Elisavet Kotsakou, known as Zambeta or Zampia, was born around 1750 in Alonistaina, Arcadia. She was the wife of the renowned klepht Konstantis Kolokotronis and the mother of Theodoros Kolokotronis, one of the foremost leaders of the Greek Revolution. After her husband’s death in 1780, during the siege of the tower of Kastanitsa in Mani, “Kapetanissa Zampia” undertook the upbringing of their five children. She initially settled in Milia, Messinia, with her eldest son, Theodoros, and her daughter, but soon managed to ransom her remaining children, who were being held captive by the Ottomans. The family moved constantly, finding refuge in the homes of relatives. Zampia’s sons followed the path of the klephts and were eventually forced to leave the Peloponnese during the great persecution of the Moria's klephts (1805–1806). Her second son, Giannis, was killed in a skirmish. She later relocated to Zakynthos to care for Theodoros’s family, contributing to the upbringing of her grandchildren. She died in the liberated Peloponnese in 1832.
Despite hardship, deprivation, and constant danger, mothers served as vital pillars of endurance and strength. They supported their families, cared for their children, secured provisions, cultivated the land, encouraged the fighters, and upheld the morale of their communities. The daily resilience of the woman‑mother formed a foundation for the Struggle and for the survival of the Greek people.
“I often saw women holding their newborns in their arms while carrying on their shoulders a load of firewood that I myself could not have borne.”
Howe Samuel, Journal of the Greek War of Independence 1825–1829, Notis Karavias Bookstore, Athens, 1971, p. 51.

Fotakos recounts a characteristic incident that took place on 12 July 1822 in the village of Achladokampos in Argolis, when the women of the village were asked to bring food for the soldiers and the horses of the chieftains encamped at the site of “Vrousoula or Nerakia”:
“The women of the village, with great eagerness, came bearing provisions, and with their armed husbands walking before them, they delivered them to the commander and said: Here are our men; take them to war. And if they are not brave enough, let them lay down their arms so that we may wear them ourselves; such men we do not want.”
Fotakos, Memoirs on the Greek Revolution, P.D. Sakellariou Press and Bookstore, Athens, 1858, p. 191.
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