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 Greek
poet and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize
for Literature. Elytis's imagery is rich with history and myth.
Inspired by the 'sanctity of the perceiving senses' Elytis celebrated
in his early poems the mystery of the Greek light, the sea, and
the air. Later themes are suffering, and search for and creation
of an earthy yet spiritual paradise.
"I was given the Hellenic tongue
my house a humble one on the sandy shores of Homer.
My only care my tongue on the sandy shores
of Homer. The sea-bream and perch
wind beaten verbs
green currents with the cerulean
all that I saw blazing in my entrails
sponges, medusae
with the first words of the Sirens
pink shells with their first dark tremors."
(from Axion Esti, 1959)
Elytis was born in Iráklion, Crete, into a prosperous Cretan family.
His parents and ancestors came from the island of Lesbos, home of
the ancient Greek poet Sappho. Elytis studied law at Athens University
from 1930 to 1935 without taking a degree. He worked periodically
in the family's soap manufacturing business.
Inspired by French Surrealism and especially Paul Éluard, Elytis
started to write verse. His first poems appeared in 1935 in magazine
Ta Nea Grammata, which also published George Seferis's works.
During WW II when Nazis occupied Greece, Elytis joined the resistance
movement and served as a second lieutenant in Albania in 1940-41.
In 1943 appeared Asma iroiko ke penthimo ghia ton hameno anthipolochago
tis Alvanias (Heroic and Elegiac Song for the Lost Second Lieutenant
of the Albanian Campaign). In it Elytis's sunlit visions of beauty,
purity, youth and nature changed into a painful awareness violence
and sudden death. In the poem the youthful hero is killed on the
battlefield and miraculously resurrected through his youth and heroism.
"As a young man he had seen gold glittering and gleaming on
the shoulders of the great And one night he
remembers during a great storm the neck of the sea
roared so it turned murky but he would not submit
it
The world's an oppressive place to live through yet
with a litte pride it's worth it."
(from 'Deat and Resurrection of Constandinos Paleologhos')
 After
the war he wrote critics for the newspaper Kathimerini and
worked for the National Broadcasting Institute in Athens in 1945-46
and again 1953-54. In 1948 he moved to Paris, where he studied literature
at the Sorbonne. During this time he became acquainted with Pablo
Picasso, Henri Matisse and others of the Paris art world.
In 1953 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. He was president and governing-board member
of Karolos Koun's Art Theater and of the Greek Ballet. His silence
as a poet ended in 1959 with the long poem, To Axion Esti,
reminiscent of WaltWhitman's Song of Myself. The work took
him 14 years to write and. It combines the biblical story of the
creation with modern Greek history. The poet identifies himself
in its three sections with the sun, with his race, and with his
country. He passes through the war decade, comparing humankind's
suffering with the suffering of Christ, and eventually sees the
rebuilding of love, freedom, and beauty.
Between 1965 and 1968 Elytis served on the administrative board
of the Greek National Theatre, and then spent the next two years
in Paris after the Greek military coup of 1967. In 1978 he published
a long poetic work, Maria Nefeli, which was finished when
he returned to Greece. In the poem a girl and a poet speak alternating
monologues.
Elytis was also a talented painter and produced illustrations of
his poetic world in gouaches and collages. Elytis died on March
18, 1996. His collected poems appeared posthumously in 1997.
For further reading: Encyclopaedia of World Literature
in the 20th Century, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999, vol. 2);
Odysseus Elytis: Analogies of Light by I. Ivask (1981); Modern
Greek Poetry by E. Keeley (1973)
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