Tellos Agras

Sarantis-Tellos Agapinos (, 1880 – 7 June 1907), known by the nom de guerre Tellos Agras , was a Greek officer of the Hellenic Army who played a prominent role during the Greek Struggle for Macedonia.

Early life Agras was born in Gargalianoi, Messenia in about 1880, from an important family of that region, members of which had participated in the Greek War of Independence. He entered the Hellenic Military Academy, from where he graduated as lieutenant of the Hellenic Army in 1901.

The increasing presence of Bulgarian Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization guerrilla troops in Ottoman-held Macedonia and their actions against the followers of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and generally against the Macedonian Greek population concerned Greek public opinion in Athens, which led to the creation of some underground organizations financed by wealthy Greeks, initially without official support, with the intention of establishing Greek military bands in Macedonia to confront the threat. Agras entered one of these organizations, the Macedonian Committee in 1904, after the death of Pavlos Melas.

The Bulgarian troops were often allied with Aromanian armatole soldiers.

Tellos Agras was Agapinos' pseudonym. Tellos meant "perfect" and "complete" but also "the one from afar", "the one who is not among us". On the other hand, Agras meant "fierce", "untamed", "wild".

Another version of events indicates that the meeting with Zlatan and his companions proceeded as planned, with only Agras and Zlatan being armed. It is then indicated that once the Bulgarian group realized that Agras's companions had come unarmed as intended, they accused Agras of collaborating with Turkish forces and took him into custody, releasing the rest of his group, with the exception of Mingas, who remained behind. As with the other version of events, they were held for several days until being hanged on 7 June 1907.

According to another version by the Turkish publication "Correspondence Bureau" dated 21 July 1907, a Greek force of 18 men was attacked by a stronger Bulgarian group near Vladovo, three were killed in the battle, and the rest were captured. Five were tortured, while two (including Agras) were hanged. The remaining eight were released and instructed to spread news of the incident to others. Notes found on the dead bodies, signed by the Bulgarian voivode Apostol, stated that only Bulgarian and Turkish were to be spoken in the area, and that anyone spreading the Greek language would share the same fate.

Agras was replaced by Captain Amyntas,

Legacy The memorial of Tellos Agras and Antonios Mingas in the location of their executions. Tellos Agras is considered to be a martyr of the Greek Struggle for Macedonia and one of its most important and effective band leaders.

He and his exploits are better known through the pages of the novel Ta Mystika tou Valtou ("The Secrets of the Marsh"), written by Penelope Delta.

A village in Pella close to the site of his death was named Agras in his honour.

There is a memorial at the location of his hanging between Karydia and Agras.

There is a bust of him in Thessaloniki.

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