Thank you all for your support and now I have 200+ (almost 300!) subscribers now! So here is a video to celebrate that. I decided to make a series of video as rewards for milestones, and what better way than to tell the story of Digenes Akritas, the Byzantine national hero, in the words of an original poem? I chose the Andros version because it is the most complete version of the tale. Keep in mind that the translation is done by an amateur (me) so I really cannot guarantee the quality but this video is made purely for entertainment purposes and I aimed for a readable translation, not a perfect one. Huge thanks to @iasonas.kolyvas and @giannis_karkados for revising the translation.
The Andros version of Digenes Akritas has 10 books, this video is about the first two. Book 1 is an interesting "prologue" about the hero Digenes' mother, Eirene. She was a much longed for daughter of the king (not sure why he is a king when he is just a strategos in other versions of the story) Aaron Doukas and his wife Anna. She was prophesized to fall in love and be kidnapped when she reaches her twelfth year so the king built a palace to keep her safe, but in the palace there was a painting of the god of love Eros and the girl laughed at the painting, offending the god who shot her with the arrow of love and made her his slave. Eirene begged Eros to no avail and soon she would fall in love. Book 2 picks up the narrative from most other versions: Eirene was captured by the Emir of Syria Mousour, her mother sent her brothers after her, and her brother Konstantinos defeated the Emir. They soon discovered that Mousour and Eirene were in love and decided to marry. The couple gave birth to Basileios Digenes Akritas.
Here is the original text: [ Ссылка ]
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