[1] In July 1922 young Anestis, aged about ten years, arrived at the port of Piraeus in Greece with his pregnant mother and younger sister, refugees from the final stages of the Greco-Turkish war.

The family settled at Drapetsona, one of the refugee neighbourhoods of Piraeus (on the northern side of the inlet), and Delias' sister Eleni was born soon afterwards.

[4] In the inter-war years in Greece the bouzouki was an instrument of low social standing, which was embraced by the new generation of musicians based in the urban refugee suburbs.

In 1933 Batis released a song he had written called "Spanish zeïbekáno (Quietly into a boat)" ["Ζεϊμπεκάνο Σπανιόλο (Ζούλα σε μια βάρκα μπήκα)"].

[9] The early recordings by the members of The Famous Quartet of Piraeus, while dominated by the sounds of fretted instruments (the bouzouki and the baglamas), nevertheless "bear a distinct imprint of eastern modality and language" revealing the influence of the Anatolian refugees on the music.

[11] Piraeus rebetiko borrowed themes from the underworld (prison life, disdain of the police, use of hashish) which appealed to groups of the lower socio-economic strata and became popular in Greece as recordings became available during the 1930s.

[15] In 1938 he was sentenced to eighteen months’ exile on the island of Ios because of his heroin use, as part of the Metaxas regime's policy of expelling drug addicts from urban centres to designated provincial areas.

[16][17] While on Ios Delias met up with Michalis Yenitsaris, his friend and a fellow rebetis, who had been exiled for a year on the island after being deemed to be ‘Δημόσιο Επικίνδυνο’ (a danger to the public).

The island held a large number of exiled drug addicts and, according to Yenitsaris' account, during Delias' banishment on Ios he continued to use heroin.

In early February 1944 Delias was admitted to the Dromokaiteion Psychiatric Hospital, in the suburb of Haidari (west of central Athens), with Pagioumtzis listed as his guardian on the admission form.

[16] The nature and details of Delias' death has prompted many commentators to draw attention to the seemingly prophetic line of lyrics in Delias' song 'Ο πόνος του πρεζάκια' ('The pain of the junkie'), recorded in 1936: "η πρέζα μ’ έκανε στους δρόμους ν’ αποθάνω" ("the drugs have pushed me into the streets to die").

[25] Delias was a figure largely forgotten to history in the decades after his death, during a period when the 'Greekness' of 1930s rebetika was being questioned, with commentators challenging the genre's contribution to modern Greek culture and identity because of its low-class origins and distinct Oriental elements and influences.

The bare outline of his "inherently tragic story" has been shaped to fit certain archetypal narratives such as the victim unable to save himself, innocence succumbing to evil, or a symbol of lost youth.

As a musician who died young, there is the added dimension of the tragic artist overwhelmed by self-destruction and the wasted potential of the music he might have created.

[28] Despina Michael (2010), 'Μαύρη Γάτα: The Tragic Death and Long After-Life of Anestis Delias', Modern Greek Studies (Australia & New Zealand), Volume 14, pages 44–74.

Stathis Gauntlett (2003), Chapter 18: 'Between Orientalism and Occidentalism: The Contribution of Asia Minor Refugees to Greek Popular Song, and its Reception', pages 247–260 (in) Renée Hirschon (ed.