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.
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. |