Jean Moréas

(pseudonym of lannis Papadiamantopoulos). Born Apr. 15, 1856, in Athens; died Mar. 30, 1910, in St. Mandé (Paris), department of Seine. French poet of Greek origin.

In 1882, Moréas settled in Paris. His first collections of poetry in French, Les Syrtes (1884) and Les Cantilenes (1886), were written in the symbolist style. Moreas was the first to use the term “symbolism” and his “Symbolist Manifesto” (1886) expounded the principles of this new literary movement. Later, in 1891, he founded the ecole romane, which was the first manifestation of neoclassicism in French modernist poetry. Moreas appealed for a return to “French lucidity,” which had been abandoned by the symbolists; as models he proposed the poetry of the Pleiade and 17th-century French poetry. Moreas’ most important work is his seven books of Stances (1899–1901; seventh book published 1920).