'The Painful Memory of Woe': Greek tragedy and the Greek Civil War in the work of George Seferis

30 Pages·2014·0.24 MB·English

ClassicalReceptionsJournalVol6.Iss.1(2014)pp.74–103
‘The Painful Memory of Woe’: Greek
tragedy and the Greek Civil War in
1
the work of George Seferis
Vayos Liapis*
D
ThisarticledealswithsomeofthepoemsbyGeorgeSeferis(1900–71)thatdeploy ow
n
theethosand/orlanguageofGreek(especiallyAeschylean)tragedytomythologize lo
a
theeventsoftheGreekCivilWar(1944–49).Thismythologizingprocessboth d
e
d
triggersandconditionsthereader’sreaction:s/heisinvitedtointerpret fro
contemporaryhistorythroughpatternsofmeaningthatderivefromthemost m
monumentalclassicalmythsandtragictexts.Atthesametime,byinvokingGreek http
antiquity,thepoemszoomouttoprovideawideview,therebydetachingcurrent s
eventsfromtheirimmediatecontextandre-inscribingtheminthemuchlarger ://ac
a
frameworkofhumanhistory,thought,andculture.Thepoemsexaminedinclude d
e
m
‘Blind’(December1945),‘Oedipal,‘48’(October1948),and‘Thrush’(October ic
1946).Itisshownhowcontemporaryhistoryisinvested,inthesepoems,withthe .ou
p
archetypalqualitiesoftragicmyth.BytheparadigmaticuseofGreek(especially .c
o
Aeschylean)tragedySeferishelpsdefinetheinterpretiveframeworkofhispoetryby m
/c
providinginsightsintotheworldviewinforminghisstancetowardstheGreekCivilWar rj/a
andtowardsGreektraditioningeneral. rtic
le
-a
b
s
AeschylusandSeferis tra
c
Aeschylus holds a special place in the poetry of George Seferis (1900–71).2 An t/6
/1
edition of Aeschylus’ plays was one of the very few books Seferis had with him /7
4
when posted as a diplomat to Johannesburg (July 1941). Away from friends and /49
0
family,ashefollowedtheexiledGreekgovernmentinitsperegrinationsduringthe 55
4
Second World War, he felt a sort of comfort at the idea that Aeschylus ‘can fill b
y
severalyearsofone’slife’.3Aeschylus,Seferisnotedinhispersonaldiary,exudesa gu
e
s
t o
n
*Correspondence: Graduate Programme in Theatre Studies, Open University of Cyprus, 10
P.O.Box12794,CY-2252,Nicosia,[email protected] Ap
1 Thisarticleispartoftheresearchproject‘OurHeroicDebatewiththeEumenides’:Greek ril 2
0
TragedyandthePoeticsandPoliticsofIdentityinModernGreekPoetryandTheatre,which 1
9
is generously funded by the Research Promotion Foundation of Cyprus. My warmest
thanksgotoProfessorsRoderickBeatonandDavidRicks(King’sCollegeLondon),to
DrAntonisPetrides(OpenUniversityofCyprus),andtotwoClassicalReceptionsJournal
anonymousreadersforconstructivecriticisms.TranslationsofSeferis’poemsandprose
aremyown,unlessotherwiseindicated.
2 Cf.Mastrodimitris(1964:574–7);Leontsini(2006:235–7).
3 SeeSeferis(1977b:120,121).
(cid:2)TheAuthor2013.PublishedbyOxfordUniversityPress.Allrightsreserved.
ForPermissions,pleaseemail:[email protected]
doi:10.1093/crj/clt012
‘THE PAINFUL MEMORY OF WOE’
senseofserenerootedness,ofbelongingtoaninalienabletradition:‘Evenifyoufeel
that you yourself are ephemeral, you know that this [i.e. Aeschylus’ Seven against
Thebes] is not ephemeral, you know that what part of yourself lies in there is not
4
ephemeral’. Inparticular,Seferiswasfascinatedbyanideathatoccupiesasupreme
position in the Aeschylean universe, namely that of natural order, of security and
balance,ofajusticeprevailinglikealawofnature,‘withoutsentimentality,without
5
moralising, without psychology’.
