Cavafy

Καισαριων - 1918 Caesarion

*Caesarion' was the nickname of Ptolemy XV Caesar, ostensibly the son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, who was invested with the title 'King of Kings' by Mark Antony. Following Antony's defeat at Actium in 31 BC the victor Octavian (later the emperor Augustus) ordered Caesarion's execution. Related poems: 'Alexandrian kings', "The god forsakes Antony', In Alexandria, 31 B.C.' Berenices: name of three queens of the Ptolemy family. Cavafy recalls Caesarion, whose name is mentionedin a collection of Ptolemaic epigrams that he is browsing through. Some scholars identify this collection with M.L. Strack's Die Dynastie der Ptolemäer (1897), which included an inscription on Caesarion. The last verses refer to Plutarch (Parallel Lives, Antony, 81), whose"ouk agathon polykaisarie" (Not a good thing werea Caesar too many) paraphrases the Iliad 2.204:"ouk agathon polykoiranie" (No good thing is a multitude of lords). The episode takes place in 30 BC. The poem begins with a reading of Ptolemaic inscriptions and ends with the word "Πολυκαισαρίη" ("Too Many Caesars"). According to Plutarch, this word was coined as a pun on a line from Homer's Iliad by an advisor to Octavian, Areius Didymus, as a warning against letting the boy live—and it has often been quoted in modern historical and literary treatments as a code-word that signaled Caesarion's cruel destiny. Cavafy's appropriation of the ancient word in the Modern Greek text probably serves to invest the poem with an aura of subliminal authenticity and also to enhance his own pose as a scholar-poet who is conversing directly with ancient sources to unearth lost treasures from historical oblivion. But, despite its almost unanimous critical validation, this was indeed a pose. Cavafy was a brilliant artist and surely a modernist, if only for the shrewd interplay with scholarly and other texts he carries off in his work, but he was certainly not a historian or a scholar. Caesarion, one of the most amiable characters in Cavafy's poetry, for whom little historical evidence survives, is vindicated, as the mention of his name in some book provides Cavafy with the freedom to refer to his youthful beauty on several occasions. The poet pulls from the shadows and brings forth from the twilight not some heroic figure filled with creative life force, but the antihero, "pale and weary", yet engaging in his fatal end. The unjustly lost Caesarion is associated, despite himself, with the end of a civilization, lifting the unbearable burden of decline onto his weak shoulders. Caesarion Ptolemy XV (47-30 BC): Son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra VII. In 34 BC, he was proclaimed co-ruler and received the title of King of Kings by Mark Antony. Cleopatra VII (69-30 BC): Last queen of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt Clearly, Caesarion's historical status in Cavafy's time was neither marginal nor null, as we have been conditioned to believe. On the contrary, he was a highly recognizable figure—especially through his association with the increasingly widespread myth of Cleopatra, whose name had become "a signifier for Egypt itself"—and one that often sprung up in both high- and low-culture contexts. In 1866, for example (the same year in which the French philosopher and historian Ernest Renan hailed Caesarion as the "national Messiah" of Hellenistic Egypt) fans of London's musical theatre could see him on stage as a seven year old boy in F. C. Burnand's exotic burlesque Antony and Cleopatra; or, His-tory and Her-story in a Modern Nilo-metre. Cavafy could not have been unaware of this heavy circulation of his hero's name and story when he ventured to portray his own "discovery" of Caesarion, first in 1914 and then again in 1918. the flattering rhetoric of inscriptions as evidence of the shallowness and mediocrity of the Ptolemies themselves (or at the very least, their grammarians),42 and to contrast this pompous and murky crowd with the unique individuality of Caesarion and the moving effect of his humble mention. Cavafy appears to read Ptolemaic inscriptions as a decadent genre, as if their faults reflected the decline of the dynasty they purported to praise. Mahaffy did not and could not share such a view; after all, these were laudatory inscriptions and flattery was their purpose. But Cavafy's point is once again based on the historian's book, albeit a different section of it. The poem's speaker appears to browse through Ptolemaic inscriptions as a historical connoisseur who looks for original expressions of true feeling (and of course cannot find any in these texts). The speaker clearly reads inscriptions thinking about poems; in fact, he reads inscriptions through the lens of Mahaffy's reading of Ptolemaic court poetry. These poets, Mahaffy wrote, produced "court effusions" and "lying flatteries which gave the sovran every imaginable virtue."43 To them, "the favour of the king [was] far more vital than the favour of the muse"; and so, "to base arguments upon the veracity of a court poet is... absurd."44 Cavafy clearly transfers Mahaffy's contempt of Ptolemaic court poetry to laudatory inscriptions, which he reads as bad poems. Caesarion's presence in European literature can be traced back to Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (1606), where the hero is briefly mentioned twice

Εις το επινειον - 1918 In the harbour town

28 YEAR OLD EMIS Νέος, είκοσι οκτώ ετών, με πλοίον τήνιον έφθασε εις τούτο το συριακόν επίνειονο Έμης, με την πρόθεσι να μάθει μυροπώλης. Όμως αρρώστησε εις τον πλουν. Και μόλις απεβιβάσθη, πέθανε. Η ταφή του, πτωχοτάτη, έγιν' εδώ. Ολίγες ώρες πριν πεθάνει, κάτι ψιθύρισε για «οικίαν», για «πολύ γέροντας γονείς». Μα ποιοί ήσαν τούτοι δεν εγνώριζε κανείς,μήτε ποιά η πατρίς του μες στο μέγα πανελλήνιον. Καλύτερα. Γιατί έτσι ενώκείται νεκρός σ' αυτό το επίνειον,θα τον ελπίζουν πάντα οι γονείς του ζωντανό.

Ιθακη - 1911 Ithaca

Cavafy's 1911 poem 'Ithaka' has a long tradition in translation Ithaca: homeland of Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey. Laestrygonians... Cyclopes: in the Odyssey, the Laestrygonians are fierce giants who destroy most of Odysseus' ships and men. The Cyclopes were a savage race of one-eyed giants inhabiting Sicily. Polyphemus, the most famous of them and the son of Poseidon, god of the sea, was blinded by Odysseus.

- 1920 If dead indeed

A CHRISTIAN (WHO DEEP DOWN IS ACC STILL A PAGAN) CONTEMPLATING WHAT HAPPENED TO APOLLONIUS OF TYANA AFTER ALL. "Where did the Sage withdraw to, where did he disappear?After his many miracles,the renown of his teachingwhich spread to so many countries,he suddenly hid himself and nobody knew for certain what happened to him(nor did anybody ever see his grave).Some reported that he died at Ephesus.But Damis does not record that in his memoir. Damis says nothing about the death of Apollonios. Others said that he disappeared at Lindos. Or maybe the story is true about his assumption in Crete, at the ancient sanctuary of Diktynna. But then again we have that miraculous, that supernatural apparition of his before a young student at Tyana. Maybe the time has not yet come for him to return and show himself to the world again; or maybe, transfigured, he moves among us unrecognized—. But he will come again as he was, teaching the ways of truth; and then of course he will bring back the worship of our gods and our elegant Hellenic rites." These were the musings of one of the few pagans, one of the very few still left,as he sat in his shabby room just after reading Philostratos' On Apollonios of Tyana. But even he—a trivial and cowardly man—played the Christian in public and went to church.It was the time when Justin, known as the elder,reigned in total piety,and Alexandria, a godly city,detested pitiful idolators. the Sage: Apollonius, a Neo-Pythagorean philosopher, magician, and conductor of propitiatory rites, from Tyana in Cappadocia. Details of his life and his fame present distinct parallels to early Christian beliefs about Jesus. It was reputed that he performed miracles and that he disappeared or ascended to heaven either at the Temple of Athena at Lindos in Rhodes or at the Temple of the Minoan goddess Diktynna in Crete. Philostratus based his Life of Apollonius of Tyana on the account by Damis, a student of Apollonius. 121 the aged Justin: the Byzantine emperor Justin I (c.AD 450-527).

Μαρτιαι Ειδοι - 1911 The Ides of March

A seer had warned Julius Caesar to beware of the Ides of March, that is, the FIFTEENTH day of that month. On 15 March 44 BC Caesar's philosopher' and friend Artemidorus vainly tried to hand him a message warning him of the conspiracy that resulted in his murder later that day. Artemidorus (first century BC): Greek philosopher mentioned by both Plutarch and Suetonius in their lives of Julius Caesar. Orator and sophist from Cnidus, son of Theopompus. He lived in Rome, where he taught Greek. He was a friend of Julius Caesar, but also socialized, according to Plutarch, with Brutus' entourage. Cavafy draws here from Plutarch (Parallel Lives, Caesar, 65) and Dio Cassius (Roman History XLIV, 18.3). He refers to the event that took place on the Ides of March, the feast dedicated to the god Mars (13 or 15 March according to the Roman calendar), in 44 BC. On that day, the Knidian sophist Artemidorus tried to warn Julius Caesar of a conspiracy against him and his impending murder, which had been prophesied by the augur Spurrinas. Artemidorus approached Julius Caesar and handed him a scroll on which the imminent event had been recorded. Despite Artemidorus' insistence for Julius Caesar's immediate attention, the latter was unable to read the note because of the large crowd and entered the senate, where he was murdered. Suetonius reports that, when Caesar saw Brutus attack him, he said in Greek: "You, too, child?". Using this historic event as a pretext, Cavafy demonstrates, through this monologue, key issues affecting everyone's lives. His poem is a realization of the dramatic frontier of life, a contemplation on the decline and futility of human existence. Using Caesar as an example, he exposes the arrogant sense of ambition that comes from power, advising the soul to be sentient and resistant to the illusory everyday reality and, more importantly, to not ignore messages of impending perils. Once again, hubris, in the ancient sense, inspires Cavafy's anguish. As he notes in a brief comment written before the poem's publication: "Those speeches and tasks might be urgent, and their postponement detrimental ... but never so urgent as Artemidorus' message, the neglect of which brings immediate death." Interestingly, Artemidorus was no random individual, but a teacher of rhetoric and logic.

Αεμιλιανος Μοναη, Αλεξανδρευς 628-655 Μ.Χ. - 1918 Aemilianus Monaë, Alexandrian, AD 628-655

Aemilianus Monae is an imaginary character. Egypt, part of the Byzantine Empire since the fourth century AD, was conquered by the Muslim Arabs in 640-2. With words, with countenance, and with mannersI shall build an excellent panoply;and in this way I shall face evil menwithout having any fear or weakness.They will want to harm me. But of thosewho approach me none will knowwhere my wounds are, my vulnerable parts,under all the lies that will cover me. --Boastful words of Aemilianus Monae.Did he ever build this panoply?In any case, he did not wear it much.He died in Sicily, at the age of twenty-seven.

Λανη Ταφος - 1918 Tomb of Lanes

All characters are imaginary. Of the names, Lanes (two syllables) is Greek, Rhametichos is Egyptian; and Marcus is Roman, while the painter was a native of the North African province of Cyrene. or Hyacinthus: a mythological character, a mortal with whom Apollo fell in love. Hyacinthus was killed by Zephyros in a fit of jealousy. The flower bearing his name sprang from his blood. The poet is inspired by the Palatine Anthology, but also by Archaic and Classical epigrams, as scholars suggest. The scene takes place in the Roman period, as indicated by the reference to the title of proconsul (governor) and the epithet Kyrenian (Cyrenean), from the city of Cyrene in Libya, which became a Roman province in 75 BC. Lanis addresses his living friend Marcus, reminding him of the time that he refused to be depicted as Hyacinth by a famous and wily painter so as not to have his beauty hidden away under some mythical symbol. This is another one of Cavafy's funerary poems with the word 'tomb' in the title and the concise form of an epigram, a characteristic Hellenistic genre, particularly cultivated in form and style by the representatives of the Alexandrian School. Cavafy's funerary epigrams often recall ancient models, such as the epigrams of Aratos or Julian the Egyptian from the circle of Agathias the Scholastic. They are, however, of a more idiosyncratic and free type. This poem expresses with great sensitivity moments of human suffering, the result of deterioration, which only memory can soothe. As a city that knew how to appreciate beauty, Alexandria probably inspired sufficient self-confidence in its beautiful youths that they did not need to borrow the ideal figures of mythological models. The poet's anguish to preserve the loved one through an artificial image becomes more urgent with the repetition of certain phrases, which intensify the dissociation between what is real (which he tries to recall) and what is artificial (which is realized through a painting). Lanis (Greek name), Rametichus (Egyptian name) Marcus (Roman name) are all imaginary characters Hyacinth: Mythical figure. According to the prevailing version of the myth, Hyacinth was so beautiful that Apollo fell in love with him. Jealous of the god's preference for Hyacinth, Boreas and Zephyrus blew Apollo's discus off course so as to injure and kill Hyacinth. From his spilled blood sprang the flower that bears his name. What artistic subtlety he used trying to persuade you both,the minute he saw your friend,that he absolutely must do him as Hyacinth.In that way his portrait would come to be better known.But your Lanis didn't hire out his beauty like that:reacting strongly, he told him to portrayneither Hyacinth nor anyone else,but Lanis, son of Rametichos, an Alexandrian.

