



Ben Rogaczewski





















Often times when we read different pieces of fictional literature, or see pieces


of art, we do not realize what is original about the works. It can be seen from the


Latin Renaissance, when artists like Michelangelo and Borromini tried to use the


ancient classics as a means of inspiration. It can be seen from such writers as Dante

in his Inferno, placing the guide of Dante to be Virgil, the ancient author of The


Aeniad. So of course, it is no surprise that Hellenism of the ancient Greeks influenced


different works of the Byzantine Empire such as literature and art. Of all the many


works of literature, the Digenes Akrites shows some of the best examples of

Hellenistic influences. Not only does it utilize numerous “classical” references, but it

also has been an influence on certain works of Byzantine art, and thus, influenced by


the classics as well. Through this endeavor, distinguished reader, you shall know


that the Digenes Akrites is in fact a work of classical influence with a Christian twist.


So, without further ado, let us begin into what I would like to call a journey of

enlightenment. Here is the story of Digenes Akrites, a tragic classical hero.



Before we delve into the tale of our hero, let us first try to gather a better


understanding of the history behind the epic tale and different Byzantine literature.

According to scholars, the original epic can be traced back to about the middle of the


eleventh century written most likely by a monk.1 Of the different manuscripts



1
James Notopoulos, "Akritan Ikonography on Byzantine Pottery," Hesperia 33 (April

1964). P. 109.




derived from this, the Grottaferata‡ manuscript is the oldest. Each one of these

manuscripts was discovered in the nineteenth century.


We can gather a better idea of when the first manuscripts were written by


looking at evidence from other pieces of literature. The Byzantine poet Prodromos


writes with praise to emperor Michael Komnenos, saying “the mighty warrior, the

new Akritas”.2 Along with this, Prodromos continues stating:3


O would that some new Akritas were found then to tuck

his pleats, to take up his club and shatter these old
gluttons.


Prodromos is alluding to a line from the epic that states: “fastened his kilts up


firmly in his belt”. From this piece of evidence, we can gather that there was an early


popularity of the Akritas and that the existence of the source of the Grottaferrata

had to be by the twelfth century.4 This should grant you, the distinguished reader, a


better understanding that what you read from this point on is that of an analysis of


an 800-year-old work.


The story of the Digenes Akrites, which in ancient Greek means “Twyborn


Borderer”, does not begin actually with Digenes at all, but rather starts with the tale


of Digenes’ parents. His father known as the Emir, was a great general, or


“strategoi”, from Syria and had conquered many lands near “Kappadokia”. On his

journeys, the Emir catches a glance at the daughter of a Roman Doucas’ daughter


‡‡
The version I used for my studies.
2
Ibid. p. 110.
3
Ibid. p. 110.


4
Ibid. p. 110.




whose beauty is so over-powering, that he steals her away to make her his bride.

Upon hearing of this, her brothers go to rescue her and the Emir asks to marry the


maiden, and in return, he shall convert to Christianity. The brothers agree, but do


not trust the Emir, and so plot against their new brother-in-law. The Emir catches


word of this and decides that it would be best to take his new bride back to Syria in

order to be safe.


While in Syria, he successful converts his mother to Christianity, but decides


to return to Romania (Byzantium) at the requests of his young wife. From here, we


do not gather much more information with the exception of one scene that I feel is

necessary to be given. This is not because it has to deal with Hellenism, but after


reading the scene, I was taken aback at the fact that a monk had written this. The


line states:5


And having wound her arms about his neck she hung
there speechless, nor let fall her tears. Likewise the


Emir became as one possessed, clasping the girl, holding
her on his breast, so they remained entwined for many


hours; and had not the General’s wife thrown water on
them…


It would almost seem strange that this statement came from the pen of a

monk, considering this would almost past as romance novel material of today. Of

course, the scene is amazingly ended by water being thrown upon them as if they


were dogs in the process of coitus. I honestly have no analysis of this, and can only


say that it is perhaps a romantic scene turned comic by a clerical pen. However, I


digress from my original purpose. Let us then return to the original matter at hand.

5
John Mavrogordato, ed., Digenes Akrites, ed. John Mavrogordato (London: Oxford


University Press, 1963). P. 61.




