The concept of passion in Alexandros Papadiamantistranslated

In our previous work we talked about the meaning of "passion" in the Orthodox tradition, the main exponent of which in our country was our great Alexandros Papadiamantis.

By Dimitris Ioannou (Philologist – Author)

The son of a priest and a resident of a deeply religious society, which had indeed been strongly influenced by the "Kollyvadi" tradition, it was impossible not to analyze the nature of this concept, as he possessed a rare literary talent. We will try to briefly analyze what it says about it.

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So Papadiamantis, even though, as we said, he lives on a deeply religious island, he does not idealize its inhabitants at all. His Skiathos is a real human society and the islanders are tormented by all the great passions that torment man in general, wherever he is. Thus, his heroes do not lack psychological obsessions, envy, avarice, alcoholism, carnal excesses, etc. All this multitude of passions is present in his work.

However, these heroes are not treated with any moral rigor or condemnation. Papadiamantis sees passions exactly as mental illnesses,…