Odysseás Elytis's Conversation with Heraclitus: "Of Ephesus"

In "Of Ephesus" Odysseás Elytis drew on the teachings of Heraclitus in an attempt to disrupt our ordinary view of reality and spark an alternative vision. Among the Heraclitean teachings that figure in Elytis's poem are the doctrine of the hidden unity of the opposites, the contrast between a child's and adult's experience of the world, and the conviction that our bodily senses provide an inadequate basis for understanding the real nature of things. Elytis's use of these Heraclitean ideas reflected and confirmed the truth of his belief in the continuity of Hellenic culture over two millennia.