[Τα βήματα] - 1909 [The footsteps

An earlier version was published as The footsteps of the Eumenides. The poem refers to a passage in Suetonius Life of Nero", ch. 46. Nero was the son of Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina, who later became wife of the emperor Claudius. She poisoned her husband in order to give the throne to her son, who, in turn, had her murdered in AD 59. Lares: Lares familiares were minor deities of Rome and household patrons. Statues of them were kept in small household shrines called lararia (sing. lararium). The Furies: in Classical mythology divine avengers of crime, especially within the family. They are about to punish Nero for having murdered his mother and other members of his immediate kin.

Αννα Κομνηνη - 1920 Anna Comnena

Anna Comnena: daughter of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Comnenus. In 1118 she made an unsuccessful attempt to usurp the throne from her brother John Il, ostensibly on behalf of her husband Nikephoros Bryennios, whose death in 1136 ended her ambitions. She retired to a monastic life and wrote the Alexiad, a biography of her father, from which the quotations in the second stanza are taken.

Αριστοβουλος - 1918 Aristoboulos

Aristoboulos Ill of Judea was the son of Alexandra and the brother of Miriam, wife of Herod I the Great (73-4 BC), who was declared king of Judea in 40 BC. BROTHER-IN-LAW OF HEROD I GREAT Aristoboulos was drowned by order of Herod in a swimming-pool (35 BC). Related poem: 'Alexander Jannaeus, and Alexandra'. Hasmoneans: members of a religious dynasty to which the Maccabees belonged, named after their ancestor Hasmon. They started the successful revolt against the Seleucids of Syria. Cyprus and Salome: Cyprus was the mother of Herod I the Great, who incited her son to commit this murder. Salome was the daughter of Herod Philip, son of Herod the Great and Herodias. She is the one who demanded and received the head of John the Baptist. She was first the wife of her uncle Philip and then of her cousin Aristoboulos, king of Syrian Chalkis.

Εν Πολει της Οσροηνης - 1917 A town in Osroene

Both the scene and the characters are imaginary. Osroene was a kingdom in Mesopotamia. Its capital was Edessa. Plato's Charmides: Plato immortalized his uncle Charmides in a dialogue bearing his name, in which Socrates is inspired by the physical beauty of Charmides as a young man. The dialogue is an inquiry into wisdom and temperance.

[Η συνοδεια του Διονυσου] - 1907 [The retinue of Dionysus]

Damon is an imaginary character, but the other references and details appear to be consistent with the mythology. - Akratos: one of the retinue of Dionysus, god of wine. His name means 'unwatered' or 'unmixed' (referring to wine). He was particularly venerated in Athens and Piraeus. In the poem, the retinue also consists of Hedyoinos ('Sweet-wine'), Methe ('Stupor*), and the personifications of music, Molpos and Fedymeles ("'Sweet Singer"), of theatre, Comus, and of initiation, Teleté. The event takes place in the third century BC, in the time of Hieron, tyrant of Syracuse. Οn the ruler's order, Damon, a famous Peloponnesian 'craftsman', sculpts several figures from the entourage of Dionysus in Parian marble. Although engrossed by his art, Damon is more concerned by the financial reward that will allow him to live lavishly. The poem is indicative of the aesthetic issues that preoccupied Cavafy during the years 1903-1907, when he composed several poems of similar content. These issues include the artist's exhausting dedication, but also truth and sincerity in art. The poet highlights the great effort required by those who serve art while justifying the periods of despondency and monotony that come from isolation and the obsession with aesthetic detail. Indirectly, however, the poet expresses the opinion that artistic thought and action has its consequences, which arise from the relationship of the author with his environment. He is inevitably affected and influenced by conventions and non- artistic transactions. The poet refers sarcastically to the craftsman's fee and to the purposes to which it will be spent. Hieron II (274-212 BC): Tyrant of Syracuse, who took the title of 'king' in 270 BC. Dionysus: God of nature's fecundity and of symposiums with a noisy entourage, depicted often in vase painting, relief compositions, and sculptural groups.Acratus: Personification of strong, undiluted wine. Methe: Female personification of inebriation, who fills the cups of Silenus and the Satyrs with wine. Hedyoinos: Personification of sweet wine. Molpos: Personification of boisterous singing. Hedymeles: Personification of sweet melody. Komos: A young satyr, the culmination of orgiastic joy, who closes the procession in honour of Dionysus. Telete: Personification of sacred ritual, daughter of Dionysus and Nikaia.

[Ο βασιλευς Δημήτριος] - 1906 [King Demetrius]

Demetrius I Poliorketes (the Besieger) (336/7-283 Bc), king of Macedonia. The poem refers to chapters 44 and 41 of Plutarch's Life of Demetrius and to the dialogue The Cock by Lucian of Samosata Related poem: On the march to Sinope Pyrrhus: (319-272 Bc), king of Epirus. When he invaded Macedon in 288 the Macedonian troops deserted Demetrius and went over to his side. Demetrius I (337-283 BC): Son of Antigonus the One-Eyed, king of Macedon in 294 BC after the death of Cassander. A formidable fighter and a rebellious personality, he became known in history as 'Poliorketes' because of his ability to build siege engines. He was involved in the disputes among Alexander's successors and was defeated by Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Lysimachus in 288 BC. After several unsuccessful attempts to recover territories in Asia Minor, he surrendered his army to Seleucus Nicator in 285 BC and spent the rest of his life in captivity in Syria, where he died. Pyrrhus: King of Epirus (318-272 BC), originally an ally of Demetrius Poliorketes, initiator of a victorious campaign against the Romans in Southern Italy (280-279 BC), during which he lost so many men that his victory was thenceforth referred to as a 'Pyrrhic' victory. This belongs to Cavafy's historical poems, which deal with the universal awareness of the futility of earthly glory. The rise and fall from power is sketched through the characteristic image of the leader, who is abandoned by his followers. The Hellenistic world, from Alexander the Great until the end of the kingdoms, was adapting constantly to new situations. The poet outlines the behaviour of people and states through the Stoic metaphor of life as a scene from a play. In his day, Cavafy was accused of presenting things already known and that several of his historical poems were simple paraphrases of ancient written sources. Indeed, he often stays very close to the original, which he enhances, however, with personal views, like the phrase "a noble soul" for Demetrius, which highlights the dignity of a man aware of his failure. The use of the word 'actor' reinforces the scene's tragic character, like the stage curtain that drops after a good or bad performance. In this poem the story serves to gild the legend of Demetrius Poliorketes, adapting it to those universal situations that are such a part of human existence.

- 1919 Of Demetrius Soter (162-150 BC)

Demetrius Soter, king of Syria, was the son of Seleucus IV. He unseated the tyrant Heracleides, and for this was named Soter (Saviour). Conqueror of Judaea, he was defeated by the united armies of Ptolemy Philometor, Ariarathes V, and Attalos Il. He spent his youth in Rome as a hostage, while the throne of Syria was occupied first by Antiochus IV Epiphanes and later by his cousin Antiochus V. In 162 BC Demetrius escaped from Italy, recovered his throne, and attempted to restore Syria's strength and influence in the region. Successful at first, he later became a morose alcoholic and was defeated and killed by Alexander Balas, a pretender to the throne, in I50 BC. Related poems: The displeasure of the Seleucid', 'Orophernes', "The Battle of Magnesia';, 'Craftsman of craters'. 'To Antiochus Epiphanes', "Temethos, Antiochian, A.D. 400', The favour of Alexander Balas', 'Envoys from Alexandria.

Σοφοι Δε προσιοντων - 1915 Wise men

For Philostratus see note to 'If dead indeed'. Φιλόστρατος, Τὰ ἐς τὸν Τυανέα Ἀπολλώνιον, VIII, 7

Ιγνατιου Ταφος - 1917 Tomb of Ignatius

Formerly the heathen Kleon and now the Christian Ignatius, and also a reader, that is to say, semi-clerical. - CLEON TRIES TO ERASE HIS NON-CHRISTIAN PAST. Εδώ δεν είμαι ο Κλέων που ακούσθηκαστην Αλεξάνδρεια (όπου δύσκολα ξιπάζονται)για τα λαμπρά μου σπίτια, για τους κήπους,για τ' άλογα και για τ' αμάξια μου,5για τα διαμαντικά και τα μετάξια που φορούσα.Άπαγε· εδώ δεν είμαι ο Κλέων εκείνος·τα είκοσι οκτώ του χρόνια να σβησθούν.Είμ' ο Ιγνάτιος, αναγνώστης, που πολύ αργάσυνήλθα· αλλ' όμως κι έτσι δέκα μήνες έζησα ευτυχείς10μες στην γαλήνη και μες στην ασφάλεια του Χριστού. Here I am not that Cleon celebrated in Alexandria(where it is hard to astonish them)for my magnificent houses, for the gardens, for my horses and for my chariots, for the jewels and silks that I wore.God forbid; here I am not that Cleon; let his 28 years be erased.I am Ignatius, a reader, who came to myself quite late; but I lived so for ten months happy in the serenity and security of Christ.

Che fece... il gran rifiuto - 1901

From Dante's Inferno, Canto Ill, line 60. The entite tercet-reads as follows: POPE CELESTINE V WHO RESIGNED FROM TTHE PAPACY AFTER FIVE MONTHS IN 1294 *Poscia ch'io v'ebbi alcun riconosciuto, | vidi e conobbi l'ombra di colui I chirece per viltate il gran rifuto.?' (*After I had recognized some of them, | 13f and knew the shade of him | who, through cowardice, made the great refusa* Th. IT. R. Fuse), The lines may refer to Celestine, who was elected pope and abdicated five months later. The words 'per viltate' in the middle of the line have been omitted in the title. Some Cavafy scholars believe that this poem reflects the ethical standards of any man who says 'No' to the norms and demands of society, and that it has, therefore, a homoerotic subtext.

Φιλελλην - 1912 Philhellene

From the beginning of Hellenistic times, various Hellenizing rulers commonly sided the title "Philhellene'" (lover of Greek culture) to their other sunames. Philhellene: A fictional character, king of an unknown Asian country. Sithaspes: The name of the engraver or courtier in the court of the ruler Philhellene. His name's Persian suffix is perhaps an ironic association with Hydaspes, a tributary of the Indus River. Zagros: Persia's southwest mountain range, on the border between ancient Media and Babylon. Phraata: City in southwest Media, summer residenceof the Parthian kings. The reference to the Roman proconsul places the episode in the first century BC, when Rome's growing interest in the East influenced the local rulers' behaviour. Some vain minor monarch east of Mesopotamia orders his portrait to be carved on coinage. The portrait must feature a crown and the inscription 'Philhellene' in Greek. Thus he hopes to demonstrate his communion with Greek culture in an effort to mitigate the impression created by the uncultured, remote Asian province he lives in. The poet focuses once more on the emotion engendered by the contemplation of the ancient Hellenized world after the conquests of Alexander the Great. Despite the diversity of their kingdoms and survival of ancient customs, those regions of Parthia between the Mediterranean and central Asia that were gradually detached from the Seleucid Kingdom remained sympathetic to the Greeks. Local monarchs spoke and minted coins in Greek, were surrounded by Greek artists, and added, like Mithridates I, the epithet 'Philhellene' to their titles. They wore, however, diadems in the form of elaborate headdresses in accordance with Eastern custom, whereas Greek rulers wore a fine linen headband, like those sported by victorious athletes. The poem's barbarian ruler boasts his refined tastes. He demands that something very fine be carved on the coin, thus demonstrating that his aesthetic is inspired by the Greek ideal. At the same time, the juxtaposition of the terms 'barbarian' - 'more barbarian' introduces the poet's subtle irony against those with a completely superficial or flamboyant approach to things that do not touch them. In his world, the dedication to and love for the Greek language is predominant, even in those peoples for whom Greek was not their mother tongue. Skilfully, through the poetic construction of cities and persons once drawn to Greek culture, and who tried in different ways to access it, one sees the poet's intention to submit or enliven a synthetic image of Greek supremacy.

Θερμοπύλες - 1903 Thermopylae

GRECO-PERSIAN WARS Thermopylae: the Battle of Thermopylae, one of the most famous in world history, took place at the end of summer, 480 BC. After a series of unsuc- cessfül attempts to break through, Xerxes' Persian forces (the 'Medes' of the poem), led by the Greek traitor Ephialtes, were guided to the rear of the Greek army. In the final phase of the engagement, the contingent of 300 Spartans, refusing to surrender, was annihilated. Yet the initial inability of the Persians to break through the meagre Greek lines made the defeat appear tantamount to a victory. Simonides' epitaph honouring the Spartan dead of the battle is worth repeating: 'O stranger, go tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here, obedient to their command.