After these several different scenes, we are finally introduced to our main

character, Basil Akrites. He is the son of the Syrian Emir and the Roman girl, a

mixture of two. It is from this section of the epic in which we hear tales of killing

wild animals brutally, and swashbuckling scenes that would give Sinbad a run for

his money. However, these instances shall be brought out in more description, since

they tie greatly into the heavy influence of Hellenism. Let us now delve into more of

the tale.

In order to encompass the tale properly, let us begin at the beginning of the

story. Now our first Hellenistic reference comes from a repetitive scene in the epic:

the stealing of the virgin. Within the epic, the first instance of this states: 6

…and captive he took a lovely girl, the general’s

daughter, and she was a virgin. The general himself was
then in exile; the girl’s brothers happened to be on the
borders. Her mother, having escaped the pagan’s hands,
forthwith wrote all had happened to her sons, the
pagans’ coming, the Rape of the Girl, the parting from
her dearest, crowds of woes…

From this statement, we can easily see two different classical references

becoming known. One can recall easily from this instance, the “Rape of Persephone”

in which the Greek god Hades steals the beautiful maiden Persephone from her

mother the Greek goddess Demeter, goddess of the earth. In order to gain back her

daughter from Hades’ lair in the Underworld, Demeter appeals to the great god

Zeus, who negotiates with his brother Hades in order to split the ownership of

6
Ibid. p. 7.
Persephone between Hades and Demeter. The main thing to take away from this

classical reference though is the very “snatching” of the young maiden.

However, we find a similar instance from a very common Hellenistic spring

from which many of the Byzantine scholars seemed to have drawn from: the

workers of Homer. The scene is an almost mirror of a scene from The Iliad, in which

Helen the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta is taken by Paris of Troy back to his home

at Ilium. According to Homer’s epic, Helen leaves with Paris because she has fallen

madly in love with the handsome Paris, a similar idea to the love between the Emir

and the general’s daughter. There are many different references to Homer’s works

within the epic, and this had to be a common idea within the Byzantine Empire.

Within the fourth book of the epic, the main tale of Digenes Akrites is finally

told. We are granted a view at the classic motif of a divine birth. Just as the ancient

demigods were born with half of two worlds, so to do we find within the birth of

Digenes, being part Syrian (Islam) and Roman (Christian).

The beginning of the fourth book gives us the statement that this epic is a

completely new idea, stating, “Cease writing of Homer, fables of Achilles, and

likewise those of Hektor, which are false”.7 From this statement, we can gather that

the obviously had a knowledge of the classics before he had written the epic. This

also gives us as readers the impression that the author shall include allusions to the

classics within the rest of the epic, since the literate Byzantines could relate to those

references.

7
John Mavrogordato, ed., Digenes Akrites, ed. John Mavrogordato (London: Oxford
University Press, 1963). P. 67.
 One of the most memorable scenes within the epic seems to be a scene

incorporating a hunt in the woods with young Digenes and his uncle. When the

uncle takes young Digenes out to hunt, he tells Digenes to take up his club and kill a

pair of adult bears, which Digenes does without mercy. The scene states: 8

The female met him jealous for her cubs, and loudly
roaring she came out towards him. He, as he was
untried in beast-fighting, did not turn back so as to
swing his cudgel, but jumped in quick and caught it by
the middle, and tightening his arms choked it at once;
Its inward parts were coming from its mouth…

The twelve-year-old Digenes not only is extremely inexperienced, but also is

able to slay a full-grown female bear without mercy. The scene goes on: 9

The male ran off into the marshy flats. His uncle called
‘See it doesn’t get away, child.’ He in his hurry let his
cudgel go, flew like an eagle and caught up to the beast.
The bear turned on him gaping wide its mouth and
rushed the boy’s head for to swallow down. But the boy
quickly seized it by the chap, and shook the beast, killed,
threw it on the ground, twisted its neck about and broke
its spine…

The sheer savagery that the child Digenes exhibits should be enough to show

the mirror allusion to that of the tales of Herakles slaying the two serpents sent by

