Maroulia - History and Myth

The history of Gynaikokastron is interwoven with the myth of Maroulia, but also with the anonymous woman who gave the fortress its name. We are informed by Nikiforos Grigoras that the “natives”, the locals, are responsible for its name. It is, therefore, an old name, which as Ioannis Kantakouzenos explains, is associated with the impregnable, “τό καρτερώτατον”, of the fortress. It is the castle that even women could defend against enemy attacks.

 

The impregnability of the castle was personified in the early Ottoman period, when the Turkish traveler Hatzi Kalfa passing through the fortress area, around the middle of the 17th century, recorded the legend of Maroulia, the wife of the commander who fell fighting defending it from the Turks.

 

It has already been established that the myth of Maroulia reflects a real event, the heroic defense of the castle of Myrina in Lemnos by the famous, young Maroula in 1477/78 AD. The events impressed the people of the time and the poets praised Maroula as another Jean d’Arc, Ypsipyli, Telessila and Judith, to emphasize the bravery of her struggle. At the same time, in local mythologies, narratives were created about female heroines such as Maroula. In Kilkis, Maroula was named Maroulia and the ruins of the Byzantine fortress inspired the travelers to recreate the events in their imagination.

 

Gynaikokastron being approached as a castle of Oria, that means of Oraia (Ωραία, i.e. beautiful), as Oraia is perceptible in the shape of the anonymous woman or even in that of the mythical Maroulia, can justifiably be included among the homologous Oraias’ castles in Europe.