Editing Odysseas Elytis (section)

==Poetry==
{{Quote box
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| quote = "[[Greek language|Greek]] the language they gave me; poor the house on [[Homer]]'s shores."
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| source = —"To Axion Esti" (1959)
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Elytis' poetry has marked, through an active presence of over forty years, a broad spectrum of subject matter and stylistic touch with an emphasis on the expression of that which is rarefied and passionate. He borrowed certain elements from [[Ancient Greece]] and [[Byzantium]] but devoted himself exclusively to today's [[Culture of Greece|Hellenism]], of which he attempted—in a certain way based on psychical and sentimental aspects—to reconstruct a modernist [[mythology]] for the institutions. His main endeavour was to rid people's conscience from unjustifiable remorses and to complement natural elements through ethical powers, to achieve the highest possible transparency in expression and finally, to succeed in approaching the mystery of light, ''the metaphysics of the sun'' of which he was a "worshiper"-''idolater'' by his own definition. A parallel manner concerning technique resulted in introducing the ''inner architecture'', which is evident in a great many poems of his, mainly in the landmark work ''It Is Truly Meet'' (''Το Άξιον Εστί''). This work, due to its setting to music by [[Mikis Theodorakis]] as an oratorio, is a revered anthem whose verse is sung by all Greeks for all injustice, resistance and for its sheer beauty and musicality of form. Elytis' theoretical and philosophical ideas have been expressed in a series of essays under the title ''The Open Papers'' (''Ανοιχτά Χαρτιά''). Besides creating poetry, he applied himself to translating poetry and theatre as well as a series of collage pictures. Translations of his poetry have been published as autonomous books, in anthologies, or in periodicals in eleven languages.