Πολυ Σπανιως - 1913 Very Seldom

He's an old man. Used up and bent, crippled by time and indulgence, he slowly walks along the narrow street. But when he goes inside his house to hide the shambles of his old age, his mind turns to the share in youth that still belongs to him. His verse is now recited by young men. His visions come before their lively eyes. Their healthy sensual minds, their shapely taut bodies stir to his perception of the beautiful.

Ηρωδης Αττικος - 1912 Herod Atticus

Herod Atticus: (AD I01-77). One of the richest Athenians, renowned sophist, patron of the arts, benefactor of Athens, and friend of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Alexander of Seleucia: a philosopher, scornfully referred to as 'a clay Plato' by Philostratus in Lives of the Sophists, 2 B. I-15. Herodes Atticus (AD 101-178): Athenian sophist, one of the main representatives of the Second Sophistic movement. Born in Marathon and educated by celebrated philosophers and orators, Herodes was a teacher of Roman Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. He pursued a political career as consul and received great honours as prefect of Asian cities.He also used the fortune inherited from his father Titus Claudius Atticus to finance the construction of theatres, stadiums, odea, and aqueducts in Athens and other Greek cities. As sponsor of the Panathenaic festival, he brightened the celebrations with numerous processions and reconstructed the Panathenaic Stadium. He is said to have built the famous Odeon of Athens in memory of his second wife Aspasia Annia Regilla. Herodes received his friends and followers in his villas at Marathon, Kifissia, and Eva (in Kynouria, modern Loukou), where they discussed all branches of learning. When one of his dearest students Polydeukion died at the young age of15, Herodes constructed a heroon in his honour and had him immortalised in statues and busts. Herodes died in his mansion at Marathon. Alexander of Seleucia (second century AD): Greek sophist and orator from Seleucia, who spent most of his life in Antioch, Rome, and Tarsus. During his visit to Athens, he met Herodes Atticus and won his appreciation after addressing the Athenian youth. When Herodes asked one of his friends to express his opinion on Alexander, he replied: "He found the clay [pelos], but he has yet to find Plato", hence the surname Peloplaton. The source of inspiration for this poem is undoubtedly Philostratus (Lives of the Sophists 571), whom Cavafy read with great pleasure, as stated in his 1896 prose Greek Scholars in Roman Houses. The sophist Alexander comes to Athens to speak to the young people, but learns that they are in Marathon, in the villa of Herodes Atticus. He sends Herodes a letter begging him to send the Greeks to him. Herodes replies that they will all come together. In this poem, Cavafy's interest focuses on the Second Sophistic movement, which flourished in the second century AD, with Herod Atticus and Alexander of Seleucia as its most important representatives. The poet feels great sympathy for the shunned sophists of Late Antiquity, whom he greatly values compared to the earlier Protagoras, Gorgias, and others. He outlines the portrait of Herodes Atticus with great precision and obvious admiration. He praises his activity and highlights the radiance of his word beyond Athens through the portrait of Alexander, who represents the periphery. With their journeys to the major centres of the East, the sophists nourished a love for everything Greek, confirming the unbroken continuum of Hellenism. As for the word 'Hellen' (Greek), which Cavafy takes from Philostratus, it does not denote, as suggested, the inhabitant of Greece, but the student of rhetoric, both in Athens and in all of the other cities in the Hellenized East.

- 1921 Demaratus

His subject, "The character of Dimaratos,"which Porphyry proposed to him in conversationwas outlined by the young sophist as follows(he planned to develop it rhetorically later):"First a courtier of King Dareios,and after that of King Xerxes,now with Xerxes and his army,at last Dimaratos will be vindicated.He'd been treated very unjustly.He was Ariston's son, but his enemiesbribed the oracle brazenly.And it wasn't enough that they deprived him of his kingship,but when he finally gave in and decidedto live quietly as a private citizen,they had to insult him even in front of the people,they had to humiliate him publicly at the festival.As a consequence, he serves Xerxes assiduously.Along with the great Persian army,he will make it back to Sparta too;and king once again, how quicklyhe will throw him out, how thoroughlyhe will shame that schemer Leotychidis.So now he spends his days full of anxiety,advising the Persians, explainingwhat they should do to conquer Greece.Much worrying, much thinking, and for this reasonDimaratos finds his days so burdensome;much worrying, much thinking, and for this reasonDimaratos cannot find a moment's joy—because what he's feeling can't be called joy(it is not; he will not admit it;how can he call it joy? His distress could not be greater)now things make it quite clear to himthat it is the Greeks who are going to win." Demaratus was king of Sparta, 510-491 BC. King Cleomenes I-joint king with Demaratus- aided by Leotychides, bribed the Delphic Oracle to stale that Demaratus was not a legitimate son of King Ariston. Demaratus fled to the court of Darius I, where he was well received. He informed the Persians about Greek affairs, accompanying Xerxes during his disastrous campaign against Greece. Related poem: 'Darius'

Νοησις - 1918 Perception

I NOW SEE THE POINT OF MY EARLIER HDONIKOS BIOS - MY FUTURE POETRY Τα χρονια της νεοτητος μου, ο ηδονικος μου βιος- πως βλεπω τωρα καθαρα το νοημα των. Τι μεταμελειες περιττες, τι ματαιες''' Αλλα δεν εβλεπα το νοημα τοτε. Μεσα στον εκλυτο της νεοτητος μου βιο μορφονονταν βουλες της ποιησεως μου, σχεδιαζονταν της τεχνης μου η περιοχη. Γι'αυτο κ'η μεταμελειες σταθερες ποτε δεν ησαν. Κ'η αποφασεις να κρατηθω, ν'αλλαξω διαρκουσαν δυο βδομαδες το πολυ.

Εν τω μηνι Αθυρ - 1917 In the month of Athyr

I can just read the inscription on this ancient stone."Lo[r]d Jesus Christ." I make out a "So[u]l.""In the mon[th] of Athyr' 'Lefkio[s] went to sleep."Where his age is mentioned—"lived to the age of"—the Kappa Zeta shows that he went to sleep a young man.In the corroded part I see "Hi[m]...Alexandrian."Then there are three badly mutilated lines—though I can pick out a few words, like "our tea[r]s," "grief,"then "tears" again, and "sorrow to [us] his [f]riends."I think Lefkios must have been greatly loved.In the month of Athyr Lefkios went to sleep. Leucius is an imaginary character. Athyr: The third month of the ancient Egyptian calendar, corresponding to today's October or November, bearing the name of Athyr, goddess of tombs and sensual love. Kappa Zeta: KZ is 27 in Greek numerals. The poem's main character, a passerby or the poet himself, is reading with difficulty an ancient funerary epigram dedicated to Lucius. The sparse evidence suggests that Lucius was a young Alexandrian and a Christian, who died at 27. Apart from the deceased's name, age, and religion, the reader learns nothing more about his real life and time period. The pain and love of the deceased's friends mark the limits of the inscription's interpretation. Written in the style of an elegiac epigram, this poem manages through the partial reading of the worn inscription to emphasize the impression both of the permanent and irreversible loss of Lucius and of every human's uniqueness. It allows, however, the reader to fill in with his imagination the details of the life led by this young man, who, although a Christian and nurtured in continence, appears to have lived beyond measure, taking part in Alexandria's pleasures, at a time still marked by the syncretism of religions, peoples, and cultures. The month Athyr is used to identify Egypt as the place where the deceased's tombstone was carved. It was common in the Hellenistic and Roman periods to add the Egyptian name of the month in all documents written in Greek. Some commentators suggest that this could not be the month named after the goddess Hathor, since Cavafy would never have chosen a female goddess to express youthful beauty, when the gods that usually inspire him include Hermes, Apollo, and Eros. At a more general level, this poem is a critique of representational interpretation, the kind of interpretation that seeks the truth in a message by trying to reconstruct the real meaning through context. Lucius: An imaginary character with a Roman name. Athyr: Month of the Egyptian calendar. Accordingto Plutarch (On Isis and Osiris, 13, 39, 69) Athyr corresponds to Pyanepsion (October) of the Athenians. Some scholars argue that the month Athyr is associated with the Egyptian goddess Hathor, goddess of death, joy, and love, whom the Greeks identified with Aphrodite. storytelling sometimes takes the form of setting one text over another in a superimposition that reveals the elusiveness and ephemerality of identity. The work that perhaps best exemplifies the latter technique is In the Month of Athyr. Athyr"). In this poem the divided line represent the object its speaker is attempting to decipher using the orthographic conventions of epigraphs: an inscription on a tombstone that is fractured down the middle. "In the Month of Athyr" also engages us directly in hermeneutic activity. A little less than half of the eleven lines consist of words in quotation marks, some of them square bracketed, an indication that the work we see on the page has absorbed another text in need of exegesis. "Me duskolia" (1. 1; "With difficulty") is, in fact, the poem's first phrase, and it is intensified by the words "(ph8armena (1. 6; "the abraded part") and akrwthriasmenes (1. 7; "quite mutilated"). Although critics are nearly unanimous in holding that Cavafy invented the quoted lines, we cannot be sure, since he engages us in paratexts that glance off one another. Here, again, his poem recalls the Alexandrian epigraph, folding in quotations from a possibly confabulated text that takes the form of an artistic object whose function is to commemorate. The historical is always already historiographical. In a more extreme way than "Days of 1896," however, "In the Month of Athyr" emphasizes the need for decipherment. From the first divided line forward, the poem enacts hesitation and incompletion through typography—empty spaces, ellipses, hanging dashes—in order to make its reading an act of discursive production. The effect of these typographical elements is in turn highlighted by a ty cally Cavafian interweaving of multiple cultural identities: the Greek of the poem's language and the tombstone, which is underscored by the Kappa Zeta the Greek number twenty-seven — to indicate the young man's age; the Alex drian, always evocative of the homoerotic city of Cavafy's own creative imagi ing; the Christian, indicated by the title "Lord Jesus Christ"; the Egyptian, t which Athyr, the goddess of love and fertility, refers; and the Roman, since t name of the dead young man, "Leucius," is a Hellenized form of the Latin Lucius.

Μερες του 1903 - 1917 Days of 1903

I never found them again—all lost so quickly...the poetic eyes, the pale face...in the darkening street...I never found them again—mine entirely by chance,and so easily given up,then longed for so painfully.The poetic eyes, the pale face,those lips—I never found them again. ("Days of 1896") confronts a textual ized past associated with sexual scandal, in this case the scandal of a not so clo eted homosexual in a community that condemns him. The initial words sound a death knell. Mendelsohn's translation reads "he debased himself completely." Evangelos Sachperoglou prefers "he was disgraced com pletely" (Collected Poems 166). The Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard transla tion gives us "he became greatly degraded" (BilingualEdition 279). The variants suggest different levels of agency, all of them possible in light of the middle passive inflection of the Greek verb. Did the man choose a disgrace he could have avoided, was he the passive object of social condemnation, or was it som combination of these that led to his demise? The question is central to the poem because agency is implicated in its various turns and, with it, alternative ways framing the relationship between the marginalized homosexual and the marginalizing society. Structurally, the situation is similar to Penelope's own marginalized status. ally. Two sets of values collide: the moral code of society, on th one hand, which pronounces judgment upon an erotic orientation that is forb den, and the natural order to which the speaker appeals, on the other, which understands this orientation as innate.

- 1919 Of the Hebrews (AD 50)

Ianthes is an imaginary character; he is a Jew with a Greek name. The date in the title indicates that he lived during the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius. Related poem: Before the statue of Endymion Των Εβραίων (50 μ.Χ.) Ζωγράφος και ποιητής, δρομεύς και δισκοβόλος,σαν Ενδυμίων έμορφος, ο Ιάνθης Αντωνίου.Από οικογένειαν φίλην της Συναγωγής. «Οι τιμιότερές μου μέρες είν' εκείνες5που την αισθητική αναζήτησιν αφήνω,που εγκαταλείπω τον ωραίο και σκληρόν ελληνισμό,με την κυρίαρχη προσήλωσισε τέλεια καμωμένα και φθαρτά άσπρα μέλη.Και γένομαι αυτός που θα ήθελα10πάντα να μένω· των Εβραίων, των ιερών Εβραίων, ο υιός.» Ένθερμη λίαν η δήλωσίς του. «Πάντανα μένω των Εβραίων, των ιερών Εβραίων—» Όμως δεν έμενε τοιούτος διόλου. Ο Ηδονισμός κι η Τέχνη της Αλεξανδρείας αφοσιωμένο τους παιδί τον είχαν.

Φωνες - 1904 Voices

Ideal and beloved voices of those who are dead, or of those who are lost to us like the dead. Sometimes they speak to us in our dreams; sometimes in thought the mind hears them. And with their sound for a moment return other sounds from the first poetry of our life --like distant music that dies off in the night.

