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Odysseas Elytis: The Arithmetician and Geometrician Poet

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Abstract

The prevailing view is that Mathematics and Poetry have nothing in common. However, if we look below the surface and dig a little deeper into two of the most important human activities throughout recorded history, surely we will discover kindred elements and similarities unseen at first glance. The poetry of Odysseas Elytis will help us to bring them to light, to find their connective tissue, to prove them, as we would say in our science.

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Notes

  1. C. P.: Collectd Poems of Odysseus Elytis translated by Jeffry Carson and Nikos Sarris.

    Contents:

    1. Orientations p. 1

    2. Song Heroic and mourning for the lost lieutenant of the Albanian Campaign p. 105

    3. The Axion Esti p. 135

    4. Six and one remorses for the sky p. 191

    5. The light tree and the fourteenth beauty p. 205

    6. The Monogram p. 241

    7. Stepchildren p. 249

    8. Maria Nephele p. 289

    9. Three poems under a flag of convenience p. 369

    10. Diary of an invisible April p. 395

    11. The little Seafarer p. 415

    12. The elegies of jutting rock p. 509

    13. West of Sorrow p. 555

    14. The rhos of eros p. 593

    15. The Sovereign Sun p. 661

    16. Open Papers p. 675

    17. Chronology of the Life of Odysseus Elytis p. 687

    18. Nobel Address p. 693.

  2. The poetic collection 2 × 7 has not been translated into the English language.

  3. Novalis: the pseudonym of Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (1772–1801), an author and philosopher of early German Romanticism. His major work is Hymns to the Night (1800). In his collection The Elegies of jutting rock, Odysseas Elytis dedicates the poem “Grüningen Elegy” to Novalis.

  4. William Thomas Tutte (1917–2002), A British mathematician who contributed significantly to the fields of Graph Theory and Combinatorics. During the Second World War he deciphered a basic German code system, directly influencing the Allied invasion of Europe.

  5. Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902–1984). British Professor of Cambridge University and one of the most important physicists to influence and contribute to twentieth century physics. His contribution to quantum physics was particularly significant. In 1933 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory.

  6. The work Συν τοις άλλοις [Additionally] has not been translated into the English language.

  7. The right correspondence between the four elements and the Pythagorean regular polyhedra (platonic solids) is the following: 1. fire—tetrahedron 2. earth—hexahedron 3. air—octahedron 4. water—icosahedron.

  8. This quotation is not included in Carte Blanche translated by David Connolly.

  9. The work Εκ του πλησίον [Up Close] is not translated in English.

  10. This quotation is written in capital letters.

  11. This quotation is not included in Carte Blanche translated by David Connolly.

  12. This quotation is not included in the chapter Open Papers of C. P.: Collectd Poems of Odysseus Elytis translated by Jeffry Carson and Nikos Sarris.

  13. This quotation is not included in Carte Blanche translated by David Connolly.

  14. This quotation is not included in Carte Blanche translated by David Connolly.

References

Greek language

  • Αργυρίου Α.(1991)«Αλγεβρική σπουδή στο Ημερολόγιο ενός αθέατου Απριλίου»[“Algebraic study on Journal of an Unseen April”], in Λέξη 106, November–December 1991, pp. 756–767.

  • Μπαλής, Στ. (2001), Μαθηματικά και Ποίηση, από τον Αρχιμήδη στον Ελύτη [Mathematics and Poetry, from Archimedes to Elytis] Νησίδες, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1968) Το Άξιον Εστί [The Axion Esti] Ίκαρος, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1980a) Τα Ετεροθαλή [The Stepchildren], Ίκαρος, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1980b) Μαρία Νεφέλη [Maria Nephele], Ίκαρος, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1982) Τρία ποιήματα με σημαία ευκαιρίας [Three Poems under a Flag of Convenience], Ίκαρος, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1984) Το φωτόδεντρο και η δέκατη τέταρτη ομορφιά [The Light Tree and the Fourteenth Beauty], Ίκαρος, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1986a) Ο Μικρός Ναυτίλος [The Little Mariner], Ίκαρος, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1986b) Τα Ρω του έρωτα [The Rhos of Eros], Ύψιλον, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1987) Προσανατολισμοί [Orientations], Ίκαρος, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1990a) Το Μονόγραμμα [The Monogram], Ίκαρος, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1990b) Έξι και μία τύψεις για τον ουρανό [Six and One Remorses for the Sky], Ίκαρος, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1990c) Δημόσια και Ιδιωτικά [Things Public and Private], Ίκαρος, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1991) «Speech to the Stockholm Academy» (8-12-1979) in Λέξη.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1993) Εν Λευκώ [Carte Blanche], Ίκαρος, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1995) Δυτικά της Λύπης [West of Sorrow], Ίκαρος, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1996a) 2x7, Ίκαρος, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1996b) Ανοικτά χαρτιά [Open Papers], Ίκαρος, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (1998) Εκ του πλησίον [Up Close], Ίκαρος, Athens.

  • Ελύτης, Οδ. (2011) Συν τοις άλλοις [Additionally], Ύψιλον, Athens.

  • Ιωάννου, Γ. (1991) «Η αδικία της Ιστορίας και η δικαίωση της ποιητικής στιγμής» [“The injustices of history and the vindication of the poetic moment”] in Λέξη, 106, November–December 1991, pp. 929–943.

  • Κοπιδάκης, Μ. (1991) «Υ. Το πιο ελληνικό» [“Y. The Most Greek”] in Λέξη 106, November–December 1991, pp. 768–773.

  • Σαβίδης, Γ. (1973) Πάνω Νερά [Upper Waters] Ερμής, Athens.

Foreign-language (in Greek translation)

  • Grodent, M. (1991) “Ελύτης, η σημασία του ονείρου και του αριθμού [“Elytis: L’importance du rêve et du nombre”], transl. Γ. Βαρβέρης, in Λέξη 106, November–December 1991, pp. 874–884.

  • Hardy, G.H. (1993) Η Απολογία ενός Μαθηματικού [A Mathematician’s Apology], transl.. Μ. Λάμπρου, Δ. Καραγιαννάκης, Πανεπιστημιακές Εκδόσεις Κρήτης, Heraklion Crete.

  • Vitti, M. (1984, rev. ed. 2000) Οδυσσέας Ελύτης [Odysseus Elytis], Ερμής, Athens.

English language

  • The Collected Poems of Odysseus Elytis (C.P.) (2004) (trans: Jeffrey, C. and Nikos, S.). Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press.

  • Odysseus Elytis Carte Blanche, Selected writing (1999) (trans: David, C.). Harwood Academic publishers.

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  1. Greek Open University, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Maria Terdimou

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  1. Maria Terdimou
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Terdimou, M. Odysseas Elytis: The Arithmetician and Geometrician Poet. Sci & Educ 23, 609–620 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-012-9558-1

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