Odysseas Elytis: The Navigator of the Century
An anniversary edition marking the 100th anniversary of the poet’s birth.
This is a journey with Odysseas Elytis through the most significant milestones of the twentieth century, exploring the dominant artistic movements that shaped his poetic identity. A journey through his life and work, guided by the poet himself.
The tour of Odysseas Elytis’s world begins with the section ‘I have brought my life this far’, an extensive chronology spanning the twentieth century. The milestones in the life and work of Odysseas Elytis are presented alongside major historical, political and cultural events in Greece and the world.
This is followed by ten sections, each headed by a thematically relevant verse and containing excerpts from the poet’s poetic and prose works, as well as a wealth of informative, pictorial and photographic material:
His books are presented, along with his relationship with the Greek language, the poetic composition *To Axion Esti*, his relationship and interactions with the movements and leading figures of the Western world, and the translations of his books across the globe. A separate section presents excerpts from the critical reception of Elytis’s work from 1938 to 2006. Subsequently, the poet’s relationship with music and painting, the elements of his value system, and finally the power and significance of poetry in life itself are revealed – always through the poet’s own words.
The book, with its texts and rich illustrations, traces the history of twentieth-century art through the eyes of Odysseas Elytis.
The publication was made possible with the kind support of the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation and Enel Green Power Hellas.
- Pages: 400
- ISBN: 978-960-9527-29-3
- Publication: 2011
- Dimensions: 24 x 22
- Categories: Books, Illustrated, Λεύκωμα
"...The anthology ‘The Nautilus of the Century’ encapsulates Elytis’s thought and discourse, presenting itself as a response and a remedy to the tribulations of our times..."
– Tina Mandilara, Lifo.gr"...This anthology contains the whole of his work, with every element of his intellectual thought and art having its precise place within a unified whole, where everything converges in the enduring brilliance of the pre-eminent Greek poet."
– Tessy Baila, Bookpress.grOdysseas Elytis
Odysseas Elytis was born in Heraklion, Crete, on 2 November 1911. He lived in Athens, where his family settled in 1914. His origins in Lesbos, his birth in Crete, and the summers of his childhood spent in Spetses and the Cyclades shaped a profoundly insular consciousness, which later, when it intersected with surrealism, gave rise to an original poetry, brimming with a multitude of lyrical images, yet also imbued with revolutionary forces. A poetry centred on light that sought to decipher the mystery of existence. After finishing secondary school in Athens, he studied law, whilst serving as a second lieutenant in the Albanian War. He lived in Paris on two occasions (1948–1951 and 1969–1971), where he studied literature at the Sorbonne and came into contact with the leading poets and painters of the twentieth century. In 1979, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He lived until the end of his life (18 March 1996) devoted to poetry. WORKS: Orientations (1940),The First Sun (1943), Heroic and Lamenting Song for the Lost Second Lieutenant of Albania (1945), Axion Esti (1959), Six and One Remorse for the Sky (1960),The Tree of Light and the Fourteenth Beauty (1971), The Sun, the Sun-bearer (1971), The Monogram (1971), The Rows of Love (1972), The Painter Theophilos (1973),Open Cards (1974), The Half-Siblings (1974), Second Writing (1976), The Magic of Papadiamantis (1976), Sematologion (1977), Maria Nefeli (1978),A Tribute to Andreas Embeirikos (1978), Three Poems with a Flag of Convenience (1982), Diary of an Unseen April (1984), Sappho (1984), The Revelation of John (1985),The Little Nautilus (1985), Krinagoras (1987), The Public and the Private (1990), Private Road (1990), The Elegies of Oxopetra (1991), In White (1992),West of Sorrow (1995), The Garden of Delusions (1995), 2 x 7 e (1996), From Up Close (1998), Self-Portrait in Spoken Word (2000), Poetry (2002).
