The spirit of the Revolution of ’21 and Mikis Theodorakis – Author: George Agorastakis

Description

… The Revolution of ’21 is not only the narration of war conflicts, battles, sieges, naval battles, heroic feats, but also ideological conflicts, battles of ideas, intellectual conquests, cultural expressions, literary and artistic works. It is the philosophy of life that revolutionaries shaped and their strong feelings.

This book sees ’21 as a spiritual event. It is a treatise on the spirit of the revolution, on the system of ideas and values that emerged from the Greek revolution, that shaped the national ideology and modern Greek identity. That permeated modern Greek society and its modern history.

Our guide in this historical journey is Mikis Theodorakis. Theodorakis is the man connected by multiple direct and indirect, physical and spiritual connections to the Greek revolution of 1821 and its legacy. The man who expressed with his work, artistic and theoretical, the spirit of revolution in our time and had the strongest influence on the formation of national consciousness and modern Greek culture.

INSTEAD OF A PROLOGUE

Mikis Theodorakis sleeps in his eternal home, close to his family, close to his ancestors, who for 200 years participated in all the struggles for the freedom of our country. Continuously, from generation to generation, one after another they dragged the dance of revolution, the dance of the liberation of Greece.

Last one, Mikis Theodorakis, – “Musician and revolutionary. A revolutionary musician” – “a genuine child of Greece”, with his struggles and his art, he managed to transmit to the Greeks the Greek and Revolutionary Spirit of 1821.

Notes the author “instead of a prologue” to the book:

When I finished writing the book, I rushed to Athens, to see Mikis and give it to him, along with the previous “Mikis Theodorakis and Crete” that had just been published. I met him on July 20, 2021, which was the last time. These two books accompanied him in the last days of his life.

May his memory be eternal

George Agorastakis

September 2021