Georgios Karaiskakis Georgios Karaiskakis ( ) born Georgios Iskos ( ) ( January 23 , 1780 or January 23 , 1782 – April 23 , 1827 ) was a famous Greek klepht , armatolos , military commander , and a hero of the Greek War of Independence . Early life . Karaiskakis was born either in a monastery near the village of Mavrommati ( ) , in the Agrafa mountains ( located in what is now the Karditsa regional unit , Thessaly ) or in a monastery near the village of Skoulikaria ( ) close to Arta . His father was the armatolos of the Valtos district , Dimitris Iskos or " Karaiskos " , his mother Zoe Dimiski , a nun from Arta and cousin of Gogos Bakolas , captain of the armatoliki of Radovitsi . He was of Sarakatsani decent . He was known also as “ The Nun ’ s Son ” . At a very early age he became a klepht in the service of Katsantonis , a famous local Agrafiote brigand captain . He excelled as a klepht - agile , cunning , brave and reckless - and rose quickly through the ranks , eventually becoming a " protopalikaro " , or lieutenant . At the age of fifteen he was captured by the troops of Ali Pasha and imprisoned at Ioannina . Ali Pasha , impressed by Karaiskakis ’ s courage and intelligence , and sensing his worth as a fighter , released him from prison and put him in the care of his personal bodyguards . He served as a bodyguard to Ali Pasha for a few years before losing favour with the Ottoman warlord and fleeing into the mountains to continue life as a klepht . Greek War of Independence . During the early stages of the war , Karaiskakis served in the militia in the Morea ( Peloponnese ) , where he participated in the intrigues that divided the Greek leadership . Nonetheless , he recognized the necessity of providing Greece with a stable government and was a supporter of Ioannis Kapodistrias who would later become Greece ' s first head of state . Karaiskakis ' s reputation grew during the middle and latter stages of the war . He helped to lift the first siege of Missolonghi in 1823 , and did his best to save the town from its second siege in 1826 . That same year , he was appointed commander - in - chief of the Greek patriotic forces in Rumeli , achieving a mixed response : while failing to cooperate effectively with other leaders of the independence movement or with the foreign sympathizers fighting alongside the Greeks , he gained some military successes against the Ottomans . His most famous victory was at Arachova , where his army together with other revolutionary leaders , crushed a force of Turkish and Albanian troops under Mustafa Bey and Kehagia Bey . Victories such as the one at Arachova were especially welcome amid the disasters that were occurring elsewhere . In 1827 , Karaiskakis participated in the failed attempt to raise the siege of Athens , and attempted to prevent the massacre of the Turkish garrison stationed in the convent of Saint Spyridon in Piraeus . He was killed in action on his Greek name day , 23 April 1827 , after being fatally wounded by a rifle shell in battle . According to Karaiskakis ' s expressed desire to be buried on the island of Salamis when he died , he was buried at the church of Saint Dimitrios on Salamis . Honours and popular culture . King Otto of Greece posthumously conferred Karaiskakis the Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer . Karaiskaki Stadium in Neo Faliro , Piraeus is named after him as he was mortally wounded in the area . Dionysis Savvopoulos has written both music and lyrics to the popular Greek song " Ode to Georgios Karaiskakis " ( ) .