Sikelianós, Angelos

▪ Greek poet

born March 28, 1884, Leucas island, Greece

died June 19, 1951, Athens

      one of the leading 20th-century Greek lyrical poets.

      Sikelianós' first important work, the Alafroískïotos (“The Light-Shadowed”), was published in 1909 and revealed his lyrical powers. It was followed by a group of outstanding lyrics. His next period was introduced by the philosophic poem Prólogos sti zoí (1917; “Prologue to Life”) and includes the long works Meter Theou (“Mother of God”) and Pascha ton Hellenon (“The Greek Easter”), culminating in the Delphikós lógos (1927; “Delphic Utterance”). In the last, Greek tradition and the national historic and religious symbols are given a mystic turn and a universal significance.

      In the 1930s and 1940s there appeared a second group of lyrics, which display the full power of Sikelianós' art. They express in rich and incisive language and with forceful imagery the poet's belief in the beauty and harmony of the world. The tragedies of Sikelianós (Sibylla, Daedalus in Crete, Christ in Rome, The Death of Digenis and Asklepius, which are introduced by the long dramatic poem The Dithyramb of the Rose) are more notable for their lyric than their dramatic qualities. Although occasionally his grandiloquence blunts the poetic effect of his work, some of his finer lyrics are among the best in Western literature.

* * *