Alreadyinlate1939,aspremonitionsoftheSecondWorldWarloomlargeinthe
horizon,SeferisbecomesmoreandmorepreoccupiedwiththeAeschyleannotionof D
o
w
orderemerging fromchaos, ofstructure offsetting confusion.Aprofound beliefin n
lo
theseideaswastosustainSeferisagainsttheunimaginableturmoilthatthewaryears a
d
6 e
were to cause him. An Aeschylean line of cardinal importance in this respect is d
Agamemnon 179–80: fro
m
h
st0z"id’2nq’4pnou7pr1kard0a” ttps
mnhsip–mwnp0no” ://a
c
a
Theredripsbeforetheheart,insteadofsleep, d
e
themiseryofpainrecalled. m
ic
(TranslationbySommerstein2008:21) .o
u
p
.c
o
TheAeschyleanlineisquotedbySeferisinhispersonaldiaryasanillustrationofhis m
/c
hniogshtalylgeiam,oatniodnaolfstthateeiantjuthsteicteims eth,aotnew‘emllaudpe oafnmdecmhookrieesy,oouf’.t8heItmaolssot pmasaskieosnaatne rj/artic
appearance in Seferis’ service diary a few years later (25 April 1944) as a reaction le-a
b
to news of three mutinied Greek war-ships in the port of Alexandria having been s
stormed on 22 April by cadets loyal to the national government. At the ensuing trac
t/6
funeral, the coffins of the cadets who fell in action were adorned with wreaths and /1
/7
flowers,whereasthoseofthemutiniedsailorslaybareandunadornedasaneloquent 4
/4
symbol of ‘implacable retribution’ as one newspaper put it at the time. Here is 9
0
5
Seferis’ disgusted commentary on the news: ‘A defamation of the dead. Worse: a 5
4
mistake. If only they had read Aeschylus: ‘‘mnhsip–mwn p0no”’’—Idiots.’9 by
g
Although later in his career Seferis’ attention shifted to Euripidean tragedy as a u
e
s
sourceofmythicmaterial,Aeschylusseemstohavehauntedhimuntiltheendofhis t o
n
days.Inhisfamous‘Statement’againsttheGreekColonels’junta(28March1969), 1
0
which was broadcast on the BBC Greek service and then on Radio Paris and on A
p
Deutsche Welle, Seferis evokes the mechanics of self-spawning evil as laid out ril 2
0
1
9
4 Ibid.,p.33(entryfor1March1941).
5 Seferis(1977a:125–6).Cf.Beaton(2003:172).
6 Cf.Beaton(2003:173).
7 Emperius’2nq’4pnouisgenerallyacceptedbymoderneditorsoverthetransmittede!nq’
4pnNvelsim.Thepointisthatthepainfulmemoryofwoekeepsoneawakeatnights.
8 Seferis(1977a:130)(entryfor22September1941).
9 Seferis(1979:208).Cf.Beaton(2003:234).
75
VAYOS LIAPIS
originallyinAeschylus:‘Everyonehasnowlearnedandknowsthatindictatorships
thebeginningmayseemeasy,buttragedyawaits,ineluctably,attheend.Thedrama
of this end tortures us, consciously or unconsciously, as in the age-old choruses of
10
Aeschylus. As long as the anomaly lasts, evil will advance further and further.’
