The lyric universe of Odysseas Elytis remains exemplary as stratification of Greek culture. Beyond its inherited epic breath, also found in the literature of Seferis, Solomos, Papadiamantis etc., Elytis`s world,  awarded the Nobel Prize in 1979, is placed by himself between the "North Pole" (Solomos) and the "South Pole" (Cavafy), in the very place where "the sun and Hades meet", as the poet suggested in an interview in 1975. The vast poem To Axion Esti (1959) holds a privileged place not because its creation took several years of creative reclusion and its critical decoding took the same amount of time to be correctly understood, but because it is the summa of a vision "with a greater  historical and ethical awareness, yet without impairing the cosmic vision."

Keywords: Odysseas Elytis, Modern Greek literature, "To Axion Esti"

MIRCEA MUTHU