Ἐρωτόκριτος (Erotokritos)

Erotokritos is a timeless masterpiece of Cretan Renaissance literature of the 16th – 17th centuries. It survived through 4 turbulent centuries marked by conquests, revolutions, and historical upheavals, and remains cherished by the people of Crete nowadays.
Erotokritos was composed in the early 17th century, in Venetian-occupied Crete, by Vitsentzos Kornaros and consists of 10,012 fifteen-syllable rhymed verses. It is a story of love between Erotokritos and Aretousa (one could say it is the Cretan equivalent of “Romeo and Juliet”) but is also a story of honour, friendship, bravery, and courage. Written in the Cretan dialect, and initially circulated in manuscripts, this lyrical poem gained extreme popularity at first among the cultured bourgeois of the island who had the privilege to own a manuscript. Soon its popularity spread widely among the Cretans, creating more demand for copies.
It was first printed in Venice in 1713, and it had a great impact on the rebirth of the Greek language and national identity. What is remarkable is the fact that Erotokritos’ wide propagation was based on its memorization. Generation after generation, the people of Crete memorized thousands of verses, reciting them with music, on every occasion. Thus, the work became an essential part of the local culture. Snippets of Erotokritos are sung in every Cretan traditional feast or concert, one could say that it is almost like a national hymn for Cretans.