Walt Whitman & Odysseus Elytis

Odysseus Elytis, a Nobel Prize-winning Greek poet celebrated for his Mr. Elytis's work into English, compared him to Walt Whitman in his.
Table of contents

This avant-garde magazine was a prime vehicle for the "Generation of the ' 30s ," an influential school that included George Seferis who, in , became the first Greek Nobel Prize winner for literature. The new style Elytis introduced - though controversial - succeeded in prevailing and effectively contributing to the poetic reform which commenced just prior to the Second World War and continues to the present.

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.

Most searched books

He became something of a bard among young Greeks; one of his poems, "Asma heroiko kai penthimo gia ton chameno anthypolochago tes Alvanias" "Heroic and mournful song for the lost Second Lieutenant of the Albanian Campaign" , became an anthem to the cause of freedom. During the years - and - 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.

In , upon an invitation of the State Department, he traveled through the U.

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.

walt whitman odysseus elytis Manual

In the poem the youthful hero is killed on the battlefield and miraculously resurrected through his youth and heroism. After the war Elytis wrote critics for the newspaper Kathimerini and worked for the National Broadcasting Institute in Athens in and again In he moved to Paris , where he studied literature at the Sorbonne. During this time he became acquainted with Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse , and other figures of the Parisian art scene.

Shop by category

In Elytis returned to Greece and took an active role in cultural affairs. He served as member of the Greek critical and prize-awarding Group of the Twelve.


  • Internal Server Error.
  • Implementing SugarCRM: A Step-by-step Guide to Using This Powerful Open Source Application in Your B?
  • Odysseas Elytis.
  • The Ghost of Greenwich Village: A Novel.
  • Then To Now.
  • Corporate Diplomacy: The Strategy for a Volatile, Fragmented Business Environment!
  • Songs of Stephen Foster - The Lyrics?

The work took him 14 years to write; it was later set music by Mikis Theodorakis. Inspired by the Byzantine liturgy , Elytis combines the biblical story of the creation with Modern Greek history.

Odysseas Elytis

In this work the poet identifies himself in the first section, ' Genesis ', with the sun and the entire Aegean world and his race. In the second, ' The Passion ', he passes through the barbaric war decade , comparing humankind's suffering with the suffering of Christ. Eventually, like Dante in Paradise , he sees the sun, love, and beauty. Between and Elytis served on the administrative board of the Greek National Theater , and then spent the next two years in Paris after the Greek military coup of