Odysseas Elytis

Odysseas Elytis
Elytis in 1974
BornOdysseas Alepoudelis
(1911-11-02)2 November 1911
Heraklion, Republic of Crete
Died18 March 1996(1996-03-18) (aged 84)
Athens, Greece
OccupationPoet
EducationUniversity of Athens
(no degree)
Literary movementRomantic modernism, Generation of the '30s
Notable awardsNobel Prize in Literature
1979
Signature

Odysseas Elytis (/ɛˈltɪs/; Greek: Οδυσσέας Ελύτης [oðiˈseas eˈlitis], pen name of Odysseas Alepoudelis, Greek: Οδυσσέας Αλεπουδέλης; 2 November 1911 – 18 March 1996) was a Greek poet, man of letters, essayist and translator, regarded as the definitive exponent of romantic modernism in Greece and the world. He is one of the most praised poets of the second half of the twentieth century, with his Axion Esti "regarded as a monument of contemporary poetry". In 1979, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.