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Erotokritos

Erotokritos (Greek: Ἐρωτόκριτος) is a romance composed by Vikentios (Vitsentzos, "Vincenzo", Vincent) Kornaros in early 17th century Crete. It consists of 10,012 fifteen-syllable rhymed verses, the last twelve of which refer to the poet himself. It is written in the Cretan dialect of the Greek language. Its central theme is love between Erotokritos (only referred to the work as Rotokritos or Rokritos) and Aretousa. Around this theme, revolve other themes such as honour, friendship, bravery and courage. Erotokritos and Erophile by Georgios Hortatzis constitute classic examples of Greek Renaissance literature and are considered to be the most important works of Cretan literature. It remains a popular work to this day, largely due to the music that accompanies it when it is publicly recited. A particular type of rhyming used in the traditional mantinades was also the one used in Erotokritos. The epic poem takes elements of ancient Greek art forms to make a classical style which is uniquely Hellenic, as well as introducing the themes of class struggle and national identity during a period of occupation.

Characters

The poet narrates the trials and tribulations suffered by two young lovers, Erotokritos and Aretousa, daughter of Heracles, King of Athens.

Plot

The story takes place in ancient Athens, but the world displayed is a complex construct which does not correspond to any particular historical period. The work is partitioned in the following five parts:

I. After several years of marriage, a daughter (Aretousa) is born to the King of Athens (Heracles) and his wife. The son of the faithful adviser to the king (Erotokritos) falls in love with the princess. Because he cannot reveal his love, he sings under her window in the evenings. The girl gradually falls in love with the unknown singer. Heracles, when he learns about the singer, organizes an ambush to arrest him, but Erotokritos with his beloved friend kills the soldiers of the king. Erotokritos, realising that his love cannot have a happy ending travels to Chalkida to forget. During his absence, his father falls ill and when Aretousa visits him, she finds in the room of Erotokritos a painting of hers and the lyrics he sang. When he returns, he discovers the absence of his drawing and songs and learns that the only person that visited them was Aretousa. Realizing that his identity was revealed and that he may be at risk, he stays at home pretending to be ill. Aretousa sends him a basket of apples to wish him well and as an indication she shares his feelings.

II. The king organizes a jousting competition for the entertainment of his daughter. Many noblemen from around the known world participate and Erotokritos is the winner.

III. The couple begins to secretly meets under the window of Aretousa. The girl pleads with Erotokritos to ask her father to allow them to marry. Naturally, the king is angry with the audacity of the young man and has him exiled. Simultaneously a marriage proposal for Aretousa arrives by the king of Byzantium. The girl immediately gets engaged secretly to Erotokritos before he leaves the city.

IV. Aretousa refuses to consider any marriage proposals and is imprisoned by the king alongside her faithful nanny. After three years, when the Vlachs besiege Athens, Erotokritos reappears, his true identity concealed through magic. In a battle he saves the life of the king and gets wounded in the process.

V. In order to thank the wounded stranger the king offers him his daughter as spouse. Aretousa refuses to accept this marriage and in discussion with the disguised Erotokritos she persists in her refusal. Erotokritos submits her to tests to confirm her faith and finally reveals himself after breaking the spell that concealed his identity. The king accepts the marriage and reconciles with Erotokritos and his father, and Erotokritos ascends to the throne of Athens.

Key Characteristics

Although with regard to the evolution of the plot, Erotokritos follows all the characteristics of a knightly novel. Kornaros presents some particularities with regard to the structure, with characteristics derived from other literary species. Apart from the epic elements, the presence of dramatic features is also intense: the division into five parts reflects the pentameric division of classical drama, while the theatrical character imparts the frequent presence of the dialogue. The manuscript of the work does not show the pentameric division, which appears only in printed publications, but it is considered by the scholars to be organic and related to the conception of the work by the poet

The epic-heroic and erotic element referred to as thematic cores already in the first verses ("and even the riots, the conceited and the weights / of Eros the baptism and kissing the grace"), coexist in the work divided symmetrically, with erotic superior to the first, the third and the fifth, while the heroic in the second and the fourth, while being interrelated, with one feeding the other: Erotokritos' love for Aretousa is motivated for his participation in the storm, while the man and a bid to the country's king is the fact that allows the success of the relationship.

The emphasis on food and erotic imagery ais also seen clearly in the work . He importance of the issue of social discrimination also plays a very important role, and the importance of the issue of social discrimination is also crucial: the love of the two heroes is in contradiction with established social conventions and puts them in conflict with their environment, but at the end of the project, "personal virtues" prevail.

Kornaros' significant innovation is the emergence of the hero's psychological state and the convincing justification of the motivations of their behavior.

Usage of Language

The language of Erotokritos is the Cretan dialect, mostly within the idiom of Sitia. Typical dialectical formulas such as the articles τση (της) and τσι (τις) are used, the questioning pronoun (e) in the place of the word what. Articles, in the place of reference pronouns to speak of the final one in the general plural and in the plural person (they haven't spoken, they wish to speak), place the pronoun after the verb (assimilation of the climate, for example, have gone), use of the pronounced pronoun self and self-indulgence (according to him). In particular, it is based on the Eastern Cretan idiom and displays its typical characteristics, such as the use of pronouns instead of (the passions), the use of the growth of the past - (in the past), the elimination of the - after - (for example, to claim), as well as the passive indefinite-was, was (-θη, -θης, -θη(ν),, for example, instead of εχάθη).