SeferisandtheGreekCivilWar
Before proceeding to explore Seferis’ dialogue with Greek tragedy, especially
Aeschylus, in poems written during, and providing a commentary on, the Greek
D
Civil War, it will be necessary to provide a brief overview of the main events sur- o
w
n
roundingthatwar,whoseconsequencesweremoredevastatingandlong-lastingfor lo
a
Greece than those of the Second World War that preceded it.11 de
d
During the last year of Second World War in Greece, violent conflicts erupted fro
m
between the two principal armed resistance organizations, left-wing (ELAS) and
h
right-wing(EDES),inwhatiscommonlyconsideredthe‘firstround’oftheGreek ttp
s
Civil War.12 In December 1944, shortly after its liberation from the Axis forces ://a
c
(October 1944), Athens witnessed the so-called ‘December riots’, or Dekemvriana, ad
e
which signified the beginning of the ‘second round’ of the Greek Civil War. m
ic
FollowingtherefusaloftheGreekCommunistParty(KKE)tosurrenderitsmilitia .o
u
p
to the coalition government headed by Prime Minister George Papandreou and .c
o
enjoying British support, the communist ministers withdrew from Papandreou’s m
/c
cabinet on the 1st of December 1944. On the same day, the National Liberation rj/a
Front(EAM),thecommunist-backed guerrillaorganization thathadplayed acru- rtic
le
cial role in the resistance against the German occupation forces, announced that a -a
b
large political rally was to be held in Syntagma Square, at the centre of Athens, stra
on the 3rd of December. During the rally, policemen opened fire against demon- ct/6
strators, claiming several lives. Another communist-backed rally took place on the /1
/7
following day, with more demonstrators being killed by government forces. 4/4
Negotiations ensued, to no avail, and on the 12th of February 1945 (under a new 90
5
5
Greek government headed by Prime Minister Nikolaos Plastiras) the Varkiza 4
b
Agreement was signed, whereby EAM partisans were obliged to surrender their y g
u
armsandtodissolvetheirrankswithintwoweeks.However,armedconflictbetween e
s
Communistsandgovernmentforcescontinued,andwhenelectionswereeventually t o
n
held on 31 March 1946 (under yet another Greek government headed since 1
0
A
p
10 FortheGreektextofSeferis’‘Statement’seeSeferis(1981c:261–2);onitsdissemination ril 2
seeBeaton(2003:398).ForitscontextandthereactionsitgeneratedseeKeeley(1983: 01
9
107–10).
11 The following overview isbased onWoodhouse (1976);Mazower (1993);Close (1993,
1995);andKontis(2000a,b).
12 Cf.Beaton(2003:251).OnthepoliticsoftheGreekresistancemovements,especiallythe
rivalrybetweenELASandEDES,seeWoodhouse(1976:21–52);Mazower(1993:138–
43).Onthestructure,functionandideologyofELAS,thelargestGreekguerillaorgan-
izationduringtheOccupation,seeagainMazower(1993:297–321).
76
‘THE PAINFUL MEMORY OF WOE’
November 1945 by Prime Minister Themistoklis Sofoulis), about 55.1% of the
votes went to the right-wing coalition ‘United Front of the National-Minded’.
The Communist Party had followed a policy of abstention, and an especially high
percentage (40%) of voters refused to vote.
Withthenewright-winggovernmentnowinoffice,communistguerrillasraided
targets mainly in Northern Greece, where sympathetic Slavic paramilitary groups
were particularly strong, apparently abetted and aided by Tito’s Yugoslavia. In
June 1946, the National Army was mobilized against the Communists, and at
about the same time extraordinary policies were introduced in order to overcome D
o
communist activity, thereby leading to a number of Greek citizens being executed w
n
or imprisoned or deported to concentration camps on remote islands. On the 1st loa
d
of September 1946, a rigged referendum decided in favour of the exiled ed
King George II being reinstated. In reaction to this, the Communist Party fro
m
announced the formation of a 10,000-strong ‘Greek Democratic Army’ (DSE) h
ttp
but that move was in turn answered by the formation of government-controlled s
Countryside Security Units, which often acted as little more than government- ://a
c
a
sanctionedterroristgroups.Conflictescalated,a‘liberatedregion’undercommunist de
m
controlwasself-declaredinMacedoniaandThrace(latertoevolveintoaself-styled ic
.o
Republic),thousandsofGreekcommunistswerearrestedanddisplacedoncharges u
p
of attempted sedition, and eventually both the Greek Communist Party and the .co
m
communist-controlled National Liberation Front (EAM) were outlawed by the /c
Government, the relevant Act prescribing even the pain of death for any seditious rj/a
activity. rticle
Despite these setbacks, the DSE appeared to achieve some progress on the -a
b
s
militaryfrontinearly1948,whilethenationalarmy’scounter-offensivesremained tra
c
largely ineffectual. The tide began really to turn with the arrival of General t/6
/1
James Van Fleet, Head of the Joint United States Military Advisory and Planning /7
Group(JUSMAPG),inAthens,on24 February1948.JUSMAPGwaspractically 4/4
9
in control of the Greek government’s military operations against the communists, 05
5
and General Van Fleet saw to it that some 260,000,000 US dollars worth of arma- 4 b
y
ment were made immediately available to the Greek armed forces. There followed g
u
large-scaleArmycampaignsagainstthecommunist guerrillasinRoumeliandthen es
inEpirusandinthePeloponnese,culminatingintheannihilationofDSE’sremain- t on
ing forces in the last phase of the Civil War (3–30 August 1949), in which napalm 10
A
bombs were used extensively against the guerrillas. This was the end of the Greek p
Civil War, a conflict that claimed some 100,000 lives, led to the displacement of ril 2
0
some 700,000 persons, and caused a deep political rift that continues to divide 19
Greeks even today.
