Acritic songs
Encyclopedia
The Acritic songs are the heroic or epic poetry
that emerged in the Byzantine Empire
probably in the 9th century. The songs celebrated the exploits of the Akrites
, the frontier guards defending the eastern borders of the Byzantine Empire. The historical background was the almost continuous
Byzantine-Arab conflict
between the 7th and 12th centuries. Against this background several romances were produced, the most famous of which is that of Digenis Acritas
, considered by some to signal the beginnings of modern Greek literature
.
, the acritic songs deal with the heroic deeds of ακρίτες (frontiersmen), warriors that lived near the Arab frontiers and fought against the enemy. The constant state of war in the region and the repeated confrontations with the Arabs inspired poets to write down tales of chivalry
as a response to a society that wished to be informed or hear details, whether factual or imaginary, of the adventures caused by enemy invasions or of the martial valor of their countrymen who drove the enemy out. The fate of the inhabitants - who after each invasion often had to face the loss of family members as well as their own pain - is also a major theme.
The invasion and riposte, the hatred for the invader, the desire for revenge, the fate of female prisoners and the endeavours undertaken to achieve their rescue, all inspire the poet who, based on direct narrations by eyewitnesses, organises and develops this pool of information and emotions into a live language with an easily memorable verse. The poet also narrates in recitation, or in a simple, recurring, and easily taught pace, the enslavement, duels, massacres, escapes, release of captives, and often the bonds of affection between kidnappers and women that led to marriage and reconciliation.
to the oral epic poetry
of the 9th and 10th centuries. Greek scholar Socrates Kougeas (Σωκράτης Κουγέας) dates the earliest reference to oral epics of the 10th century to a speech given by bishop Arethas of Caesaria condemning the local αγύρται (agyrtae - the Greek counterpart of French
troubadors) of Paphlagonia
for glorifying violent acts instead of the saints and God. Kougeas aptly observed that Arethas suggests a tradition developed at that time exactly in central Asia Minor
which was the cradle of acritic literature. The preservation of such important oral songs in Asia Minor up to 1922, when the entire region was depopulated of Greeks, proves that Kougeas's assumption is valid.
These folk singers may have been professionals, or semi-professionals that temporarily abandoned their jobs to sing their songs for pay. This tradition remains today in Cyprus
with the ποιηταράδες (chanters) that sing regularly in festivals and holidays.
A famous theory from specialist Roderick Beaton is that the poem of Digenis Akritas was first written in the Imperial Capital, Constantinople, during the 12th century, using elements from the military landed aristocracy, originally from the empire's Asian provinces. These had fled to the capital after the Turkish invasion in the mid-eleventh century.
They made the songs to keep their culture alive, giving attention to skills in war, personal honour and courage, and an aristocratic way of life.
was occupied in 640 and from then on, every year, Saracens attempted invasions in Asia Minor, carrying off captives on their way back. Cities were usually retaken by the Byzantine army
, with the exception of Tarsus
and Adana
that remained under occupation until the 10th century; but each year, after the invaders left, the pain and suffering of the inhabitants remained, along with their despair for their beloved ones that were missing. This continuous state of warfare set the stage for acritic poetry.
The hero
of these poems, the Ακρίτης (Acrites), is the personification of all Byzantine soldiers that guarded those territories. As early as emperor
Alexander Severus
, soldiers were vested with land that would pass on to their sons in exchange for their service in the army. Justinian
consolidated these lands as tax-free, the owners of which Procopius
names as λιμιτανέοι (limitanei
). With the creation of the Byzantine theme system the landowners were given further privileges, that also excluded lakes from taxes. During the reign of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, acritic lands were not allowed to be sold, even with the consent of the owner. This was necessary for the preservation of cavalry which was important for dealing with thieves (απελάτες). Following Byzantine successes against the Arabs after the 10th century, the borderlands were stabilised, tensions between them settled down, and attention was diverted away from foreign affairs towards internal dangers.
occupation of Greece
, and only a fraction remains of the original number of works, yet the ones we do hold today were famous enough to have existed in enough copies to survive. The most well known oral songs were written down and copied in great numbers, the most exceptional case being the Digenis Acritas which was well known even in western Europe
outside the Byzantine empire.
