Cybele Andrianou (; 13 July 1888 – 26 May 1978), also known by her stage name Cybele (), was a Greek actress. She was born on 13 July 1888 to an unmarried couple in

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; , or ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, Turkey. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna ...

and spent the first two years of her life in an

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

orphanage. At the age of two-and-a-half, she was adopted by Anastasis and Maria Andrianou. The family of a famous Athenian lawyer of the time, who had recently lost their only child, helped Cybele's adoptive parents financially. In 1901, at the age of 13, she received her first award for her stage performance. There is a statue honouring her in Pagrati Grove, Athens.

Career

Cybele was one of the main actresses of Nea Skini from 1901 to 1906. There, she had the chance to perform the only roles of her life based on ancient Greek

tragedy A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a tragic hero, main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsi ...

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

' ''

Alcestis Alcestis (; Ancient Greek: Ἄλκηστις, ') or Alceste, was a princess in Greek mythology, known for her love of her husband. Her life story was told by pseudo-Apollodorus in his '' Bibliotheca'', and a version of her death and return from t ...

'' and

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

' ''

Antigone ANTIGONE (Algorithms for coNTinuous / Integer Global Optimization of Nonlinear Equations), is a deterministic global optimization solver for general Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programs (MINLP). History ANTIGONE is an evolution of GloMIQO, a global ...

''. She later became known for her performances in plays of

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

Carlo Goldoni Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni (, also , ; 25 February 1707 – 6 February 1793) was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays ...

and

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright, poet and actor. Ibsen is considered the world's pre-eminent dramatist of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama." He pioneered ...

. In 1908, she worked for the first time with Gregorios Xenopoulos, who wrote her the theatric play ''The Red Rock'' (Ο Κόκκινος Βράχος), based his short novel written of the same name. The play was of huge success, and was repeated by Cybele's theatrical group for many years to come. Xenopoulos continued to write her at least one play a year, until 1925. Cybele also worked with

Pantelis Horn Pantelis Horn (; 1 January 1881–1 November 1941) was a Greece, Greek naval officer and playwright, one of the few Greek writers of the early 20th century who devoted themselves solely to theatre. He produced works in the Naturalism (theatre), ...

(the father of Dimitris Horn) from 1910 to 1934. In 1932, she joined forces with Marika Kotopouli, her "stage enemy", in order to compete the newly founded National Theater of Greece. After the German invasion, she fled along with her husband, George Papandreou, and the Greek government and royal family to the Middle East. After the war, she returned in Greece and performed various roles with the National Theater, accompanied by

Ellie Lambeti Ellie Loukou (; 13 April 1926 – 3 September 1983), known professionally as Ellie Lambeti (), was a Greek actress. Family Lambeti was born in 1926 in the village of Vilia, Attiki, to Kostas Loukos and Anastasia Stamati. She had six sibli ...

, Dimitris Horn, Mitsos Myrat and other famous actors and actresses. The summer of 1951 she made her only appearance in an ancient Greek

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

, in

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...

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Lysistrata ''Lysistrata'' ( or ; Attic Greek: , ''Lysistrátē'', ) is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC. It is a comic account of a woman's mission to end the Peloponnesian War between Greek city ...

''. Cybele appeared in only two films during her career, in 1933 and 1956.

Personal life

Cybele's first husband was Mitsos Myrat, with whom she continued to work on stage after their divorce. They had two children: a son, Alexandros "Alekos" and a daughter, Miranda (also rendered as Miranta) (1906-1994). She later married a prominent businessman, Kostas Theodoridis. They had a daughter, Aliki. Her third husband was George Papandreou, later

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

. They had one son, Georgios. When Cybele died, in 1978, at the age of 89, she had 4 children, 3 grandchildren, 6 great grandchildren and 5 great-great grandchildren. Miranda's daughter, Kyveli Theohari, was also an actress. The actress Rita Myrat (née Tarsouli) was her daughter-in-law being the wife of her son Alekos.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrianou, Cybele 1888 births 1978 deaths Smyrniote Greeks People from Aidin vilayet Spouses of prime ministers of Greece Greek stage actresses Greek film actresses Papandreou family Actresses from İzmir