Souliotes

The Souliotes (Greek: Σουλιώτες) are the bilingual Greek people of a village confederation called Souli (Greek: Σούλι).^[2][3] They lived in the mountains of Epirus in northwestern Greece.^[3] Souliotes fought in the Greek revolution of 1821 against the Ottoman Empire and its allies.^[4]

Souliotes

Σουλιώτες
A Souliot in Corfu Nikolos Pervolis by French painter Louis Dupré (1827).
Languages
Spoken Languages: Tosk Albanian, Greek; Written Language: Greek[1]

Name

The origins of the name Souli are unclear.^[5]

Languages

Souliotes spoke Greek and a southern dialect of Albanian called Tosk.^[1] They only used Greek in their writings.^[1]

History

Ottoman oppression forced Greek herders in Epirus to flee to the mountains during the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century.^[6] There, they built a confederation of villages called the Tetrachori (Greek: Τετραχώρι, "Four Villages") also known as Souli.^[7] The Souliotes resisted Ottoman rule during the 18th century.^[8] They later participated in the Orlov Revolt, a failed Greek anti-Ottoman uprising that happened in the 1770s.^[8]

When the Souliotes were betrayed to the Ottomans in 1803, some abandoned Souli while others killed themselves.^[9] Among those who killed themselves were the women of Souli who threw themselves and their children off a cliff called Zaloggo in an event called the Dance of Zaloggo (Greek: Χορός του Ζαλόγγου).^[9][10] During the Greek revolution of 1821, the Souliotes defeated the Ottomans at the battle of the Five Wells in September of 1821.^[11]

Gallery

• 
  Flag of Greek leader Markos Botsaris raised in Souli in October 1820. The flag shows Saint George and in Greek says: "Freedom", "Fatherland", "Religion".
• 
  Two studies of Souliote costumes by Eugène Delacroix (1822).
• 
  Souli, view of the village and the castle of Kiaffa by Dominique Papety (1846).