The war between Christianity and paganism in the writings of Constantine Cavafy

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The aim of my article is to give a full analysis of the image of war between Christianity and paganism created by Cavafy in his writings. Firstly I provide a necessary background. I briefly present the most important studies on the subject and discuss general division of Cavafy’s poetry. It is essential to note here that to support my point of view I make use not only of the writings included into the Canon but also of so called “Unfinished poems” discovered by famous scholar George Savidis after Cavafy’s death in the poet’s archive. I treat them as a whole, because I strongly believe that “Unfinished poems” in every respect show as high level of poetical craftsmanship as those included into the Canon. Moreover I am convinced that those two groups read against each other additionally provide new contexts and new perspectives, so that the poet’s intentions become easier to identify. Secondly I investigate the development of the war motif itself looking at it from three different points of view. I provide its analysis in the context of so called Cavafy’s Julian poems and challenge Bowersock’s and Hopkins’s reading of poet’s attitude towards Julian. I also answer Bowersock’s question why did Cavafy when depicting Julian’s life completely omitted such crucial and interesting events like proclamation of Julian in Paris or Chalcedon trial. I argue here that the poet makes use of Julian’s figure just as an excuse to investigate the very nature of the conflict itself, so that he concentrates only on those events which might have had an impact on his future choice to apostatize. Moving forward I change my perspective and investigate the way the motif of religious conflict functions within the group of poems describing men’s spiritual condition. I depict the conflict of hedonism and asceticism that preoccupied Cavafy throughout his life and wonder to what extent the war of different values could have been a cause of emotional disorders described by the poet in his writings. Furthermore I focus my attention on poems in which the emotional distress is accompanied by homosexual element. I investigate the way the motif functions within the poet’s writings and expose areas where it corresponds to Greek tradition. Finally I dwell on supernatural phenomena that frequently appear in Cavafy’s poems of mature period. I see them as a fulfillment of the vision of religious war between Christianity and paganism created by the poet in his writings.