DIGENIS AKRITAS

also called Digenis Akritas Basileios, Byzantine epic hero celebrated in folk ballads (Akritic ballads) and in an epic relating his parentage, boyhood adventures, manhood, and death. Based on a historical character who died about 788, the epic, a blend of Greek, Byzantine, and Oriental motifs, originated in the 10th century and was popularized by itinerant folksingers; it was recorded in several versions from the 12th to the 17th century, the oldest being a linguistic mixture of popular and literary language. Digenis Akritas, the ideal medieval Greek hero, is a bold warrior of the Euphrates frontier, the son of a Saracen emir converted to Christianity by the daughter of a Byzantine general; he was a proficient warrior by the age of three and spent the rest of his life defending the Byzantine Empire from frontier invaders. The feeling for nature and strong family affections that permeate the epic anticipate the great Cretan national romance, Erotkritos (mid-17th century) by Vitzntzos Kornros, and much modern Greek popular poetry.