ANGELOS SIKELIANOS

Angelos Sikelianos was born in Lefkada, in 1884. After finishing school, he came to Athens to study Law. However, he soon gave it up and devoted himself to poetry. In May 1927, with the support of his wealthy American wife Eva Palmer, Sikelianos held the First Delphic Games, which included a performance of "Prometheus Bound", athletic games torch-races, a concert of byzantine music, an exhibition of folk art, etc. The event was hugely successful, but the expense of organizing it proved excessive. Thus, and despite state assistance, the effort was repeated once more, the following year, and then it was permanently abandoned. Some time later, Eva left for the United States, and Sikelianos married Anna Karamani. During the German occupation, Sikelianos was a source of insipiration to the Greek people in their spiritual resistence; the crowning event of this period was the speech and poem he recited at the funeral of the great poet Palamas. From Sikelianos's many works, the poet Nanos Valaoritis has selected and analysed his most important poems.