In the Revolution of 1821, the crowning struggle of the Greek nation for freedom and independence, tens of thousands of men and women took part, contributing in varying degrees. The historiography of the Revolution prioritized its glorious moments, the strategic brilliance and feats of the chieftains, and the heroic acts of the fighters, especially those who were martyred and became immortal symbols of self-sacrifice, bravery, and selflessness.

From Zalongo

Alongside them – and sometimes leading them – stood the heroines of the national uprising. And they weren’t limited, of course, to the iconic figures of Bouboulina and Mavrogenous. Or to the heroic Souliot women and the women of Missolonghi, some of whom fought the Turks with a sword in one hand and a baby in the other, while others prepared or carried heavy supplies to the battlefronts. And who would rather sacrifice themselves at Zalongo or during the heroic exodus from the Sacred City than fall into the hands of the Turks.

Laskarina Bouboulina

There were dozens, hundreds, even thousands more Greek women, mostly nameless, who, like the men, gave all they could for freedom. Known and unknown, from every social class and geographic origin. Many of them donated their entire fortunes to the cause and died in utter poverty, forgotten by the state. Famous female captains like Laskarina and Manto, others lesser known who also became legends like “the Lady of the Seas” Domna Visvizi, other fighters who shone as spies like Zarafopoula, and still others whose nicknames later became derogatory terms for the Greek state, like “Psorokostaina.” And yet, Psorokostaina was a noblewoman from Ayvali who gave her last coin and the only ring she had left for the cause.

Unfortunately, for all of these women and many other heroines of 1821, the new Greek state reserved the same humiliating and immoral treatment. The system it established included paltry pensions, land grants, and civil appointments, but these were ultimately governed by political expediency and petty favors, increasing the bitterness of veterans – male and female – who watched others be rewarded while they were left to the mercy of fate.

Bouboulina

Laskarina Bouboulina was a staggering figure of the War of Independence in 1821.
Her entire life was an adventure. Born on May 11, 1771, inside the prisons of Constantinople, when her mother Skevo visited her imprisoned – due to involvement in the Orlov Revolt – and ill husband Stavrianos Pinotsis. After his death, mother and daughter returned to Hydra. Laskarina married twice to Spetsiot shipowners, losing both husbands to Algerian pirates. First Dimitrios Giannouzas, then Dimitrios Bouboulis. She had three children with each. After the second husband’s death in 1811, she inherited a vast fortune – just her cash holdings were over 300,000 thalers. She expanded it, became a shareholder in many ships, and later built three of her own.

Laskarina Bouboulina

In 1816, the Ottomans threatened to confiscate her assets because Bouboulis’s ships had sailed under the Russian flag during the Russo-Turkish Wars of 1806. She rushed to Constantinople and sought help from the Russian philhellene ambassador Stroganov, citing her husband’s service in the Russian navy. She even managed to meet the mother of Sultan Mahmud II, the Valide Sultan. She impressed her. Convincing others was one of her gifts. The Valide persuaded her son to issue a firman protecting Bouboulina’s assets and exempting her from arrest. Meanwhile, Bouboulina became a member of the Filiki Eteria (Friendly Society).

She began building the ship “Agamemnon,” her flagship – 34 meters long with 18 cannons and a cost of 75,000 thalers. It was completed in 1820. When the Revolution broke out, she organized her own fleet with Spetsiot sailors.

In May 1821, with the Agamemnon, she blockaded the impregnable fortress of Monemvasia, forcing the Turks to surrender. She took part in the Battle of Tripolitsa at the side of Kolokotronis.

Later, she traveled on horseback to Argos, delivering money and arms to the fighters. There, she lost her son. The Turks beheaded him. Searching for his body, she killed three Turks.

In just two years, she spent nearly her entire fortune supporting the war effort.

She settled in Nafplio when the government granted her land in recognition of her service. That land was taken away, however, as punishment when she opposed the imprisonment of Kolokotronis in Hydra in 1824, during the civil war, by the Kountouriotis government. The legendary fighter was arrested twice and ultimately exiled to Spetses.

Still, despite her deep bitterness at this treatment, when the homeland was once again in mortal danger, during Ibrahim’s campaign leading the Turco-Egyptian fleet landing in Pylos to crush the Revolution, she didn’t hesitate for a moment. She began forming a new military corps to confront him. But death got there first. On May 22, 1825, in an altercation at her first husband’s house, between her youngest son from that marriage, Georgios Giannouzas, and members of the Koutsis family who didn’t want him as a son-in-law, a quarrel broke out, and Ioannis Koutsis shot her.

Bouboulina was honored by Greece almost two centuries later. On March 6, 2018, a Presidential Decree awarded her “the rank of Honorary Rear Admiral, to the foremost heroine of the Greek War of Independence, Laskarina Bouboulina, as well as the First-Class War Cross and the Medal for Distinguished Acts.”

