For once I’m not writing about an Athens
Living video, but one I came across on You Tube the other day.
In this video, 77 artists in 40 different
locations throughout Attica take part in “Erotokritos”. This was a piece originally written
by Vincenzos Kornaros in early 17th century Crete. It consists of over ten
thousand fifteen-syllable rhymed verses covering themes of love, honour,
friendship and courage.
This video caught my imagination for some
reason, and made me want to find more about the poem and it’s author. That
wasn’t easy, as not an awful lot is known about Kornaros’
life.
Relying heavily on Wikipedia, it seems he
was the son of a Venetian-Cretan aristocrat and was born near Sitia, Crete
around 1553, moving later to Candia (Heraklion) around 1591.
The island was then occupied by the
Venetians and thus influenced heavily by the Italian Renaissance, having a mini
renaissance of it’s own known as the Cretan Renaissance. Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco) was
born in Candia during this time (painting by El Greco during his years in
Crete, right), and Kornaros’ “Erotokritos” (written
circa 1600 in Candia) is considered to be one of
the most important pieces of Greek literature.
Inspired by an earlier French poem, Paris
et Vienne, the poem has an odd mixed Hellenic and quasi Medieval setting where
knights come to joust in a pre Christian ancient Athens. It tells the story Aretousa, daughter of the King of Athens and Erotokritos, son of the King's advisor. Erotokritos disguises himself and begins to court Aretousa by singing love
songs outside her window every night until she slowly falls in love
with him. Many trials and
tribulations ensue but I gather there is a happy ending!
Originally written in the Cretan dialect,
the verse has the type of rhyme used in traditional “mantinades” ( serenade
style love songs). According to my father in law, mantinades were popular in
Greek courtship until the 1950’s, and even today musicians continue to write
and sing these ballads, although probably not outside their loved ones window!
So, after all this preamble, I hope you
enjoy this video as much as I did. The artist’s involved are a collective who
believe that the arts (primarily music) are powerful enough to inspire and
unite people in a common goal. I think it’s a great idea, and I really enjoyed
trying to guess the various locations throughout Attica.
Here is another (short) video with a couple of verses about Erotokritos' despair at being exiled from his beloved Aretousa (with English subtitles).
Exile of Erotokritos
