Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis inaugurated the Odysseus Elytis Museum, honouring the late Greek Nobel Prize-winning poet, on Friday evening in the presence of Culture Minister Lina Mendoni.
The Museum was first inaugurated in Heraklion, Crete, on the eve of the poet’s birthday, November 2 (1911). He died in 1996 at the age of 84.
The premier said the event was “a historical duty of the state” and proof of the government’s priority to invest in modern Greek culture.
Mendoni said the museum was an idea of the poet’s partner, poet Ioulita Iliopoulou, who was present.
The museum, on the corner of Dioskouron and Polygnotou in the Plaka district of Athens, houses Elytis’ archives and includes his desk.
The archive belongs to Iliopoulou, who said that the centre’s purpose was to be a place where researchers, devoted readers, passers-by, people who write poetry but are still afraid of it, and children learning poetry may become familiar with Elytis’ world.
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