Poe in Greece

Edgar Allan Poe has always been among the most criticized authors and poets in English-speaking countries. His works have over the years been judged as 'strange', or even as 'juvenile' in several occasions. In fact, Rufus Griswold took this criticism one step further by arguing that Poe was paranoid and dangerous. All Poe scholars and readers of his works outside the US should perhaps thank Charles Baudelaire for discovering him, translating him, even though he also plagiarized and borrowed ideas from the Bostonian's tales and poems in many instances. He did, however, make Poe renowned in France. It was this 'French love' for Poe that made the American author famous in Europe as well. Ever since, Poe influenced many, including Jules Verne, Oscar Wilde, Vladimir Nabokov and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Greece could not escape Poe's growing recognition. Emmanuel Rhoides was the first who translated his works based on Baudelaire's edition, and this Greek writer and journalist never concealed his affection for Poe's tales and poems. Rhoides' example was then followed by many: Pericles Yannopoulos, Apostolos Melahrinos, Napoleon Lapathiotes, Mitsos Papanikolaou et al. Even today, Poe is among the most translated authors in Greece. Nonetheless, despite the tremendous interest in his storytelling, there are merely a few Greek scholars who noticed that a Hellenic influence is indeed present in the majority of Poe's works. In fact, a systematic research that delves into these Hellenic motifs has never been undertaken, to my knowledge. It seems surprising, especially if one considers that Poe regularly lied about having travelled to the land of the Hellenes.