MOREAS, JEAN

born April 15, 1856, Athens, Greece died March 31, 1910, Paris, France pseudonym of Ynnis Papadiamantpoulos Greek-born poet who played a leading part in the French Symbolist movement. Early inspired by a French governess who instilled in him a passion for French poetry, Moras moved to Paris in 1879, becoming a familiar figure in the literary circles frequenting the cafs and in the literary pages of newspapers and reviews. He published two manifestos, one in XIXe Sicle (Aug. 11, 1885) and one in the literary supplement of Le Figaro (Sept. 18, 1886), that helped establish the name Symbolism for the movement that was growing out of and replacing Decadence. In 1886 he founded the periodical Le Symbolist. Before Moras immigrated to France, he published one volume of verse, Tourterelles et vipres (1878; Turtledoves and Vipers), in Greek and French. His first wholly French volumes, Les Syrtes (1884) and Les Cantilnes (1886), were firmly embedded in the Decadent and Symbolist aesthetics. In the preface to Le Plerin passion (1891; The Passionate Pilgrim), however, Moras began to foresake Symbolism; there he called for a return to the spirit of classicism. Moras founded the cole romane (Roman school) and, with his disciples Raymond de la Tailhde, Maurice du Plessys, Ernest Raynaud, and Charles Maurras, reverted to classical forms and subject matter; free verse was abandoned and classical sources of inspiration were used. none au clair visage (1893) and Eriphyle (1894) are representative of Moras' work during this period; along with other poems, they were later collected as Pomes et sylves, 18861896 (1907; Poems and Forests). Moras wrote a verse play, Iphignie Aulide (1903), which was closely inspired by Euripides and which met with considerable success when presented in the thtre antique of Orange and subsequently on the stage of the Odon in Paris. In Moras' last work, Les Stances (18991920; The Stanzas), his intellectual development is chronicled with a vigorous yet melancholy classicism.