Penelope Delta

Penelope Delta (; 1874, Alexandria, Khedivate of Egypt – 2 May 1941, Athens, Greece) was a Greek author. She is widely celebrated for her contributions to the field of children's literature. Her historical novels have been widely read and have influenced popular modern Greek perceptions of national identity and history. Through her long-time association with Ion Dragoumis, Delta was thrust into the middle of turbulent early-20th-century Greek politics, ranging from the Macedonian Struggle to the National Schism. Early life Delta was born in Alexandria, in the Khedivate of Egypt, to Virginia (née Choremi) and the wealthy cotton merchant Emmanuel Benakis. She was the third of six children, her two older siblings being Alexandra and Antonis Benakis, whose Tom Sawyer-like mischiefs she immortalized in her book Trellantonis; her younger siblings were Constantine, who died at the age of two, Alexander, and Argine. Marriage The Benaki family temporarily moved to Athens in 1882. Penelope married a wealthy Phanariote entrepreneur, Stephanos Deltas, with whom she had three daughters, Sophia Mavrogordatou, Virginia Zanna, and Alexandra Papadopoulou. Stephanos Deltas was related to mathematician Constantin Carathéodory through his wife Sophia whose father was [Alexander Karathéodori Pasha]. They returned to Alexandria in 1905, where she met Ion Dragoumis, then the Vice-Consul of Greece in Alexandria. Dragoumis, like Penelope Delta, also wrote on the subject of the Macedonian Struggle. Personal recollections of his appear throughout his writings. A romantic relationship is said to have developed between the pair. Delta and Dragoumis decided to separate, but continued to correspond passionately until 1912, when Dragoumis started a relationship with the famous stage actress Marika Kotopouli. Penelope had, in the meantime, twice attempted suicide. Writing career Delta moved to Frankfurt, Germany in 1906. Her husband had chosen to relocate in order to manage the offices of the Khoremis-Benakis cotton business. Her first novel, Gia tēn Patrida (For the Sake of the Fatherland) was published in 1909. The novel is set during the Byzantine epoch. It was during this time that Delta had started to correspond with the historian Gustave Schlumberger, a renowned specialist on the Byzantine Empire.