In light of the preceding historical overview, it is now time to discuss Seferis’
responsestotheevents,insofarastheycanbededucedfromhisserviceandpersonal
diaries. At the outset of the ‘December events’, or Dekemvriana — the bloody
confrontation in Athens between communist demonstrators and government
forces, which as we have seen soon expanded into a fully fledged civil war — the
77
VAYOS LIAPIS
6th of December 1944 is marked as ‘a black day’ (ma0rh m:r# a) in Seferis’ personal
diary.13 Throughout December 1944, the poet’s diary records harrowing
14
descriptions ofnon-stop gun-fighting andbombing, ofbloodshed, of food short-
ages, and of rotting bodies, including those of children, strewn in the streets of
15
Athens. AsSeferispoignantlyremarks,‘I’mundertheimpressionthatI’matthe
bedsideofadyingperson,amonghystericalmadmenpossessedbyafuriouswishto
16
finishhimoffassoonaspossible’. Heseeshimselfsurroundedby‘youngmenwho
prefermachinegunstohumanity;byoldmen,likesomanysenilemoneychangers;
andin-between,aherdshakenbypanicfear’17—somuchsothatheproclaimsthe D
o
last two months of 1944 as being second to none in their horror.18 wn
lo
By contrast to the outspokenness of his personal diary, Seferis’ poetry is typic- a
d
e
ally more circumspect, often reflecting his reactions to contemporary events d
through the (sometimes superimposed) filters of mythology, national history, from
philosophy, and/or Greek tragedy. To the extent that it contributes to a http
mythologization of current events, and of Greek Civil War in particular, this s://a
filtering process both triggers and conditions the reader’s response to these c
a
d
events: the reader is invited to interpret contemporary history through patterns e
m
of meaning derived from classical myths and texts. The interpretive process is ic
.o
sometimes aided by notes appended by the poet himself to the text, although as is up
.c
the case in modernist poetry in general there is much that is left to the ‘ideal’ or o
m
‘competent’ or ‘implied’ reader to puzzle out by employing relevant background /c
rj/a
itnexfot.r1m9Aattiotnh,esstarmateegtiimese,,pbayttinervnoskientgc.cltaasrsgiectaeldtetxotstfhreomintGerrpeerektaantitoinquoitfyt,htehesppeoceimfics rticle
-a
zoom out to provide a wide view, thereby detaching current events from their b
s
immediate context and re-inscribing them in the much larger framework of tra
c
human history, thought, and culture. t/6/1
/7
4
/4
9
0
13 Seferis(1977b:271). 5
5
14 SeefurtherMazower(1993:370). 4 b
y
15 Seferis(1977b:371–82). g
u
16 Ibid.,p.375(entryfor10December1944). es
17 Ibid.,p.376(entryfor12December1944). t o
n
18 Seferis(1977c:11)(1January1945):‘Ithinktherehasbeennoyearquiteliketheprevious 10
year:nothingmorehorriblethanthelasttwomonths.’ Ap
19 See Culler (1975: 123–4) for the ‘ideal reader’ as a theoretical construct — a fictional ril 2
0
readerwhoismasterofthetextualinformation,interpretivetechniques,readingstrate- 1
9
gies, cognitive patterns, omissions etc required ‘to read and interpret works in ways
which we consider acceptable, according to the institution of literature’. For a history
oftheconceptincriticaltheoryseeDeMaria1978.Seferis’conceptionofthe‘competent
reader’ is derived principally from Montaigne (Essais I, xxiii): ‘Un suffisant lecteur
descouvre souvent e`s escrits d’autruy, des perfections autres que celles que l’autheur
yamisesetapperceues,etyprestedessensetdesvisagesplusriches’(Montaigne2007:
132).SeefurtherSeferis(1981a:57,149).
