Maria Iordanidou

1. Maria Iordanidou

2.  Maria Kriezi-Iordanidou
(1897 - November 6, 1989)
was a Greek novelist. She was
born in Constantinople in
1897.Her father was Nikolaos
Kriezis from Hydra, a merchant
naval engineer and her mother
was Efrosini Magou from
Constantinople. She stayed for 8
years in Piraeus to return again
to Istanbul where she studied at
the American College.

3.  In 1914 she was in Batumi
of the then Russian
Empire invited by one of
her uncles for a vacation,
but was trapped there
with the outbreak of World
War I and the October
Revolution thereafter. She
stayed there for five years
and during this time she
attended the High School
of Stavroupolis.

4.  In 1919 she returned to
Istanbul and worked for an
American trading company. In
1920 she was transferred to
Alexandria, Egypt, where she
came in contact with the
clergy, became a member of
the Egyptian Communist Party
and in 1923 married the
teacher Iordanis Iordanidis, a
professor at Victoria College.
After her marriage she moved
with her husband and mother
to Athens, where she worked
at the Soviet embassy.

5.  In 1931 she divorced
Iordanidis, with whom she
had in the meantime two
children. In 1939 she was
fired from the embassy and
resumed her foreign
language classes. During
the German occupation, her
house was destroyed and
she was persecuted and
imprisoned in various
camps.

6.  Due to the circumstances of
her life, Iordanidou acquired a
great deal of language skills
and worked as a private
employee. She became
famous in the literary field
with the work Loxandra,
which she wrote at the age of
65, in 1962, and experienced
many reprints. Loxandra
describes with great vivacity
and humor the customs and
life of the Greeks of the city
and is based on the memories
of Iordanidou.

7. She refers to Constantinople of
the end of the 19th and the
beginning of the 20th century,
before the First World War,
when the Roman/Greek
element was still strong in the
city. It's essentially her
grandmother's story. It was the
author's first literary work.

8.  Iordanidou describes her life
in Russia in her book
“Holidays in the Caucasus”
(1965), in “Like the Crazy
Birds” (1978) she talks about
the years in Alexandria while
in her book “In the Cycle
Shooting” (1979) she talks
about Athens during the
interwar period. Her latest
work is “Our Yard” (1981). In
her works there is immediacy,
simple style, lively dialogues
and nostalgic mood

9. Her works were a great
publishing success.
She was awarded in 1978 by
the Patriarchate of
Constantinople with the
Golden Cross and the Order
of the Lady of the Ecumenical
Throne.
She died on November 6,
1989 and was buried in the
cemetery of Nea Smyrni in
Athens.

10. About “Loxandra”
Her day started with
Dimitros'coffee, which she always
made by herself, because, like the
maharajas, Loxandra believed that
a man should eat and drink from
his wife's hand. Then she helped
him get dressed, kissed him,
crossed him and went with him
down the wide staircase, which
joined its two arms on the wide
staircase to gently lower you to
the large marble courtyard that
had the front door downstairs. To
the right there was the dining
room. On the left there was the
living room and next to it there
was the housewife's low room.

11.  Loxandra is an extremely
positive person, with a good
mood and love both for her
own people and for life itself.
Enthusiasm and deep
gratitude in the way they
welcome each new day is
found only in those people
who are completely satisfied
with what their life has to
offer and do not have that
desire for something different
or something better, which
could be undermine their
positive mood and optimism

12.  Loxandra fully values her life,
her husband and the position
she deserves; that is, the
position of mother and
housewife, which is why she
has a strong sense of
gratitude and bliss. She is, at
the same time, a woman with
a strong sense of the
Christian faith, which is why
she never forgets to thank
and praise God for all that he
offers to people. She is, after
all, a woman of the time who
feels complete and faithful to
her husband and to God.

13. Her writing work

14.  Holidays in the Caucasus (1965)

15.  Like the Crazy Birds (1978)

16.  Shooting in the Cycle (1979)

17.  Our yard (1981)