What creates the power and unique charm of the works of Nikos Kavvadias is, of course, first and foremost a special, completely original sensitivity, and together an equally original - unprecedented, at least as a whole - mythology and an endless series of unforgettable images, through which this mythology is expressed.
This book proposes a synthetic approach to the entire work of Kavvadias, including scattered texts, both poetic and prose, which have not been included in collections, and gives central place to Vardia. By examining the various motifs and episodes, as well as more external elements, such as mottos, titles, dedications, and comparing the texts among themselves, it arrives at a finer reading of certain themes (e.g. the close relationship, in advance, of the journey with death), but above all it observes an organization of thematic units around the core of guilt. Thus, in the poet's work, colors and painting are related to the world of prostitution and sin, they are subsumed in the myth of the forbidden gaze, and on the other hand confession and the search for truth are inseparable from the permanent undermining of truth, phenomena that also belong to the myth of Oedipus.
The entire work of Kavvadias is governed by an unbearable guilt. The bloody element is strongly present in his work and takes, as is natural, peculiar forms. In general, the world of transgression is expressed through a rich complex of myths, most of which, while playing an important role in the mythical whole, appear only allusively, or simply emerge objectively from the events, without any insinuation. This knot precisely expresses the poet's fundamental guilt, its source and its various aspects, and explains the presence of syphilis and decay, and the universally present disgust. [...]