Ιμενος - 1919 Imenos

Imenos is an imaginary character. Michael III: Byzantine emperor, AD 842-67, known as "the drunkard «...Ν' αγαπηθεί ακόμη περισσότερονη ηδονή που νοσηρώς και με φθορά αποκτάται·σπάνια το σώμα βρίσκοντας που αισθάνεται όπως θέλει αυτή —που νοσηρώς και με φθορά, παρέχει5μιαν έντασιν ερωτική, που δεν γνωρίζει η υγεία...» Απόσπασμα από μιαν επιστολήτου νέου Ιμένου (εκ πατρικίων) διαβοήτουεν Συρακούσαις επί ασωτία,στους άσωτους καιρούς του τρίτου Μιχαήλ.

Ευριωνος Ταφος - 1914 Tomb of Eurion

In this tomb—ornately designed, the whole of syenite stone, covered by so many violets, so many lilies—lies handsome Evrion, an Alexandrian, twenty-five years old. On his father's side, he was of old Macedonian stock, on his mother's side, descended from a line of magistrates.He studied philosophy with Aristokleitos, rhetoric with Paros, and at Thebes the sacred scriptures. He wrote a history of the province of Arsinoites. That at least will survive. But we've lost what was really precious: his form—like a vision of Apollo. All characters mentioned are imaginary: Other poems with references to the Jews and the relations between the Jews and Hellenism: Of the Hebrews, *Aristoboulos', 'Alexander Jannaeus and Alexandra'. syenite stone: reddish granitic rock from Syne (Aswan) in Egypt. Jewish magistrates: ie. alabarchs, magistrates of the Alexandrian Jewish community. Arsinoite nome: prefecture (nome) based around the city of Arsinoe, which was built on the ruins of Crocodeilopolis by Ptolemy Philadelphos, in honour of his wife Arsinoe II. Located at the Fayum oasis, it soon became a city of purely Greek character.

Η ψυχες των γεροντων - 1901 The souls of old men

Inside their worn, tattered bodies dwell the souls of old men.How unhappy the poor things are and how bored by the pathetic life they live.How they tremble for fear of losing that life, and how much they love it, those befuddled and contradictory souls, sitting—half comic and half tragic—inside their old, threadbare skins.

Μανουηλ Κομηνηνος - 1915 Manuel Comnenus

King Manuel Comnenus: Manuel I Comnenus (son of John II) became emperor of Byzantium in AD 1143. A brave and capable military leader, he fought successfully against the Turks of Iconium (now Konya), the Normans of Italy, and the Hungarians. His defeat at Myriocephalos (1174), though, had disastrous consequences for Byzantium.

Ιωνικον - 1911 Ionic

Lyric composition with references to the transitional period, when Christians clashed with supporters of the old religion and indulged in the destruction of ancient works of art. These acts intensified after AD 380, when Theodosius I (379-395 AD) recognized Christianity as the Empire's official religion. In AD 384 he ordered the closure and deliberate destruction of all pagan sanctuaries and the prohibition of sacrifices. This provoked violent confrontations between those following the new religion and those loyal to the earlier cults. Through this poem Cavafy shows that religions arenot easily abolished and that ancient gods return in the formerly sacred places, even as ghosts. Ionia, oneof ancient birthplaces of Greek civilization, was an ideal setting in the Greek consciousness. For Cavafy, nostalgia for the beloved land of Ionia comes alive through the imaginary viewing of the ethereal youthful figure, which is identified with the ancient Greek ideal. In his vision, this vigorous figure still inhabits the hills of the historic place. Concerning the period of religious controversy of the first Christian centuries, which preoccupied his thoughts and fuelled Cavafy's poetic inspiration, as some scholars believe, it is worth noting the following testimony recorded by Polys Modinos: "In mid-September 1922 the destruction of Hellenism in Asia Minor had taken place. Cavafy was sitting at his usual place in the living room, sullen, silent, sorrowful. We were alone. Suddenly in a choked voice he broke out: It is terrible what is happening to us. Smyrna is lost, Ionia is lost, the gods are lost." Ionia: Region of western Asia Minor, opposite the islands of Chios and Samos, where the Ionian coloniesof the mainland Greeks were founded from the eleventh century BC.

Τα Επικινδυνα - 1911 Perilous things

Myrtias is a fictional character. Said Myrtias (a Syrian student in Alexandria; in the reign of Augustus Constans and Augustus Constantius; in part a pagan, and in part a christian); "Fortified by theory and study, I shall not fear my passions like a coward. I shall give my body to sensual delights, to enjoyments dreamt-of, to the most daring amorous desires, to the lustful impulses of my blood, without any fear, for whenever I want -- and I shall have the will, fortified as I shall be by theory and study -- at moments of crisis I shall find again my spirit, as before, ascetic. Constans: Roman emperor, AD 337-50. The youngest son of Constantine the Great, he and his brothers Constantine and Constantius became co-emperors in AD 337 upon the death of their father. In 340 they waged war against each other and Constantine was killed. Constans then ruled his brother's dominions. He was murdered in 350. A poem tellingly entitled "Dangerous" is far more intriguing in this respect. Daniel Mendelsohn calls it "the first of [Cavafy's] poems that situated homoerotic content in an ancient setting" (xxxiv). Most of it is spoken by a fictional character named Myrtius, who lived, supposedly, during the fourth century a.D This is a witty and ironic poem: the speaker, trained as a kind of Puritan, plans to indulge himself in pleasure because he is sure that after doing so he can regain control of himself thanks to his Puritan training. One suspects that Cavafy is less sure of this ability than Myrtius is; the joke may be on the speaker. In any case, the idea of fearing one's passions—or at least the fear of openly expressing them—is a common theme in Cavafy's poetry.

Η Διορια του Νερωνος - 1918 Nero's term/ deadline

Nero Claudius Caesar (AD 37-68) was emperor of Rome from 54 to 68. In the year 67 he paid a lengthy visit to the region of Achaea and other parts of Greece. A year later the Roman legions in Spain asked their general Galba to take over as emperor, replacing Nero, who committed suicide shortly thereafter. Related poem: "The footsteps' Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Germanicus (AD 54-68): Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, successor to his uncle and adoptive father Claudius, whose daughter he married. Student of Seneca. Galba Servius Sulpicius (AD 68-69): Short-lived Roman emperor. Achaea: Roman province consisting of a large part of Greece. This poem's episode was inspired by Suetonius(Nero, 40.3) and, indirectly, Dio Cassius (Roman History, LXIII.8). In AD 67, Emperor Nero visited Greece. At Delphi he asked for an oracle and was told to "beware of seventy-three years". Convinced that he would livea long life full of pleasures, he did not think of the ageof General Galba, who was conspiring against him in Spain. This is one of several poems toying with the contrast between 'young' and 'old'. It draws the portrait of the young, arrogant Nero and the elderly, patient Galba. Nero lives in a false halt in time, which he mocks defiantly. The tragedy of the human condition, the illusion of non-finite temporality, weigh in Cavafy's poetry as indelible concepts that concern humans in general. The unknown future is only one episodein the vast drama played during the collision of the microcosm with the macrocosm, the antinomy between the truth within and the truth without, which distorts the perception of its true dimension. With his vision, Cavafy creates a nightmarish atmosphere, turning his anguish into terror, which stems from his own experience, or perhaps expressing his own beliefs regarding the inevitable.

- 1921 The favour of Alexander Balas

O, I am not upset that a wheel of my chariotis broken, and I have lost a foolish victory.I will spend the night with fine winesand amid lovely roses. Antioch belongs to me.I am the young man most glorified.I am Balas's weakness, his adored one.Tomorrow, you'll see, they'll say that the contest was unfair.(But if I were coarse, and had ordered it in secret --the flatters would have voted first prize even to mycrippled chariot.) Alexander Balas was king of Syria 150-145 BC. The circumstances of the poem are imaginary. Related poem: 'Of Demetrius Soter'

- 1919 The afternoon sun

Often in Cavafy's verse space is bound up with time. The past is recollected or repossessed by evoking and filling a designated space, e.g. a room This room, how well I know it. Now they're renting it, and the one next to it, as offices. The whole house has become an office building for agents, businessmen, companies. This room, how familiar it is. The couch was here, near the door, a Turkish carpet in front of it. Close by, the shelf with two yellow vases. On the right—no, opposite—a wardrobe with a mirror. In the middle the table where he wrote, and the three big wicker chairs. Beside the window the bed where we made love so many times. They must still be around somewhere, those old things. Beside the window the bed; the afternoon sun used to touch half of it. . . . One afternoon at four o'clock we separated for a week only. . . And then— that week became forever.

[Μονοτονία] - 1908 [Monotony]

One monotonous day follows another equally monotonous. The same things will happen again, and then will happen again, the same moments will come and go. A month passes by and brings another month. Easy to guess what lies ahead: all of yesterday's boredom. And tomorrow ends up no longer like tomorrow.

Απ' τες Εννια - 1918 Since nine o'clock

POETICS OF MEMORY, SPACE, TIME In "Since Nine—,", the speaker recalls the days of his youth—recollections that have "reminded [him] / of shuttered perfumed rooms / and of pleasure spent—what wanton pleasure!" (55; my italics). The references to "shuttered" rooms and "wanton" pleasure typify Cavafy's phrasing: eroticism in his poems can rarely be openly displayed and often smacks of the unusual or of the "sexually lawless or unrestrained" (dictionary.com definition of wanton). Perhaps such passion seems wanton precisely because it usually has had to be repressed, suppressed, or hidden: it gradually builds up, so that when it is suddenly released the release seems uninhibited (if still carefully kept secret).

Η μαχη της Μαγνησιας - 1915 The Battle of Magnesia

Philip V of Macedon, left unassisted by the other Greek states, was defeated by the Romans at the famous Battle of Cynocephalae in 197 BC. The scene of the poem is imaginary and is set seven years later, just after the Battle of Magnesia at Magnesia-by-Sipylos in Syria, where in I90 or early 189 BC the Romans, led by the two Scipio brothers, crossed the Hellespont with a small army of 30,000 men. Antiochus III opposed them with a force of 75,000 men. In the end, the Seleucid monarch's forces were shattered, despite a heroic stand by the phalanx. In the aftermath, the Scipios occupied Sardis.

[Τρωες] - 1905 [Trojans]

Related poem: "The horses of Achilles. - Priam: king of Troy, husband of Hecuba and father of Hector, Paris, and Cassandra. He was slain by Neoptolemos, son of Achilles. Homer refers to him often as 'Dardanides', because his family was descended from Dardanos. Inspired by the Trojan Cycle, the poet selects and reconstructs verses from Homer's Iliad (Books 18, 21, 22). He begins with Achilles standing before the moat outside of the walls of Troy. The plural in Cavafy's couplet "and we scurry around the walls" does not refer to the Trojans but to Hector's circular route as Achilles pursues him. Priam and Hecuba's wailing on the city walls invokes the heartbreaking scene of Hector's death, which occured after they failed to persuade their son to return to the citadel. The poet builds this allegorical yet timeless and timely image with material taken from the epic's various episodes, freely combining inevitable capacity of humans to overcome the human experience and alter destiny. Hector's death and the fall of Troy are presaged with the gradual introduction of mournful sounds, which culminate with Priam and Hecuba's grief for their son and the fate of a symbolic city that contains both individual and collective memories and emotions. In twenty-one verses the poet successfully depicts the tragic content of the world's collective and futile resistance before it comes crashing down, creatinga picture of collective despair. The woe-stricken Trojans provide Cavafy with the opportunity to express his sorrow for the mortal outcome of the human experience, beyond time and place.

Ενωπιον του Αγαλματος του Ενδυμιωνος - 1916 Before the statue of Endymion

Related poem: 'Of the Hebrews' Endymion: a mythological character known for his beauty. Selene (the Moon) persuaded Zeus to let her keep him in eternal sleep, so that she could forever preserve his beauty and visit him every night.

Τα αλογα του Αχιλλεως - 1897 The horses of Achilles

Related poems: 'The funeral of Sarpedon', 'Perfidy', 'Trojans', 'Interruption'. - the horses of Achilles: Balios and Xanthos, Achilles' horses, mythological offspring of Zephyros (West Wind) and Podarge. For their origin see lliad 16; for their subsequent story see Iliad 17. 4 Inspired by the Trojan War, Cavafy adapted an episode from Homer's Iliad 17, 423-455). Patroclus deceives the Trojans and enters into battle with Achilles' armour, weapons, and two horses, Balius and Xanthus, which Poseidon had given to Achilles' father, Peleus, as a wedding gift. Cavafy focuses on the events following Patroclus' death, when the "ageless and immortal" horses mourn the loss of their attendant; hot tears flow from their eyes to the ground until Zeus intervenes and encourages them to return to action. This poem, as scholars suggest, belongs to those with mythological subjects that respect the original version. A small deviation from the original is evident in Cavafy's last verses, where the horses are shown to be still grieving, whereas in the Homeric narrative Zeus' soothing intervention dries their tears and "[breathes] great might into the horses." With the myth as pretext, the poet tries to establish human gestures. He further enhances his reflection by reminding the audience of the ties between man and the noble animals, whichhe 'humanizes' by making them sympathetic to the perishable nature of human existence. The poem moves with the poet's benevolent view of humanity, a toy in the hands of fate and thus inevitably subject to old age, calamity, and the shocking certainty of death.

