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Solomos after Alexiou: a critical study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Peter Mackridge
Peter Mackridge*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Extract

I am writing this at the very end of 1998, the bicentenary of Solomos’s birth. Stylianos Alexiou’s controversial selective edition of Solomos’s works, published in 1994, provided a new boost to Solomos studies, and in this survey I propose to discuss work published on Solomos since that date. Dimitris Angelatos conveniently published a survey of Solomos studies from 1964 to 1991. Angelatos’ survey is descriptive rather than critical, and — for non-specialists at least — is insufficiently explicit about such matters as the dispute between Yorgos Veloudis and Louis Coutelle; but at least it lists studies published over a period of a quarter of a century, with some indication of their content.

Type
Critical Study
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 23 , 1999 , pp. 298 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1999

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References

1. Διονυσίου ΣολωμούΠοιήματα και πεζά (Athens: Stigmi 1994). I have reveiwed Alexiou’s edition in this journal (BMGS 19 [1995], 266-71). Solomos studies have by now become such an industry that perhaps it is time to launch a journal devoted to them; I would envisage Solomos Studies as an annual publication containing articles in the five languages that were most important to Solomos himself (Greek, Italian, French, German and English). The only journal entirely devoted to a modern Greek writer is Παπαδιαμανπκά τετράδια, whose first volume appeared in 1992.

2. Dimitris Angelatos, ‘Zúvxpovsç σολωμικές μελέτες (1964 κοα εξης)’, Μαντατοφόρος, no. 35-36 (June-Dec. 1992), 5-58.

3. I received the volume Μνήμη Ελένης Τσαντσάνογλον. Εκδοτικά και ερμηνευτικά ζητήματα νεοελληνικής λογοτεχνΐοκ:. ΠρακηκάΖΈτηστημονικήζ Σννάνττ\σχ)ς (Thessaloniki 1998) too late to take it into account in this survey. It includes papers on Solomos by Giorgos Veloudis, Eratosthenis Kapsomenos, Vincenzo Rotolo, Katerina Tiktopoulou, Dimitris Angelatos, Giorgos Kechagioglou, Pavlos Angelopoulos, Katerina Kostiou, Nadia Charalambidou and Ch.-D. Gounelas.

4. Διοννσίον Σολωμον Ta Ενρισκόμενα (Zakynthos: Rouga-S. Mylona Editions 1998).

5. Solomòs, Dionisios, Visione di Dionisio (La Donna di Zante), a cura di Ines Di Salvo (Palermo: L’epos società editrice 1995)Google Scholar.

6. Veloudis, Giorgos, Αιοννσίου Σολωμον «Στοχασμοί» arovç «Έλεύβερους Πολιορκισμένους». Ιταλικό κείμενο, μετάφραση, εισαγωγή, σχόλια (Athens: Ekdoseis Periplous 1997)Google Scholar.

7. Thus we have titles based on Solomos’ own Italian labels (e.g. ‘II Cretense’), titles that Solomos himself provided in Greek (e.g. Έλευθεροι πολιορκισμένοι’, which was ‘corrected’ by Polylas to Έλεΰθεροι πολιορκημένοι’), and titles given by Polylas (of which Ή Φαρμακωμένη στον Άδη’ is perhaps the least satisfactory). ‘Visione di Dionisio …’ is the only title that Solomos himself gave to the work that is usually known as ‘The Woman of Zante’.

8. Polylas, Iakovos, ‘Προλεγόμενα’, in Solomos, Dionysios, Άπαντα. Τόμοςπρώτος. Ποιήματα, ed. Politis, L. (Athens 1948), 24 Google Scholar; Di Salvo, ibid. (n. 5), pp. xlviii-lv. Alexiou (ibid., n. 1, 464) argues that the first recension of ‘The Free Besieged’ shows every sign of being an early work and that Solomos must have written it before 1829.

9. Solomos, Dionysios, H Γυναίκα της Ζάκυθος. Όραμα του Διονύσιον Ιερομόναχου εγκάτοικου εκ ξωκλήσι Ζακΰνθον, ed. Tsantsanoglou, E. (Iraklio: Vikelaia Dimotiki Vivliothiki 1991)Google Scholar; Solomos, D., H Γνναίκα тцс Ζάκυθος. Όραμα του Διονΰσιον Ιερομόναχον εγκάτοικου εκ ξωκλήσι Ζακννθον, ed. Tsantsanoglou, E. (Athens: Okeanida 1993)Google Scholar; G.P. Savvidis, Έισηγηση σε μια νέα ανάγνωση тг|С «Γυναίκας της Ζάκυθος»‘, Περίπλους, no. 9-10 (Spring-Summer 1986), 11-28.

10. See Di Salvo’s justification for the inclusion of this postscript, ibid., p. xlvii. I have to admit that the indication ‘Capitolo ultimo’ after the sentence I have just quoted suggests that Solomos always intended to add the extra chapter.

11. Peri, Massimo, ‘Fra Solomòs e Polilàs: Στοχασμοί’, in Miscellenea, 3. Studi in onore di Elpidio Mioni (Padua: Liviana Editrice 1982), 72–81 Google Scholar.

12. Alexiou includes a useful selection of views of his edition from twenty-four critics in his book Σολωμιστές και Σολωμός (Athens: Stigmi 1997), 75-115.

