Lorentzos Mavilis ( el, Λορέντζος Μαβίλης,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

: Lorenzo Mabili; 6 September 1860 – 28 November 1912) was a Greek

sonneteer A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

war poet A war poet is a poet who participates in a war and writes about their experiences, or a non-combatant who writes poems about war. While the term is applied especially to those who served during the First World War, the term can be applied to a p ...

, and

chess problems A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle set by the composer using chess pieces on a chess board, which presents the solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White is to ...

composer. He is best known for his

sonnets A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's inventio ...

. He was born in

Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...

and was of half-

origin from his father who was a judge in the Ionian islands and half-

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

from his local mother. His Spanish paternal grandfather, Don Lorenzo Mabili y Boulligny, was consul of Spain in

Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

and upon arriving in Greece,

Hellenized Hellenization (other British spelling Hellenisation) or Hellenism is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonization often led to the Hellenization of indigenous peoples; in th ...

his surname from Mabili to Mavilis. He studied

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

and philosophy in Germany and started to compose poems and chess problems (

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

was his other passion). He was a great supporter of the ''

Megali Idea The Megali Idea ( el, Μεγάλη Ιδέα, Megáli Idéa, Great Idea) is a nationalist and irredentist concept that expresses the goal of reviving the Byzantine Empire, by establishing a Greek state, which would include the large Greek popu ...

''. In 1896, he joined the

Cretan Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, an ...

revolt against the Ottoman rule and in 1897, during the Greco-Turkish War, he participated in the fighting with a group of Corfiot volunteers. In 1909, he supported the

Goudi coup The Goudi coup ( el, κίνημα στο Γουδί) was a military coup d'état that took place in Greece on the night of , starting at the barracks in Goudi, a neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Athens. The coup was a pivotal event in mod ...

and in 1910 was elected as a member of the

Greek Parliament The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule of the Hellenes, label=none), also known as the Parliament of the Hel ...

with the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, representing Corfu. As an MP, he took an active part in the dispute on the

Greek language question The Greek language question ( el, το γλωσσικό ζήτημα, ''to glossikó zítima'') was a dispute about whether the language of the Greek people ( Demotic Greek) or a cultivated imitation of Ancient Greek (''Katharevousa'') should be ...

, defending the use of the

Demotic Greek Demotic Greek or Dimotiki ( el, Δημοτική Γλώσσα, , , ) is the standard spoken language of Greece in modern times and, since the resolution of the Greek language question in 1976, the official language of Greece. "Demotic Greek" (w ...

against the

Katharevousa Katharevousa ( el, Καθαρεύουσα, , literally "purifying anguage) is a conservative form of the Modern Greek language conceived in the late 18th century as both a literary language and a compromise between Ancient Greek and the contempor ...

literary language A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langu ...

With the outbreak of the

First Balkan War The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...

in 1912, despite his advanced age (he was 52), he decided to join the army. He served in a mixed group of Greek soldiers ''

Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, patr ...

ni'' volunteers from Italy, holding the rank of captain. He was killed in action on 28 November 1912, during the

Battle of Driskos The Battle of Driskos ( el, Μάχη του Δρίσκου, tr, Driskos Muharebesi), took place on 26–28 November ( O.S.), 1912. It was a battle fought between Greek forces under General Dimitrios Matthaiopoulos and Ottoman forces under ...

, in the vicinity of which he is buried. According to fellow poet Nikolaos Karvounis his last words were:

Sources

* *Hibon, Roland, "Ἀνέκδοτα ἔργα τοῦ Μαβίλη ", Ἠπειρωτικὴ Ἑστία, 17, 200 (1968), σσ. 537–546 *"Νεοελληνική Ποιητική Ανθολογία", ΒΙΠΕΡ No. 100, εκδόσεις "Πάπυρος ΠΡΕΣΣ", Αθήναι, 1971 *"Ελληνική Ανθολογημένη Ποίηση", Γαβριήλ Πεντζίκης, εκδόσεις "Ινστιτούτο Διαδόσεως Ελληνικού Βιβλίου", Αθήνα, 1980 *Νούτσος Παναγιώτης, "O Λ. Mαβίλης ως συνοδοιπόρος των 'Kοινωνιολόγων' ", O Πολίτης, αρ. 44 (5 December 1997), 37–41 *Savinio, Alberto, Narrate, uomini, la vostra storia, εκδόσεις Adelphi, Milano, 1984, 133-147 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mavilis, Lorentzos 1860 births 1912 deaths People from Ithaca Greek people of Spanish descent 19th-century Greek poets Heptanese School (literature) Sonneteers Chess composers Greek MPs 1910–1912 Greek nationalists Greek people of the Greco-Turkish War (1897) Greek people of the Balkan Wars Greek military personnel killed in action Greek male poets Balkan Wars casualties 19th-century male writers