78
‘THE PAINFUL MEMORY OF WOE’
TheGreekCivilWarmythologized(I):‘Blind’andtheLabdacids
InBlind,apoemwritteninmid-December1945,20allusionstotheLabdacidmyth
(andto(Neo)Platonicphilosophy)areintertwinedwithtransparentreferencestothe
political situation in Greece at the time of the Civil War to convey a feeling of
personal and communal malaise:
BLIND
SleepisheavyonDecembermornings
blacklikethewatersofAcheron,withoutdreams,
D
withoutmemory,withoutevenalaurelsprig. ow
n
Awakeningsripgashesinforgetfulnessasinfloggedskin, lo
a
andthesoulthathaslostitswayemergesholding 5 d
e
d
ruinsofchthonicpaintings:thesoul,adancinggirl fro
withuselesscastanets,withtotteringfeet, m
heelsbruisedfromtrampingheavily http
atthegatheringovertherethatfoundered. s://a
c
a
SleepisheavyonDecembermornings. 10 de
m
AndeachDecemberisworsethantheonebefore. ic
.o
Oneyear,Parga;thenextyear,Syracuse; u
p
dug-upbonesofancestors,quarries .co
m
fullofexhaustedpeople,invalids,withoutbreath; /c
andthebloodisbought,andthebloodissold 15 rj/a
andthebloodisdividedlikethechildrenofOedipus, rtic
le
andthechildrenofOedipusaredead. -a
b
s
tra
Emptystreets,pockmarkedfacesofhouses, ct/6
iconodulesandiconoclastsslaughteringeachotherallnight. /1
Shutterslockedandbolted.Intheroom 20 /74
/4
themeagrelightcreptintothecorners 9
0
5
likeablinddove. 5
4
Andhe b
y
gropedhiswaythrough g
u
e
thedeepmeadow s
seeingthedarkness 25 t on
1
behindthelight. 0
December1945 Ap
ril 2
0
‘December’, the month when the internecine conflict had begun a year earlier, 1
9
dominates the poem: it is strategically placed at the beginning of the first and the
secondstrophe(l.10),aswellasinthesecondlineofthesecondstropheandinthe
20 SeeSeferis(1976:12).Aversionofthepoem(underadifferenttitle)isincludedinthe
entryfor‘Saturday,[15]December[1944]’inSeferis(1977c:24),cf.38.
79
VAYOS LIAPIS
poem’sdateattheend.Thedeath-likesleep‘onDecembermornings’—adream-
less,memory-lessstate,‘likethewatersofAcheron’,theUnderworldriverofGreek
21
myth — evokes the image of a chthonic region, an icon of the Greek urban and
rurallandscapethathadbeenlaidtowastesinceDecember1944.TheCivilWaris
onefromwhichthe‘laurelsprig’—atransparentsymbolofmilitarydistinction—
22
is by definition excluded. In a partial reversal of the Platonic concept of the
remembering soul, whereby the human ability to learn is attributed to the soul’s
23
recollectionof‘theoriginal,prenatal,visionoftheForms’, thenarrator’ssoul‘that
24
haslostitsway’ triesinvaintoforget,buttheharrowingexperiencesofitswaking D
o
hourswillnotallowittodoso.Theimageofthesoulasadancermayderivefrom w
n
PlotinianNeoplatonism:Plotinusconceivesoftheuniverseasamathematicalstruc- loa
d
ture,whichconsistsof‘number’andmelody;thus,musicisforhimtheartthatmost ed
closelyconveystheorderandharmonyofthecosmos.Indeed,Plotinusonanumber fro
m
ofoccasionsreferstothedanceofthesoularoundtheIntellect(EnneadI.8.2.24–5) h
