"The Dead Brother's Song" () is a Greek poem, considered to be the oldest surviving '' dimotikó'', which are traditional

Greek folk songs Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

History

The song was composed in

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

in the 9th century, during the time of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

. ''The Dead Brother's Song'' was widespread in the Greek-speaking world during the

High High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift t ...

and

Late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

, as it can be seen by the many variants that have survived in various places of Greece, of which seventeen were published in 1885. The song was adopted by the other

Balkan The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

literatures,Λίνος Πολίτης, Ιστορία της Νεοελληνικής Λογοτεχνίας, Μορφωτικό Ίδρυμα Εθνικής Τραπέζης, Αθήνα, 2002, σελ. 110 notably by the Bulgarian and

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * Pertaining to Serbia in Southeast Europe; in particular **Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans ** Serbian language ** Serbian culture **Demographics of Serbia, includes other ethnic groups within the co ...

. In 1962,

Mikis Theodorakis Michail "Mikis" Theodorakis ( ; 29 July 1925 – 2 September 2021) was a Greek composer and lyricist credited with over 1,000 works. He scored for the films '' Zorba the Greek'' (1964), '' Z'' (1969), and '' Serpico'' (1973). He was a three-ti ...

composed a

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

tic synthesis based on ''The Dead Brother's Song'' named ''The Ballad of the Dead Brother'' which referred to the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War () took place from 1946 to 1949. The conflict, which erupted shortly after the end of World War II, consisted of a Communism, Communist-led uprising against the established government of the Kingdom of Greece. The rebels decl ...

and the then oppressive political situation in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Structure

It is written in the meter called

Political verse Political verse (Greek: ''politikós stíkhos'', πολιτικός στίχος), also known as decapentasyllabic verse (from Greek: ''dekapentasíllavos'', , lit. '15-syllable'), is a common metric form in Medieval and Modern Greek poetry. It i ...

, iambic decapentasyllable (15 syllables), an evolution of the

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

iambic trimeter The Iambic trimeter, in classical Greek and Latin poetry, is a meter of poetry consisting of three iambic metra (each of two feet) per line. In English poetry, it refers to a meter with three iambic feet. In ancient Greek poetry and Latin po ...

(iambic dodecasyllable). It is not known whether it was actually set to music or it was merely a poem meant to be recited, as it only survives as a text.

Content

The main figures of the poem are Constantine and his sister Arete (which means "Virtue"), a name derived from the ancient Greek goddess

Arete () is a concept in ancient Greek thought that refers to "excellence" of any kind—especially a person or thing's "full realization of potential or inherent function." The term may also refer to excellence in "Virtue, moral virtue." The conce ...

and the

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either; '' homographs''—words that mean different things, but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation), or '' homophones''—words that mean different things, but have the same pronunciat ...

for the excellent ideal. The presence of both is evident in the poem, as well as the presence of

Charon In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon ( ; ) is a psychopomp, the ferryman of the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the worlds of the living and ...

. The poem is called a παραλογή (''paralogē'', "illogic") as its theme is supernatural, featuring a dead person resurrecting for some time to fulfil an oath, and birds speaking with human voice. Another well-known medieval ''paralogē'' is the song of the

Bridge of Arta The Bridge of Arta () is a stone bridge that crosses the Arachthos river (Άραχθος) in the west of the city of Arta, Greece, Arta (Άρτα) in northwestern Greece. It has been rebuilt many times over the centuries, starting with Roman archi ...

, a bridge whose foundations would not stand unless the master builder buried his own wife within the masonry.

References

External links

* *
The Greek World of Folklore: The Dead Brother's SongThe Greek ballad text at wikisource
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dead Brother's Song Byzantine literature Modern Greek literature Greek folk songs