Klepht

Klephts (; Greek κλέφτης, kléftis, pl. κλέφτες, kléftes) were Greek warrior-outlaws who lived in the mountains when Greece was a part of the Ottoman Empire.: "Other Greeks, taking to the mountains, became unofficial, self-appointed armatoles and were known as klephts (from the Greek kleptes, "brigand").": "Greek irregulars had operated as bandit klephts and anti-Ottoman insurgents since before the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s." 

Name
The word klepht means "brigand" or "thief".. It is from the Greek word κλέπτειν (kléptein) meaning "to steal"..

History
The klephts were offspring of Greek people who went into the mountains during the 15th century to avoid Ottoman rule.: "The klephts were descendants of Greeks who fled into the mountains to avoid the Turks in the fifteenth century and who remained active as brigands into the nineteenth century." They fought continuously against the Ottomans and were active outlaws until the 19th century.: "KLEPTHS, klēfts (Greek, "thieves"). Greek bandits who, after the conquest of Greece by the Turks in the 15th century, kept themselves free in the mountains of northern Greece and Macedonia, and carried on a perpetual war against Turkish rule, considering everything belonging to a Turk a lawful prize." During the Greek Revolution of 1821, the klephts and the armatoles formed the core of the Greek military (Yannis Makriyannis, a Greek revolutionary, called them the "yeast of liberty").

Culture
Klephtic songs (κλέφτικα τραγούδια), or klephtic ballads, were made in mainland Greece. They are part of the Greek folk music genre that also has folk poetry. Klephtic songs either focus on the deeds and death of a single klepht or on the general life of the klephts as a group. The most famous klephtic song is The Battle of Mount Olympus and Mount Kisavos. The song is based on a motif from ancient Greece (specifically the song made by Corinna about a contest between Mount Helicon and Mount Cithaeron).

Gallery

Related pages
Armatoles

References
Citations

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Further reading

Category:Greek people