oritsdanceatthemomentwhenitisreunitedwithitsintelligiblesource(VI.9.1).25 ttps
In its Seferian mutation, however, the soul becomes a meretricious dancing girl ://a
c
(2rchstr0”),26 ineffectually performing her routines at meaningless, futile gather- ad
e
m
ings.Theimageofthe‘gathering...thatfoundered’mayevokethecountlessofficial ic
.o
‘gatherings’—governmentalmeetings,committees,andcouncils—that(tojudge u
p
by his diaries) exasperated Seferis the diplomat to the extreme, since they hardly .c
o
27 m
ever came to any good. /c
rj/a
rtic
le
21 For Acheron as a river of Hades, into which flow two other Underworld streams -a
b
(Pyriphlegethon and Cocytus) see Odyssey 10. 512–14. For the nekyomanteion (an stra
oracle where dead spirits were called up for consultation) near the historical Acheron c
inThesprotiaseeHerodotus5.92h.2.Cf.OxfordClassicalDictionary3s.v.‘Acheron’. t/6/1
22 The origin of ‘without even a laurel sprig’ can be traced back to a meeting (1 October /74
1942, Greek military camp in Jerusalem) between Seferis and Brigadier Alcibiades /49
0
Bourdaras, commander of the Second Greek Brigade, whom the poet clearly admired. 5
5
4
WhenapassingfellowofficerannouncedthathisownFirstBrigadewasbeingmobilized, b
y
Bourdarasremarked:‘Whattodo?Youwon’tleaveevenasinglelaurelsprigfortherest g
u
ofus.’SeeSeferis(1977b:240). es
23 Quotation from Yunis (2011: 146). For the Platonic concept see Plato, Meno 81c-86a; t o
n
Phaedo72e-77a;Phaedrus248e-249d.SeefurtherScott(1995:15–85);Kahn(2006). 10
24 Or‘thewaywardsoul’,whichisanotherwayofrendering3parastrathm:#nhyuc–ofthe Ap
original. ril 2
25 ForthedanceofthesoulinPlotinusseeSlaveva-Griffin(2009:118–19),whosephrasing 01
9
Ihaveoccasionallyborrowed.ForthecosmicdanceinGreekreligionandmythologysee
alsoZarifi(2007:227–8);Ferrari(2008:2–6,17,147).
26 The archaic word is highly untypical for Seferis, and may have been meant to evoke
Plato, Protagoras 347d, where it is claimed that flute-girls and dancing girls
(2rchstr0da”)donotbelongtodinner-partiesthrownbypeopleoftaste.
27 ForSeferis’frustrationattheinefficacyandpettinessofhissuperiors,especiallyduring
the Second World War, see e.g. Seferis (1977b) 15 (27 January 1941), 44 (25 March
80
‘THE PAINFUL MEMORY OF WOE’
In the following stanza (ll. 10–17) the recent Dekemvriana events are mytholo-
gized — or rather ‘re-historicized’ — by being implicitly compared to two mem-
orabletragiceventsinGreekhistory.ThefirstisthesellingoftheEpirotetownof
Parga by the British to the Ottoman Albanian ruler Ali Pasha of Yannina, a trans-
actionthatresultedtotheenforcedrelocationofParga’sGreekinhabitants(perhaps
some 5,000 people) to the Ionian Islands. The refugees dug up their ancestors’
bones, burned them in the town’s main square on 15 April 1819, and transferred
the remains to their new homes —hence Seferis’ ‘dug-up bones of ancestors’ in l.