The most important acritic romances
are:
. Besides its prose of popular idiom which went on to influence and shape modern Greek
, the poems themselves were nationalistic enough in character that they became a symbol of Greek continuity. Byzantine nationalism
during the formation of the Greek state
and in the age of the utopian new Greek Great Idea
was widened and intensified. Kostis Palamas
, among the greatest of Greek poets, was preparing his own version of Digenis Acrites before his death. Byzantine
history as part of Greece's wider history derives from historian Constantine Paparregopoulus
and it is that which inspired Palamas in one of his poems ("Iambs and Anapaest
s") to praise the hero of Digenis Acrites as the connecting link between Greece of the Persian Wars and Greece of 1821:
Ο Ακρίτας είμαι, Χάροντα,
δέν περνώ μέ τά χρόνια,
Είμ' εγώ η ακατάλυτη ψυχή τών Σαλαμίνων,
στήν Εφτάλοφην έφερα το σπαθί τών Ελλήνων.
It is I, Acritas, O Death;
years can't fade me away.
I'm the indestructible soul of Salamis
,
bringing the sword of the Greeks to the Sevenhill
.
With the defeat of Greece
in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)
signaling the death of the Greek Great Idea, and along with population exchange
that emptied Asia Minor of Greeks, the legend of Acritas was weakened, although not completely erased. After the Second World War, Nikos Kazantzakis
planned on writing his own poem centered on Acritas, who this time would not be the personification of a nation but of the higher and continuous spiritual fight of man. Its historical context would not be Byzantine.
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
that emerged in the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
probably in the 9th century. The songs celebrated the exploits of the Akrites
Akrites
Akrites is a former municipality in Kastoria peripheral unit, West Macedonia, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Nestorio, of which it is a municipal unit. Population 1,109 . The seat of the municipality is in Dipotamia....
, the frontier guards defending the eastern borders of the Byzantine Empire. The historical background was the almost continuous
Byzantine-Arab conflict
Byzantine-Arab Wars
The Byzantine–Arab Wars were a series of wars between the Arab Caliphates and the East Roman or Byzantine Empire between the 7th and 12th centuries AD. These started during the initial Muslim conquests under the expansionist Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs and continued in the form of an enduring...
between the 7th and 12th centuries. Against this background several romances were produced, the most famous of which is that of Digenis Acritas
Digenis Acritas
Digenes Akrites , known in folksongs as Digenes Akritas , is the most famous of the Acritic Songs. The epic details the life of its eponymous hero, Basil, a man, as the epithet signifies, of mixed Roman and Syrian blood...
, considered by some to signal the beginnings of modern Greek literature
Modern Greek literature
Modern Greek literature refers to literature written in the Greek language from the 11th century, with texts written in a language that is more familiar to the ears of Greeks today than is the language of the early Byzantine literature, the compilers of the New Testament, or, of course, the...
.
Subject
Written in Medieval GreekMedieval Greek
Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, is the stage of the Greek language between the beginning of the Middle Ages around 600 and the Ottoman conquest of the city of Constantinople in 1453. The latter date marked the end of the Middle Ages in Southeast Europe...
, the acritic songs deal with the heroic deeds of ακρίτες (frontiersmen), warriors that lived near the Arab frontiers and fought against the enemy. The constant state of war in the region and the repeated confrontations with the Arabs inspired poets to write down tales of chivalry
Chivalry
Chivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood which has an aristocratic military origin of individual training and service to others. Chivalry was also the term used to refer to a group of mounted men-at-arms as well as to martial valour...
as a response to a society that wished to be informed or hear details, whether factual or imaginary, of the adventures caused by enemy invasions or of the martial valor of their countrymen who drove the enemy out. The fate of the inhabitants - who after each invasion often had to face the loss of family members as well as their own pain - is also a major theme.
The invasion and riposte, the hatred for the invader, the desire for revenge, the fate of female prisoners and the endeavours undertaken to achieve their rescue, all inspire the poet who, based on direct narrations by eyewitnesses, organises and develops this pool of information and emotions into a live language with an easily memorable verse. The poet also narrates in recitation, or in a simple, recurring, and easily taught pace, the enslavement, duels, massacres, escapes, release of captives, and often the bonds of affection between kidnappers and women that led to marriage and reconciliation.
