Angelos Sikelianos

Angelos Sikelianós, born on Lefkada in 1884, was as romantically handsome as a lyric poet should be.

Although he followed his parents’ wishes by going to law school in Athens, he left after a couple of years to join a theatre company with two of his sisters, Helen and Penelope. Penelope married Raymond Duncan, the brother of Isadora Duncan, and through him Sikelianós met his own American spouse, Eva Palmer, who also loved women, and ancient Greece, and had striking red hair that went down to the floor. In 1909, she gave birth to their son Glafkos.

They shared an interest in recreating the mythic passion and power of ancient Greece, in active artistic expression. Sikelianós did his part by writing startling lyrical poetry, infused with Dionysian mysticism, yearning to join the world of the gods to the world of men. Eva promoted musical traditions in danger of dying out, and reviving traditional weaving and textiles with the aim of making Greece independent from western manufacturers.