Greek · 1911–1996
Odysseas Elytis won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1979 for poetry that "depicts the sensuous strength and intellectual clearsightedness of the Greek mind." "The Axion Esti" (1959) is his masterwork—a long poem merging personal experience with Greek history and Byzantine liturgy. Elytis was a surrealist who remained rooted in the Greek landscape and light. He died in 1996.