Comments & Greek painting, Greek artists: wouldn’t it have been better if you dreamt on all fours?

Greek poets & Greek artists, Greek painters


Yannis Stavrou, Olive Grove in Attica, oil on canvas

Home erectus, remote starting point of the Iliad,
wouldn’t it have been better if you dreamt on all fours?

Nikos Karouzos

The Night is in my Interest

Indeed the night is in my interest.
First of all, it reduces ambition; moreover,
it corrects thoughts; then,
it collects the grief and makes it more bearable;
it dissects the silence with respect; in the gardens
it stresses smell,
but above all, night envelops.


Nikos Karouzos (1926-1990)

The Second Death

Home erectus, remote starting point of the Iliad,
wouldn’t it have been better if you dreamt on all fours?
Wasn’t the nightingale enough for you as it prayed
among the aphrodiasic branches of the trees?
What the hell did you want with the wanton Ode of the poet
in his bitter and blood-shattered guts?
Now you lose beauty twice
in a horrible uprooting, howling about life and art.
Ah mother what a tumbling down to grandeur . . .
It must have been the savage erection I reflect
which gave you oh homo erectus the feeling
of standing upright in this world.