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Yiannis Ritsos was born on 1 May, 1909 in Monemvasia, Greece, is a Greek poet and communist (1909–1990). Discover Yiannis Ritsos's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is he in this year and how he spends money? Also learn how he earned most of networth at the age of 81 years old?

Popular As N/A
Occupation Poet
Age 81 years old
Zodiac Sign Taurus
Born 1 May 1909
Birthday 1 May
Birthplace Monemvasia, Greece
Date of death 11 November, 1990
Died Place Athens, Greece
Nationality Greece

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 1 May. He is a member of famous poet with the age 81 years old group.

Yiannis Ritsos Height, Weight & Measurements

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Yiannis Ritsos Net Worth

His net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Yiannis Ritsos worth at the age of 81 years old? Yiannis Ritsos’s income source is mostly from being a successful poet. He is from Greece. We have estimated Yiannis Ritsos's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
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Source of Income poet

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Timeline

1909

Yiannis Ritsos (Γιάννης Ρίτσος; 1 May 1909 – 11 November 1990) was a Greek poet and communist and an active member of the Greek Resistance during World War II.

While he disliked being regarded as a political poet, he has been called "the great poet of the Greek left".

Born to a well-to-do landowning family in Monemvasia, Ritsos suffered great losses as a child.

The early deaths of his mother and eldest brother from tuberculosis, his father's struggles with a mental disease, and the economic ruin of his family marked Ritsos and affected his poetry.

1927

Ritsos himself was confined in a sanatorium for tuberculosis from 1927–1931.

1934

In 1934, Ritsos joined the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).

He maintained a working-class circle of friends and published Tractor in 1934.

Kostis Palamas, the well known and respected poet, impressed by his talent, praised him publicly.

Stratis Haviaras also praised two poems (the one about Jesus and the one about Karl Marx) in his first collection Tractor (1934).

Robert Shannan Peckham described him as "perhaps Greece's greatest contemporary poet."

1935

In 1935, he published Pyramids; these two works sought to achieve a fragile balance between faith in the future, founded on the Communist ideal, and personal despair.

Tractors and Pyramids initially were not well-received by leftist critics, who found the language "too embellished" and Ritsos overly focused on form.

Notable works by Ritsos include Pyramids (1935), Epitaphios (1936; second edition, 1956), Vigil (1941–1953), Romiosini (1954) and 18 short songs of the bitter Motherland (18 λιανοτράγουδα της πικρής πατρίδας/18 Lianotragouda Tis Pikris Patridas) (1973).

1936

He was inspired for his landmark poem Epitaphios by a photo of a dead protester during a massive tobacco-workers demonstration in Thessaloniki in May 1936.

Published the same year, it broke with the shape of the Greek traditional popular poetry and expressed in clear and simple language a message of the unity of all people.

In August 1936, the right-wing dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas came to power and Epitaphios was burned publicly at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens.

Ritsos responded by taking his work in a different direction.

He began to explore the conquests of surrealism through the domain of dreams, surprising associations, explosions of images and symbols, a lyricism illustrative of the anguish of the poet, and both tender and bitter souvenirs.

1937

During this period Ritsos published The Song of my Sister (1937) and Symphony of the Spring (1938).

1938

In a review of Selected Poems: 1938-1988, James Erdman argued,

"To my ear, many of these selections are simply short prose works, lacking the concentration of the best poetry. The pieces of ancient history and mythology from Repetitions such as 'The Graves of Our Ancestors,' 'Alcmene,' 'Philometa,' and 'Achilles After Death' seem among the better efforts. [...] he often uses dream imagery, which can be effective in small doses but soon grows monotonous: not all concepts can be expressed in images. [...] But Ritsos is also capable of writing with great power. His best poem is 'Romiosini,' a lengthy paean to the spirit of the Greek Resistance."Ted Sampson stated that Louis Aragon's declaration about Ritsos was "hyperbolic", but wrote that the poet still "excelled in brief epigrammatic utterances as well as in extended lyrics, sequences, and verse dramas of astonishing imagistic and thematic originality—to say nothing of their latent emotional intensity".

1941

During the Axis occupation of Greece (1941–1945) Ritsos became a member of the EAM (National Liberation Front) and authored several poems for the Greek Resistance.

1945

These include a booklet of poems dedicated to the resistance leader Aris Velouchiotis, written immediately upon the latter's death on 16 June 1945.

1946

Ritsos also supported the Left in the subsequent Civil War (1946-1949); in 1948 he was arrested and spent four years in prison camps.

1950

In the 1950s Epitaphios, set to music by Mikis Theodorakis, became the anthem of the Greek Left.

Epitaphios became an anthem of the Greek left in the 1950s, and his best-known work.

Ritsos won the first Greek state poetry award for Moonlight Sonata:

"I know that each one of us travels to love alone, alone to faith and to death. I know it. I've tried it. It doesn't help. Let me come with you."

Some offer more measured praise.

1967

In 1967 he was arrested by the Papadopoulos dictatorship and sent to a prison camp in Gyaros, later to Samos and finally Lemnos.

Today, Ritsos is considered one of the great Greek poets of the twentieth century, alongside Konstantinos Kavafis, Kostas Kariotakis, Angelos Sikelianos, Giorgos Seferis, and Odysseas Elytis.

The French poet Louis Aragon once said that Ritsos was "the greatest poet of our age."

Pablo Neruda declared him to be more deserving of the Nobel Prize for Literature than himself.

Ritsos was unsuccessfully proposed nine times for it.

1975

When he won the Lenin Peace Prize in 1975, he declared "this prize is more important for me than the Nobel."

His poetry was banned at times in Greece due to his left wing beliefs.

1985

Ritsos is also a Golden Wreath Laureate of the Struga Poetry Evenings for 1985.

2014

His daughter, Eri, was a candidate for the European Parliament with KKE in the elections of 25 May 2014.