author
Argyris Eftaliotis
1849–1923
A key voice in modern Greek literature, this writer helped bring everyday spoken Greek into poetry and prose. His work is closely tied to Lesbos, exile, and the lives of ordinary people.
3 Audiobooks
Η μαζώχτρα κι άλλες ιστορίες Ο Βουρκόλακας - Δράμα
by Argyris Eftaliotis
Ιστορία της Ρωμιοσύνης, Πρώτος τόμος
by Argyris Eftaliotis
Φυλλάδες του Γεροδήμου
by Argyris Eftaliotis
About the author
Born Kleanthis Michailidis in Molyvos on the island of Lesbos in 1849, he wrote under the pen name Argyris Eftaliotis. He was a Greek poet and prose writer, and sources describe him as an important supporter of writing in Demotic Greek, the spoken form of the language.
After early financial pressures, he worked in trade and spent many years away from Greece, including time connected with the Ralli Brothers business. That experience of distance from home shaped both his outlook and his writing, and his 1889 poetry collection Songs of the Exile brought him wider notice.
Eftaliotis is especially remembered for prose rooted in island life and for helping form a more natural modern Greek literary style. He died in France in 1923, but he remains closely associated with Lesbos and with the broader movement that reshaped modern Greek literature.