13.28 Thecircumstances surrounding theeventwere bruited farandwide,and are D
o
commemorated inanumberofGreekfolksongsdatingfromthatera,aswellasin w
n
Andreas Kalvos’ ode ‘To Parga’.29 The second event alluded to in ll. 12–14 is the loa
d
Athenian defeat at Syracuse in 413 BC, at the end of an ill-conceived expedition, ed
which resulted in a number of Athenian prisoners being held in dire conditions at fro
m
stonequarriesnearSyracuse(seeespeciallyThucydides7.87).30Specifically,‘quar- h
ries j full of exhausted people, invalids, without breath’ condenses Thucydides’ ttps
harrowing description of the situation of Athenian prisoners at Syracuse (7. 87. ://a
c
1–2): ad
e
m
ic
‘Alargenumberofpeoplewerecrammedintoasmallandhollowplace,andasaresultthey .ou
p
were distressed by the sun and the stifling heat [...] and as they did everything [i.e. they .c
o
relievedthemselves]inthesameplace,duetolackofspace,andasthedeadwerepiledupone m
/c
ontopofanother[...]therewasaninsupportablestench,andtheywerealsooppressedby rj/a
hungerandthirst...’ rtic
le
-a
ThestanzaculminatesinanexplicitallusiontothemythofEteoclesandPolynices, b
s
especially to its Aeschylean version in Seven against Thebes, which emphasizes the tra
c
bitter division of the brothers’ inheritance: in Aeschylus, it is ‘Iron, a harsh dis- t/6
/1
tributorofproperty’thatallotsthebrothers‘onlythepieceoflandinwhichtheywill /7
4
beburied(727-33,816-19,906-14,941-50)’;31hencethe‘dividedblood’ofOedipus’ /49
0
dead children in ll. 16–17 of Seferis’ poem. The imagery of division is further 55
4
developedandroundedoffinl.19bythereferencetothenocturnalscufflesbetween b
y
‘iconodules and iconoclasts’: the transparent parallelism between the Greek Civil g
u
e
s
t o
n
1941), 54 (15 April 1941), 75–6 (6 May 1941), 102 (17 June 1941); Seferis (1977c) 14 10
(23 April 1945), 16 (8 May 1945) ‘I’m wasting my time in empty discussions’ at the Ap
MinistryofForeignAffairs,etc.FurtheronSeferis’ disgustattheidletalkandmean- ril 2
0
spiritedness of his fellow exiles (especially politicians and officials) see Krikou-Davis 1
9
(1989:143–8,151,154,155,156–8).
28 OnthesellingofPargatoAliPashabytheBritishseeVakalopoulos(1975:402).
29 Seee.g.Passow(1860:163–5)(nos.CCXXII–CCXXIV).
30 TheThucydidespassageisexplicitly mentionedbySeferisinanotetohispoem‘The
LastDay’fromLogbookI(Athens,1940):seeSeferis(1972a:172,327);cf.Kokolis(1993:
39),Maronitis(2008:133–5)andesp.Tambakaki(2008).
31 QuotationfromTorrance(2007:36).
81
VAYOS LIAPIS
WarandthenotoriousiconoclasticschismthatdividedByzantiumintheeighthand
32
ninthcenturies isthuscombinedwiththeearlierreferencestoLabdacidmyth,to
thefateofAthenianprisonersinSyracuseandtothesellingofParga.Theresulting
amalgamation of contemporary Greek events with earlier mythic and historical
landmarks is typical of Seferis’ concept of Hellenicity as an essentially unitary
wholeness, where patterns of action, structures of thought, mentalities and behav-
iours rest on homogeneous underlying structures that feed into and elucidate each
other, regardless of their individual time frame (see the ensuing Section).
D
o
w
TheGreekCivilWarmythologized(II):‘Oedipal,‘48’andtheLabdacids n
lo
a
TheGreekCivilWarprovidestheimplicitbackdroptoyetanotherSefericpoemof d
e
d
t(r‘Oag2idcipa0ndc"eisot,ry’4,8o’)n:e33in which the tragic subtext is announced already in the title from
h
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OEDIPAL,’48 s://a
SherlockHolmeshasbranchofficeseverywhere c
a
d
allovertheearth,allaroundtheworld; e
m
Oedipusinterrogatestheshepherdeverywhere ic
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withoutknowingwhat’sinstoreforhim. u
p
.c
o
m
Atthecrossroads,deadLaiusliesinwait 5 /c
andintheorchardsyouhearthestutter:‘Blindinyourears...’ rj/a
timeruns,nervous,itsbrakesfailing— rtic
le
Hey,Mister!Eyesandlightsareextinguishedhere! -a
b
Ankara,8.10.1948 stra
c
t/6
AsardoniccommentonthepoliticsofuniversalsuspicionattheheightoftheGreek /1
Civil War, this short poem contains transparent references to Sophocles’ Oedipus /74
/4
Tyrannus (‘Oedipus interrogates the shepherd’, ‘dead Laius liesin wait’), the most 9
0
obviousofwhichisaquotation,inl.6,ofSophocles’originalGreekfromOT371: 55
4
«tufl1”t1t’P*ta...».Themythologization ofcurrenteventshereacquiresafur- by
g
therdimension,asitisfusedforironiceffectwithelementsfrompopularliterature u
e
s
(‘Sherlock Holmes’ with his ‘branch offices...all over the earth’). Thereby, the t o
n
sublimation of contemporary history into consecrated myth is counterbalanced by 1
0
the bathos of intentional triviality. A
p
ril 2
0
1
9
32 Themostthoroughandup-to-datestudyoftheiconoclasteraisBrubakerandHaldon
(2011).FornocturnalfightsduringtheGreekCivilWarcf.Seferis(1977b:333)(28May
1944): ‘Meanwhile, little kids, adolescents, in Greece go about at night fighting each
otherwithpistols.’
