Η Εκάτη του Κοσμά Πολίτη ή το φως και το σκοτάδι = Kosmas Politis’ Hekate or the light and the darkness

Kosmas Politis’ second novel Hecate (Modern story) (1933) received mostly negative reviews. Critics of the time didn’t even suspect its intertextual dialogue with the platonic Symposium and most of them didn’t wonder about the meaning of its title and subtitle. Perhaps Politis expected too much of its readers; i.e., that they have sufficient knowledge of the enigmatic ancient Greek goddess Hecate in order to understand the metaphorical function of the novel’s title, which designates the critical moment of a modern interwar intellectual who found himself on a threshold, hopelessly searching for inspiration in beautiful women’s bodies, before taking refuge in abstract ideas.