Constantine P. Cavafy

Constantin Cavafis 1863-1933.

Born Alexandria, Ottoman Empire. Died Alexandria, Kingdom of egypt, but under strong British influence.

Perhaps his best known poem abroad is Waiting for the Barbarians(1904).

He was something of an expert on the Byzantine era, i.e. the Empire of constantinople before the Turkish conquest of 1453.

Also of more classical Greek history, for instance his poem Ithaca (1911), which starts:

When you start out for Ithaca, ask that the way should be long

Full of adventures, full of learning...(Ithaca was the home island of Ulysses).

The Greek gods
That we've broken their statues

That we've driven them out of their temples,

Doesn't mean at all that the gods are dead...

(Cavafy doesn't seem to be interested in the old Egyptian gods).

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