Η κηδεια του Σαρπηδονος - 1898 The funeral of Sarpedon

Related poems: 'The horses of Achilles', 'Perfidy' - Sarpedon: king of Lycia, allied to the Trojans, who was killed by Achilles' friend Patroclus, son of Menoetius. Sarpedon was the son of Zeus and Laodameia. Apollo was his half-brother. See Iliad XVI. 462-501, 666-84. Cavafy derives this episode from Homer's Iliad 16 focusing the plot on Sarpedon, whom Zeus could not save from the deadly duel with Patroclus. In order to honour his son, he instructs Apollo to bring the deceased to the river for cleansing and proper dressing and then calls the brothers Hypnos and Thanatos to carry his body to his native Lycia. This belongs to the mythological poems that respect the original version, since Cavafy retains certain Homeric elements intact, such as the references to the divine garments (amvrota himata) and the rich land of Lycia. Although it describes a funerary procedure, the narrative manages to bring out youthful beauty, of which the deceased is a dazzling reflection. The personification of death (Thanatos) in association with eternal sleep (Hypnos) mitigates the inevitable. Cavafy's anguish for the beyond is soothed by the honorific rituals and reverent care for the deceased's body, which bring on the transformation and turn the youthful figure's beauty into a monument untouched by decay. Thanatos, Hypnos: Twin brothers, sons of Erebos (Darkness) and Nyx (Night). They were the personifications of Death and Sleep and are shown carrying Sarpedon's dead body on the famousAttic Red Figure krater by Euphronius (c. 515 BC).

Οροφερνης - 1915 Orophernes

Related poems: The Battle of Magnesia', The displeasure of the Seleucid', 'Of Demetrios Soter' Orophernes I, supposedly the son of Ariarathes IV of Cappadocia. His mother, Antiochis, was the daughter of Antiochus Il The Great of Syria. His grandmother, Stratonike, was the daughter of Antiochus I. Demetrius of Syria put him on the throne of Cappadocia, but three years later he was deposed and fled to Antioch, where he attempted to usurp the throne of his protector.

Τυανευς Γλυπτης - 1911 Sculptor of Tyana

Related poems: Wise men', 'If dead indeed', 'Apollonius of Tyana in Rhodes' Tyana: ancient city in Cappadocia and birthplace of the famous philosopher Apollonius. Rhea: wife of Saturn and mother of the Olympian gods. Pompey... Scipio Africans: Roman generals. Patroclus: the friend of Achilles in the Iliad. Cesarion: see note to the poem 'Caesarion' (P. 219). This poem refers to an imaginary marble sculptor from Tyana in Cappadocia, who lives in Rome and shows the commissions that he has been working on to visitors to his workshop. The episode takes place in the years shortly before or after Christ. The workshop described in the poem could well be Cavafy's. Through the ideal in art, which is reflected in the form of Hermes, the poet highlights the freedom of artistic creation, which is detached from the needs dictated by a particular environment of peopleof power and indulges in a moment of dreamy self-awareness during a personal and, therefore, more genuine internal impulse. The poem reflects Cavafy's constant concern for Greek models and images of modern Alexandria and its echoes of a Hellenized past enamoured of Roman antiques and Late Antique replicas through the commercialization of art.In modern industrial times, art adapts to the demands of the public and becomes pray, like fashion,to consumerism. Rhea: Daughter of Uranus and Gaia, wife of Cronus, mother of the gods Poseidon, Hades, Zeus, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera. Poseidon: Son of Cronus and Rhea, god of the water element, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey) (106-48 BC):An important Roman military and political figure known for suppressing uprisings like that of Spartacus and eradicating Mediterranean piracy. Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus (235-183 BC): Roman general, physically and spiritually gifted, witha sound Greek education. Lucius Aemilius Paulus (229-160 BC): Famous general and statesman of Rome with a comprehensive Greek education. Tyana: Ancient city of Cappadocia, in south-central Asia Minor, referred to in Xenophon's Anabasis as Dana.A city with a strong Roman past, it was considered the birthplace of the neo-Pythagorean Greek philosopher Apollonius of Tyana.

Η Σατραπεια - 1910 Satrapy

The Persian Empire was divided into satrapies, that is, individual provinces governed by a satrap. Cavafy has mentioned that the protagonist of the poem does not have to be identified with the Athenian statesman Themistocles or the Spartan king Demaratus, who both ended up in the Persian court at the end of their political careers in Greece, but that he is more of a symbolic figure. Related poem: 'Demaratus'. Susa: an early capital of Persia under the Achaemenids.

Η Δοξα των Πτολεμαιων - 1911 The glory of the Ptolemies

The Ptolemies are the sixteen kings and queens of Egypt, descended from Alexander the Great's general Ptolemy I Soter, who formed the Macedonian dynasty (323-30 BC). LAGIDES - Ptolemy I Soter (323-283 BC): Son of Lagos of Macedon, hence the epithet 'Lagid'. Founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a wise and wilful king. He annexed lands around Egypt opening his kingdom's horizons, minted coins, inaugurated a policy of good relations between Greeks and the indigenous populations, encouraged the merging of Greek and Egyptian deities, and founded the Alexandria Museum and Library. The son of Selefkos = Seleucus I Nicator Alexandria: Capital of the Ptolemaic or Lagid Kingdom. Founded by Alexander the Great to the west of the Nile Delta, near Lakes Rakotis and Mareotis. Deinokrates of Rhodes set out its town plan based on the Hippodamian system. Egypt's economic, administrative, and cultural centre under the Ptolemies, Alexandria developed into a cosmopolitan melting pot of the Hellenistic East, where Greeks, Egyptians, Syrians, Jews, and, later, Romans from the Italian peninsula coexisted. In Strabo's time (first century BC), the city boasted more than one million inhabitants. The poet, as scholars who studied his handwritten comments report, was very much preoccupied with parts of this historical poem. This episode takes place in 323- 221 BC, when Egypt was ceded to the Ptolemies, after the territories conquered by Alexander the Great were divided among his successors. Egypt reached its peak under Ptolemy I Soter, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, and Ptolemy III Euergetes. Signs of social unrest appeared during the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator (221-204 BC). The poet's references to the Lagids (Ptolemies) and the Seleucids are not specific. We can assume that this is one of the first rulers of the dynasty that coincided with the floruit of ancient Alexandria.In the context of historicism, the poet recalls glorious times, particularly the Alexandrian period, with Alexandria as its symbol, a melting pot of peoples and cultures, an earthly paradise, the greatest of Greek cities, a city of luxury, art, education,and of the apotheosis of the Greek language.At the same time, he tackles the subject of power, wealth, and competition with other rulers of the period,such as the Macedonians, the Seleucids, and even some barbarian peoples from the coasts and hinterlandsof the Far East. The poem resembles a monologue,with a pronounced ranting and boasting tone.As for its genre, scholars consider it an epigram. Indirectly, the poet's aim is to stress the greatnessof the legendary Alexandria, now the dull cityhe was born in, through the Hellenistic city, a centre of refined taste and culture, even at the level of mundane pleasures. Cavafy is drawn to the Ptolemaic periodand, especially, to the multitude of learned poets that gathered there and wrote in Greek. History and, through it, his creative contemplation help him identify withthe Hellenistic capital, which he imagines as a 'building': "...The Peloponnesian Greeks bring stones, and so do the mainland Greeks, and those of Macedonia, and thoseof the Islands, and they create a Panhellenic structure. Its peak is Alexandria. One can rightly call it the 'queen of the Greek world'...". Thus he comments on his poem's penultimate verse in his handwritten notes.

Η Δυσαρεσκεια του Σελευκιδου - 1915 The displeasure of the Seleucid

The Seleucids were a Greek dynasty ruling Syria, and at various times other Near Eastern territories, from 312 to 64 BC. Related poems: 'Orophernes" 'Of Demetrius Soter', 'If only they had seen to it', 'Envoys from Alexandria. Demetrius: Demetrius Soter, son of Seleucus IV Philopater (162-150 BC) of Syria and grandson of Antiochus the Great, was sent to Rome as a hostage during the reign of his father. The other king referred to in the poem is Ptolemy VI Philometor of Egypt (181-145 BC).

Νεοι της Σιδωνος - 1920 Young men of Sidon (AD 400)

The actor they had brought in to entertain them also recited a few choice epigrams. The room opened out on the garden, and a delicate odor of flowers mingled with the scent of the five perfumed young Sidonians. There were readings from Meleager, Krinagoras, Rhianos. But when the actor recited "Here lies Aeschylus, the Athenian, son of Euphorion" (stressing maybe more that he should have "his renowned valor" and "sacred Marathonian grove"), a vivacious young man, mad about literature, suddenly jumped up and said: "I don't like that quatrain at all. Sentiments of that kind seem somehow weak. Give, I say, all your strength to your work, make it your total concern. And don't forget your work even in times of trial or when you near your end. This is what I expect, what I demand of you— and not that you completely dismiss from your mind the magnificent art of your tragedies— your Agamemnon, your marvellous Prometheus, your representations of Orestes and Cassandra, your Seven Against Thebes—to set down for your memorial merely that as an ordinary soldier, one of the herd, you too fought against Datis and Artaphernis." The epigram quoted in the third stanza is supposed to have been written by the tragedian Aeschylus (several of whose plays are mentioned in stanza 4) as his own epitaph. Meleager and Crinagoras and Rhianos: Meleager (AI. c.T00 BC), a Cynic philosopher and epigrammist from Gadara in Syria; lived in Tyre; died at Kos. About 131 erotic epigrams of his are extant. Crinagoras was a composer of epigrams from Mytilene, born between 70 and 6$ BC. He was a friend of Julius Caesar and Augustus. Rhianos (1. 275 Bc), an Alexandrian epic poet from Crete. Few of his verses survive. Datis: a general from Media, who along, with Artaphernes, the nephew of Darius, commanded the Persian armies at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.

- 1921 Melancholy of Jason, son of Kleander, poet in Commagene, AD 595

The aging of my body and my beauty is a wound from a merciless knife. I'm not resigned to it at all. I turn to you, Art of Poetry, because you have a kind of knowledge about drugs: attempts to numb the pain, in Imagination and Language. It is a wound from a merciless knife. Bring your drugs, Art of Poetry— they numb the wound at least for a little while. cavafy creates persona of old man ἐγκαρτέρησι - patience, endurance - grey signification. my old age is like a wound. the poem breathes on double signification. Τέχνη τῆς Ποιήσεως - personified as goddesses farmakon - potion of bad that you give to make good. for plato it has a philosophical dimension.. it becomes in modern philosophy a basic concept. Cavafy could have potions of the bad to be potions of good. νάρκης τοῦ ἄλγους δοκιμές, = efforts to soothe pain. this complicated phrasing shows him doing something already with language. PUZZLE. YOU NEED FANTASIA KAI LOGW TO DECONSTRUCT IT. - NARKHS TOU ALGOUS DOKIMES - SOUNDS A BIT LIKE AN INCANTATION. Incantations come with their own duration. deeply felt moments of duration. POETRY - ALL ABOUT POETICS OF TIME, YOU'VE CREATED Jason is an imaginary character. Commagene was a small state within the Hellenistic kingdom of Syria. Later it became part of the Byzantine empire until AD 638, when it was conquered by the Arabs. Its capital was Samosata. Related poem: 'Epitaph of Antiochus, king of Commagene.

Αλεξανδρινοι Βασιλεις - 1912 Alexandrian kings

The ceremony described in the poem is a historical fact, it was a spectacle well stage-managed by Mark Antony. Alexander and Ptolemy Philadelphus were Antony's sons. Caesarion was thought to be the son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. He was executed in 30 BC. Antony had invested the three children with titles and honours. See Plutarch, 'Life of Antony', ch. 54; Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act III, VI. Related poems, 'The god forsakes Antony', 'Caesarion', 'The Ides of March', 'Theodotus'.

Για τον Αμμονη, που πεθανε 29 ετων, στα 610 - 1917 For Ammones, who died aged 29, in 610

The characters are imaginary. Both are Egyptians, as is clear from their names (Ammones is named after the ancient Egyptian god Ammon). Raphael, they're asking you to write a few lines as an epitaph for the poet Ammonis: something very tasteful and polished. You can do it, you're the one to write something suitable for the poet Ammonis, our Ammonis. Of course you'll speak about his poems-but say something too about his beauty, about that subtle beauty we loved. Your Greek is always elegant and musical. But we want all your craftsmanship now. Our sorrow and our love move into a foreign language. Pour your Egyptian feeling into the Greek you use.Raphael, your verses, you know, should be written so they contain something of our life within them, so the rhythm, so every phrase clearly shows that an Alexandrian is writing about an Alexandrian.

