Phaedra Metaxa
Phaedra Metaxa | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Phaedra Metaxa, 1944 | |
| Born | Phaedra Metaxa 22 May 1911 Photia, Xevden |
| Died | 6 March 1989 (aged 77) Tes Eratous, Elena, Gylias |
| Pen name | Pandora Megale |
| Occupation |
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| Language | Hellene |
| Genre | Modernism |
Phaedra Metaxa (Hellene: Φαίδʀα Μεταξά; 22 May 1911 – 6 March 1989) was a Gylian poet, writer, translator, intellectual, and activist. She was one of the most significant Gylian modernist poets, with a style characterised by economy, precision of imagery, and clear language. She was once described by Anaïs Nin as being "to literature what Tamara Łempicka is to painting".
Phaedra was influenced by various contemporary modernist movements, particularly Imagism and Futurism. She wrote almost exclusively in Hellene, and was known for her masterful command and use of ancient Hellene literature, which influenced her idiosyncratic use of language. Best-known for her poetry, she also wrote prose and non-fiction.
In parallel with her literary career, Phaedra was a prominent intellectual, activist, and politician in the Free Territories, being one of the longest-serving members of the General Council. She advocated Mousaikratia (Μοῦσαικρατία; "museocracy"), a polity that would be governed by artists, with an Academy as its highest organ. During the Golden Revolution, her influence manifested in the establishment of artists' colonies and academy towns.
Following the transition from the Free Territories to Gylias, she was a long-serving member of the Gylian Senate, where she was a member of the fine arts salon. She ran for the presidency in 1986, but did not reach the final round. She died three years later in Tes Eratous, the artist colony she had founded.
Early life
Phaedra Metaxa was born on 22 May 1911 in Photia, a Hellene-majority settlement today part of Tomes. Her father was a good-humoured, functionally illiterate fisherman, and her mother was a sharp-tongued and witty fishmonger and street vendor, who dominated the family with her colourful personality.
Her childhood was shaped by a familial feud. Her father's side of the family had converted to salvationism to gain Xevdenite citizenship, and were ostracised by the mother's side that remained staunchly Olympianists. She was educated at home by her mother, whose methods would incite her imagination. Decades later, she recounted the effect in a letter to Violet Bonham:
"My mother wouldn't just bring me immemorial poems to read; she would recite them also, and loved to argue with them. She would yell at the Olympians whenever they committed stupidities, insult writers for their misogyny—Hesiod is lucky he never met her—, and tell me I had to have an opinion on what I read—'you can be stupid on the Asphodel Meadows!' Sometimes I paid more attention to how she verbally brutalised the poems than the poems themselves..."
Her home education was complemented by a clandestine education, where she also learned French and studied other languages. Although her name was spelled in Hellene as Φαίδʀα Phaidra, she preferred romanising it as the more Latinate "Phaedra", saying that it "looked poetic".
Literary career
Phaedra began writing poetry at the age of 11. She published her first poem at the age of 17, in a local Hellene newspaper. Her first poetry collection was published in 1934. In compiling the collection, she maintained strict standards, using only 35 out of the 200 poems she had written up to that point. The book received positive reviews and the first edition quickly sold out, establishing her reputation as a striking young writer.
The beginning of her career coincided with a brief period of liberalisation known as the 1400 Days' Reform. Although she sympathised with the reformist aims of the Varnaþ family, she felt they would not be enough, and she joined the Gylian resistance. Her third poetry collection, published in 1937, anticipated the coming "dark storm" of the Liberation War, juxtaposing quotations from ancient Hellene epic poetry with stark, modernist depictions of war.
Phaedra moved to the Free Territories after the General Declaration of 12 March 1938, remaining there until the liberation of Elena. She would later recall this in poetry as one of the happiest times of her life — despite the challenges of the Free Territories, she loved the atmosphere of solidarity and freedom, and felt safer due to the distance from the front line. In this environment, she revisited the self-described "naïve poems by a frivolous girl" that made up her first poetry collection, and refined their style.
Phaedra's mature style was based on clarity. She favoured precision of imagery, clear language, and concrete rather than abstract imagery. Her main influences in this regard were Imagism and the economy of the haiku. She also drew on other contemporary movements such as Futurism on occasion, but preferred to remain "beholden to no school, method, or teacher".
