Séféris et Homère

Abstract

This article deals with the reception of Homeric poetry in George Seferis’s poems and essays. We first give a general outline of Seferis’s poetics by way of an Odyssean diptych made up of a poem The Thrush and the commentary by Seferis himself in an essay-letter. We then pass on to various observations by Seferis on Homeric poetry in his critical work. Lastly we end on a few remarks on Seferis’s translations from ancient Greek, which demonstrate that, for all the remarkable continuity on the Greek language, the Greeks, just like the Latins, can accede to their ancient literature only through translations.

Keywords

• Homer
• Seferis
• poetry
• criticism
• reception
• translation