Kostas Krystallis

Kostas Krystallis

Kostas Krystallis or Kroustallis ( Greek Κώστας Κρυστάλλης or Κρουστάλλης; * 1868 in Sirako ; † April 22, 1894 in Arta ) was a Greek poet and writer of the New Athens School .

Life

The poet was as Kostas Kroustallis in a "wlachischen" mountain village called Sirako (Συρράκο or Σιράκο) in Pindos -Gebirge in Epirus born, where he grew up to the age of twelve. From 1880 he attended the famous Sosimäa School (Ζωσιμαία Σχολή) in Ioannina , where his father Dimitrios Kroustallis ran a wholesale company. While still a schoolboy, he became known in 1886 with his first 'patriotic' poem The Shadows of Hades (Αι σκιαί του Άδου), which referred to the events of the ' Greek Revolution ' of 1821 and was expelled by the Ottoman rule, which was still ruling in northern Greece brought in. He fled to Athens at Christmas 1888, while an Ottoman court sentenced him in absentia to a twenty-five year exile. In Athens he changed his family name from Kroustallis to Krystallis.

In the long run, his health was not up to the harsh living conditions in Athens. He initially worked in the printing house of the publishing house Phexi (Φέξη), later at an encyclopedic publisher and briefly as editor of the magazine Evdomas (Εβδομάς 'week') and finally as an employee of the Greek railways. At the same time he worked at night on the collection of historical and folklore material and on his poetic work. When he contracted tuberculosis, he moved to Kerkyra with the hope of relief. As his condition worsened, however, he went to his sister in Arta, where he died after a few days on April 22, 1894 at the age of 26.

In addition to Kostis Palamas (Κωστής Παλαμάς) Kostas Krystallis is one of the most important representatives of the so-called generation of 1880 and belongs to the New Athens School with him and his contemporaries Georgios Drosinis and Nikos Kambas. With his studies and his poetic work, he made a decisive contribution to the fact that the modern Greek vernacular could prevail over the classical high-level language in literature.

The Greek Ministry of Culture declared 1994 the "Kostas Krystallis Year".

Michalis Peranthis (Μιχάλης Περάνθης) has a biography of Kostas Krystallis in the form of a historical novel under the title The Great Shepherd (Ο Τσέλιγκας).

Works

His first poems The shadows of Hades ( 'Αι Σκιαί του Άδου, 1886) and The Monk from Messolongi Pass (Καλόγηρος της Κλεισούρας Μεσολογγίου, 1890) had epic character and were influenced by the works of the Greek poet Aristotelis Balaoritis (Αριστοτέλης Βαλαωρίτης). With his following two collections of poetry, he then turned to the New Athens School. These works are strongly influenced by the poetry of Greek folk music and folklore themes. In 1891, his collection of poems appeared Rural (Αγροτικά). With the collection of songs of the village and the pen (Τραγούδια του Χωριού και της Στάνης, 1893) that followed in 1893, he earned his name as a defender and promoter of the Greek vernacular ( Dimotiki ) and folk poetry in the Greek language dispute . In 1891, the study The Wlachen des Pindos (Οι Βλάχοι της Πίνδου) also appeared. In 1894 prose pieces followed (Πεζογραφήματα), swallows (Χελιδόνες) and others.

expenditure

• Κώστα Δ. Κρυστάλλη, Τα Άπαντα Μου . Edited by the brother. Verlag Dodoni 1952 and 1965. - "Kostas D. Krystallis, Complete Works"

literature

• Giannis Apostolakis : Ο Κρυστάλλης και το δημοτικό τραγούδι (1937). - "Kristallis and the folk song"
• Κ. Θ. Δημαράς : Ιστορία της νεοελληνικής λογοτεχνίας , Publishing House Ίκαρος΄, Athens 1975
• Α. Καραντώνης: Φυσιογνωμίες , τόμος Α΄, εκδ. Παπαδήμα, Αθήνα 1977
• Linos Politis : History of the modern Greek literature , Cologne 1984. ISBN 3-923728-08-5

Web links

Βιογραφικές πληροφορίες στην ιστοσελίδα του Εθνικού Κέντρου Βιβλίου [1]