Constantine Athanasius Trypanis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Αθανάσιος Τρυπάνης; 22 January 1909 – 18 January 1993) was a Greek

classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

, literary critic, translator and poet.

Biography

Born in

Chios Chios (; el, Χίος, Chíos , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greek island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. Chios is notable for its exports of mastic ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, Trypanis received his education at The Classical Gymnasium, Chios and the Universities of

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

.Trypanis, C. A. ''The Glass Adonis''. New York: Chilmark Press, 1972. He received a doctorate from the

University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; el, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Ethnikó ke Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the Univers ...

in 1937.Trypanis papers
at the University of Reading Library From 1939 to 1945 he taught at the University of Athens and, in 1947, moved to

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

where he began teaching at Exeter College in Oxford as the Bywater and Sotheby professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek. It was also in England that Trypanis' met and befriended the poet Ian Fletcher, whom Trypanis afterwards referred to as "the master," with Trypanis himself "as the pupil". In 1968 Trypanis relocated to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, after acting as a visiting professor at various other American universities, where he taught Classical Literature until 1974. In 1974 he returned to his native Greece, serving as Minister for Culture and Sciences until 1977. He remained in Greece until his death. He died in Athens in 1993. Though his poetry has since fallen into obscurity, his writings received some critical acclaim in his time, with two of his collections, ''The Stones of Troy'' and ''The Cocks of Hades'' receiving, respectively, the choice of the

Poetry Book Society The Poetry Book Society (PBS) was founded in 1953 by T. S. Eliot and friends, including Sir Basil Blackwell, "to propagate the art of poetry". Eric Walter White was secretary from December 1953 until 1971, and was subsequently the society's chair ...

and the

Heinemann Award The W. H. Heinemann Award is an award established by William Heinemann who bequeathed funds to the Royal Society of Literature to establish a literary prize, given from 1945 to 2003.Directory of Grants in the Humanities The Heinemann Award is give ...

of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

. His poetry was also acclaimed by the likes of

Theodore Roethke Theodore Huebner Roethke ( ; May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963) was an American poet. He is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation, having won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book ''The Wa ...

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

and

John Wain John Barrington Wain CBE (14 March 1925 – 24 May 1994) was an English poet, novelist, and critic, associated with the literary group known as " The Movement". He worked for most of his life as a freelance journalist and author, writing and re ...

. His poetry was first published while he was living in England, and it was also while in England that he began to develop a poetic circle of his own; he wrote his poetry (at least that portion which was published) in English, his second language, which perhaps opens the door to comparisons to the likes of

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...

and

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bo ...

, both of whom wrote in English, despite being native speakers of Polish and Russian, respectively. Much of Trypanis' poetic writings were centered on the artifacts, history and mythology of antiquity, especially that of

Classical Greece Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient Greece,The "Classical Age" is "the modern designation of the period from about 500 B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C." ( Thomas R. Marti ...

and

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, though others of his poems centered on aspects and events of his contemporary world.

Bibliography

Poetry collections

*''Pedasus: Twenty-four Poems'' (1955) (Limited to 150 copies) *''The Stones of Troy'' (1957) *''The Cocks of Hades'' (1958) *''Pompeian Dog'' (1964) *''Grooves in the Wind'' (1964) (Reprints selections from ''The Stones of Troy'' and ''The Cocks of Hades,'' and one new poem) *''The Elegies of a Glass Adonis'' (1967) (Limited to 450 numbered copies, each signed by Trypanis) *''The Glass Adonis'' (1972) (Includes the contents of ''Elegies of a Glass Adonis'')

Translations

*''Fourteen Early Byzantine Cantica'' (1968) *

Callimachus Callimachus (; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works in a wide variety ...

, ''Aetia, Iambi, lyric poems, Hecale, minor epic and elegiac poems, and other fragments'' (1975). *''Sophocles, the Three Theban Plays'' (1986)

Criticism

*''Medieval and Modern Greek Poetry'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951) *

Romanus Romanus (Latin for "Roman"), hellenized as Romanos (Ῥωμανός) was a Roman cognomen and may refer to: People * Adrianus Romanus, Flemish mathematician (1561–1615) * Aquila Romanus, Latin grammarian *Giles of Rome, Aegidius Romanus, mediev ...

, ''Sancti Romani Melodi Cantica. I: Cantica genuina'' (1963) (Editor, in collaboration with Paul Maas) *

, ''Sancti Romani Melodi Cantica. II: Cantica dubia'' (1970) (Editor, in collaboration with Paul Maas) *''The Penguin Book of Greek Verse'' (1971) (Editor) *''The Homeric Epics'' (1977) *''Greek Poetry, from Homer to Seferis'' (1981)

Biography

Bibliography

Poetry collections

Translations

Criticism

References

Further reading