''The First Death'' is a book by

Dimitris Lyacos Dimitris Lyacos ( el, Δημήτρης Λυάκος; born 19 October 1966) is a contemporary Greek poet and playwright. He is the author of the ''Poena Damni'' trilogy. Lyacos's work is characterised by its genre-defying form and the avant-garde ...

. It is part of the ''

Poena Damni In Greek mythology, Poena or Poine () is the spirit of punishment and the attendant of punishment to Nemesis, the goddess of divine retribution. Sometimes mentioned as one being, and sometimes in the plural as Poenai (Ποιναί) and are akin ...

'' trilogy. The book tells the story of a marooned man on a desert island in a sequence of fourteen poem sections, recounting his relentless struggle for survival as well as his physical and mental disintegration. The work alludes simultaneously to a modern Philoctetes, an inverted version of Crusoe as well as the myth of the dismemberment of

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Roma ...

. The dense and nightmarish imagery of the poem, replete with sensations of hallucination, delirium, synesthesia, and putrefaction has drawn comparisons to Lautreamont, Trakl and Beckett. Despite being first in the publication history of the Poena Damni trilogy, ''The First Death'' is chronologically last in the narrative sequence.

Title

The title of the book refers to the contradistiction between ''first'' and

second death The second death is an eschatological concept in Judaism, Christianity, and Mandaeism related to punishment after a first/initial death on Earth. Judaism Although the term is not found in the Hebrew Bible (the Canonical collection of Hebrew scri ...

in the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine, the ''first death'' referring to the natural end of life (death of the body) as opposed to the

(annihilation, death of the soul). Insofar as the ''first death'' is not of a spiritual kind it is not considered as "real death", that is to say, annihilation. In a spiritual sense, the protagonist of the book subsists in a "hellish" kind of existence, presumably awaiting the occurrence of future redemption or definitive extinction. The title also refers to the occurrence of ''the'' first death in the context of the biblical history of the human race, namely the murder of

Abel Abel ''Hábel''; ar, هابيل, Hābīl is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He was the younger brother of Cain, and the younger son of Adam and Eve, the first couple in Biblical history. He was a shepherd ...

by his brother Cain.

Synopsis

''The First Death'' recounts the ordeal of a 40-year-old male named adam stranded on a desert-like island. The book starts with a description of his mutilated body which grinds against the rocks. The poem expands on the theme of his continuing degradation, physical and mental, as even the mechanisms of memory are dislocated. Yet, the bond between person and body ensures life still persists, and, "at that point without substance/ where the world collides and takes off", the mechanical instincts of the cosmos rumble into action and sling this irreducible substance again into space - prompting, perhaps, a future regeneration.

Themes

''The First Death'', recounts the result of its protagonist's voyaging towards annihilation. His body and mind are on the verge of dissolution while fighting for continuance and survival. Portrayed as a victim of nature and presumably expelled by society, he is represented both as a castaway and an abortion, dying before he has ever achieved birth. The work describes his purgatorial-like torture, mapping a desert and rocky island as the locus of his suffering. His exclusion and solitude allude to

Greek Tragedy Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy. Greek tragedy is widely believed t ...

, most importantly Philoctetes, while images of mutilation and dismemberment relate to ancient Greek

sacrifices Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exis ...

and

rituals A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...

. The myth of the dismemberment of Dionysus by the

Titans In Greek mythology, the Titans ( grc, οἱ Τῑτᾶνες, ''hoi Tītânes'', , ''ho Tītân'') were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Gai ...

is also hinted at as the text resorts to the concept of

sparagmos ''Sparagmos'' ( grc, σπαραγμός, from σπαράσσω ''sparasso'', "tear, rend, pull to pieces") is an act of rending, tearing apart, or mangling, usually in a Dionysian context. In Dionysian rite as represented in myth and literature, ...

( grc, σπαραγμός, from σπαράσσω ''sparasso'', "tear, rend, pull to pieces"), an act of rending, tearing apart, or mangling, Other oblique classical references are equally embedded in the text, such as the presence of

Orpheus Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with J ...

, also suggested by images of dismemberment. In its role as the epilogue of the Poena Damni trilogy the poem also witnesses the aftermath of the impending violence of the first volume, Z213: Exit.

Style

The original Greek employs an unconventional modern idiom, accommodating a variety of ancient Greek words and integrating them into the flow of the text. Contrary to the previous book of the trilogy,

With the People from the Bridge ''With the People from the Bridge'' (Greek: ''Με τους ανθρώπους από τη γέφυρα'') is the second part of the ''Poena Damni'' trilogy by Greek author Dimitris Lyacos. The book deals with the theme of loss and the return of ...

, which makes use of predominantly bare, simple sentences in a theatrical context, ''The First Death'' is written in a dense, highly tropical style. Each poem section unravels a multi-layered concatenation of images in order to illustrate the unremitting torment of the book's protagonist. Often, the weightiness of surreal abstraction lends a metaphysical atmosphere to the work, thus investing the ordeal undergone by the protagonist with a sublime-like quality as, he, in spite of the world, continues his struggle to the limits of his powers. Images of spoiled, rotten, maimed nature, artifacts, architecture and especially bodies are described in such rich detail they take on an eerie, atrocious, paradoxical glory. The book brings to bear aspects of the

Homeric Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

clarity of description which are in their turn coupled with fierce and

expressionistic Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

depictions of a nightmarish setting. In its aligning disparate literary traditions in order to intensely depict the clash of the human subject in the midst of a hostile world, ''The First Death'', is considered as one of the most violent works of Greek literature in modern times.

Critical reception and publication history

Being the first to have been published among the three installments of the Poena Damni trilogy The First Death has received a number of reviews that span over two decades. Some critics underline the work's close connection with Ancient Greek Literature due to its hybrid linguistic character and its allusions to Tragedy" while others see a strong connection with current events. Critic Toti O'Brien notes: "As I read The First Death, I imagine the carpet of corpses lining the Mediterranean. Strata and strata of limbs—now bones—piled up during recent decades, all belonging to shiploads of migrants seeking escape through Europe. I can’t help connecting the poetry under my eyes with this precise scenery. The most powerful, the most disturbing imagery Lyacos paints makes sense in this context where it naturally embeds itself." The book was originally published in Greek in 1996 and has been translated in English, German, Spanish and Italian. The first English edition appeared in 2000 and went out of print in 2005. A second revised English edition was launched as an e-book in the spring of 2017 and subsequently appeared in print in the autumn of the same year. The new edition contains extended Translator's Notes explaining the Ancient Greek references to the original Greek text.

References