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==Biography==
Seferis was born in [[Smyrna]] in [[Asia Minor]] (now [[Izmir|İzmir]], [[Turkey]]). His father, Stelios Seferiadis, was a lawyer, and later a professor at the [[University of Athens]], as well as a poet and translator in his own right. He was also a staunch [[Venizelism|Venizelist]] and a supporter of the [[Modern Greek|demotic]] [[Greek language]] over the formal, official language ([[katharevousa]]). Both of these attitudes influenced his son. In [[1914]] the family moved to [[Athens]], where Seferis completed his secondary school education. He continued his studies in Paris from [[1918]] to [[1925]], studying law at the Sorbonne. While he was there, in September [[1922]], Smyrna was occupied by the Turks and its Greek population, including Seferis' family, fled. Seferis would not visit Smyrna again until [[1950]]; the sense of being an exile from his childhood home would inform much of Seferis' poetry, showing itself particularly in his interest in the story of [[Odysseus]].
Married Maria Zannou ('Maro') on 10th April 1941.
In exile with the Greek government in Egypt and South Africa during the [[Second World War]].
Seferis was greatly influenced by [[Constantine P. Cavafy|Kavafis]], [[T. S. Eliot]] and [[Ezra Pound]].
===Cyprus===
Seferis first visited [[Cyprus]] in 1952. He immediately fell in love with the island, partly because of its resemblance, in its landscape, the mixture of populations, and in its traditions, to his childhood summer home in Skala. His book of poems ''Imerologio Katastromatos III'' was inspired by the island, and mostly written there – bringing to an end a period of six or seven years in which Seferis had not produced any poetry. Its original title was ''Cyprus, where it was ordained for me…'', a quotation from [[Euripides]]’ ''[[Helen]]'', in which Helen’s brother [[Teucer]] states that [[Apollo]] has decreed that Cyprus shall be his home; it made clear the optimistic sense of homecoming Seferis felt on discovering the island. Seferis changed the title in the [[1959]] edition of his poems.
Politically, Cyprus was entangled in the dispute between the [[UK]], [[Greece]] and [[Turkey]] over its international status. Over the next few years, Seferis made use of his position in the diplomatic service to strive towards a resolution of the [[Cyprus dispute]], investing a great deal of personal effort and emotion. This was one of the few areas in his life in which he allowed the personal and the political to mix.
===The Nobel Prize===
In [[1967]] the repressive nationalist, right-wing [[Greek military junta of 1967-1974|Regime of the Colonels]] took power in Greece after a coup d'état. After two years marked by widespread censorship, political detentions and torture, Seferis took a stand against the regime. On 28 March 1969, he made a statement on the BBC World Service [http://pieiria.spark.net.gr/tutor/Sefdilosi.htm], with copies simultaneously distributed to every newspaper in Athens. In authoritative and absolute terms, he stated "This anomaly must end".
Seferis did not live to see the end of the junta in [[1974]], the direct result of [[Turkey]]’s Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus, which had been prompted by the junta’s attempt to overthrow Cyprus’ Archbishop [[Makarios]].
At his funeral, huge crowds followed his coffin through the streets of Athens, singing [[Mikis Theodorakis]]’ setting of Seferis’ poem 'Denial' (then banned); he had become a popular hero for his resistance to the regime.