- 1921 A Byzantine Nobleman, in exile, composing verses

The frivolous can call me frivolous.I've always been most punctilious aboutimportant things. And I insistthat no one knows better than I dothe Holy Fathers, or the Scriptures, or the Canons of the Councils.Whenever he was in doubt,whenever he had any ecclesiastical problem,Botaniatis consulted me, me first of all.But exiled here (may she be cursed, that viperIrini Doukaina), and incredibly bored,it is not altogether unfitting to amuse myselfwriting six- and eight-line verses,to amuse myself poeticizing mythsof Hermes and Apollo and Dionysos,or the heroes of Thessaly and the Peloponnese;and to compose the most strict iambics,such as—if you'll allow me to say so—the intellectuals of Constantinople don't know how to compose.It must be just this strictness that provokes their disapproval. A Byzantine Nobleman, in exile, composing verses Botaneiates: Nikephoros III Botaneiates, emperor of Byzantium. He ousted Michael VII in 1078 and was dethroned by Alexius I Comnenus in 1081. Alexius' wife was Irene Doukaina.

Απιστία - 1904 Perfidy/ Unfaithfulness

The poem has the same mythological background as The horses of Achilles', "The funeral of Sarpedon', and 'Interruption'. APOLLO DECEIVED THETIS BY TELLING HER HER SON WOULD BE INVULNERABLE This poem belongs to the Homeric cycle, but uses a passage from Plato (Republic, II, 383 a-b), which quotes Aeschylus. According to legend, Apollo, aware of the prophecies, deceived Thetis during her wedding to Peleus by promising her the invulnerability of her unborn child. Paris later killed Achilles at Troy with a poisoned arrow and with the help of Apollo himself, who thus avenged Achilles' disrespect for the deceased Hector. Thetis' heartbreaking lament is described in the Odyssey(Book 24, 45 ff). In the poem Unfaithfulness the subject of the epitaph gives way to the main theme of the deception of the gods. Thetis erupts like any mortal mother upon hearing the tragic news. She tears her purple garments, reminders of happier times and a carefree life, and rips off her ornate jewellery, a reference to stripping a man at the time of his demise. In this most dramatic scene, however, the poet introduces a note of pleasant reverie at the memory of Achilles' beauty. Earthly deceit, at a material and psychological level, culminateswith Thetis' realization of her inability to anticipate, like any mortal, the future and to understand the plans of the gods, even when these are prophecies sealed with guarantees. Indirectly, the poet insinuates that mockery and deception are part of the conduct of the godsas much as they are characteristics of human behaviour and actions

[Ουτος Εκεινος] - 1909 [That is the Man]

The poem refers to a passage from The Dream (9) by Lucian of Samosata (AD 120-200), in which the writer explains how he embarked on his literary career. Culture (Gr. Paideia) appeared before him in a dream and promised to attach on him marks of identification so that wherever he goes people will whisper to each other: 'That's the man.' The scene, like the anonymous poet of the story, is fictitious. Antioch... Edessa: the ancient city of Edessa was the capital of Osroene, in northwest Mesopotamia. Antioch was the capital of Syria and Cavafy's second most favoured city after Alexandria. It is mentioned in a great number of his poems.

Απολειπειν ο Θεος Αντωνιον - 1911 The god forsakes Antony

The poem refers to the story told by Plutarch in his Life of Antony', in which just before the fall of Alexandria and his death, the Roman general and politician Mark Antony heard the sound of many instruments and voices singing, and the cries of people shouting and dancing. This procession seemed to cross the city towards the gate where the enemy was looted, and to pass out through it. People assumed this to signify that the god Dionysus had ow forsaken him. Related poems: In Alexandria, 31 B.C", In a township of Asia Minor

Ο Δαρειος - 1920 Darius

The poet Phernazis is composing the important part of his epic poem.How Darius, son of Hystaspes, assumed the kingdom of the Persians. (From him is descended our glorious kingMithridates, Dionysus and Eupator). But here philosophy is needed; he must analyze the sentiments that Darius must have had:maybe arrogance and drunkenness; but no — rather like an understanding of the vanity of grandeurs. The poet contemplates the matter deeply.But he is interrupted by his servant who entersrunning, and announces the portendous news.The war with the Romans has begun.The bulk of our army has crossed the borders.The poet is speechless. What a disaster!No time now for our glorious kingMithridates, Dionysus and Eupator,to occupy himself with greek poems.In the midst of a war — imagine, greek poems.Phernazis is impatient. Misfortune!Just when he was positive that with "Darius"he would distinguish himself, and shut the mouthsof his critics, the envious ones, for good.What a delay, what a delay to his plans.And if it were only a delay, it would still be all right.But it yet remains to be seen if we have any securityat Amisus. It is not a strongly fortified city.The Romans are the most horrible enemies.Can we hold against themwe Cappadocians ? It is possible at all?It is possible to pit ourselves against the legions?Mighty Gods, protectors of Asia, help us.—But in all his turmoil and trouble,the poetic idea too comes and goes persistently —the most probable, surely, is arrogance and drunkenness;Darius must have felt arrogance and drunkenness. The scene and the name of the poet Phernazes are imaginary. Related poems, 'Young men of Sidon', 'Demaratus', "Theodotus' Darius, son of Hystaspes: Darius I (521-486 BC), Was after Cyrus the Great (554-529 BC), the most important of the Achaemenid kings of Persia. It was his armies that were defeated by the Greeks at Marathon in 490 BC. Mithridates... Eupator: Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontos, 120-63 BC. Cicero considered him the most formidable opponent of Rome. He ascended the throne in 115 BC. He initiated the Third Mithridatic War (74 BC), but was eventually defeated by the Roman generals Lucullis and Pompey (66 BC) and was driven to suicide. Amisos: now Samsun, Turkey; important city on the coast of the Black Sea that fell to the Romans in 71 BC. Darius I: Son of Hystaspes, one of the great Achaemenid kings of Persia (521-486 BC) Mithridates VI Eupator Dionysus: King of Pontus (123-64 BC), Amisos: A colony of ancient Miletus on the southern Black Sea coast Theodore Reinach's study Mithridates Eupator (1890)is considered a possible inspiration for this poem.The story takes place at the court of King Mithridates of Pontus in 74 BC. There lives the poet Phernazes, an imaginary character, who composes an epic poem about King Darius I of Persia, Mithridates' glorious ancestor. His poetic idyll is momentarily interrupted by an important piece of news, which could irreparably damage his artistic repute and prestige as a courtier. Through the character of Phernazes, Cavafy revises the psychology of a fellow artist and his reflection on the relation between poets and their entourage. He analyzes the image of the strong passion that might possess any genuine artist, but also gives his ironic view of events. As in other cases, the poet places his episode in the Hellenistic period and the Hellenised kingdoms of the East. Mithridates' figure flattered the poet's historical memory, since, almost two centuries after Alexander, the philhellene ruler of Pontus dreamed of recovering much of the territory, in which the Greek language was a vehicle of communication and culture. This poem was written and published at the height of World War I, when Cavafy may have been dreaming of ancient Hellenism's splendours.

Πρεσβεις απ'την Αλεξανδρεια - 1918 Envoys from Alexandria

The quarelling monarchs are Ptolemy VI Philometor and his younger brother Ptolemy VIII Evergetes, co-rulers of Esypt from 170 to 164 Bc. The scene, at the oracle of Apollo in Delphi, is imaginary. Related poems: The displeasure of the Seleucid, If only they had seen to it'

Το πρωτο σκαλι - 1899 The first step

Theocritus of Syracuse (c.310-245 BC) was a well-known poet throughout the Hellenistic world, acclaimed for his pastoral idylls. He spent part of his life in Alexandria. Both Eumenes and the scene appear to be poetical inventions.

Ο Θεοδοτος - 1915 Theodotus

Theodotus was an orator, probably from Samos, teacher of Ptolemy XII. He persuaded the Egyptians to kill Julius Caesar's rival Pompey in 48 BC, when the latter had landed in Egypt, having lost the Battle of Pharsala against Caesar's forces. There is no historical certainty that it was Theodotus who brought Pompey's head to Caesar.

Ενας Θεος Των - 1917 One of their gods

There were several cities by the name of Seleucia, The poem refers to the greatest and most renowned of these, founded in 320 BC on the River Tigris by Seleucus I Nicator, who intended to make it the capital of his empire. In "One of Their Gods," some inhabitants of an ancient town realize that an extraordinarily beautiful young man who walks among them must in fact be "one of their gods." Yet even this powerful god, ironically, must be circumspect in pursuing his "suspect diversions": as he disappeared beneath the arcades, among the shadows and the evening lights, making his way to the neighbourhood that comes alive only at night—that life of revels and debauch, of every known intoxication and lust— they'd wonder which of Them he really was and for which of his suspect diversions he'd come down to walk Seleucia's streets from his Venerable, Sacrosanct Abode. (65) This passage implies that even the gods cannot resist the temptations—but also, it would seem, the risks—of illicit passions. Even gods must behave warily in such circumstances, either for fear of being censured by other gods (unlikely) or from fear of being manhandled and abused by ignorant humans. Apparently, however, even the gods decide that some "suspect diversions" are worth potential dangers.

Στην Εκκλησια - 1912 In church

This composition refers generally to Christian times and describes a church interior during mass. It highlights the ceremonial decoration, the magnificence of the priests, the smells of incense, and the soothing chanting, all of which contribute to creating a setting that appeals to all the senses. In the end, the description provides the narrator with the opportunity to turn to the past, to contemplate the history of the Greek Christian church, as expressed in the words "my thoughts turn to the great glories" and "the splendor of our Byzantine heritage". The vision is cut short. Cavafy was a keen connoisseur of Byzantine history, especially the periods of Iconoclasm and the restoration of images. The poem's hieratic character expresses the emotion undoubtedly experienced by the poet when attending church services and dreaming of Byzantium. From 1892-1896, scholars believe, the poet was preoccupied with questions relating to Christianityand Byzantium in connection with his widerinterests and readings of that period, for exampleK. Paparrigopoulos' History of the Greek Nation,with his ideas on the tripartite but indivisible continuity of the Greek race, which Cavafy appearsto have embraced. As Diana Haas (1984) remarks,the term 'Byzantinismos' ("our Byzantine heritage") describes a synthesis that was both 'Greco-Eastern' and 'Greco-Christian'. In this sense, the poet's choice of this term is charged with the weight of Byzantine Hellenism, which managed to unite many eastern peoples and,at the same time, to bridge ancient Greek civilization with modern Hellenism. The concepts of race, historical past, and religion are the marks, which the poet citesto identify a Greek of the diaspora at a time (late nineteenth - early twentieth century) when the vision of the Great Idea was attainable. Byzantinism and Hellenism resonate with the poet's sensitivities, as he rejoices at the thought of the race's greatness, while grieving for the bitter hours of its decadence. Graikoi: In one version of the story, when the townspeople of Graiae in Boeotia founded the colonyof Kyme (Cumae) in Italy, they were called 'Graikoi'. The term was subsequently used by the indigenous Italian populations for all Greeks and over time was adopted by all Western European languages. Iconoclasm: The theological and political controversy that broke out in the Byzantine Empire during the eighth and ninth centuries dividing its citizens into Iconoclasts and Iconophiles. Both the first (AD 726-787) andsecond (AD 814-842) Iconoclastic periods ended with the triumphant restoration of the cult of images under Empress Irene in 787 and Empress Theodora in 842 respectively.