Origins
Most academics trace the origins of Byzantine acritic romanceRomance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
to the oral epic poetry
Oral poetry
Oral poetry can be defined in various ways. A strict definition would include only poetry that is composed and transmitted without any aid of writing. However, the complex relationships between written and spoken literature in some societies can make this definition hard to maintain, and oral...
of the 9th and 10th centuries. Greek scholar Socrates Kougeas (Σωκράτης Κουγέας) dates the earliest reference to oral epics of the 10th century to a speech given by bishop Arethas of Caesaria condemning the local αγύρται (agyrtae - the Greek counterpart of French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
troubadors) of Paphlagonia
Paphlagonia
Paphlagonia was an ancient area on the Black Sea coast of north central Anatolia, situated between Bithynia to the west and Pontus to the east, and separated from Phrygia by a prolongation to the east of the Bithynian Olympus...
for glorifying violent acts instead of the saints and God. Kougeas aptly observed that Arethas suggests a tradition developed at that time exactly in central Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
which was the cradle of acritic literature. The preservation of such important oral songs in Asia Minor up to 1922, when the entire region was depopulated of Greeks, proves that Kougeas's assumption is valid.
These folk singers may have been professionals, or semi-professionals that temporarily abandoned their jobs to sing their songs for pay. This tradition remains today in Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
with the ποιηταράδες (chanters) that sing regularly in festivals and holidays.
A famous theory from specialist Roderick Beaton is that the poem of Digenis Akritas was first written in the Imperial Capital, Constantinople, during the 12th century, using elements from the military landed aristocracy, originally from the empire's Asian provinces. These had fled to the capital after the Turkish invasion in the mid-eleventh century.
They made the songs to keep their culture alive, giving attention to skills in war, personal honour and courage, and an aristocratic way of life.
Background
With the Arab expansion in the late 7th century came a life of warfare for the residents of the easternmost territories. SyriaSyria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
was occupied in 640 and from then on, every year, Saracens attempted invasions in Asia Minor, carrying off captives on their way back. Cities were usually retaken by the Byzantine army
Byzantine army
The Byzantine army was the primary military body of the Byzantine armed forces, serving alongside the Byzantine navy. A direct descendant of the Roman army, the Byzantine army maintained a similar level of discipline, strategic prowess and organization...
, with the exception of Tarsus
Tarsus (city)
Tarsus is a historic city in south-central Turkey, 20 km inland from the Mediterranean Sea. It is part of the Adana-Mersin Metropolitan Area, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Turkey with a population of 2.75 million...
and Adana
Adana
Adana is a city in southern Turkey and a major agricultural and commercial center. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, 30 kilometres inland from the Mediterranean, in south-central Anatolia...
that remained under occupation until the 10th century; but each year, after the invaders left, the pain and suffering of the inhabitants remained, along with their despair for their beloved ones that were missing. This continuous state of warfare set the stage for acritic poetry.
The hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
of these poems, the Ακρίτης (Acrites), is the personification of all Byzantine soldiers that guarded those territories. As early as emperor
Emperor
An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...
Alexander Severus
Alexander Severus
Severus Alexander was Roman Emperor from 222 to 235. Alexander was the last emperor of the Severan dynasty. He succeeded his cousin Elagabalus upon the latter's assassination in 222, and was ultimately assassinated himself, marking the epoch event for the Crisis of the Third Century — nearly fifty...
, soldiers were vested with land that would pass on to their sons in exchange for their service in the army. Justinian
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
consolidated these lands as tax-free, the owners of which Procopius
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...
names as λιμιτανέοι (limitanei
Limitanei
The limitanei, meaning "the soldiers in frontier districts" The limitanei, meaning "the soldiers in frontier districts" The limitanei, meaning "the soldiers in frontier districts" (from the Latin phrase limes, denoting the military districts of the frontier provinces established in the late third...
). With the creation of the Byzantine theme system the landowners were given further privileges, that also excluded lakes from taxes. During the reign of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, acritic lands were not allowed to be sold, even with the consent of the owner. This was necessary for the preservation of cavalry which was important for dealing with thieves (απελάτες). Following Byzantine successes against the Arabs after the 10th century, the borderlands were stabilised, tensions between them settled down, and attention was diverted away from foreign affairs towards internal dangers.
Poems
Most poems did not survive the OttomanOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
occupation of Greece
Ottoman Greece
Most of Greece gradually became part of the Ottoman Empire from the 15th century until its declaration of independence in 1821, a historical period also known as Tourkokratia ....
