Aristotelis Valaoritis

Aristotelis Valaoritis (; 1824 – 24 July 1879) was a Greek poet and politician, one of the main representatives of the Heptanese School. Writing in the spoken, demotic language on themes drawn from the Greek War of Independence, he came to be regarded as a national poet of Greece. He served as a deputy in the parliament of the United States of the Ionian Islands, where he advocated union with Greece, and later in the Greek Parliament. His best-known works include Kyra Frosini, Athanasios Diakos (1867) and the unfinished O Fotinos. He was the great-grandfather of the poet and writer Nanos Valaoritis.

Early life and education

Valaoritis was born in Lefkada in 1824 His father, Ioannis Valaoritis, was a senator and rich merchant from the region of Epirus,

Valaoritis attended school in Lefkada and then studied at the Ionian Academy in Corfu from 1838 to 1841. In 1857 he was elected to the parliament of the United States of the Ionian Islands as a deputy for Lefkada. After the union of the Ionian Islands with Greece in 1864, he was elected to the Greek Parliament in 1865 and 1868 with the party of Alexandros Koumoundouros, and was noted for his oratory. He withdrew from politics in 1869, following an altercation in parliament the previous year, and retired to Madouri. In his later years he devoted himself to supporting the struggle for the liberation of Epirus.

Personal life and death In 1852, in Venice, Valaoritis married Eloisia, daughter of the Venetian scholar Emilio De Tipaldo; the couple settled permanently in Lefkada in 1853. They had seven children. Three of their daughters died young: Maria in 1855, aged two, a second daughter also named Maria in 1866, and Nathalia in 1875. Valaoritis died on 24 July 1879 of a heart attack.

Works Poems Kyra Frosini (, 1859) Athanasios Diakos (, 1867) Thanasis Vagias (, 1867) Astrapogiannos (, 1867) O andrias tou aoidimou Grigoriou tou E (, 1872) O Fotinos (; incomplete, published posthumously in 1891)

Collections Stichourgimata (, 1847) Mnemosyna (, 1857)

Posthumous editions Poiemata (, 1891) Erga (, 1893) Vios kai erga (, 1907) Poiemata anekdota (, 1937) Ta Apanta (, 1968)