Hera. Moreover, he shows a divine savagery, as that of the Greek warrior Achilles,

who the gods write of within The Iliad as a savage beast. In this manner, we can

easily see that the author is making an obvious comparison between Digenes and

8
Ibid. p. 74-75.
9
John Mavrogordato, ed., Digenes Akrites, ed. John Mavrogordato (London: Oxford
University Press, 1963). P. 75.
Achilles in a means to show the impressive nature of the “Twyborn Borderer”. Even

after this, he attacks a deer and rips it in two with his bare hands. It almost seems

that the author truly meant to mimic the twelve labors of Herakles. Not only that,

but we are granted an extremely descriptive image of the graphic violence, similar

to that of the Odyssey in which Polyphemos the Cyclops smashes one of Odysseus’

men into the ground so as to spill his brains upon the earth. I would almost compare

it with Beowulf’s killing of Grendel’s mother, in which Beowulf slices through the

she-witch’s “bone, tendon and sinew”, a description that tells us she was sliced from

head to toe. Overall, though, the scene from the epic shows a graphic portrayal,

which can be seen from many of the classic epics.

Like his father the great Emir, the beauty of a young maiden also takes

Digenes aback. The main difference between the two is that Digenes’ maiden is

given an actual name, perhaps due to her main importance, or a historical allusion.

The maiden is named Eudokia, which in Greek means “giver of good” or perhaps

even “good gift”. However, the main thing to take from this comes from a section

directly after the maiden is introduced that states:10

Those in the house when the sweet sound they heard

they were amazed as once was that Odysseus when in
his ship he heard the Sirens’ song.

10
Ibid. p. 89.
 The author obviously used this classic image of Odysseus entranced as a

means to give an understandable idea of the gorgeous nature of Eudokia’s voice. Not

only this, but we are given a very classical description in later section that states: 11

The beauties of her face prevent his eyes nor can he

clearly see the sunborn maid; some radiance was
dawning in her face; in truth the girl was like a picture
painted; a bright and charming eye, hair blonde and
curly, a brow she had all black, unmixed the sable, a face
like snow, and tinctured in the middle, as with the
chosen purple kings do prize.

Using words such as “unmixed” and “like snow” give us this picture of pure,

virgin maiden. This image is often constant with many pieces of classic literature

when referring to a “parthenos”, or “maiden”. Thus, we are shown here a Hellenistic

means of description, but not only that, there is far more to this description than the

author is letting on. Notice how he describes Eudokia as practically the most pure

woman on earth, and the description of Digenes as savage and brutal. Here we have

the two contrasting archetypes of the ancient world: the savage and brave male,

paired with the gentle and pure female. A classics scholar would salivate over the

pairing of this sun and moon, and so many have before. This leads me to my next

section of interest: the dragon slayer.

The dragon slayer has been a constant motif within epics since Apollo first

destroyed the Python, and has been a consistent idea dealing with Greek folklore

11
John Mavrogordato, ed., Digenes Akrites, ed. John Mavrogordato (London: Oxford
University Press, 1963). P. 95.
concerning St. George, St. Demetrios and even Alexander the Great. 12 The scene is a

confusing one because the author never refers to the dragon personally, and

Eudokia only calls it a “serpent”. However, from the description the author gives us,

we can gather that the beast is most definitely a dragon. The scene states: 13

I sat up quickly and I saw the troubler. I drew my

sword, and I was at the spring…he showed me an
appearance horrible, dreadful among men, and great,
three well-grown heads he had all fiery-flaming, from
each of them a flashing flame sent out; moving from his
place he made a noise of thunder, so the earth seemed
to shake and all the trees. His body thick, joining the
heads in one, behind was slender, tapering to a tail…my
spirit raised my sword, down brought it on the dreadful
beast his heads, took all together…

From this statement, we are given the final piece to this classical trinity: the

description of the dragon, or as some scholars note, sin. It is the classic tale of

Perseus and the great sea-beast (for all those Clash of the Titans fans, the Kraken).

Diogenes is the Byzantine Perseus set to rescue his Andromeda (Eudokia) from the

terrible beast. This has been a common template amongst the classic myths and so it

is no shock that the Byzantines would use the same template to explain the sheer

awesomeness of their national hero, just as the Mycenaeans had done with their

national hero, Perseus. According to James Notopoulos, the Byzantine world

inherited from classical myth the theme of a god or hero slaying a monster, and

adapted for its saints and for its Akritan epic.14 However, as many know of my

12
James Notopoulos, "Akritan Ikonography on Byzantine Pottery," Hesperia 33
(April 1964). P. 113.
13
John Mavrogordato, ed., Digenes Akrites, ed. John Mavrogordato (London: Oxford
University Press, 1963). P. 167.
14
James Notopoulos, "Akritan Ikonography on Byzantine Pottery," Hesperia 33
(April 1964). P. 118.
writing, it really is not an adventure unless I have pictures to back up my theories.