, and only a fraction remains of the original number of works, yet the ones we do hold today were famous enough to have existed in enough copies to survive. The most well known oral songs were written down and copied in great numbers, the most exceptional case being the Digenis Acritas which was well known even in western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
outside the Byzantine empire.
The most important acritic romances
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
are:
- Digenis AcritasDigenis AcritasDigenes Akrites , known in folksongs as Digenes Akritas , is the most famous of the Acritic Songs. The epic details the life of its eponymous hero, Basil, a man, as the epithet signifies, of mixed Roman and Syrian blood...
(Διγενής Ακρίτας). - Andronicus' Steed (Ο Ανδρόνικος και ο Μαύρος του).
- Son of Andronicus (Ο υιός του Ανδρόνικου).
- Song of ArmourisSong of ArmourisThe Song of Armouris or Armoures is a heroic Byzantine ballad, and probably one of the oldest surviving acritic songs, dating from the 11th century...
(Το άσμα του Αρμούρη).
Legacy
Acritis, as a representation of acritic poetry, is greatly influential in modern Greek literatureModern Greek literature
Modern Greek literature refers to literature written in the Greek language from the 11th century, with texts written in a language that is more familiar to the ears of Greeks today than is the language of the early Byzantine literature, the compilers of the New Testament, or, of course, the...
. Besides its prose of popular idiom which went on to influence and shape modern Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, the poems themselves were nationalistic enough in character that they became a symbol of Greek continuity. Byzantine nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
during the formation of the Greek state
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and in the age of the utopian new Greek Great Idea
Megali Idea
The Megali Idea was an irredentist concept of Greek nationalism that expressed the goal of establishing a Greek state that would encompass all ethnic Greek-inhabited areas, since large Greek populations after the restoration of Greek independence in 1830 still lived under Ottoman rule.The term...
was widened and intensified. Kostis Palamas
Kostis Palamas
Kostis Palamas was a Greek poet who wrote the words to the Olympic Hymn. He was a central figure of the Greek literary generation of the 1880s and one of the cofounders of the so-called New Athenian School along with Georgios Drosinis, Nikos Kampas, Ioanis Polemis.-Biography:Born in Patras, he...
, among the greatest of Greek poets, was preparing his own version of Digenis Acrites before his death. Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
history as part of Greece's wider history derives from historian Constantine Paparregopoulus
Constantine Paparregopoulus
Constantine Paparrigopoulos is considered the founder of modern Greek historiography. He analysed Greek history from ancient to the present as a continuous history in his multi-volume History of the Greek Nation, and is also known for his original research in Byzantine history as well as in...
and it is that which inspired Palamas in one of his poems ("Iambs and Anapaest
Anapaest
An anapaest is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. In classical quantitative meters it consists of two short syllables followed by a long one; in accentual stress meters it consists of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable. It may be seen as a reversed dactyl...
s") to praise the hero of Digenis Acrites as the connecting link between Greece of the Persian Wars and Greece of 1821:
Ο Ακρίτας είμαι, Χάροντα,
δέν περνώ μέ τά χρόνια,
Είμ' εγώ η ακατάλυτη ψυχή τών Σαλαμίνων,
στήν Εφτάλοφην έφερα το σπαθί τών Ελλήνων.
It is I, Acritas, O Death;
years can't fade me away.
I'm the indestructible soul of Salamis
Battle of Salamis
The Battle of Salamis was fought between an Alliance of Greek city-states and the Persian Empire in September 480 BCE, in the straits between the mainland and Salamis, an island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens...
,
bringing the sword of the Greeks to the Sevenhill
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
.
With the defeat of Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)
Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)
The Greco–Turkish War of 1919–1922, known as the Western Front of the Turkish War of Independence in Turkey and the Asia Minor Campaign or the Asia Minor Catastrophe in Greece, was a series of military events occurring during the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after World War I between May...
signaling the death of the Greek Great Idea, and along with population exchange
Population transfer
Population transfer is the movement of a large group of people from one region to another by state policy or international authority, most frequently on the basis of ethnicity or religion...
that emptied Asia Minor of Greeks, the legend of Acritas was weakened, although not completely erased. After the Second World War, Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis was a Greek writer and philosopher, celebrated for his novel Zorba the Greek, considered his magnum opus...
planned on writing his own poem centered on Acritas, who this time would not be the personification of a nation but of the higher and continuous spiritual fight of man. Its historical context would not be Byzantine.