lesbos, he was born in Heraclion (Candia) on the island of Crete,
November 2, 1911. Some time later his family settled permanently in Athens where
the poet finished his secondary school studies and later visited the Law School
of the Athens University. His first appearance as a poet in 1935 through the magazine
"Nea Grammata" ("New Culture") was saluted as an important event and the new style
he introduced - though giving rise to a great many reactions - succeeded in prevailing
and effectively contributing to the poetical reform commencing in the Second World
War's eve and going on up to our days.
In 1937 he visited the Reserve Officer's Cadet School in Corfu. Upon the outbreak
of the war he served in the rank of Second Lieutenant, first at the Headquarters
of the 1st Army Corps and then at the 24th Regiment, on the advanced fire line.
During the German occupation and later, after Greece was liberated, he has been
unabatedly active, publishing successive collections of poetry and writing essays
concerning contemporary poetry and art problems.
He has twice been Programme Director of the Greek National Radio Foundation (1945-46
and 1953-54), Member of the National Theatre's Administrative Council, President
of the Administrative Council of the Greek Radio and Television Service 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 Brigade and in 1975 he was proclaimed Doctor Honoris
Causa of the Philosophical School of the Thessaloniki University and Honorary Citizen
of the Town of Mytilene.
During the years 1948-1952 and 1969-1972 he settled in Paris. There, he listened
to philology and literature lessons in the Sorbonne and got acquainted with the
pioneers of the world's avant-garde (Reverdy, Breton, Tzara, Ungaretti, Matisse,
Picasso, Chagall, Giacometti). Starting from Paris he travelled and visited subsequently
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.; and - upon similar invitations - through the Soviet Union in 1963 and Bulgaria
in 1965.
Elytis' poetry has marked, through an active presence of over forty years, a
broad spectrum. 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 his people's conscience
from remorses unjustifiable, to complement natural elements through ethical powers,
to achieve the highest possible transparency in expression and to finally succeed
in approaching the mystery of light, "the metaphysic of the sun" - according to
his own definition. A parallel way concerning technique resulted in introducing
the "inner architecture", which is clearly perceptible in a great many works of
his; mainly in the Axion Esti - It Is Worthy. This work - thanks 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 ideas have been expressed
in a series of essays under the title (Offering) My Cards To Sight. 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.
| Literature |
| "Orientations" (1940) |
| "Sun - The First" (1943) |
| "An 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" (1972) |
| "The Trills Of Love" (1973) |
| "The Monogram" (1973) |
| "Step-Poems" (1974) |
| "(Offering) My Cards To Sight" (1974) |
| "The Painter Theophilos" (1973) |
| "Second Writing" (1976) |
| "The Magic Of Papadiamantis" (1976) |
| "Signalbook" (1977) |
| "Maria Nefeli" (1978) |
| "Selected poems" Ed. E. Keeley and Ph. Sherrard (1981) |
| "Three Poems under a Flag of Convenience" (1982) |
| "Diary of an Invisible April" (1984) |
| "The Little Mariner" (1988) |
| "What I Love. Selected Poems" (1986) |
| "Krinagoras" (1987) |
| "The Elegies of Oxopetras" (1991) |
|
| 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.) |
| Odysseus 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 |
| 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) |
From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1968-1980, Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor
Sture Allén, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1993
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and later published
in the book series
Les Prix Nobel/Nobel
Lectures. The information is sometimes updated with an addendum submitted by
the Laureate. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Odysseus Elytis died on March 18, 1996.
Copyright © 2005 The Nobel Foundation