Odysseus Elytis (1911 –1996) Ralleia Experimental Primary Schools Classes: C1 - ST1 Teachers: Konstantina Anagnostopoulou- Petraki Evangelia School year: 2017-18
Odysseus Elytis • He was born in Heraclion (Candia) on the island of Crete, November 2, 1911. • In 1979 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Odysseus Elytis • His family settled permanently in Athens where the poet finished his secondary school studies and later visited the Law School of the Athens University.
Odysseus Elytis • 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.
Odysseus Elytis • 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.
Odysseus Elytis • 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.
Odysseus Elytis • 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 Organization on the Athens Festival.
Odysseus Elytis • 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 (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) and Honorary Citizen of the Town of Mytilene.
Odysseus Elytis • 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 avantgarde (Reverdy, Breton, Tzara, Ungaretti, Matisse, Picasso, Chagall, Giacometti).
Odysseus Elytis • 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.
Odysseus Elytis • 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.
Odysseus Elytis • 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.
Odysseus Elytis • 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.
Odysseus Elytis • 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.
Odysseus Elytis • 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.
Odysseus Elytis • Translations of his poetry have been published as autonomous books, in anthologies or in periodicals in eleven languages.
Odysseus Elytis Poetry • Orientations (1939) • Sun The First Together With Variations on A Sunbeam (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 (1971) • The Trills of Love (Τα Ρω του Έρωτα, 1973) • The Monogram (1972)
Odysseus Elytis Poetry • Step-Poems (1974) • Signalbook (1977) • Maria Nefeli (1978) • Three Poems under a Flag of Convenience (1982) • The Little Mariner (1988) • The Elegies of Oxopetra (1991) • West of Sadness (1995) • etc.
Odysseus Elytis essays • The True Face and Lyrical Bravery of Andreas Kalvos (1942) • 2x7 e (collection of small essays) • (Offering) My Cards To Sight (1973) • The Painter Theophilos (1973) • The Magic Of Papadiamantis (1975) • Report to Andreas Empeirikos (1977) • Things Public and Private (1990) • Private Way (1990) • Carte Blanche (1992) • The Garden with the Illusions (1995)
Odysseus Elytis Art books – Translations Art books • The Room with the Pictures (1986) Translations • Second Writing (1976) • Sappho • The Apocalypse (by John) (1985)
Odysseus Elytis Art books – Translations • Odysseas Elytis was the poet of the Aegean Sea and the Greek spirit.He was an internationally acclaimed poet considered among the foremost Greek literary figures of the twentieth century, Elytis celebrated the splendours of nature while affirming humanity’s ability to embrace hope over despair.
Sources • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odysseas_Elytis • https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1979/elyt is-bio.html