“AGRAPHON” - A CHRISTIAN POEM - by Gregory Jusdanis, Professor, Greek Studies, OSU, [email protected]

It is widely known that Greek poets and writers have sought inspiration in the classical past. But many have returned to early Christianity and the Byzantine period for poetic themes. Constantine Cavafy, for instance, was very interested in the appearance of Christianity in the time of the Roman Empire, showing the struggles some people felt between an old system of belief and the new. He also dealt with individuals from the Byzantine Empire, which survived for about 1000 years after the fall of Rome. Another famous Greek poet, who saw in Christianity a source for his work, was Angelos Sikelianos. Born in the Ionian island of Lefkada in 1884 to a prominent family, he went to to study law, only to abandon his

plans after two years in order to join a theatrical group. Through his involvement with the stage, he came to know the very famous American dancer, Isadora Duncan (1877-1927), widely considered the mother of modern dance. In the house of Isadora’s brother Raymond, who had married Sikelianos’ sister, Penelope, Angelos met Eva Palmer, the wealthy American director and choreographer. Together they sought to resurrect the Delphic Games of antiquity, which were akin to the Olympic Games, by organizing the Delphic festival in 1927 and 1930, a series of theatrical, and dance performances, along with athletic contests and art exhibitions. The current European

1 Cultural Center of , which organizes conferences, exhibitions, and concerts, owes its inspiration to their tireless efforts to revive the Delphic idea. Disillusioned by the financial difficulties in mounting these festivals with their own funds, Eva returned to American in 1933 and the couple became estranged. In 1940 Sikelianos married Anna Kamaranou with whom he spent the AGRAPHON == ΑΓΡΑΦΟΝ dark days of the German occupation in Athens. At the funeral Σικελιανος, Α. of (1859-1943), then ’s greatest living Once at sunset Jesus and his disciples poet, he recited a poem that came to be seen as an act of were on the road outside the walls of Zion resistance against the Germans. “On this casket,” he when suddenly they came to where the town declaimed, “rests all of Greece.” In 1950 Sikelianos died after for years had dumped its garbage: mistakenly drinking a disinfectant instead of his medication. Crowning the highest pile, its legs pointing at the sky, lay a dog’s bloated carcass; Although Angelos Sikelianos is associated with the revival such a stench rose up from it that all the disciples, of classical drama, he wrote poetry with religious and moral hands cupped over their nostrils, drew back as one themes. The poem, “Agraphon,” which he wrote in 1941 man. during the Nazi occupation, is a good example of this interest, But Jesus stood there, and He gazed seeking to find meaning in the life of Christ during a period of so closely at the carcass that one disciple called out from a distance, national trauma. (The poem became a basis for a musical work ‘Rabbi, don’t you smell that dreadful stench? by the English composer, John Tavener, a convert to How can you go on standing there?’ Orthodoxy, who sought inspiration in Orthodox theology and Jesus, His eyes fixed on the carcass, liturgy. It was first performed at the Athens Megaron Mousikis answered: ‘If your breath is pure, you’ll smell (Concert Hall) in October 29, 1995.) the same stench inside the town behind us, but Look how that dog’s teeth glitter in the sun: The term “agraphon,” which means literally an “unwritten like hailstones, like a lily, beyond decay, thing,” signifies here a tradition or a saying about Christ’s life a great pledge, mirror of the Eternal, but also not recorded in the official Gospels of the Bible. the harsh lightning-flash, the hope of Justice!’ Like all poetry this could be read on many levels. On the one ‘And now, Lord, I, hand, it deals with the life of Christ, as another, albeit the very least of men, stand before You, give me, as now I walk outside this Zion, unofficial parable, about the power of Christ to see hope and as I walk through this terrible stench, virtue everywhere, even amongst corruption and rot. In this one single moment of Your holy calm, case, Christ has the capacity to marvel at the white teeth of a so that I may also pause dead dog among the stench of the garbage dumb. But Zion among this carrion and with my own eyes could also refer to Athens of 1941 in the hands of the Nazis somewhere see deep inside me, beyond the world’s decay, like the dog’s teeth where people were dying of starvation. While the poem can be at which, Lord, that sunset You gazed in wonder: read as a modern day parable, it also functions as a prayer a great pledge Eternal, but also uttered by a person seeking redemption from evil. What the the harsh lightning-flash, the hope of Justice!’ poet sees here is the hope and salvation from the Germans, justice in a time of turmoil and suffering.

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