33 SeeSeferis(1976:21).ThepoemfirstappearsinSeferis’personaldiary,intheentryfor8
October1948(Seferis1977c:125).
82
‘THE PAINFUL MEMORY OF WOE’
AtragicvisionoftheGreekCivilWar:‘Thrush’andGreektragedy
In ‘Thrush’, we find ourselves immersed in a universe shaped by and relying on
backgroundreferencestoclassicaltexts,includingHomerandGreektragedy.The
poem, dated 31 October 1946, consists of three parts, the first of which, entitled
34
‘The House by the Sea’, is populated by haunting images of uprooting and loss.
Especiallyprominentisasenseofdispossession,renderedvisibleintheimageofthe
losthouse:‘ThehousesIhadweretakenfromme.Thetimesjhappenedtobeharsh;
wars disasters migrations’ (ll. 1–2).35 Typically for Seferis, collective and personal
experiences intermingle here. In March 1922, some five months before the fall of D
o
w
SmyrnatotheTurks,Seferis’father,SteliosSeferiadis,wrotetohissonaskinghis n
permission for the sale of a family house at Skala tou Vourla` (Turk. Urla I˙skelesi), loa
d
e
thesiteofancientClazomenae,intheGulfofSmyrna,ahouselefttothepoetbyhis d
grandmother in her will.36 The house at Skala held an extraordinary appeal for from
Seferis — it was ‘like entering a garden from the Arabian Nights, where all was http
enchantment’—37anditslossdealthimaheavyemotionalblow.Atthesametime, s://a
thelossofthehouseatSkalanearlycoincidedwiththefallofSmyrnatotheTurksin c
a
August1922,inwhatiscommonlyknowninGreeceas‘TheAsiaMinorDisaster’.It de
m
is easy to see how the fall from the Paradise of Skala has come to encapsulate, in ic
.o
u
Seferis’poeticmythology,thetraumaticlossofoneofthemostvibrant,cosmopol- p
.c
itan,andculturedHelleniccommunities—aneventthathauntedthepoetthrough- o
m
outhislife.Further,asBeaton(2003)273perceptivelyremarks,thehouseinPartI /crj/a
of ‘Thrush’ is also ‘reminiscent of the half-furnished homes and offices in which rtic
[Seferis]hadlivedandworkedthroughoutthewaryears’.Howpainfulthiswasfor le
-a
Seferisisapparentfromhisnotesinhispersonaldiary(10January1942),wherehe bs
complains about the number of temporary quarters he and his wife have had to trac
‘‘‘puton’’likesomanyborrowedclothes’—‘somanyborrowedclothesthatIcan’t t/6/1
helpthinking thatwehave nothing butournaked bodiesin thisroofless land orin /74
the land further on’ (Seferis 1977b: 175–6). /49
0
5
5
4
b
y
g
u
e
s
t o
n
1
0
A
p
34 On‘Thrush’seeVayenas(1979:259–97). ril 2
35 Seferis (1972a: 219). On echoes of T. S. Eliot’s Dry Salvages in these lines see Keeley 01
9
(1956: 222–3) — although Keeley is careful to point out the substantial differences
between the two poets. On the image of the house in Seferis’ poetry see Vitti (1978:
194–5);Vayenas(1979:268);Argyriou(1986:53–5);especiallyin‘Thrush’:Padel(1985:
107–9).
36 SeeBeaton(2003:48).
37 SeeSeferis(1972b:8).FurtheronSeferis’emotionalattachmenttothe‘littlehouse’at
SkalaseeBeaton(2003:15–18).
83