Καλλιτεχνικός Σύλλογος Δημοτικής Μουσικής Δόμνα Σαμίου

Digenis Akritas is the protagonist in two groups of songs: those that deal with his death, and those whose action centres on the ancient and universal theme of a woman's abduction. This second group of songs can be further split into those in which Digenis is the interloper who abducts his wife-to-be, and those in which it is Digenis' own wife who is kidnapped by other akrites or by Saracen bandits.

This double CD includes examples of every type and sub-type. We chose the most significant song in the first group, the long Cypriot narrative The abduction of Levandis’ daughter by Digenis. The story goes like this: two Gypsies tell Digenis that King Levandis is marrying his daughter to Giannakos, whom Digenis considers unworthy of the bride. He sends the hostage Philiopappous as an emissary to press his own suit, but the king rejects him because of Digenis' mixed blood. Resentful at his rejection, Digenis fashions a magic tamboura and beguiles the bride with its music; however, she still sets him a feat to perform as a challenge. When Digenis completes the challenge, the girl elopes with him. The king sends an army after them, but Digenis vanquishes them and avenges the insult.

The second group is represented by a variation from Pontus (Black Sea). It begins with the classic akritic motifs of the ploughman Akritas and of the bird which warns him in human speech - motifs we also encounter (with a different message, of course) in songs about Digenis' death. A large number of narrative songs, akritic or not, old or more recent, deal with the abduction of a woman whose husband is away; he may be fighting in the wars, in prison or doing forced labour - the plots vary. Yet again, all these songs - along with a number of folk tales and accounts both oral and written in the Greek, but also the Eastern and Western traditions - would seem to have taken this old, multi-layered myth as their shared starting point.

However, over and above their central theme, both songs display a number of other poetic elements which confirm their affinity to an old and virtuosic epic narrative tradition which bestows on them the singular ‘akritic’ quality of conveying both the time and place of the Akritas' actions so impressively, without actually belonging to either. Mythic figures and names from the Digenis epic, their peacetime activities or brave feats, the lords in their palaces, the noble steeds and talking birds, savage beasts and dragons, the danger from border raids, the abductions and retaliations, the restless armies and invincible heroes - all part of a world of adventure that transcends time and historical space - have permeated these songs, surviving there on the margins not of a geographical entity, but of the human soul and imagination. Miranda Terzopoulou (2017)

Studio recording, 1982 and is included also in the LP album Chants des Akrites.