Angelos Sikelianos

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Angelos Sikelianos [sEkelEA´nOs] (1884–1951) was a modern Greek poet and playwright. One of Greece's most important 20th-century lyric poets, he emphasized national history, religious symbolism, and universal harmony in poems such as The Light-Shadowed, Prologue to Life, Mother of God, and Delphic Utterance. His plays include Sibylla, Daedalus in Crete, Christ in Rome, The Death of Digenis, and Asklepius.

[edit] Biography

Sikelianos was born in Lefkada where he spent all his childhood. In 1900 he entered the Law School of Athens but he did not graduate. The next years he traveled extensively and devoted himself to poetry. In 1907, he married American born Eva Palmer, who has at the time an archaeology student in Paris. They were married in America and they moved to Athens in 1908. During that period, Sikelianos came in contact with Greek intellectuals, and in 1909 he published his first collection of poems Alafroískïotos (The Light-Shadowed), which had an immediate impact and was recognized by critics as an important poetic work.

In May 1927, with the support of his wife, Sikelianos held the Delphic Festival, as part of his general effort towards the revival of the Delphic Idea. Sikelianos believed that the principles, which had shaped the classic civilisation, if reexamined, could offer spiritual independence and serve as a means of communication among people.

The event consisted of Olympic contests, a concert of byzantine music, an exhibition of folk art as well as a performance of Prometheus Bound. It became very successful and despite lack of state assistance, it was repeated once more, the following year. The revival was permanently abandoned due to the excessive expenses of organizing it. In honour to the memory of Angelos and Eva Sikelianos, the European Cultural Centre of Delphi bought and restored their house in Delphi, which is today the Museum of Delphic Festivals.

Eva Palmer left for the United States, and Sikelianos married Anna Karamani.

During the German occupation, he became a source of insipiration to the Greek people, especially through his speech and poem that he recited at the funeral of the poet Kostis Palamas. It was he who composed the letter which was spearheaded by Archbishop Damaskinos to save the lives of Greek Jews by appealing directly to the Germans. The letter was signed by many prominent Greek citizens in defense of the Jews who were being persecuted. There is no similar document of protest of the Nazis during World War II that has come to light in any other European country.[1]

In 1949 he was a Nobel Prize for Literature candidate. He died accidentally and tragically,in Athens, after inadvertently drinking Lysol after having requested Nujol a medicine in 1951. He lingered for five days and died on June 9 of the same year.