Odysseas Androutsos

Odysseas Androutsos (also Odysseus Androutsos; Greek: Οδυσσέας Ανδρούτσος; 1788–1825) was a hero of the Greek War of Independence.

Early life

He was born in Ithaca in 1788; however, his family was from the village of Livanates in Phthiotis prefecture. His father was Andreas Androutsos, a klepht and his mother was from Preveza.

After losing his father, Androutsos joined the Turkish army of Ali Pasha and became an officer; however, in 1818 he joined the Friendly Society (Filiki Eteria) which was planning the liberation of Greece from the Ottoman Empire.

Greek Revolution

In May 1821, Omer Vryonis, the commander of the Ottoman army, advanced with 8,000 men, after crushing the resistance of the Greeks at the river of Alamana and putting Athanasios Diakos to death, headed south into the Peloponnese to crush the Greek uprising.

Odysseas Androutsos with a band of 100 or so men took up a defensive position at an inn near Gravia, supported by Panourgias and Diovouniotis and their men. Vrioni (Vryonis) attacked the inn but was repulsed with heavy casualties (over 400 dead). Finally, he was forced to ask for reinforcements and artillery but the Greeks managed to slip out before the reinforcements arrived. Androutsos lost two men in the battle and earned the title of Commander in Chief of the Greek forces in Roumeli.

In the following year, May 1822, he clashed with political opponent Ioannis Kolettis. Theoretically stripped of his command, he however kept command in Eastern Central Greece.

In September 1822 Odysseus Androutsos, on the instances of the Athenian municipal authorities, took control of the fortress of Acropolis which had capitulated in June. To ensure the occupation he had a bastion built to protect the source Klepshydra, which had just being rediscovered by chance on the north-western slope of the rock.

Downfall

Finally, in 1825, the revolutionary government placed him under arrest in a cave at the Acropolis of Athens. The new commander, Yannis Gouras, who once was Androutsos' second in command, had him executed on June 5, 1825. Androutsos' sister Tersitsa married Edward John Trelawny, who commanded Androutsos' forces in his absence.