The imagery of Hellas in Slovene literature
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The article discusses the presence of Hellas in the last 150 years of the
Slovene literature. First of all, Greece is described as an ally of Illyria (= Slovenia) in Vodnik’s poem «Illyria Revived» (1811). Then, there are numerous images of Greek landscape and mythology in the poetry of the greatest Slovene poet France Prešeren (1800-1849). His contemporary, the famous philologist Jerne j Kopitar, had frequent contacts with the Greek emigrants, living in Vienna, and is known for his lively interest in revival of the new Greek literature and for his prophetical vision of renewd Hellas. He considered the developement of Greek dialects and the process of their amalgamation into a κοινή to be a model for an analogous developement of the Slavic languages. The collection of poems «Acropolis and Pyramids» (1909) by Anton Aškerc can be defined as a versified Baedecker through Greece. The dark image of Byzantium in the novel «Under the Free Sunshine» (by F. S. Finžgar, 1906-7) can be explained by the actual political back-ground. At the same time, there are also echoes of the Hellenic culture in Slovenian architecture, literary criticism and theology. In the post-war period, collections of poems with subjects,
taken from the Hellenic world, were published. The novel «In Sibyl’s Wind» (1968) by Alojz Rebula excells in beautiful poetic descriptions of Greece, which grow organically out of the author’s philosophy.
Slovene literature. First of all, Greece is described as an ally of Illyria (= Slovenia) in Vodnik’s poem «Illyria Revived» (1811). Then, there are numerous images of Greek landscape and mythology in the poetry of the greatest Slovene poet France Prešeren (1800-1849). His contemporary, the famous philologist Jerne j Kopitar, had frequent contacts with the Greek emigrants, living in Vienna, and is known for his lively interest in revival of the new Greek literature and for his prophetical vision of renewd Hellas. He considered the developement of Greek dialects and the process of their amalgamation into a κοινή to be a model for an analogous developement of the Slavic languages. The collection of poems «Acropolis and Pyramids» (1909) by Anton Aškerc can be defined as a versified Baedecker through Greece. The dark image of Byzantium in the novel «Under the Free Sunshine» (by F. S. Finžgar, 1906-7) can be explained by the actual political back-ground. At the same time, there are also echoes of the Hellenic culture in Slovenian architecture, literary criticism and theology. In the post-war period, collections of poems with subjects,
taken from the Hellenic world, were published. The novel «In Sibyl’s Wind» (1968) by Alojz Rebula excells in beautiful poetic descriptions of Greece, which grow organically out of the author’s philosophy.
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