Manto Mavrogenous

Another monumental case of disgraceful treatment by the Greek state toward a heroic fighter of 1821 was that of Manto (Magdalene-Adamantia) Mavrogenous. She was born in Trieste in 1796, daughter of merchant Nikolaos Mavrogenous – a member of the Filiki Eteria – and Zacharati Batis. She was described as a beauty of her time.

Manto Mavrogenous

On the eve of the Revolution, she moved to Tinos. At her own expense, she outfitted two ships and funded a campaign to Chios, though she was unable to prevent the massacre. She did manage to send forces and financial support to Samos when it was threatened by the Turks. Her ships chased Algerian raiders who plagued the Cyclades – in October 1822, they repelled 200 of them attempting to land on Mykonos.

Later, she fought in Karystos with a fleet of six ships and infantry in Phthiotis and Livadeia. She equipped and supplied a force of 50 men who participated in the siege of Tripolitsa, and later another 150 who reinforced Nikitaras at the Battle of Dervenakia. She contributed significant funds to relieve fighters and to prepare a campaign toward Northern Greece with philhellene support.

Mavrogenous moved to Nafplio in 1823 to be at the heart of the Revolution, breaking ties with her family. There she met Dimitrios Ypsilantis, and they soon became engaged. In May of that year, her home burned down entirely, and she lost her fortune. She moved to Tripoli to be with Ypsilantis.

She spent all her wealth for the cause. After the war, Ioannis Kapodistrias awarded her – uniquely among women – the honorary rank of General and gave her a home in Nafplio.

Her engagement to Ypsilantis stirred opposition among many politicians, who sensed danger, as the couple represented two powerful families. Ioannis Kolettis, one of the most alarmed, through repeated scheming, managed to trap the couple and ultimately broke off the engagement.

Heartbroken, Manto returned to Nafplio, where she lived in destitution, hardship, and poverty.

After Ypsilantis’ death in 1832, and following more maneuvers by Kolettis, she was expelled from Nafplio. She was forced to Mykonos and later moved to Paros. She died of typhoid fever in July 1840, alone, forgotten, and penniless.

Here is the English translation of your Greek text, keeping idioms, tone, expressions, and paragraph structure intact, without additions:

The “Commando of the Aegean”
Many in her time called her the “Lady of the Seas.” Others, the “Commando of the Aegean.” All of them, spot on. The Thracian captain Domna Visvizi struck fear and terror into the hearts of Turkish sailors.
She was born in 1783 in Ainos, Eastern Thrace. Her father was a landowner. In 1808, she married the captain Chatzi-Antonis Visvizis, with whom she had five children. Visvizis was initiated into the Filiki Etaireia. Well-off, he owned the ship “Kalomoira,” a brig built in Odessa, armed with 16 cannons and manned by 140 sailors. On March 23, 1821, it set sail for the Struggle. The ship carried weapons, ammunition, and fighters, such as Emmanouil Pappas, contributing to the uprising in Halkidiki. Later, the “Kalomoira” took part in naval battles at Mount Athos, Lesvos, Samos, and further south.

Domna Visvizi
On June 17, 1822, Visvizis was killed in the naval battle of Euripus. Domna then, although pregnant with their fifth child, took command and continued the war, supporting the efforts of Ypsilantis, Androutsos, and Nikitaras at Agia Marina of Lamia to halt Dramali’s advance. Odysseas Androutsos gratefully wrote how he and his men were saved thanks to Domna’s intervention with her ship. The equipment, maintenance of the ship, and the sailors’ provisions demanded all her money.

She herself donated 46 Spanish thalers for the liberation of Chios. She continued her struggle in Nafplio and Ermoupoli, where she settled successively with her children. When she faced severe financial hardship, the state, despite appeals for help, offered her a paltry pension of just 30 drachmas a month.

Documents in the Greek Archives report that she wandered around deprived, scorned, homeless with her children, pleading “at the mercy of the venerable committee of Greece for assistance,” holding in her hands the various certificates granted to her by Ypsilantis, Androutsos, and others, attesting to her service. She stood in line at various committees. She was mocked or doubted. She died in 1850 in Piraeus, destitute. She gave everything—and received indifference and ingratitude.

Only in 2005 was her bust placed alongside the other Heroes of the Revolution at the Pedion tou Areos.

The Woman-Spy
One of the very few women initiated into the Filiki Etaireia was Marigo Zarafopoula, born in Tatavla. Since her family maintained connections with prominent Turkish officials, Zarafopoula took on the task of gathering intelligence on the movements of top Ottoman commanders—in short, she became a spy. When Asimakis Theodorou betrayed the Society’s secrets to the Ottoman authorities, she, leveraging precisely those critical acquaintances, sought to extract details. And she did.

Marigo Zarafopoula
She remained in Constantinople despite the violent attacks against Greeks at the start of the Revolution. She saved many hostages and was nearly imprisoned herself. She became a close associate of Perraivos, Papaflessas, Chrysospatis, and Agallopoulos, contributed funds many times to the “City Treasury,” and succeeded in orchestrating the escape of the imprisoned sons of Petrobey Mavromichalis. She endured even the beheading of her brother on April 23, 1821.

