^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Hydra (Greece)

Presentation of Hydra
Historical flag of Hydra
Miaoulis's standard

See also:

Presentation of Hydra

The island of Hydra (Idhra) is located close to the eastern coast of Peloponnesis, west of the Spetsai island. Hydra has today c. 4,000 inhabitants. Since 1770, it was the main port of insurrected Greece, with a population peaking at more than 20,000. The wealthy shipowners and corsairs from Hydra strongly supported the insurrection, the most famous of them being the Coundoriofis family.
On 8 September 1822, the joint fleets from Hydra, Psara and Spetsai defeated the Ottoman Navy near Spetsai.

Ivan Sache, 2 February 2005

Historical flag of Hydra

The flag designed in Hydra during the Greek independence war is blue with a red border, a red crescent, cross and spear with a flag (a red flag with a yellow man's head), showing the head of Athena flying from the spear; a white anchor and a yellow owl biting a snake; and a quarter of a yellow sun, with a blue disc and the eye of God in white, in the upper left corner.

Sources: Naval Museum of Hania (Crete) & Hellenic flags. Insignia-Emblems [kok97]

Bruce Tindall & Pascal Vagnat, 20 May 1995

The sentence I tan I epi tas on the flag of Hydra is in ancient Dorian dialect (the Greek dialect spoken by ancient Spartans). It means "With it or on it". According to a legend, when a mother in ancient Sparti farewelled her young son who was leaving for war, she gave him his shield and told him the above sentence, which means "Come back bringing it back, or come back on it [dead]". It was a terrible disgrace for an ancient Greek warrior and its relatives to leave his shield on the battlefield, while warriors killed at battle were carried back to their relatives on their shields. Today this sentence is used on several flags of Greek military units.

Stelios Kutrakis, 4 May 1998

Miaoulis' standard

Miaoulis' standard - Image by Ivan Sache, 5 February 2003, after a replica kept by the Historical and Folklore Society of Acharnae

Andreas Miaoulis (1769-1835) was born on the island of Hydra. At the age of 17 he became captain of a commercial ship. During the Napoleonic wars he managed, due to his courageous sea operations, to accumulate considerable wealth. From the second year of the Greek revolution he was appointed Admiral of the Greek fleet. He defeated the Turkish navy near Patra and the Turko-Egyptian navy near Geronda, and on many occasions he was able to provide supplies for Greek cities besieged by the Turks (for instance Mesologi).

Source: Nostos website

The book Hellenic flags [kok97] shows Miaoulis' standard as a white flag with a yellow cross. The canton of the flag is blue with a red cross and a white saltire. The date 1821 is written in black in the middle of the flag. The revolutionary motto:

ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΑ Η ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ (Freedom or Death)

the main motto of this war and the current national motto of Greece, is horizontally written, in black, in the lower part of the flag.

Ivan Sache, 5 February 2003