Odysseas elytis biography definition

Biography of Odysseas Elytis

Odysseas Elytis was a Greek poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1979.

He was born into a wealthy landowning family on the legendary island of Lesbos in the Aegean Sea. His father decided to make his own way in life and founded a successful soap manufacturing business on the island of Crete.

When Elytis was six years old, his family moved to Athens, where he completed his primary and secondary education.

Odysseas elytis spring poem

From 1930 to 1935, the future poet studied law at the University of Athens but never defended his diploma. At the age of 20, Elytis became interested in poetry, reading the works of the French poet Paul Éluard and becoming fascinated with the emerging surrealism movement.

He attended lectures by the surrealist Andreas Embirikos and eventually started writing his own poems, adopting the pseudonym Elytis, which combined v