Into the deep fir forest of Maenalus, which looks like a jungle, there's the small village called Elati. One of the ten residents left in the village, is Leonidas Zafeiropoulos, the man who has raised a flag portraying Theodoros Kolokotronis at the entrance of his shop.

Songs during food and wine

Leonidas sings rare songs about Kolokotronis that have never been recorded in vinyl discs, and they are in danger of extinction along the years. "Last night and the night before, passing through the mountains of Piana I heard the Old Man of Morea, old Theodorakis, talking to his brave men, saying to his mates/ my children, autumn has come, deep winter is here/ the leaves have fallen from the trees our shelters have been wiped out/ let’s separate to reunite again".

As Leonidas explains: "The previous song is sung by Theodoros Kolokotronis in Piana and has to do with the rough persecution of the rebels against the Turks from Peloponnese in 1806. It’s a song that is mostly heard during food and wine, which requires people with strong lungs to be sitting on the ground while singing. Unfortunately this kind of songs is getting lost through the years…, now it’s almost gone".

Up there at the abandoned and ruined villages of Maenalus, Leonidas with his strong voice praises Kolokotronis, who fought bravely so that nowadays we can still have our own motherland. He has not attended any university courses nor does he write any historical books that could be taught at schools. But even without knowing it, he writes history as he preserves the songs of the revolution, which represents the praise of the re-born Greek essence and it’s the most powerful means of expression of the Greeks' deepest substance as a national whole.
TEXT-PHOTOS: GEORGE ZAFEIROPOULOS
SOURCE: www.greecewithin.com

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The winter can be too hard to cope with without wood supplies at the tops of Maenalus Mountain.

The dense fir forest around the village.

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