KYRIAKOS CHARALAMBIDES AND THE HOUSE OF ATREUS: FOUR POEMS

In this article I examine the reception of Greek tragic myth in the work of Greek-Cypriot poet Kyriakos Charalambides (1940-). Classical literature, myth, and history are staples of Charalambides� poetry. Especially from �Meta-History� (1995) onwards, (tragic) myth and history, now a dominant thematics, are used as instruments for exploring disquieting issues of destiny and identity, increasingly distanced from the specifics of Cyprus. In his most recent collections (�Desire�, 2012, and �In the Language of Weaving�, 2013) Charalambides puts myth and tragedy in the service of almost purely aesthetic and metaliterary concerns. In the second part of the article, by way of example, I offer close readings of a group of poems that concern the House of Atreus, the most populated group of tragedy-related poems in Charalambides. In chronological order, I discuss: from �Meta-History� (1995), �Ardana II�; from �Quince Apple� (2006), �Clytemnestra, Dreaming and Waking�; from �Desire� (2012), �Agamemnon�; and from �In the Language of Weaving� (2013), �Orestes�. � 2014, Crete University Press. All rights reserved.