ODYSSEAS ELYTES / DAVID CONNOLLY
First Published in 1997. 'Geographically speaking 'Oxopetra' is a promontory on the island of Astypalaea. It is the 'other rock'. For me, it is the farthest point of the land in the sea, the farthest point of our era in another era, and the farthest point of my life in death... Odysseus Elytis.' Odysseus Elytis was born in Crete in 1911 and published the first of his poems in 1935. He was influenced by French Surrealism and travelled widely, and in post-war years lived in France with many other leading poets and artists of his generation. In 1979 he was awarded the Nobel Prize of Literature. The Oxopetra Elegies is a recent collection and is considered by many Greek critics to contain some of the finest and most important poems he has ever written. The Greek Poetry Archive features monographs on key modern Greek poets, from the nineteenth century to the present, and a bilingual collection of their poetry translated into English.
