Nikos Xylouris (, 7 July 1936 – 8 February 1980), Cretan nickname: Psaronikos (), was a Greek singer, Cretan Lyra player and composer, who was and remains to this day among the most renowned and beloved Greek folk musicians of all time. Xylouris' outstanding vocal ability and diverse discographic repertoire, which encompassed both rural traditional and urban orchestral music, managed to capture the essence of the Greek psyche, ethos and demeanor, rendering him extremely popular among the youth of his day, and making his work an essential part of the Great Greek Songbook. His remarkable artistic charisma, his appealing physical features (which were also reminiscent of Byzantine Iconography) and his enormous personal affability ("noble in both countenance and decorum" as per the Ancient Greek Ideal) along with an onstage presence that Greek urban audiences deemed majestic, inspiring and dignified earned him the honorific moniker Archangel of Crete which he is known by all across Greece, and especially in Athens. His songs continue to be played regularly on Greek radio stations, his contribution is universally recognized among his fellow musicians, and his legacy is held in the highest regard throughout the Greek Nation and the Greek Diaspora alike.
Origins and Background
Nikos Xylouris was born in Anogeia, Mylopotamos Province, Rethymno Prefecture, a village perched on the slopes of Mount Ida, (aka Psiloritis, literally: "high mountain") the highest mountain on the island of Crete, itself the largest of all the Greek Islands, situated at the southernmost end of the Aegean Sea. He was born to a family and community of herdsmen and farmers, who much like other Greek Islanders, were very well versed in Greek traditional music, with many locals adept at playing multiple folk musical instruments, either as amateurs or in a semi-professional and fully professional capacity. The village of Anogeia has produced several musicians who rose to island-wide and later nation-wide prominence over the years, and as pertains to affairs of culture it continues to exert significant influence. Xylouris was the fourth child and first son of Giorgis Xylouris and his wife Eleftheria, and was born after sisters Elli, Zoumboulia and Euridice. His two male siblings who followed in order of birth, Antonis Xylouris or Psarantonis () and Giannis Xylouris or Psarogiannis () are accomplished and celebrated figures of Cretan music in their own right, and members of their extended family continue to walk in the same footsteps.
Xylouris' nickname "Psaronikos" (the prefix "Psaro" meaning "Fish/Fish-like", plus his given name Niko[lao]s) is derived and inherited from his grandfather Antonis, who during one of the many instances of the Cretan Struggle for Liberation and Independence from Ottoman Rule displayed great valor, and was said to "consume the Turks as if they were fish", in an account provided by Xylouris himself, and reiterated by his brother Giannis. The nickname was passed down along the male line of the family, with each person's given name substituting the inaugural one respectively, and the prefix remaining intact. In a slightly different origin story, it was said that Antonis kept company with a group of Cretans who exercised guerilla warfare tactics against the Turks, with deliberate dispersal and reunification at predetermined locations after brief engagements and skirmishes. Antonis would "catch up to the rest of them as if they were a school of fish that broke up and then coalesced again; they were as slippery as fish, in waters they knew all too well, and thus impossible to apprehend", Antonis himself being the most nimble, and frustrating the Turks who could never capture him. Or, in yet another variation, quick enough to strike at two distant target locations in a single day, and both times disappear as quickly and efficiently as fish vanish in the sea. The use of such nicknames, bestowed for specific traits or actions, is prevalent throughout the Greek countryside, and its familial aspect is often retained on purpose, so as to distinguish between clans, branches, or unrelated families with identical surnames. Conversely, some nicknames may be unique to specific individuals, and may reflect a notable incident of their lives which warrants extraordinary praise, attention, recognition, or, alternately, condemnation.