Minas Dimakis () (20 April 1913,

Heraklion Heraklion or Herakleion ( ; , , ), sometimes Iraklion, is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in G ...

Cretan State The Cretan State (; ) was an autonomous state governing the island of Crete from 1898 to 1913, under ''de jure'' suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire but with ''de facto'' independence secured by European Great Powers. In 1897, the Cretan Revolt (18 ...

- 1980,

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

poet.

Biography

Minas Dimakis was born 1913 in

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

, to Georgios Dimakis, a tradesman, and Maria Metaxaki. After his father's death in 1917, his mother got married again to Athanasios Spanoudakis with whom she had two more children: Ekaterini and Eleonora. His mother died in 1921. From 1919 to 1924 he studied at the lyceum ''O Korais'' and in 1930 he finished his high school studies at the Heraklion Gymnasium. He worked at the family enterprises till 1936, who were involved in the trade of grapes, and later was employed at the city's tourism office of Heraklion. In 1935 he published on his own his first copy of ''Leaves of Art'' (''Φύλλα Τέχνης''), a literary magazine that included poems and translations. Starting on 1937 he worked for the

Bank of Greece The Bank of Greece ( , ) is the national central bank for Greece within the Eurosystem. It was the Greek central bank from 1927 to 2000, issuing the drachma. Since 2014, it has also been Greece's national competent authority within European ...

in Heraklion, and in 1943 he was transferred to

, where he worked till 1959 when he decided to retire to dedicate his time to literature. During the

Axis occupation of Greece The occupation of Greece by the Axis Powers () began in April 1941 after Nazi Germany Battle of Greece, invaded the Kingdom of Greece in order to assist its ally, Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Italy, in their Greco-Italian War, ongoing war that w ...

, he collaborated with the National Liberation Front. He published critical essays for the ''Mesimvrini'' (''Μεσημβρινή'') newspaper between 1966 and 1967. Among the literary awards he obtained stand out the Second State Award of Poetry in 1960 and the Academy Award in Essay in 1973. Minás Dimákis committed suicide in Athens in 1980.Dimákis, Minás
"Lo pasado,"
''La Jornada Semanal'' 678, Mexico City: March 2, 2008.

References

1913 births 1980 suicides Writers from Heraklion People from the Cretan State Greek male poets National Liberation Front (Greece) members Suicides in Greece 20th-century Greek poets 1980 deaths {{Greece-poet-stub