The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to Odysseas Elytis

An important poet of post-war Europe Odysseas Elytis (1911-1996) dug deep into the soul of Greek tradition from Antiquity to Byzantium and created a rich and expressive poetic language. He glorified the sanctity of Greek nature and love, incorporating surrealism in his vocabulary. “Axion Esti” (1959), adorned by the music of Mikis Theodorakis, became the hymn of contemporary era. His initial light and sensual intonation traveled from light to darkness and fought with death in his final collections, especially in the extraordinary “Elegeia tis Oxopetras” (The Elegies of the Oxopetra”