Agathoklis Selalidis was a Pontic lyra (aka kemenche) player and a singer of Pontic music. He was born in Samsun (Gr: Samsunta) in 1900 and passed away in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1978. He grew up in Russia and performed in places such as Sockhumi, Batumi and later in Tashkent. He not only sang and played the lyra, he also created his own lyrics and distichs (poetic verses). His verses were popular, patriotic and passionate. Many of those verses are still sung in Pontic music today.
One of his most well known verses is:
Τα μαλλία μ' ντ' έσπριναν
Άτο πα τερτ' κ' έφταγω
με τα μαύρα έρθα εγώ
και με τ' άσπρα θα πάγω
(Ασ ασπρίσαν τα μαλλιά μου
εγώ για δαύτο δεν πονάω
με τα μαύρα ήρθα στον κόσμο
με τ'άσπρα στον Άδη θα πάω.)
Photo: santeos.blogspot.com