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Gikas, one of the most important artists of the Generation of the 1930s, one of the innovators of the spiritual and cultural profile of mid- and post-war Greece, mainly belongs to the cubist movement, the synthetic phase of cubism in particular, ase he encountered it in Paris, during his studies during the years 1925-1935, following his own sense of an inner architecture. What is important in synthetic cubism is the depiction of light as well as geometry and its basic forms: triangle, pyramid, cone, sphere, quadrangle. Considering that geometry is the structural essence of painting, Gikas will inevitably be drawn to the culture to Egypt. He will travel to Egypt and then he will write essays on the Birth of Modem Art, where he will comment on the importance of the Egyptian culture, compared to the other cultures of the East. He has pointed out the eternal character of the works of art found in this culture, in which geometry relates to religious education and the position of man within nature. The depiction of human beings in a cube form, as for instance we see in the Temple of Ammon Ra in Camak, which is, a pure geometrical form, to the thinking of Gikas is a statement of metaphysics, an awesome abstraction as well as a supernatural identity. The quadrangle or the cross, within the context of two-dimensional painting is crucial in his painting. In his painting Sails and Musts of 1932, the main idea is the binary relation of movement and immobility: the moving boats and the immobile harbour. The curves of the boats and their sails presents movement, whereas, the horizon as well as the line of the must introduces stability and immobility. In the painting Landscape in Poros, the recflection of the mountains on the sea functions as a completely symmetrical geometrical shape. According to Gikas, an Egyptian temple can be paralleled to a cubist work of art, a modem Greek house to an ancient Egyptian one. He traces influences from Greece to Egypt in the realm of the Greek theatre as well as the orthodox tradition. According to Lawrence Durell, Gikas was deeply interested in the metaphysical tradition of Greece and Egypt, and he recalls their discussion about Hermes Trismegistos Hermes Trismegistos coincides with the Egyptian god Thoth, the founder of writing, all sciences and arts. This deity relates to hermetic philosophy as well as the thinking of the alchemists. Hermes or Thoth, the founder of Geometry is linked with the heritage of the Egyptian culture. Egypt, Crete, Mycene, Persia, Etruria as well as Byzantium form a long cultural tradition, to which the poet belongs. For Elytis, Egypt is reflected in the depiction of sepulchral portraits as well as in the orthodox rituals of the Copts. The presence of geometry in the poetry of Elytis appears as an all-power form of symmetry. The division of his poems, starting with his very first collection of poetry, Orientations, into smaller meaningful units and sections are a form of constant analogy. These relations of analogy, become more emphasized in his longer poems, like Axion Esti, or Maria Nefeli or Small Nautilus. Elytis has stated in a number of occasions the role of analogy and geometry in his poems. Geometrical divisions can also rely on textual elements, phrases, whole stanzas that are placed on the center of the poem, or even non-textual elements, f.i. graphic elements divide lines in Axion Esti, or on other occasions, the lines form a geometrical shape on the center of the page, or again, the lines are placed on the page so as to form a type of stairs, or columns etc. Geometrical shapes also form part of Elytis’ poetic imagery, coinciding with clarity, beauty and purity. In Elytis’ poetry geometry also coincides with the Greek landscape. An island can resemble a triangle, or a cone or vice versa: a dome can make nature geometrical. This relation can be ethical. The poet can be honest, white as his shirt and straight as the lines which are typical of the Cycladic islands.
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