She strongly believed in compactness of form as an ideal — many of her poems contained only 1–2 verses, with some as short as 1 or 2 lines. In her books aimed at children, she was particularly fond of free verse, calligrams, and concrete poetry.
She was proficient in both ancient and modern Hellene, and could easily move between them in writing. The Current writes that she "was equally capable of vigorous and earthy language, urban polish, playful wit, and sublime poetry". As one of the country's best-known Hellene writers, she served on the Languages Board and took part in the Gylian languages reform of 1958–1959. However, she playfully chided the reforms of Hellene in her writings, seeing their archaising purism as ludicrous.
In addition to poetry, she wrote prose, screenplays, and non-fiction, including essays and literary criticism. She was particularly noted for her collaborations with fellow Hellene cultural figures like Reda Kazan and Alike Demetriou. Some of her politically-charged and satirical writings were published under the pseudonym Pandora Megale (Παɴδώʀα Μεγάλη; "Great Pandora" or "great all-giving"), which fulfilled a similar function for her as Madame Rouge did for Angeline Dalles.
Political career
Phaedra's artistic career and aristocratic manners contributed to a reputation as a leading cultural figure in the Free Territories. She became involved in communal assemblies, leading to a political and public career parallel with her literary one.
Phaedra was arguably best-known for her advocacy of mousaikratia (Μοῦσαικρατία), or "museocracy" — an ideal of a polity run by direct democracy but with artists in a leading role, and an Academy as its highest organ. She jokingly referenced Plato's Republic in commenting on her ideal, arguing that "philosophers are terrible leaders, because they may have wisdom but can't appreciate beauty — they would create Kakistopolis sooner than Kallipolis."
Owing to her stature, mousaikratia gained popularity during the Liberation War as an appealing vision of the post-war society, competing with anarchism and Donatellism. It mainly manifested itself during the Golden Revolution in the establishment of artists' colonies — including Phaedra's own Tes Eratous — and academy towns. It also served as an influence on aristerokratia.
For her part, Phaedra welcomed the influence, and befriended aristerokratia theorists Ser Şanorin and Sima Daián. Her theories of mousaikratia would also play a role in the successful process to reform the Gylian Senate in the 1990s.
Phaedra ran for the newly-established Senate in the 1962 federal election. She was elected as an independent candidate for Elena. She would go on to win four further elections, serving in the Senate until her death.
In the Senate, she was a member of the fine arts salon, and was known for her service on the Permanent Committee on Culture, Arts and Leisure. She had a broadly left-wing profile in the Senate, but refused to commit herself to a particular label or ideology. She stated during one debate:
"I favour whichever form of social organisation produces the greatest well-being and happiness for the most people. Today, that is socialism, but if tomorrow were found another form that is superior in achieving well-being and happiness, I will support it wholeheartedly."
Phaedra was famed for her tireless championing of Hellene culture, a cause she approached with tongue-in-cheek. She was fond of quoting classics such as the Iliad, Odyssey, or Theogony in her Senate speeches — fellow salon member Margot Fontaine joked that "it wasn't a debate on agricultural policy until Phaedra quoted Works and Days."
She also frequently recited and read ancient Hellene texts in public and on GNBS and ATV Elena programmes. Her style of recitation, influenced by her mother's irony-laden approach, contributed to their popularity. Her humorous methods of activism were heavily influential on francité founders Françoise Chatelain, Renée Gaulloise, and Éliane La Gylienne.
One of her last high-profile public acts was running for the presidency in 1986. She promised to "heal the nation" amidst the wretched decade and make poetry "the foundation of public life". She finished third in the first count, and was eliminated before the final count.
Death
Phaedra suffered a heart attack and was hospitalised in late 1988. She died of heart failure on 6 March 1989, in her house in Tes Eratous.
Private life
Phaedra was married twice, both marriages ending in divorce, and entered a civil union with one partner that lasted until his death. She had one child.
Regarding her religion, she stated she was "Dodekatheist by background and secular by temperament". Her acquaintances Alike Demetriou and Ludmila Canaşvili, both more intensely spiritual, recalled that Phaedra was "equally capable of invoking the Olympians and laughing at their myths as dirty tall tales".
Nevertheless, Phaedra was a strong opponent of monotheism, to the point that she criticised the Law on Religion of 1959 for being too lenient, and harboured a strong dislike of Syara, seeing Makedon as an origin of Hellenes that had abandoned its heritage and been completely Slavicised.