Διακοπή - 1901 Interruption COMPLICATED MYTH

Trojans is similar to this. Gods stand for omnipotence, fate, patterning. Though Cavafy starts to become more modern and thinks of pre-condiioning 1st layer of allegory - gods standing for fate, preconditioning and that layer interruption stands for what eventually becomes a huge thing in modernity - interruption being a radical moment of contingency. Pre-conditioning and contingency. 2nd layer - social structures, pre-conditioning vs what humans do - Cavafy may be thinking of something which will be a signature - interruption, Tomb of Lanis, Youths of Sidon, humans that can speak out. Metaneira: queen of Eleusis and mother of Demophon, and Peleus, king of Phthia and father of Achilles, were both said to have intervened in fire rituals, in which, respectively, Demeter (goddess of earthly fecundity) and Thetis (a sea-nymph and mother of Achilles) passed the infants Demophon and Achilles through the smoke and fire of the hearth in order to render them invulnerable and thus immortal. By intervening, they prevented their sons from receiving the full benefits of the ritual, and thus the infants remained mortal and at least in part vulnerable to wounds. The story of Demophon is given in the 'Homeric Hymn to Demeter', lines 230-300; that of Peleus and Thetis in Apollodorus, The Library, 3. 170-1. Related poem: 'Perfidy. The poet relates an episode that refers simultaneously to two mythological incidents from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (l. 231-256), which illustrate Metaneira's recklessness, also described by Apollodorus (Library, Ι.29, ΙΙΙ.171). According to Eleusinian tradition, when the goddess Demeter arrived at Eleusis in search of her daughter Persephone, whom Pluto had abducted and taken to the Underworld, she was gracefully received at the palace of King Celeus and Queen Metaneira, who entrusted her with the care of her newborn son Demophon. One night, Demeter, wishing to reciprocate the hospitality, decided to give the child immortality by passing him through fire. When the horrified Metaneira walked in on her one night, she interrupted the procedure. Similarly, in the palace of Phthia, Thetis tried to give newborn Achilles immortality by holding him in fire, but was prevented by the boy's father Peleus, who stopped her out of ignorance. In the poem Interruption, as in others witha mythological background, Cavafy respects the traditional version by combining two incidents. Using the myth as a pretext, the poet expresses summarily his views on mankind's foolish acts, which are usually hasty and frivolous.Thoughtful and benevolent, in this case, divine intervention could have proved liberating for Achilles and Demophon had it not been interrupted by the mortals. In essence, the poem expresses the human inability to curb the devastating effects of short- sighted decisions. The repetition of the word 'always' throughout the poem compounds the validity of this realization throughout human existence.Legend amends the dire reality in everyday human behaviour, where wrong, in hindsight, choices counteract the gods' best intentions. Cavafy's ironic perspective is obvious within the dimension of time and its momentary reception by humans. PELEUS (OF PHTHIA) AND THETIS ARE PARENTS OF ACHILLES METANEIRA, MOTHER OF DEMOPHON AND WIFE OF KING CELEUS OF ELEUSIS, - DEMETER, DEMOPHON'S NURSE TRIED TO MAKE HIM IMMORTAL As a gift to Celeus, because of his hospitality, Demeter planned to make Demophoon immortal by burning his mortal spirit away in the family hearth every night. She was unable to complete the ritual because Metanira walked in on her one night and screamed at seeing her child in flames, which distracted the goddess. Some theories suggested that Demophoon, as a result, was destroyed by the flames, but in other sources he suffered no harm.

Κεριά - 1899 Candles

characteristic of old milennium Behind the curtain of the "Candles," Cavafy hid and fortified the whole of his work. Never in his lifetime did he offer the same "dangerous" poem twice to the journals for the general public. His poems were published gradually, drop by drop, until the people were inoculated against their venom and did not have the power to sense the danger, to react, to cry out the scandal

Τειχη - 1897 Walls

construction of ego and self ΤΕΙΧΗ - central symbol Cavafy's concealment starts as a strategy to expose the very mechanisms that drive him to that concealment. The well-known poem "Te¤xh" ("Walls") works exactly in this way: it is society that builds thick high walls around one "with no consideration, no pity, no shame" (Cavafy 1975:3). The closet is a prison: "But I never heard the builders, not a sound. / Imperceptibly they have closed me off from the outside world." Meanwhile, as this oppressive barrier is written down, it is also exposed, thus becoming a starting point for self-expression. It seems almost to be by design that "Te¤xh" was the earliest poem Cavafy kept in his published canon and the first to have been translated into English by his brother John. As pointed out by an early critic, "The Walls, which Cavafy felt in his youth were a jail, became for him, little by little, his natural climate" (Ouranis [1933] 1963:1471). The comment is very interesting in the way it highlights an important strategy: turning a burden into a performance, turning a construct into a "second nature." It shows a Cavafy who speaks from an adopted inside—a place where he is being kept but from which he can voice his incarceration. It reaffirms the view that Cavafy fashioned the closet not as a space for silence, but as a position from which to speak. "Teixh," employed so often in Greek criticism on Cavafy to imply homosexuality without using the word, had the potential to turn from a hidden site of identity into its active exposure.

Πολυελλιος - 1914 Chandelier

erotic aspects = "Chandelier'' describes the setting of a heated erotic encounter and ends by noting that... In the small room, which has been set aglow by the chandelier's powerful flames, the light that appears is no ordinary light. The pleasure of this heat has not been fashioned for bodies that too easily take fright. (54) Those last two lines, in particular, along with other details, imply a kind of eroticism often tinged with apprehension and with the need to hide.

Η πολις - 1910 The city

explodes a dichotomous notion of "outside" and "inside"; this time the "outside" signifies deliverance and not threat. It transpires that there is no outside after all... rhyming ending - xalases rhymes with 8alasses symbolism is also about creating musicality in the poem that can have added significant δεν έχει πλοίο για σε, δεν έχει οδό. Έτσι που τη ζωή σου ρήμαξες εδώ - proverbial in greek h polis this idea of being surrounded comes to populate the poem even though it is a poem about being followed. it's a symbolist poem someone's walking and feels that there is a passing sussuration

Ιαση Ταφος - 1917 Tomb of Iases

lases is an imaginary character. or Narcissus: mythological character, known for his beauty and vanity. Son of the river-god Kephisos, he fell in love with his own reflection in the water and eventually was transformed into the flower that bears his name. The poem refers to an imaginary youth, famous for his beauty. The deceased himself speaks, with a tendency for self-promotion, apologizing for his mundane life and begging for a passerby's understanding. He informs us of his name, his young age, his Alexandrian origin, and his way of life, which was apparently beyond acceptable bounds and with a propensity to abuse. This belongs to the category of 'funerary' poems, because of the text's laconic wording, and recalls the form of ancient epigrams. As a literary genre, the epigram flourished in Hellenistic Alexandria. Several models of epigrams are featured in the Palatine Anthology and other similar compilations. Most of them had no other practical use than to appear on funerary monuments. Despite the poem's short length, the narration in the first person has the rhythm of familiar everyday speech and exacerbates one's emotion for the deceased. The youths in Cavafy's funerary poems are distinguished by their noble looks, they embody an ideal beauty, have some degree of aesthetic and intellectual culture, live intensely, and, as a result, are won over by pleasures and die young. Cavafy is particularly sympathetic towards these young men, who destroy themselves, not from arrogance, but from an uncontrollable propensity for indulgence. The place, where all of this happens, is Alexandria, the great city identified with self-indulgent life, with the impetuousness and fervour of its inhabitants. This is a confession that seeks the understanding of the passerby, but which is anything but ironic from the poet's viewpoint. Narcissus: Son of the river Cephissus and the nymph Liriope, symbol of arrogant beauty and self-admiration. Hermes: Son of Zeus and of Atlas' oldest and most beautiful daughter Maia. With the caduceus as his symbol, Hermes was a messenger of the gods, as well as a psychopomp and protector of trade (Hermes Kerdoos, Emporaios, etc.). Alexandria: Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, the city flourished under Ptolemy I, son of Lagos, founder of the Ptolemaic or Lagid dynasty, who made Alexandria the capital of his kingdom.

Δεησις- 1898 Supplication

the icon listens, solemn and sad,knowing that the son she expects will no longer return.

- 1921 Their origin

the two men who emerge from their secret meeting still bear, like the youth of "ÄHlye gia na diabãsei—," the mark of their preceding sexual encounter. The sexual act, as in "ÄHlye gia na diabãsei," works as the dangerous supplement of the poem, which starts by describing the small routines of hiding that immediately follow sex. They come out of the house separately, furtively; and as they move along the street a bit unsettled, it seems they sense that something on them betrays what kind of bed they've just been lying on. But what profit for the life of the artist: tomorrow, the day after, or years later, the strong lines that had their beginning here, will be written. (Cavafy 1975:208-209) What begins as (the gazing on) an encounter and ends as a poem is a game of trying to hide and uncover the mark that the sexual act has left behind. There is nothing in the text to say that the artist who would eventually write the verses was one of the two lovers; the "ed≈" of the last verse is, strictly speaking, the gazing that the first stanza describes. The poem focuses on the ritual of hiding, not the sexual act itself. This very ritual eventually marks the text, which has "its beginnings" in the effort to read a supplement, to uncover the hidden and unsaid encounter by looking at the lovers as they come out of their meeting. Gazing at them hiding interpellates what kind of sexual act they had been engaged in. What both lovers put on after sex, it seems, is both the mark of a deviant identity and a residue of that sexual act: they have worn, quickly and silently, both identity and sex as a system of signs; in other words, they have put on sexuality. It is worth recalling here that in "December of 1903" homosexual desire is diffused "through every word and phrase." Homosexual desire, unspeakable and uncontainable, contaminates, becoming a hidden and dangerous supplement of every "innocent" word and phrase. What links the protagonists of "H arxÆ tvn," (and of "Sto Y°atro," "ÄHlye gia na diabãsei—" etc.) with the words of Dek°mbrhw, is the mark they bear, in both cases a result of hiding/closeting.

Μια Νυχτα - 1915 One night

what starts as the recollection of a passionate night becomes a shaking of the reader's own certainties. ends with me8w ksana

Για ναρθουν - 1920 That they come

Ένα κερί αρκεί. Το φως του το αμυδρό αρμόζει πιο καλά, θάναι πιο συμπαθές σαν έρθουν της Aγάπης, σαν έρθουν η Σκιές. Ένα κερί αρκεί. Η κάμαρη απόψινα μη έχει φως πολύ. Μέσα στην ρέμβην όλως και την υποβολή, και με το λίγο φως — μέσα στην ρέμβην έτσι θα οραματισθώγια νάρθουν της Aγάπης, για νάρθουν η Σκιές. Here, the speaker is engaged in a ritualistic act of summoning the dead not by the reading of a tombstone, but by the cultivation of interior space room and a state of mind. The balancing acts of skepticism that emerge this piece become a technology of the self, a practice or askesis, closely tie poetic creation. A single candle in a dim room, shadows, reverie—we seem to be (but are quite) ushered into a spirit world. The poem is constructed as an anticipate a future that has not yet arrived, a "tonight" — "d7io\jn" (1. 4)—in which speaker imagines he will dream a vision of "Love's Shadows" (11. 3, 8). In its on a desired encounter with those who have passed away, the poem bears t of the epic katabasis, or descent to the underworld, including the Homeric for "shadow," OKid, which is perhaps better translated as "shade." The us capitalization also lends these words a hieratic aura. But the hushed room gests the homosexual closet, and the reference to love, although not unamimously homoerotic, is Cavafian. Like the "purity of the flesh" in "Days of 1 sexuality is here endowed with a near religious power. trv—the title, is a purpose clause suspended by a hang ing dash, and the phrase "that they come" is repeated twice in the final senten at the beginning of each half line: "that they come . . . that they come." Th modality of experience in the poem remains hypothetical. The speaker attempt to clear a path through incantatory speech, an effect heightened by the sound the first sentence, "One candle is enough": ""Eva Kspi apKet" is sonorous, inter nally melodic (11. 1, 4). Its repetitive sound sets off a series of repetitions in th poem — of "more" (1. 2), "when" (1. 3), and "so that" (1. 8). These short word create a harmonious simplicity conducive to trance, a binding rhythm that wil enable the conjuring of spirits — an eventuality anticipated by the variation o the poem's title-phrase, "that they come," in the declarative clause of line 3, "when they come," a desire still unrequited. The different modalities mark the interplay between possibility and actualization. The power of suggestion acknowledged even as its realization is deferred. The poem itself is the site of suspension that never attains full belief just as it never banishes the possibilitie that inhere in belief Metrically, both stanzas are marked by enjambment at line end, which conve the sense of passing across limits. But typographically, the split line signifies unclosed gap that is heightened by caesura. The split, in other words, holds open empty space even as enjambment tries to close it. Again, the effect is a kind of epoche. The poem no more crosses boundaries than stops at them, no mo arouses spirits than defers their arrival. Similarly, the spirits themselves are more past than present, no more material than phantasmagoric.

Οταν Διεγειρονται - 1916 When they are roused

Όταν διεγείρονται Προσπάθησε να τα φυλάξεις, ποιητή, όσο κι αν είναι λίγα αυτά που σταματιούνται. Του ερωτισμού σου τα οράματα. Βάλ' τα, μισοκρυμμένα, μες στες φράσεις σου. Προσπάθησε να τα κρατήσεις, ποιητή, όταν διεγείρονται μες στο μυαλό σου, την νύχτα ή μες στην λάμψι του μεσημεριού.

Εν Εσπερα - 1917 In the evening

Εν Εσπέρα Πάντως δεν θα διαρκούσανε πολύ. Η πείρατων χρόνων με το δείχνει. Aλλ' όμως κάπως βιαστικάήλθε και τα σταμάτησεν η Μοίρα.Ήτανε σύντομος ο ωραίος βίος.Aλλά τι δυνατά που ήσαν τα μύρα,σε τι εξαίσια κλίνην επλαγιάσαμε,σε τι ηδονή τα σώματά μας δώσαμε. Μια απήχησις των ημερών της ηδονής,μια απήχησις των ημερών κοντά μου ήλθε,κάτι απ' της νεότητός μας των δυονώ την πύρα·στα χέρια μου ένα γράμμα ξαναπήρα,και διάβαζα πάλι και πάλι ως που έλειψε το φως. Και βγήκα στο μπαλκόνι μελαγχολικά —βγήκα ν' αλλάξω σκέψεις βλέποντας τουλάχιστονολίγη αγαπημένη πολιτεία,ολίγη κίνησι του δρόμου και των μαγαζιών. Anyway, it would not have lasted long. Years of experience tells me that. But somewhat suddenly fate came and stopped them. Short was that beautiful time. But how strong were the scents, how exquisite the bed we lay on, what pleasure our bodies gave us. An echo of the days of pleasure, an echo of the days he came by me, Some fire from our common youth; in my hands a reread letter, and I read again and again as the light faded away. And I went out on the balcony melancholy - I went out to change my thoughts while watching at least for a little, my beloved city, for a little the life in the street and the shops.

