Dionysios Romas

Dionysios Romas was born in Zakynthos on January 17^th 1906. He was the son of member and president of the Parliament Alexandros Romas, and Sofia, daughter of Christakis Zografos. He attended literature and history of art courses in Athens, Switzerland and Germany. At the same time he took up learning foreign languages (he spoke English, French, Italian and German). He was a polymath, with great desire for knowledge, and also had a great memory and remarkable ease for writing.

Upon his return to Greece, he began studying the painters of Zakynthos. At the age of 44, he married Maria Spiliotaki. He was elected Member of Parliament of Zakynthos with the party of E.R.E. twice in the elections of 1958 and 1962, and was very vibrant in the fields of theatre and radio broadcasting. More specifically, Romas introduced theatre to the radio, with his play How our National Anthem was written (1938). He wrote over 120 theatrical plays for radio broadcasting in his lifetime. Furthermore, Romas founded the Third Program of the Greek National Radio Broadcasting in 1954.

Romas’ contribution to theatre was very important, however his task found no followers. His scenic creations presented and depicted a long lost world, that of the Ionian community before its unification to the mainland of Greece in 1864. He wrote the plays Zakynthini Serenata (Serenade of Zakynthos) (1938), that was awarded the First Prize of the Greek State Theatre, Treis Kosmoi (Three Worlds) (1951), the Zambelaki (1958), O Kazanovas stin Kerkira (Casanova in Corfu) (1958), as well as the Byzantine theme play Idou o Nymphios erhetai, which was never staged. Romas also translated many theatrical plays successfully, that were staged by the National Theatre of Greece as well as other private theatrical groups of the time (Marika Kotopouli, Manos Katrakis, Lambeti, Pappas, Horn etc.). In the five year period from 1946 to 1951 he worked for the newspapers Aimos, Elliniki Pnoi, Oi Kairoi and Elfteria as a theatre critic.

Roma’s lifework was the ten-volume novel Periplous, which was characterised as a unique acquisition for Greek prose. By writing this novel, his ambition was to enact the history of three centuries of the Hellenism (1570-1870). The writer himself said of Periplous: “It is the work of a lifetime. I have been gathering the material for it for the past forty years”. He intended to write 18 volumes, but never managed to complete this ambitious plan, since his death in 1981 came first, before the completion of the novel. The famous bookshop Hestia published the following double volumes: O Soprakomitos (1967-1969), To Rembelio ton Popolaron (Revolution of the Popolari, i.e. people without the rights granted to aristocracy) (1972), O thrinos tis Candias (The mourning of Crete) (1973-1974), O Kontes (The Count) (1975-1976) and Adagio and Fuga (1981).

In 1981, he was awarded the “Medal of Letters” by the Academy of Athens for the total of his literary contribution. Three years after his death, a volume of his poems was published, with the care of editor Phaedon Bouboulidis. His poetry follows the tradition of the literary tradition of the Ionian Islands called Eptanisiaki Scholi[1] which had a powerful influence on him, whereas his theatrical plays follow the course of the description of folk lives (customs and characters of an era – also called ethography) which Gouzelis, Matesis, and later on Xenopoulos, started. He passed away in Athens, on the November 1^st 1981, leaving us with a prolific and voluminous spiritual travail.