NAME: Irene Kovaiou – Mavrou of Nikitas and (Unknown mother’s name)
PLACE OF BIRTH: Amorgos
PLACE OF DEATH: Amorgos
PLACE OF RESIDENCE: Amorgos
SPOUCE / MAIDEN NAME: Mavros Demetrios (Skylitsis)
PROFESSION: Farmer, Baker
INSTRUMENT: Folk Poet – Rhyme Improviser
The following biographical note on the folk poet Irene N. Kovaiou – Mavrou was written by the Amorgian philologist – researcher Georgios A. Mavros. It was extracted from the archive of the latter which was granted in its entirety to the Digital Audiovisual Folk Music Archive of Amorgos and its Islands. The structure, the spelling, and the punctuation of the text in Greek have been preserved. The English translation has been mildly edited.
89 years old today. She was the doughter of N. Kovaios and sister of E. N. Kovaios, the popular storyteller, rhyme improviser and hero of the Asia Minor Wars. Almost illiterate (she studied for 3.5 years in elementary school), she spent her early years as a shepherdess until she married D. Mavros. A housewife, farmer and baker, she lives to this day in Hora Amorgos.
She is of great interest for the following reason: apart from the poems she writes, this illiterate old lady has collected (!!!), in her own words, “old words that are not used any more as a gift for the future, because it’s important.” Alone she gathered them in alphabetical order, interpreted them, and where she could, she placed the origin of the word next to it. I think she must be one of the rarest cases of a spontaneous folklorist and, at least in Amorgos, this is a unique phenomenon. She collected around 320 words which I have preserved exactly as she wrote them. She even rescued proverbs and an enchantment about jaundice.