Επεστρεφε - 1912 Come back

Επέστρεφε συχνά και παίρνε με, αγαπημένη αίσθησις επέστρεφε και παίρνε με -- όταν ξυπνά του σώματος η μνήμη, κ' επιθυμία παληά ξαναπερνά στο αίμα· όταν τα χείλη και το δέρμα ενθυμούνται, κ' αισθάνονται τα χέρια σαν ν' αγγίζουν πάλι. Επέστρεφε συχνά και παίρνε με την νύχτα, όταν τα χείλη και το δέρμα ενθυμούνται....

- 1919 Has come to rest - NA MEINEI

Η ώρα μια την νύχτα θα 'τανε,ή μιάμιση. Σε μια γωνιά του καπηλειού·πίσω απ' το ξύλινο το χώρισμα. Εκτός ημών των δυο το μαγαζί όλως διόλου άδειο. Μια λάμπα πετρελαίου μόλις το φώτιζε.Κοιμούντανε, στην πόρτα, ο αγρυπνισμένος υπηρέτης. Δεν θα μας έβλεπε κανείς. Μα κιόλας είχαμεν εξαφθεί τόσο πολύ,που γίναμε ακατάλληλοι για προφυλάξεις. Τα ενδύματα μισοανοίχθηκαν — πολλά δεν ήσαν γιατί επύρωνε θείος Ιούλιος μήνας. Σάρκας απόλαυσις ανάμεσαστα μισοανοιγμένα ενδύματα·γρήγορο σάρκας γύμνωμα — που το ίνδαλμά του είκοσι έξι χρόνους διάβηκε· και τώρα ήλθενα μείνει μες στην ποίησιν αυτή.

Το Διπλανο Τραπεζι - 1918 The next table

Θα 'ναι μόλις είκοσι δυο ετών. Κι όμως εγώ είμαι βέβαιος που, σχεδόν τα ίσαχρόνια πρωτύτερα, το ίδιο σώμα αυτό το απήλαυσα. Δεν είναι διόλου έξαψις ερωτισμού. Και μοναχά προ ολίγου μπήκα στο καζίνο·δεν είχα ούτε ώρα για να πιω πολύ. Το ίδιο σώμα εγώ το απήλαυσα. Κι αν δεν θυμούμαι, πού — ένα ξέχασμά μου δεν σημαίνει. Α τώρα, νά, που κάθισε στο διπλανό τραπέζι γνωρίζω κάθε κίνησι που κάμνει — κι απ' τα ρούχα κάτω γυμνά τ' αγαπημένα μέλη ξαναβλέπω.

Γκριζα - 1917 Grey

Κοιτάζοντας ένα οπάλιο μισό γκρίζο θυμήθηκα δυο ωραία γκρίζα μάτια που είδα· θα 'ναι είκοσι χρόνια πριν.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . Για έναν μήνα αγαπηθήκαμε. Έπειτα έφυγε, θαρρώ στην Σμύρνη, για να εργασθεί εκεί, και πια δεν ειδωθήκαμε. Θ' ασχήμισαν — αν ζει — τα γκρίζα μάτια· θα χάλασε τ' ωραίο πρόσωπο. Μνήμη μου, φύλαξέ τα συ ως ήσαν. Και, μνήμη, ό,τι μπορείς από τον έρωτά μου αυτόν, ό,τι μπορείς φέρε με πίσω απόψι.

Η προθηκη του Καπνοπωλειου - 1917 The tobacconist's window

Κοντά σε μια κατάφωτη προθήκη καπνοπωλείου εστέκονταν, ανάμεσα σ' άλλους πολλούς. Τυχαίως τα βλέμματά των συναντήθηκαν, και την παράνομην επιθυμία της σαρκός των εξέφρασαν δειλά, διστακτικά. Έπειτα, ολίγα βήματα στο πεζοδρόμιο ανήσυχα — ώς που εμειδίασαν, κι ένευσαν ελαφρώς. Και τότε πια το αμάξι το κλεισμένο....το αισθητικό πλησίασμα των σωμάτων· τα ενωμένα χέρια, τα ενωμένα χείλη.

Περασμα - 1917 Passage

Πέρασμα Εκείνα που δειλά φαντάσθη μαθητής, είν' ανοιχτά, φανερωμένα εμπρός του. Και γυρνά, και ξενυχτά, και παρασύρεται. Κι ως είναι (για την τέχνη μας) σωστό, το αίμα του, καινούριο και ζεστό, η ηδονή το χαίρεται. Το σώμα του νικά έκνομη ερωτική μέθη· και τα νεανικά μέλη ενδίδουνε σ' αυτήν. Κ' έτσι ένα παιδί απλόγένεται άξιο να το δούμε, κι απ' τον Υψηλότης Ποιήσεως Κόσμο μια στιγμή περνά κι αυτό —το αισθητικό παιδί με το αίμα του καινούριο και ζεστό. Passage What he so timidly imagined as a schoolboy, now lies open, manifested in front of him. And he returns, and stays overnight, and drifts. And as is (for our art) right, his blood, fresh and hot, rejoices in pleasure. His body is conquered by illicit erotic intoxication; and youthful members surrender to it. And so a simple boy becomes worthy of watching, and for a moment the Peak of World Poetry passes through him -the sensual boy with his blood fresh and hot.

Θυμησου, Σωμα... - 1918 Body, remember

Σώμα, θυμήσου όχι μόνο το πόσο αγαπήθηκες,όχι μονάχα τα κρεβάτια όπου πλάγιασες,αλλά κι εκείνες τες επιθυμίες που για σένα γυάλιζαν μες στα μάτια φανερά, κι ετρέμανε μες στην φωνή — και κάποιο τυχαίον εμπόδιο τες ματαίωσε. Τώρα που είναι όλα πια μέσα στο παρελθόν, μοιάζει σχεδόν και στες επιθυμίεςεκείνες σαν να δόθηκες — πώς γυάλιζαν, θυμήσου, μες στα μάτια που σε κοίταζαν·πώς έτρεμαν μες στην φωνή, για σε, θυμήσου, σώμα From a Cartesian perspective, the body/matter cannot exercise control over the mind/consciousness. Merleau-Ponty simply asks what a meeting between "physiological" and "psychic" explanations of memory might look like, evident in his discussion of the "phantom limbs" of amputees. If one adopts a phenomenological approach to these poems this is not so difficult: we accept that memory continues to be an awareness of the past, but one in which the body, not the mind, is "our permanent means of 'taking up attitudes'" and thus recreating the past in the present. In this way, the body becomes "the medium of our communication with time as well as with space" (2002: 210). The third assumption concerns the act of remembering. This is not the process of the conscious mind presenting to itself an image from the past that can stand on its own. Rather, as argued above, it is "to thrust deeply into the horizon of the past and take apart step by step the interlocked perspectives until the experiences which it epitomizes are as if relived in their temporal setting" (26).

Του μαγαζιου - 1913 Of the shop

Τα ντύλιξε προσεκτικά, με τάξισε πράσινο πολύτιμο μετάξι. Από ρουμπίνια ρόδα, από μαργαριτάρια κρίνοι, από αμεθύστους μενεξέδες. Ως αυτός τα κρίνει, τα θέλησε, τα βλέπει ωραία· όχι όπως στην φύσιτα είδεν ή τα σπούδασε. Μες στο ταμείον θα τ' αφήσει, δείγμα της τολμηρής δουλειάς του και ικανής. Στο μαγαζί σαν μπει αγοραστής κανείς βγάζει απ' τες θήκες άλλα και πουλεί — περίφημα στολίδια - βραχιόλια, αλυσίδες, περιδέραια, και δαχτυλίδια.

Τελειωμενα - 1911 Finished

Τελειωμένα Μέσα στον φόβο και στες υποψίες,με ταραγμένο νου και τρομαγμένα μάτια,λιώνουμε και σχεδιάζουμε το πώς να κάμουμεγια ν' αποφύγουμε τον βέβαιο5τον κίνδυνο που έτσι φρικτά μάς απειλεί.Κι όμως λανθάνουμε, δεν είν' αυτός στον δρόμο·ψεύτικα ήσαν τα μηνύματα(ή δεν τ' ακούσαμε, ή δεν τα νιώσαμε καλά).Άλλη καταστροφή, που δεν την φανταζόμεθαν,10εξαφνική, ραγδαία πέφτει επάνω μας,κι ανέτοιμους — πού πια καιρός — μας συνεπαίρνει.

Ετσι Πολυ Ατενισα - 1917 So long I gazed

Την εμορφιά έτσι πολύ ατένισα, που πλήρης είναι αυτής η όρασίς μου. Την εμορφιά έτσι πολύ ατένισα, που πλήρης είναι αυτής η όρασίς μου. Γραμμές του σώματος. Κόκκινα χείλη. Μέλη ηδονικά. Μαλλιά σαν από αγάλματα ελληνικά παρμέναπάντα έμορφα,κι αχτένιστα σαν είναι,και πέφτουν, λίγο, επάνω στ' άσπρα μέτωπα. Πρόσωπα της αγάπης,όπως τα `θελεν η ποίησίς μου...μες στες νύχτες της νεότητός μου, μέσα στες νύχτες μου, κρυφά, συναντημένα... Μες στες νύχτες της νεότητός μου, μέσα στες νύχτες μου, κρυφά, συναντημένα... Γραμμές του σώματος. Κόκκινα χείλη. Μέλη ηδονικά.Μαλλιά σαν από αγάλματα ελληνικά παρμέναπάντα έμορφα, κι αχτένιστα σαν είναι,και πέφτουν, λίγο, επάνω στ' άσπρα μέτωπα. Πρόσωπα της αγάπης, όπως τα `θελεν η ποίησίς μου... μες στες νύχτες της νεότητός μου,μέσα στες νύχτες μου, κρυφά, συναντημένα... Μες στες νύχτες της νεότητός μου,μέσα στες νύχτες μου, κρυφά, συναντημένα... This is a very personal composition on anonymous figures with an emphasis on aesthetics and sculptural art in particular. Cavafy's contemplation of the beautiful body with reference to the perfection of symmetry, represented by the ideal of Greek art, is another example of his attraction to ancient Greek prototypes. His astonishment in the face of beauty, this inexhaustible source of inner reflection and nobility, culminates with the restrained yet enthusiastic transition from the description of individual details to the reception of the entire figure. The adolescent body brings to the reader/viewer's mind the remembrance of ideal mythical or divine presences, such as Hyacinth, Narcissus, Hermes, and Apollo.

Εν τη Οδω - 1916 In the street

Το συμπαθητικό του πρόσωπο, κομμάτι ωχρό· τα καστανά του μάτια, σαν κομμένα· είκοσι πέντ' ετών, πλην μοιάζει μάλλον είκοσι· με κάτι καλλιτεχνικό στο ντύσιμό του — τίποτε χρώμα της κραβάτας, σχήμα του κολάρου — ασκόπως περπατεί μες στην οδό, ακόμη σαν υπνωτισμένος απ' την άνομη ηδονή, από την πολύ άνομη ηδονή που απέκτησε.

- 1919 On the ship

Τον μοιάζει βέβαια η μικρή αυτή, με το μολύβι απεικόνισίς του. Γρήγορα καμωμένη, στο κατάστρωμα του πλοίου·ένα μαγευτικό απόγευμα.Το Ιόνιον πέλαγος ολόγυρά μας. Τον μοιάζει. Όμως τον θυμούμαι σαν πιο έμορφο. Μέχρι παθήσεως ήταν αισθητικός,κι αυτό εφώτιζε την έκφρασί του.Πιο έμορφος με φανερώνεταιτώρα που η ψυχή μου τον ανακαλεί, απ' τον Καιρό. Aπ' τον Καιρό. Είν' όλ' αυτά τα πράγματα πολύ παληά -το σκίτσο, και το πλοίο, και το απόγευμα. It's like him, of course, this little pencil portrait. Hurriedly sketched, on the ship's deck, the afternoon magical, the Ionian Sea around us. It's like him. But I remember him as better looking.He was sensitive almost to the point of illness, and this highlighted his expression.He appears to me better looking now that my soul brings him back, out of Time. Out of Time. All these things are from very long ago -the sketch, the ship, the afternoon.

Ηδονη - 1917 To sensual pleasure

Χαρά και μύρο της ζωής μου η μνήμη των ωρών που ηύρα και που κράτηξα την ηδονή ως την ήθελα. Χαρά και μύρο της ζωής μου εμένα, που αποστράφηκα την κάθε απόλαυσιν ερώτων της ρουτίνας.