Some characteristics of Erotokritos' voice are an assimilation of the pronounced words in a word, followed by λ, ρ or continuous friction θ, φ, χ (eg tη χέρα, έλαψα, μέφεται, αθιβολή, ). In other cases the word of the article and the semi-text [j], when in the coexistence there is a vowel, e, (for example the julli, the jarrows). Submissive voweling, when preceding a continuous allegorical consonant, that is to say, the sui, ξi, ψi, ζi (anipsos, axos) complexes.The language of Erotokritos is based on the spoken Cretan dialect (mainly in the idiom of Sitia), but it differs from it, if compared to comedies or various documents, since it has few words derived from Italian, while on the contrary it often has more lexical features.

The lyrics are also taken care of: the hammerings are avoided and there are no imperfections in rhyme. And lyrics, like the language, differ in some features from the folk song: Shifting to the position of the syllables in the verse (even in single syllables, although the yambus is emphasized by the weights), the frequent presence of strikes and punctuation within the verse, elements that contribute to the rhythmic variety and the avoidance of monotony

Philological Issues

There are numerous adaptations and reworks of this play that there is speculation that other plays may be earlier versions of Eritokritos, such as an earlier work known as Thysia. There are three literary issues surrounding Erotokritos. the most important, on which the others depend, is the issue of the poet's identity, as the name Vitsentzos Kornaros was widespread in Crete. The other two important problems are the issue of the dating of the work and the question of the speculated Italian model on which the poet was based. For the subject of the poet, it is accepted by most scholars to identify with Vikidzzo Kornaros of Jacob, brother of the Venetian author Andreas Kornaros . Vicentzos, according to archival sources, was born in 1553 and died in 1613 or 1614. Based on this evidence, it is concluded that Erotokritus was written between 1590 and 1610. [10] On the Italian model on which Kornaros was based, the various adaptations of the French work stand out from the study of two, one of 1543, and one of Angelo Albani's diameters, entitled Innamoramento de due fidelissimi amanti Paris en Vienna, 1626. An examination of all Italian adaptations in relation to Erotokritus has led to the conclusion that the pedophile was the one used by Kornaros, a point accepted by several philologists. This view agrees with the poet's proposed identification.

Legacy

The impact of the project was very great. His influences on mantinades are also observed, and in Crete he has created a mythological tradition: the names of the heroes have survived to date as baptisms and the folk imagination called the "Iraklis Palace" the pillars of Olympian Zeus in Athens. The great spread of the work is testified by scholars and foreign travelers throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, who claimed that people in Crete knew all the work from the outside. Even George Seferis reports that in Smyrna at the beginning of the 20th century, the understanding of the project was very easy, despite the strong idiomatic language.

Examples of poems influenced the storie's lyrics are The Cretan of D. Solomos, the Mother of God of A. Sikelianos, the Epitaph of G. Ritsos, Neo Erotokritos by Pantelis Prevelakis.

Of course, the negative projections of the project were also missing. Several 18th-century scholars considered it a lesser reading because of the popular language and even Dionysios Fotinus had wrapped the work in a word, "superior" as he believed, a linguistic form. Calvos criticized the project as monotonous and Iacovos Polylas rejected it because of the idiomatic language.

The work was performed in theatrical form by D. Synadino in 1929, with Marika Kotopouli in the role of Aretousa and in 1966 Nikos Koundouros made it in a cinematic script. The work has also been recorded many times and is a popular soundtrack in Crete.

References

1. Αλεξίου Στ., «Εισαγωγή» στο: Βιτσέντζος Κορνάρος, Ερωτόκριτος, επιμέλεια Στ. Αλεξίου, Εστία, Νέα Ελληνική Βιβλιοθήκη, 1995
2. Dimitriou, A. (2013). Transforming Paramythi in diasporic literature: five Greek Australian writers (No. Ph. D.). Deakin University.
3. G. Χατζιδάκι,(1915) «Περί της γλώσσης και της γραμματικής τού Ερωτοκρίτου», στον Στέφ. Ξανθουδίδη, Ερωτόκριτος, Ηράκλειο 458-68
4. G. Horrocks,(1997) Greek: A history of the language and its speakers, Addison Wesley Publishing Company, σελ. 308-310
5. Littlewood, A. R. (1993). The erotic symbolism of the apple in late Byzantine and meta-Byzantine demotic literature. Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 17, 83-103.
6. Mavrogordato, J. (1928). The Cretan Drama: A Postscript. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 48, 243-246. doi:10.2307/6249
7. R. M. D (1915)Βιτξέντξου Κορνάρου Ἐρωτόκριτος. The Journal of Hellenic Studies 35, 154
8. Sifakis, G. (1992). Homeric Survivals in the Medieval and Modern Greek Folksong Tradition? Greece & Rome, 39(2), 139-154. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/643263
9. Strauss, J. (1992). Aretos yacni Sevdâ: The Nineteenth Century Ottoman Translation of the ‘Erotokritos’. Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 16, 189-201. doi:10.1017/S0307013100007618
10. Valadakis, K. (2010). Daughters out of line: The marriage plot in three paradigmatic texts of the cretan renaissance, “Erotokritos”, “Panoria” and “Vasileus O rodolinos” 3-6 (Order No. 3397408). Available from Dissertations & Theses @ Rutgers University; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global . (89234490). Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/89234490?accountid=13626