Odysseas Elytis

Odysseas Elytis (Greek: Οδυσσέας Ελύτης [oðiˈseas eˈlitis], pen name of Odysseas Alepoudellis, Greek: Οδυσσέας Αλεπουδέλλης; 2 November 1911 – 18 March 1996) was a Greek poet, man of letters, essayist and translator, regarded as the definitive exponent of romantic modernism in Greece and the world. He is one of the most praised poets of the second half of the twentieth century, with his Axion Esti "regarded as a monument of contemporary poetry". In 1979, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Descendants of the Alepoudelis, whose name going back was Alepos and even further back connected to the revolutionary Lemonis in Lesbos, Panayiotis Alepoudelis and his younger brother Thrasyboulos, both born in the village Kalamiaris of Panagiouthas of Lesbos, established the industries of their soap manufacturing and olive oil production in Heraklion, Crete in 1895. In 1897 Panagyiotis married Maria E Vrana 1880-1960 from the village Papados of Geras, Lesbos. From this union and as the last of six siblings Odysseas was born in the early hours of 2 November 1911. He is pictured on the far left wearing a sailor's uniform in the photo of his family. The Alepoudelis later moved to Athens, where his father re-situated the soap factory in Piraeus. In 1918 his older sister and first born Myrsene (1898-1918) died in the Spanish influenza. While on summer holidays from their Athens home as guests on the island of Spetses in the Haramis home in the St Nicolaos neighbourhood his own father also died in the summer of 1925 from pneumonia.His father Panayiotis may have been the inspiration for Elytis to write.Apparently his father wrote poetry and it remained unpublished. In 1927 wrought with overtiredness Odysseas was diagnosed with tuberculosis. While in bed recuperating he voraciously read all the Greek poetry he could and in this year discovered Cavafy. In 1928 he graduated from high school and successfully passed the difficult entrance exams to law school at University of Athens. He read in the newspapers of the suicide of the poet Karyiotakis. In 1929 Elytis took a sabbatical between high school and university and decided secretly that he must only become a poet. In 1930 he and his family moved to Moshoniseon 148. Elytis had initial aspirations to become a lawyer but did not sit for his final examinations and did not get his legal qualification. He also had expressed aspirations to become a painter in the manner of the surrealists but his family quickly thwarted this idea.Around this timeframe Elytis noticed and noted that the month surrounding the Ides Of March was not good for him and was cautious while tracking it for the rest of his lifeIn 1935 Elytis published his first poem in the journal New Letters (Νέα Γράμματα) at the prompting of such friends as George Seferis. In the same year he also became a lifelong friend of writer and psychoanalyst Andreas Embiricos, who allowed him to have access to his vast library of books. In 1977 two years after the death of his friend Elytis wrote a tribute book to Embiricos from within the commonalities that founded their ideas aptly titled "Reference to Andreas Embiricos" and originally published by Tram publishers Thessaloniki. His entry to the magazine "New Letters" in 1935 was in November which was the 11th issue and with his pseudonym Elytis established therein. With a distinctively earthy and original form in his expression Elytis assisted inaugurating a new era in Greek poetry and its subsequent reform after the Second World War. In 1960 his older brother Constantine [1905-1960] died, followed by his mother Maria Vrana Alepoudelis. Elytis was simultaneously awarded the First National Prize for poetry for his work "Axion Esti". In 1967 Elytis travelled to Egypt, visiting Alexandria, Cairo, Luxor and Aswan. Returning to Greece in March he finished his piecing together of the fragments of Sappho's verses translated into modern Greek and brought them together with his own diaphanous iconography. These were published finally in 1984 without the drawings which are deposited separately in the archives of the American School of Classical Studies along with the original manuscripts of the initial translations of Sappho. With the April 21st military dictatorship in force Elytis disappeared from public view.At the time of the dictatorship he lived at Skoufa 26 and upon his return from Paris in 1972 he moved to Skoufa 23 to the fifth floor apartment on the right as you got off the elevator which was his final residence in Athens before he died.

From 1969 to 1972, under the Greek military junta of 1967–1974, Elytis exiled himself to Paris after he refused money from the junta and established a modest residence there. In Paris he lived with the English philologist, lyricist and musicologist Marianina Kriezi [1947-2022], who subsequently produced and hosted the legendary children's radio broadcast "Here Lilliput Land". Kriezi was extraordinary, having published a book of poems at the age of fourteen.The title of The book was "Rhythms and Beats" and she sent a first edition copy to George Seferis along with a hand written letter asking him to write a page of his poetry in long hand in fountain pen and gift it to her. Apparently she was going to put across from her bed and see it every morning when she awoke for the rest of her life treasuring the words of poetry.The irony is that she met up with Elytis who was in contrast to the cerebral Seferis, unmarried and a poet of the senses. There is speculation that Kriezi and Elytis were secretly married in Paris but with their return to Greece their French marriage was invalidated and they separated, never divorcing. When Elytis died, however, he was buried wearing the silver wedding band that had the name "Marianina" engraved inside it. The silver ring is on the cover of "Analogies of Light" within a picture that shows only the author's hands writing inside a book. Ivar Ivask also noted the presence of the photo of Kriezi [a muse inside a silver frame across from the photo of his mother] in the home of Elytis when editing the aforementioned book. On the day he died two photographs of women that he had loved and influenced him were in his small apartment. In his bedroom the black and white photo of his mother was by his left bedside table and the photo of Kriezi taken in Paris in the late sixties was across from his bed on the left entering from the living room.The photo of his companion in his later years Iliopoulou together with himself was on his desk.