Therefore, I will bring to light some of the Hellenistic influences that words cannot

tell us. For it is definitely proper to state in this case, “a picture is worth a thousand

words”.

Luckily, for us, the Byzantines, much like the ancient Greeks and Romans, left

behind pottery art that gives us some clues as to the Hellenistic influences regarding

the Akritan epic. Within one of these pottery pieces, it was noted by M. Alison Frantz

that the images had to be that of Digenes Akrites.15 Notopoulos also regards this

theory as true due to the evidence backing it up: Digenes’ threads, that is to say, his

clothes. The term “Akrites” refers specifically to a certain type of soldier that kept

watch at the borders of the empire, and are dressed specifically for the frontier

terrain. In all the pottery images, Digenes is seen wearing a fustanella, or a kind of

kilt used within the mountainous terrain of the frontiers. This garb was taken

directly from the original Roman military dress, and according to some, evolved

from the Roman toga.16 In order to combat the cold of the mountains, the Akritan

fustanella was featured with extra pleats in order to provide extra heat. It is then

safe to say that this Roman garb had to have been evolved from a “Hellene” idea.

From this image, you can see the fustanella of the military (fig. 1). Since the epic tells

us that Digenes wore a kilt with pleats, we can therefore derive from this that the

images upon the pottery are of Digenes Akritas.

15
M. Alison Frantz, "Akritas and the Dragons," Hesperia 10 (January 1941). P. 9.
16
Ibid. p. 114.
 Now these pottery images are great in all, but they are for the most part

incomplete due to destruction of the pottery. Very few people have been able to

locate mosaics or frescoes containing Akritan images, but being the conspiracy

theorist I am, I decided to look deeper and perhaps find an Akritan image within a

Christian image. Sure enough, I found when I was looking through some pieces of

Byzantine art, within the Psalter of Basil II a possible Akritan image. Within the

scenes of the life of David, there are two scenes in which David is killing a bear with

a club (fig. 2), and killing a lion by ripping its jaws apart. 17 Now I know much about

the David story, but I do not remember David being famous for killing animals.

David has always been associated with the killing of Goliath, and the adultery with

Bathsheba, but never associated with killing of animals. In the Bible, there are

stories of his killing a bear and a lion, but never within art. Therefore, I contend that

although this may be an illumination pertaining to a young King David, on another

level, it is a depiction of the young Digenes Akrites. Not only that, but the Psalter in

which the illuminations come from, was dedicated and funded by Basil II

Boulgaroktonos or Basil the Great.

Why is this emperor so important to the study of the Digenes Akrites? Often

times within the epic, the author will refer to “Basil the Blessed”, which

Mavrogodato claims is a title for Basil II Boulgaroktonos. 18 Therefore, putting the

two pieces together, it can safely be said that this image of David is actually an

Akritic image underneath.

17
David Talbot Rice, Byzantine Art (London: Penguin Books, 1962). P. 31.
18
John Mavrogordato, ed., Digenes Akrites, ed. John Mavrogordato (London: Oxford
University Press, 1963). P. 133.
 Well, we have finally have come to the depressing section of this journey: the

end. Yes, I know that it has been a well-fought battle, but victory can be bittersweet.

I can only hope that I have brought a new light to the Digenes Akrites, and I hope that

I have made it not only enjoyable, but also extremely educational. With this,

hopefully people will turn to the Digenes Akrites and see the how important the epic

is for not only Christian symbolism and mythology ‡,, but also for the ties with the

Hellenistic world. Perhaps we all can learn a thing or two from this epic, but until we

open it up, Digenes “Basil” Akrites will remain the forgotten Hellene.

Pictures

Figure 1

‡,‡
I bet I get excommunicated for this 
 Figure 2

Bibliography
Frantz, M. Alison. "Akritas and the Dragons." Hesperia 10 (January 1941).

Mavrogordato, John, ed. Digenes Akrites. London: Oxford University Press, 1963.

Notopoulos, James. "Akritan Ikonography on Byzantine Pottery." Hesperia 33 (April

1964).

Rice, David Talbot. Byzantine Art. London: Penguin Books, 1962.