MANOS HADJIDAKIS was born on October 23, 1925, in Xanthi, a tobacco-growing town near the northern border of Greece. His father, Yorgos Hadjidakis, a lawyer, hailed from Myrthio, the prefecture of Rethymnon, Crete. His mother, Aliki (Vasiliki), nee Arvanitidou, came from Adrianople. In the words of the composer: "From my mother I inherited every puzzle, which I've been trying to solve all my life. If it weren't for her puzzles I wouldn't be a poet.