Yannis Makriyannis - Athens, Greece
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 37° 58.159 E 023° 43.803
34S E 739813 N 4205927
Yannis Makriyannis, famed for his memoirs, was a Greek merchant, military officer and politician.
Waymark Code: WMPFKT
Location: Greece
Date Posted: 08/23/2015
Views: 12
This sculpture is located at the foot of the Acropolis...just a few steps from the Metro Station. It depicts a life-sized man wearng a Greek kilt, jacket and turban. He holds a curved sword to the ground with his right hand Another blade is tucked in a belt pocket. It is set on a marble block inscribed with his name in Greek and the years of his life "1797 - 1864".
Wikipedia (
visit link) adds:
"General Yannis Makriyannis ... 1797–1864), born Ioannis Triantaphyllos ..., was a Greek merchant, military officer, politician and author, best known today for his Memoirs. Starting from humble origins, he joined the Greek struggle for independence, achieving the rank of general and leading his men to notable victories. Following Greek independence, he had a tumultuous public career, playing a prominent part in the granting of the first Constitution of the Kingdom of Greece and later being sentenced to death and pardoned.
Despite his important contributions to the political life of the early Greek state, general Makriyannis is mostly remembered for his Memoirs. Aside from being a source of historical and cultural information about the period, this work has also been called a "monument of Modern Greek literature", as it is written in pure Demotic Greek. Indeed, its literary quality led Nobel laureate Giorgos Seferis to call Makriyannis one of the greatest masters of Modern Greek prose."