Solitude, Art, and Immortality: C.P. Cavafy, the Modern Homer | Alexandrian Sphinx
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C.P. Cavafy, now celebrated as one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, lived most of his life in obscurity in Alexandria: a recluse who wrote slowly, endlessly revised his own work, and published only for a small circle of friends. Today his poems travel across the world — spoken at funerals, studied in universities, and quoted by heads of state.
In this episode of The Artidote Podcast, Vashik Armenikus speaks with Gregory Jusdanis and Peter Jeffreys, authors of Alexandrian Sphinx: The Life of C.P. Cavafy — the first major biography that reveals the hidden man behind the myth and asks what drove him to choose solitude over fame.
Together we ask a question at the heart of Cavafy’s life:
What does it mean to give everything to art — and nothing to applause?
This conversation explores:
📍 How Cavafy turned loneliness into a source of creative power
📍 The price he paid for privacy and the meaning he found in silence
📍 Why poems like The City, Myris: Alexandria, A.D. 340, and Ithaca still speak to our century
📍 How cities shape identity and why we can’t escape ourselves by changing places
📍 The dramatic story of co-authoring his biography — disagreement, discovery, and the archive
In this conversation you’ll hear:
🏛 How The City expresses the haunting power of place and the impossibility of escape
⚱️ Why Myris captures grief, friendship, and religious divide at the edge of Late Antiquity
🎨 How I Brought to Art distills Cavafy’s belief that art refines and perfects life
🔥 Why Cavafy burned his early work and rewrote his poems until the end of his life
🌍 How a private poet with only 200 readers became a world voice after his death
If you’ve ever wondered how an artist becomes immortal — not through fame but through endurance — this episode is for you.