She later fled to Hydra and contributed a large sum for the Revolution’s needs, the care of the wounded and ill, and the purchase of munitions and food. Her service was verified by many well-known captains. She continued her activity until liberation, but in the process lost her entire fortune, ending up alone, a widow with two underage children. Hardship and suffering broke her down—but even more so did the coldness of the state.

In 1865, she requested a small aid pension from the Committee Examining the Sacred Struggle but received nothing—despite submitting four certificates from Kolokotronis, Hatzichristos, and Nikitaras attesting to her contributions. She died destitute that same year.

The “First Mother of the Filiki Etaireia”
Elisavet Ypsilanti, mother of the Ypsilantis brothers, also called the “First Mother of the Filiki Etaireia,” played a leading role in organizing and funding the Revolution. She hailed from the aristocratic Vakarescu family of Moldavia and was born in Iasi in 1770. She was the second wife of the Prince of Moldowallachia, Konstantinos Ypsilantis. She had seven children, the first three sons—Alexandros, Dimitrios, Nikolaos—became members of the Filiki Etaireia.

Elisavet Ypsilanti
Under the pretense of literary discussions, she organized preliminary meetings of notable figures of the time in her salon, which led to the founding of the Filiki Etaireia. It was there that, on February 16, 1821, the Filiki members set the start date of the Revolution in Moldowallachia and drafted the declaration. At that time, Alexandros asked her to sacrifice her estate at Koznitsa for the salvation of the homeland. She teared up and said, “I offer you, my children, and should I grieve for two million rubles?” Then Alexandros, moved, told the others, “Write at the end of the declaration: ‘I kiss my mother’s hand.’” He signed the proclamation and declared the Revolution in Iasi on February 21.

Her husband had died in 1816, and a large part of the family estate had been confiscated by the Sultan. Elisavet was one of the greatest donors to the Struggle, giving away the rest of her fortune—money, jewelry, and family heirlooms. She fell into great poverty. She died in Odessa on October 2, 1866.

The Story of “Psorokostaina”
Another woman who contributed whatever financial means she had to the Revolution ended up with a nickname that came to symbolize a poor Greece—one that survives not through proper organization and fiscal management, but through the voluntary support and efforts of its people. She was Panorea Hatzikosta or Hatzikostaina, known by the nickname “Psorokostaina” (roughly “Mangy Kostaina”), from which the now-iconic term derived.

Panorea Hatzikosta / “Psorokostaina”
She came from a noble family in Kydonies (Ayvalik) and fled to Nafplio on June 2, 1821, shortly after the city was destroyed by the Turkish army. At that time, she lost her husband and all four of their children.

According to a historical study published in the magazine Kydoniatikos Asteras by Evangelos Dadiotis, a board member of the refugee association Union of Kydonians, Hatzikosta in Nafplio took orphans into her care in an abandoned house. To feed them, she had to go door to door, essentially begging.

In 1826, while Ibrahim was besieging Messolonghi, a fundraiser was held in Nafplio’s main square to support the besieged. “But what fundraiser and by whom? The suffering people had nothing left to give. Then, out of the crowd emerged Panorea Hatzikosta. ‘I have nothing but this silver ring and this single coin—these worthless things I offer to martyrdom-stricken Messolonghi,’ she told the fundraising committee,” Dadiotis recounts.

With the founding of the Greek state, during a session of the Assembly, someone supposedly compared the fledgling Greek state to “Psorokostaina.” The comparison stuck. The noblewoman from Ayvalik who begged to feed the orphans of the Revolution in Nafplio, the woman in utter destitution who gave everything to the cause, became the nickname of the new Greek state—one poor in wealth, reliant on the people’s volunteerism more than on governance and fiscal responsibility.

The Daughter of the Martyr Daskalogiannis
Maria Daskalogianni was the daughter of Ioannis Daskalogiannis, the leader of the 1770 uprising in Sfakia, who met a martyr’s death at the hands of the Turks after the battle of Anopolis, on June 17, 1771. She herself was captured and handed over to the chief accountant of the Turkish administration, Ablu Hamet. He was wealthy, mild-mannered, and progressive for his time. He married her, even allowing her to keep her religion. They had two sons and later moved to Constantinople. She lived in style, having converted one room into a secret chapel.

Maria Daskalogianni
In 1816, Ahmet died, and shortly thereafter so did both their sons. When the Revolution broke out, Maria fled in secret, disguised as a nun, boarding a merchant brig captained by a Cretan—who turned out to be her nephew. Her destination was Tinos. She donated almost all her money for her nephew to buy a war brig and join the fight. She instructed her former servant in Kountoura, Megara, to recruit 20 men at her expense and send them to Samos to unite with her nephew’s group, all destined for Crete.

She became a nun, and whatever remained of her fortune—since she had no children—was left to the Evangelistria of Tinos. She died in 1823.