13. Solomos, Dionysios, Αυτόγραφα έργα, ed. Politis, L.. 2 vols. (Thessaloniki: Aristoteleion Panepistimion Thessalonikis 1964)Google Scholar. Referring to the unreadability of Solomos’ manuscripts, Alexiou (op. cit., 10) quotes the view of the speech specialist Maria Rousochatzaki that the poet’s handwriting displays signs of dyslexia. It is curious, however, that the mistakes in his Greek (I refer not simply to his failure to spell ‘correctly’, but to his failure to transcribe the sounds of a word phonetically) are far more frequent than mistakes in his Italian.

14. Giorgos Kechagioglou, Έκδοτικά χαρακτηρισπκά των τελευταίων δεκαετιών’, Μαντατοφόρος, no. 41 (1996), 62. Giorgos Alisandratos (ibid., 133-9) also expresses some apposite strictures on Alexiou’s ‘archaeological’ approach to Solomos’ fragments.

15. Veloudis, Giorgos, ‘To ρομαντικό «απόσπασμα» του Σολωμοΰ’, H λέξη, no. 142 (Nov.-Dec. 1997), 725 Google Scholar.

16. Solomos, Dionysios, Faith and Motherland. Collected Poems. Translated from the Greek with annotations and an introduction by Marios Byron Raizis (Minneapolis: Nostos 1998)Google Scholar.

17. Peri, Massimo, ‘Μικροπαρατηρήσεις στον Σολωμό’, Μαντατοφόρος, no. 41 (1996), 83–115 Google Scholar.

18. In another section of the same article (Ibid., 113), Peri appears to misunderstand the end of ‘The Hair’: he seems to suggest that Solomos is threatening to take to court (i.e. to sue) anyone who dares accuse him of lying, whereas in fact he is inviting anyone who dares doubt his word to attend the court case concerning his inheritance.

19. Afroditi Athanasopoulou, ‘Φαινόμενα γλωσσικής διαπλοκης στο έργο TOU Σολωμού’, Μαντατοφόρος, ibid. (n. 17), 5-49.

20. 2 + 7 εισηγησεκ уха rov Διοννσιο Σολωμό (Athens: Periplous 1997).

21. Anastasia Danai Lazaridou, ‘O Ιερομόναχοκ: Διονΰσκκ και οι «Ελεΰθεροι Πολιορκημένοι». Παρατηρήσενς στο A’ σχεδνασμα’, ibid., 69-76.

22. Katerina Tiktopoulou, ‘Οι στοχασμοί OTOĽC «Ελεύθερουί: Πολιορκημενους», Ibid., 96-107.

23. Papazoglou, Christos, Μυστικιστικά αΰμβολα στο Seculare, Carmen του Διοννσίον Σολωμον (Athens: Kedros 1995)Google Scholar.

24. Alexiou, Σολωμιστές … (no. 12). 48. Cf.Mackridge, Peter, Dionysios Solomos (Bristol and New York: Bristol Classical Press 1989), 57 Google Scholar, where I talk about ‘waste matter’. Alexiou is also wrong to reject the claim by Veloudis (Παράταφα [Athens: Dodoni 1995] 139) that ‘σαλίγκι’ is a vocative rather than an object of ‘ξερνοκ’ — a claim that is borne out by a variant in the Autograph Manuscripts, p. 456.

25. Athanasopoulou, Afroditi, Τια Tic ελληνικές jrnyéç του Σολωμικοΰ Αιαλόγου ’, H λέξη, no. 142 (Nov.-Dec. 1997), 868-76Google Scholar.

26. Kapsaskis, Sokratis, Στοιχεία βιογραφίαζ τον Διονυσίου Σολωμοΰ (Athens: Typothito/Giorgos Dardanos 1998)Google Scholar.

27. Kapadochos, D.Ch., О Σολωμός δεσμκκ του νομικον καθεστώτος п?с εποχής του (Athens 1992)Google Scholar.

28. Alisandratos, ibid. (n. 14).

29. This letter was first published in Lorentzatos, Zisimos, Για то Σολωμό (Athens 1974), 147-8Google Scholar; it is quoted by Alisandtratos, 130-1. It is revealing that Lorentzatos specified head, arms and legs, but not veins, muscles, bones and internal organs!

30. Michael Jeffreys presented his ideas and his material at the conference on Solomos at the University of Athens on 8 October 1998, and at a graduate seminar presentation entitled ‘Electronic Solomos’ at Oxford on 12 November 1998.

31. The manuscripts of the poems published during Solomos’ lifetime have not been found. What remains are the drafts of unfinished works. We know nothing of the genesis of the works that do not figure in the manuscripts, and nothing of the revisions that he made to them between the first and final drafts.

32. Thanasis Nakas and Thanasis Anagnostopoulos presented the Solomos material from the ©tļoocupoc Ελληνικτκ Τλώσστ)ς at the Solomos conference in Athens on 8 October 1998.

33. Kapsomenos, Eratosthenis, Αεξικό Σολωμον. Πίνακας λέξεων του ελληνόγλωσσου έργου τον Σολωμον [Δωδώνη, παράρτημα 14] (Ioannina: Panepistimio Ioanninon 1983)Google Scholar.

34. Compare the phrase addressed, according to Polylas, to the young Solomos by one of his teachers in Italy: ‘Greco, tu farai dimenticare il nostro Monti’ (Polylas, ‘Προλεγόμενα’, ibid. [n. 8], p. 11).