TITOS PATRIKIOS

With a language that is simple and precise, he addresses timeless themes, offering a profound testimony of life. His poems capture a whole century of Greek history—not as a dry chronicle, but as a human experience, full of silences, contemplation, and inner strength. Through his verses, he explores history, companionship, solitude, and the passage of time in a way that remains meaningful and relevant. His voice is — and will continue to be — essential for us all: calm, steady, and true.

About the speaker

Titos Patrikios was born in Athens in 1928. He completed high school at Varvakeio in 1946 and enrolled at the Law School of the University of Athens. During the German occupation, he actively participated in the National Resistance, first with EPON and later with ELAS. In 1944, he was sentenced to death by collaborators of the Germans, but his execution was postponed at the last moment. During his military service, he was exiled to Makronisos (1951–1952) and then to Ai Stratis (1952–1953), returning to Athens with a permit for political exiles.

From 1959 to 1964, he studied sociology at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris and participated in research at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). After returning to Greece, he fled again to Paris following the dictatorship’s imposition, where he engaged in anti-junta activities and worked at UNESCO in Paris and FAO in Rome. He returned to Greece in 1975, working as a lawyer, sociologist, and literary translator. In 1982, he resumed his role at the National Centre for Social Research, which he held before 1967, and also collaborated with the Marxist Studies Center in Athens.

His literary debut was in 1943 with a poem published in the magazine Youth’s Awakening, while his first poetry collection, Chomatodromos, was released in 1954. A founding member of the journal Art Review, he published numerous articles and reviews, many of which were later compiled into collections. He was also active as a translator (works by Stendhal, Aragon, Mayakovsky, Neruda, Gogol, Garaudy, Lukács, among others) and prose writer. Most of his sociological work was written in French.

His works have been translated into French, Flemish, German, and Dutch. He has received numerous honors, including the Special State Prize for Literature (1994), the Kostas and Eleni Ouranis Foundation Prize from the Academy of Athens (2008), the International Premio Letterario “Laudomia Bonanni” (Italy, 2009), and the Max Jacob Étranger Poetry Prize (France, 2016). In February 2020, he was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ambassador to Greece, Patrick Maisonnave.

Twenty-eight volumes of his poems and prose have been published, and he has contributed to many anthologies. His complete poetic works are available in two volumes: Poems A, 1943–1959 (Kichli, 2017) and Poems B, 1959–2017 (Kichli, 2018).

The talk will be delivered in Greek.