Open AccessDear to the Gods, yet all too human: Demetrios Capetanakis and the Mythology of the Hellenic
Author(s) -
Emmanuela Kantzia
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the historical review/the historical review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.114
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 1791-7603
pISSN - 1790-3572
DOI - 10.12681/hr.16300
Subject(s) - greeks , mythology , greek mythology , philosophy , ideal (ethics) , ancient greece , literature , human life , romance , art , humanity , art history , classics , epistemology , theology
Philosopher and poet Demetrios Capetanakis (1912-1944) struggled withthe ideas of Hellenism and Greekness throughout his short life while moving across languages, cultures, and philosophical traditions. In one of his early essays, Mythology of the Beautiful (1937; in Greek), Hellenism is approached through the lens of eros, pain and the human body. Capetanakis distances himself both from the discourse put forth by the Generation of the Thirties and from the neo-Kantian philosophy of his mentors, and in particular Constantine Tsatsos, while attempting a bold synthesis of Platonic philosophy with the philosophy of despair (Kierkegaard, Shestov). By upholding the classical over and against the romantic tradition, as exemplified in the life and work of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, he seeks to present Hellenism not as a universal ideal, but as an individual life stance grounded on the concrete. His concern for the particular becomes more pronounced in a later essay, “The Greeks are Human Beings” (1941; in English), where, however, one senses a shift away from aesthetics, towards ethics and history.