The Sisyphean Representation in the Literature of the Greek Renaissance

During the first seventy years of the sixteenth century, Cyprus and Crete were both under Venetian rule, which created strong cultural connections and encouraged their engagement with the Italian Renaissance. This shared context contributed to the development of a distinct Greek Renaissance literary tradition.

In Cyprus, the literary Renaissance character of the island is primarily reflected in a single surviving lyric collection of Petrarchan poems written in the Cypriot dialect. In Crete, although no comparable lyrical collection survives, several dramas in the Cretan dialect and a romance constitute the main corpus of Renaissance literature. Comparative analysis of Cypriot lyric poetry and Cretan texts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries reveals significant affinities in motifs and imagery.

Building on three decades of research that has identified both parallels and divergences between these traditions, this seminar will first outline the historical and cultural background of the Cypriot and Cretan Renaissance and discuss the major themes of Greek Renaissance literature. It will then focus on representations of the ancient Sisyphean archetype as a metaphor for enduring existential struggle in Cypriot and Cretan texts, an aspect that has not previously been explored, interpreted through relevant Renaissance Neoplatonic philosophical treatises.