The Dead Brother's Song is a Greek poem, considered to be the oldest surviving dimotikó (traditional folk) song of the Greek music

Music of Greece

The music of Greece is as diverse and celebrated as its history. Greek music separates into two parts: Greek traditional music and Byzantine music, with more eastern sounds...

.

History

The song was composed in Asia Minor

Asia Minor

Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...

 in the 9th century, during the time of the Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

.

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

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 world during the High

High Middle Ages

The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....

 and Late Middle Ages

Late Middle Ages

The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....

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

Balkans

The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

 literatures, notably by the Bulgarian

Bulgarian literature

Bulgarian literature is literature written by Bulgarians or residents of Bulgaria, or written in the Bulgarian language; usually the latter is the defining feature...

 and Serbian

Serbian literature

Serbian literature refers to literature written in Serbian and/or in Serbia.The history of Serbian literature begins with theological works from the 10th- and 11th centuries, developing in the 13th century by Saint Sava and his disciples...

.

In 1962, Mikis Theodorakis

Mikis Theodorakis

Mikis Theodorakis is one of the most renowned Greek songwriters and composers. Internationally, he is probably best known for his songs and for his scores for the films Zorba the Greek , Z , and Serpico .Politically, he identified with the left until the late 1980s; in 1989, he ran as an...

 composed a drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

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

Greek Civil War

The Greek Civil War was fought from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by the United Kingdom and United States, and the Democratic Army of Greece , the military branch of the Greek Communist Party , backed by Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania...

 and the then oppressive political situation in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

.

Structure

It is written in the meter called Political verse

Political verse

Political verse , also known as Decapentasyllabic verse is a metric form in Modern Greek poetry. It is an iambic verse of fifteen syllables and has been the main meter of traditional popular and folk poetry since the Byzantine period...

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

Ancient Greek literature

Ancient Greek literature refers to literature written in the Ancient Greek language until the 4th century.- Classical and Pre-Classical Antiquity :...

 iambic trimeter

Iambic trimeter

iambic trimeter is a meter of poetry consisting of three iambic units per line.In ancient Greek poetry, iambic trimeter is a quantitative meter, in which a line consisted of three iambic metra and each metron consisted of two iambi...

 (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 and the homonym

Homonym

In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that often but not necessarily share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings...

 for the excellent ideal

Arete (excellence)

Arete , in its basic sense, means excellence of any kind. In its earliest appearance in Greek, this notion of excellence was ultimately bound up with the notion of the fulfillment of purpose or function: the act of living up to one's full potential...

. The presence of both is evident in the poem, as well as the presence of Charon

Charon (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay Charon for passage, usually an obolus or danake, was sometimes placed in or on...

. 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

Bridge of Arta

The Bridge of Arta is a stone bridge that crosses the Arachthos river near the city of Arta in Greece. The bridge became famous from the eponymous legendary folk ballad, which is at the core about human sacrifice...

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

Lyrics

The "The Dead Brother's Song" has the following lyrics:

Mother with your nine sons and with your only daughter,

the precious the most beloved daughter.

She was twelve years old and the sun had not seen her.

In darkness she bathed her and without moonlight she is making her hair,

under the star and the Bringer of Light she was tying her ribbons.

They’ve sent men from Babylon to ask her as a bride,

to take Arete too far away in the foreign lands.

The eight brothers don’t want and Constantine wants.

-My mother lets give Arete as a bride to the foreign lands.

Abroad, there that I am walking, in the foreign lands that I am travelling,

And if we go abroad, not to be considered foreigners.

-You are wise Constantis, but you replied wrongly.

And if, my son, to me comes death, and if, my son, illness happens to come to me,

If bitterness or joy comes, who will go to bring her back to me?

-I quote the Heaven as judge and the Saints as witnesses,

if death happens to come, if happens to come illness,

if bitterness or joy comes, I will go to bring her to you.

And once they gave Arete as bride in the foreign lands

and years of misery and months of anger came

and death fell upon them and the nine brothers died

the mother was left all alone.

In all the graves she was crying, in all she was mourning

In front of Constantine’s grave she was pulling her hair off.

“Damn you, Constantis, and damn you a myriad times,

cause you exiled my Arete in the foreign lands!

The promise that you gave me when will you fulfil?

You quoted the Heaven as judge and the Saints as witnesses

that if bitterness or joy comes, you will go to bring her to me”.

From the myriad anathemas and the heavy curse,

the earth was shaken and Constantis came out.

He turns the cloud into horse and the star into bridle

and the moon into companion and goes to bring her back.

He leaves the mounts behind him and the mountains in front.

He founds her making her hair out, under the moonlight.

From far away he greets her and from a close distance he tells her:

-Stand up sister to leave, lets go to our mother.

-Alas, my brother, and why that time of the night?

If maybe it is cause of joy, I should wear my jewels and come

and if it is cause of bitterness, tell me that, to get dressed in black and come.

-Come Arete in our home and let it be the way you are.

He kneels the horse and makes her sit behind.

In the way they were going, little birds were singing.

They were not singing like birds, nor like swallows,

but they were only singing and saying with human voice:

“Who has seen a beautiful lady being led by a dead?”!

-Did you hear, my Constantine, what the little birds are saying?

-They are little birds and let them sing, they are little birds and let them say.

And a little further on their way other little birds are telling them:

“Isn’t pity and unfair, very strange,

the alive to walk along with the dead?”!

-Did you hear, my Constantine, what the little birds are saying?

That the alive walk along with the dead.

-It is April and they sing and May and they are nesting.

-I am afraid of you my brother and you smell frankincense.

Last night we went far away to Saint John’s

and the priest incensed us with too much frankincense.

And even later on their way more little birds are telling them:

“Look what a miracle and evil takes place in the world,

such a beautiful delicate lady being led by the dead!”

Arete heard that again and her heart was broken.

-Did you hear, my Constantine, what the little birds are saying?

-Stop Arete talking about the birds and let them say whatever they want!

-Tell me were is your beauty and your manfulness

and your blonde hair and the beautiful moustache?

-It’s been a long time since I got ill and my hair has fallen.

Over there, near there, they arrive to the church.

He mightily hits his horse and is lost from in front of her.

And she hears the gravestone clashing, the soil buzzing.

Arete sets off and goes home by herself.

She sees her gardens leafless, the trees sickly

she sees the mint dried, the carnation turned black

she sees in front of her door grass having grown.

She finds the door locked and the keys having been taken

and the windows of the house been tightly bolted.

She knocks the door mightily, the windows are crunching.

-If you are a friend, come in, and if you are an enemy, go away

and if you are bitter Charon, I don’t have more sons

and my poor little Arete is far away in the foreign lands.

-Stand up my mother, open the door, stand up my sweet mother.

-Who is the one who knocks my door and calls me “mother”?

-Open the door, my mother, open it and it is me, your Arete.

She came down, they hugged and they both fell dead.

External links

• Mikis Theodorakis "The Ballad of the Dead Brother" - The Music
• The Ballad of the Dead Brother, The Drama, by Gail Holst
• Του Νεκρού Αδερφού