ART & LITERATURE
MODERN GREEK LITERATURE
International interest in modern Greek art is on the rise, with works
by 19th- and 20th-century artists setting new records in London’s lead-
ing auction houses, and modern and contemporary Greek art exhibitions
being held abroad.
Modern Greek Literature
One of the most important works of early Greek literature is the
17th-century epic romantic 10,000-line poem ‘Erotokritos’, by Crete’s
Vitsenzos Kornaros. Many of the 15-syllable rhyming verses are recited
in Crete’s famousmantinadhes (rhyming couplets) and put to music by
generations of musicians.
Greece’s most celebrated (and translated) novelist of the early
20th century is the controversial Nikos Kazantzakis, whose novels are
full of drama and larger-than-life characters, such as the magnifi cent
title character inAlexis Zorbas (Zorba the Greek) and the tortured Cap-
tain Michalis inFreedom and Death.
Another great novelist of the time, Stratis Myrivilis, wrote the classics
Life in the Tomb, Vasilis Arvanitis and The Mermaid Madonna.
The fi rst modern Greek poets were Andreas Kalvos and Dionysios
Solomos, whoseHymn to Freedom became the Greek national
anthem. Greece’s eminent 20th-century poets include Nobel-prize
laureates George Seferis and Odysseus Elytis, awarded in 1963 and 1979
respectively.
Prominent post-war literary fi gure Iakovos Kambanellis, whose
Mauthausen novel about his experience as a concentration camp sur-
vivor was set to music by Mikis Theodorakis, wrote more than 20 plays
and 12 fi lm scripts, includingStella. Alexandros Papadiamantis, Kostis
Palamas and poet-playwright Angelos Sikelianos rank among Greece’s
literary giants, while distinguished playwrights such as Yiorgos
Skourtis and Pavlos Matessis have been translated and their plays
performed abroad.Contemporary Writers
Greece’s prolifi c publishing industry includes many small, independ-
ent publishing houses, but little contemporary fi ction is translated
locally into English. Greek writers are, however, making small inroads
into foreign markets, such as Apostolos Doxiadis with his interna-
tional bestsellerUncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture and award-
winning children’s writer and criminologist Eugene Trivizas, who has
more than 100 books, including the hit The Three Little Wolves and
the Big Bad Pig.EL GRECORenaissance painter El Greco (‘The Greek’ in Spanish), nee Dominikos Theotokopoulos,
was born in Crete. He got his grounding in the tradition of late-Byzantine fresco painting
during a time of great artistic activity on the island, following the arrival of painters fl ee-
ing Ottoman-held Constantinople.
In his early 20s, El Greco went to Venice but came into his own after moving to Spain
in 1577, where his highly emotional style struck a chord with the Spanish. He lived in To-
ledo until his death in 1614. His fi ght for art and freedom was the subject of the €7 million
biopic El Greco (2007).
El Greco’s Concert of Angels, The Burial of Christ and St Peter can be seen in Athens
at the National Art Gallery, two signed works hang in the Benaki Museum, also in Athens,
while View of Mt Sinai, The Monastery of St Catherine and Baptism of Christ are in
Iraklio’s Historical Museum of Crete.Enjoy an insight
into crime and
corruption in
Athens through
the eyes of the
quirky Rebus-
like Inspector
Haritos in Petros
Markaris’ popular
crime series.
Che Committed
Suicide (2010) is
his latest novel to
be translated into
English, following
The Late Night
News (2005) and
Zone Defence
(2007).