THE MODERNIST GREEK poet Tasos Livaditis first appeared amongst us a century ago in one of the planet's most storied jurisdictions. Because its narrative is often the first chapter in many a history, schoolkids throughout the West know the Hellenic Republic as the cradle of civilization, learning early in life to associate its geography at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, on the southernmost tip of the Balkans, with the likes of Plato, Aristotle Socrates, Homer, Sappho, and Alexander the Great; with the Olympic Games and the Peloponnesian War; and with a canon of mythologies that have played a leading role in the development of world literature. One wonders if the poet being birthed from such hallowed stock - in the shadow of, so to speak - was a blessing, a curse, or none of the above.