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Images of Encirclement and Enchantment in the Poetry of Palamas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Margaret Carroll
Margaret Carroll*
Affiliation:
University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales
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Extract

The image of the circle recurs again and again, in a wide range of motifs, in Palamas’ poetry. Indeed, some areas of his poetry seem to exhibit a positive preoccupation with circular images of both nature and artifice, the most frequently occurring of which are the sun, moon, crown/garland ring the simple circle and the girdle of embrace Chains also appear to function in some poems as symbols of encirclement. The majority of the contexts in which these images occur are metaphysical in theme and a great number of the images themselves are associated with ideas of daemonic power over Man. The question of the psychological motivation that underlies the symbolism of such images as the ‘ring’ and ‘chains’ in Palamas’ poetry has been discussed to some extent by most of his critics. What I intend to do here is to examine the poet’s use of the whole range of ‘circle’ imagery as an aesmetic device and as a form of symbolism which he clearly considered to convey most effectively his ideas about his own dilemma and about the meaning of existence around him. I shall deal only with those images which can be called ‘specifically’ circular in that they are given expression by one or more of the key words discussed and are not just vague suggestions of some such idea.

Type
Research Article
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 3 , 1977 , pp. 117 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1997

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References

1. Most notably by Dhoxas, A., Palamas (Athens, 1959) and Tsatsos, K., Palamas (Athens, 1949).Google Scholar

2. Discussed in greater detail below.

3. Contained in various writings of the vols. II, IV, VI, VIII, X, XII and XIII. The most significant of these are those contained in vols. IV, VI, VIII and X.

4. Vol. IV, p. 301.

5. Ibid., vol. X, p. 553.

6. In literature notably Dante, Milton, Shelley and Solomos all of whom profoundly impressed Palamas and whose general influence is acknowledged in the many references to them and their work scattered throughout the prose-writings of the

7. In a poem titled Emerson, Poe, Whitman (vol. IX, p. 217) Palamas refers to Whitman as A comparison of Whitman’s Song of Myself with The Dodecalogue of the Gypsy does raise some interesting questions about the possibility of Whitman’s influence on the free-verse structure and the ‘torrential’ flow of ideas in the Greek poem.

8. Maskaleris, Th., Kostis Palamas (New York, 1972), p. 129.Google Scholar

9. vol. XI, pp. 269-300, as well as die Prologue to this collection.

10. Ibid., vol. X, pp. 85-6 and elsewhere in die criticisms.

11. vol. V, p. 179.

12. vol. III, p. 179.

13. vol. V, pp. 215-16.

14. vol. III, p. 259.

15. vol. III, p. 275.

16. vol. VII, pp. 142-4.

17. Vol V, pp. 178 and 179.

18. , vol.I, p. 132.

19. 39, vol. I, p. 369.

20. Ibid., p. 367.

21. Vol. I, p. 264.

22. vol. V, pp. 418–21.

23. vol. IX, pp. 184-6.

24. vol. V, p. 372.

25. Discussed extensively by Dhoxas, op. cit.

26. For a discussion of Palamas’ excursions into the see Tsatsos, pp. 38-9.

27. See note 11.

28. vol. III, pp. 212-13.

29. vol. III, pp. 332-4.

30. Particularly vol. IV and ‘H vol. X, but revealing comments are also scattered throughout the remaining papers and in prologues to the various collections of poems.

31. Dante’s Beatrice also figures in Palamas’ analysis of his sexuality and his art and almost all of his idealized images of woman have a Beatrice quality about them.

32. vol. IX, p. 196-7.

33. vol. V, P. 465.

34. vol. VII, pp. 22-9.

35. vol. V, pp. 291-301.

36. Discussed separately below.

37. vol. V, pp. 384-5.

38. vol. I, p. 350.

39. Vol. I, pp. 32-4.

40. vol. III, pp. 253-83.

41. Ibid., vol. I, pp. 264-6.

42. Ibid., vol. V, pp. 217-18.

43. Ibid., vol. VII, pp. 195-6.

44. Ibid., vol. III, pp. 48-9. See also above. Maskaleris (op. cit., p. 13) righdy says that this poem ‘is of key significance in understanding Palamas’ psychology, certain fundamental aspects of his life and poetry’.

45. I, pp. 122-5.

46. vol. I, p. 350.

47. For the events of Palamas’ childhood and their later significance I recommend Maskaleris (in English), Tsatsos and Dhoxas, op. cit., and particularly the poet’s own account contained in loc. cit.

48. The words are Sherrard’s, P., The Marble Threshing Floor, Introduction, p. 4.Google Scholar

49. For Palamas’ own analysis of the psychological significance of the whole circumstance of the ring see op. cit., pp. 383-7. Other comments and allusions occur elsewhere in the See also Dhoxas, pp. 18-36, and Maskaleris, chap. 1.

50. op. cit., p. 325.

51. Vol.III, p. 330(Canto 3).

52. The canto in which the ideas he derived from the socialist philosophies of the time (and also from Solomos and possibly from a direct acquaintance with Plato’s Republic) are most forcefully and explicitly expressed.

53. Vol. III, p. 316.

54. For a summing up of the external influences on this and other poems of Palamas see Maskaleris (op. cit.), chaps, 2 and 6.

55. Maskaleris, p. 35. The italics are mine.

56. Palamas, L., A Study on the Palm Tree of Kostes Palamas, trans. Stephanides, Th. and Katsimbalis, y (Athens, 1931)Google Scholar. Unfortunately I do not at the present moment have access to this work and my comments here are drawn from notes taken from it some years ago in Oxford and from references to it in Maskaleris, loc. cit.

57. vol. XV, pp. 410-15.

58. See note 5.

59. Op. cit., p. 552.

60. The impact of Spencer on Palamas’ philosophical ideas is clearly acknowledged in the poet’s comments contained in the collection (vol. X, pp. 85, 89, 92, 114, 119 and elsewhere). Likewise we find clear acknowledgements of the influence of the other thinkers mentioned above scattered throughout the

61. Vol. X, pp. 517-30.

62. vol. X, p. 132.

63. vol. X, pp. 413-573 and elsewhere in the

64. Vol. X, p. 157.

65. Maskaleris, op. cit., p. 133.

66. See above,

67. … vol. X, p. 523.

68. Vol. X, p. 132.

69. Ibid., p. 437.

70. Ibid., p. 416.

71. Ibid., p. 550.

72. vol. III, p. 129.

73. Ibid., p. 130,11.5-8.

74. Ibid., p. 131,11. 16 and 24-5.

75. Ibid., p. 133,11. 13-18.

76. Ibid., p. 134,11. 5-12. 138

77. Ibid., p. 137,1. 24.

78. Ibid., p. 138,11. 19-20.

79. Vol. VII, p. 438.