Odysseus Elytis (1911–1996) was born Odysseus Alepoudelis in Heraklion, Crete, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1979. His major work Axion Esti (1959), a long poem, is regarded as a national poem of Greece. His earlier collections include Orientations (1940). He studied law in Athens and spent significant periods in Paris.
