It is well known that on the epitaph epigram of Aeschylus, that which is gloriously accented, is not his poetic work, but his participation in the battle of Marathon and the "prosperous bravery" («ευδόκιμος αλκή») he showed. However, the case of Aeschylus is probably the most striking example of a brilliant poet taking an active part in a patriotic war. A similar example of a warrior and poet (but also bon viveur, in his youth at least) is Lorenzos Mavilis, who was killed, wearing the red uniform of the Garibaldini (red so that the blood will not be shown!) At the age of 52.
Lorentzos Mavilis was born in 1860 in Ithaca and he was of Spanish origin from his father's side. His mother was Greek, and she was originated from the noble family of Dousmanis and niece of the Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias. His grandfather was consul of Spain in Corfu, where his family was settled. This is where he spent most of his life. In appearance Lorentzos Mavilis was broad, azure eyes and blond. In 1880 he decided to go to Germany to study philology and philosophy. The study was continued for 14 years, and he was influenced by the theories of Nietzsche, “The critique of practical reason” of the rational Kant and by the voluntarist pessimist Arthur Schopenhauer. Even dealt with the sanskrit philosophical texts and translated extracts from the Indian epic Mahabharata. While in Germany he addressed the composition of lyrical poems (mainly sonnets), and chess theories and problems, published in German forms. In 1887 he entered the tournament chess in Frankfurt. Two years later (1889) took part in the chess tournament in the capital of south Silesian Wroclaw (Breslau) with the name Sillibam. In 1890 he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Erlangen.
He was a great supporter of the Megali Idea (the Idea of a Greater Greece). In 1896 Mavilis participated in the revolution of Crete, fighting with the rebels in the Cretan mountains. And in 1897 in the Turkish-Greek war gathered seventy Corfu volunteers and went to fight on the continent. In the lethal battle of Five Pigadas in Epirus he was injured in the hand. He covered himself all the costs of the campaign volunteers. In 1909 the enthusiastic messenger of revolution supported the Goudi coup and in 1910 was elected as a member of the Greek Parliament for Corfu.
As an MP, he took part in the dispute on the Greek language question. In 1911 arguing for the municipal language that he supported, as a representative and member of the review meeting in Corfu in the Greek Parliament said addressing the Language of the scholars. “Vulgar Language does not exist. There is a vulgar people, and many vulgar speakers of the Language of the scholars”. (“No 7515 of the debates in the House’, B’ Revisionist House, 1911, p. 689, meeting 36).
With the outbreak of the Balkan Wars in 1912, despite his advanced age (he was 52), he decided to join the army. He became chief of a group Garibaldini volunteers from Italy (the Garibaldini revolutionaries intervened in favor of any people fighting for their freedom. The war of Greece immediately became the new purpose of the battalion. The Italian Government, however, had an opposite view. Garibaldi tried to leave Brindisi and threatened that he would beat anyone who would approach to stop him. He did not hesitate to scream "Viva Grecia!", as the press wrote) and was killed in the battle of the Driskos close in Ioannina, wounded by bullets in the face and mouth. Historians report that bullets were falling "like a hail that day" of November on the hill in Driskos. One turkish bullet finds the poet in the face. Then comes a second and finds him in his mouth. The way he is killed resembles the death of Pandaros (Iliad E 290) where the arrow directed by Athena in the hero's nose next to his eye pierced his teeth and cut his tongue. This is how another literary hero dies: Captain Mihalis of Kazantzakis, who opens his mouth and shouts "Eleftheria or …" without ending the phrase - "a bullet came in his mouth, another passed from his right temple and came out of the left." Blood-covered at the temporary military hospital operating in the chapel of Agia Paraskevi, he asked for pencil and paper. He wanted something to write, but death took him.
According to his companion his last words were:
“I was expecting honours from this war, but not the honour to sacrifice myself for Greece!”
In 1933 his bones were transferred to the monument that was set up on the fatal hill he defended. In 1967, a thunderbolt destroys the monument in Driskos and scatters the bones of the hero poet. An old lady from the village of Vasiliki, Mrs Stathi, gathers the bones that are placed in an ossuary and the State makes a new monument in the same place. A marble slab in the monument reads: LORENTZOS MAVILIS - HIEROPHANT OF THE HELLENIC IDEA
6-9-1860 / 28-11-1912
He had an erotic relationship with the poet and actress Myrtiotissa – born Theoni Drakopoulou – (1885-1968), after his dramatic death in 1912, the 27-year-old Myrtiotissa turned to poetry to express her pain.
Theoni Draκopoulou
"As a tribute to Lorentzos Mavilis,the main square at his birthplace Ithaca, has his name.
Two of his greatest poems, characterized by his pessimism and death worship:
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