Καλλιτεχνικός Σύλλογος Δημοτικής Μουσικής Δόμνα Σαμίου

A good example of ‘censorship’ in a song. This is a common phenomenon: when a song’s content is no longer comprehensible because the conditions it describes have changed or are morally repugnant, singers intervene to correct it, bringing it into line with their own views.Created in this way, constant repetition will set the new song off on a career parallel to that of the older version. In this case, the sinner’s song has been purged and the sin expunged. Usually, when the act of God disturbs the congregation One Easter Day, one Sunday) the song’s hero confesses to the heinous sin of desecrating the dead. When his horse uncovers the grave of a newly-buried girl, blinded by her beauty, he engages in sexual congress with her:

…my horse pulled out a pink-cheeked girl,
he pulled up a pale-faced maid, I kissed her on her eyes and brow.

Kissing eyes is the customary allegory for sexual congress in folk songs. In some versions, the singer hints that the girl is a priest’s daughter or the young man’s sister, thereby adding the sin of sacrilege or incest to that of desecration. Miranda Terzopoulou (2008)

Domna Samiou taped the song in Pera Melana, Kynouria, Arcadia, in 1996.