F
After the death of authority
we waited for the king’s celebrations
messengers of the lost war and
the orders of the slaughtered
on these sunken mountains
we waited for the vow of youth forgotten
along with the adventure of the roads
we carry the light and the spade
of the eighth day
entrusted in us
by the bitterness of God.
With the silence of memory
that consumes us
wrapped like an ivy over our bodies
with the music of love
spent along the bands of stench
with the full of holes prayer
of the Esfigmeni monks.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562939

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763408

Alexander Jannaeus and Alexandra
Successful and completely satisfied,
the King Alexander Iannaios
and his wife Queen Alexandra
go by, announced by music
with plenty of grandeur and luxury,
passing through the streets of Jerusalem.
The work started by the great
Judas Maccabeus and his four
famous brothers, which was carried on
afterward amid many dangers
and many obstacles have been overcome superbly.
Now nothing improper remains.
All submission to the arrogant monarchs
of Antioch has ceased. Look,
King Alexander Jannaeus,
and his wife Queen Alexandra
are equal to the Seleucids in every way.
Good Jews, pure Jews, above all faithful Jews.
But, as the circumstances demand it,
also proficient in the Greek language,
and closely associated with the Greeks, and the Hellenized
as equals, though, let that be known.
Indeed, it has succeeded superbly,
succeeded most surprisingly,
the work that began with the great Judas Maccabeus
and his four famous brothers.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562856

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763823

In the prologue of the first edition the editor said that it was brought to Zakynthos by
Cretan refugees a er the fall of their island to the Turks; and these same Cretans made it known
to the islanders, since it was written in their own Cretan dialect. In that edition the name of the
poet was clearly stated as Vitsentzos Kornaros from Sitia Crete. is declaration bears witness
to the authenticity of the poem, its origin and its idiomatic Cretan dialect. All other following
editions have this same declaration or a similar annotation. erefore, everyone today believes
that Erotokritos is a Cretan poem wri en by Vitsentzos Kornaros from the eastern Cretan city
of Sitia. His father was Iakovos and his brother, the Venetian-Cretan author Andrew Kornaros.
Vitsentzos, was born in 1553 and died in 1613 or 1614. Based on this we believe Erotokritos
was wri en between 1590 and 1610, although there are other suggestions depending on the
reviewer and his sources.
The first person who seriously referred to Erotokritos was the English author Leake who
makes sure to inform us, with no substantial proof of any kind that the book was written two
hundred years before 1810; and further on in his comments he states it was written around
1600.

https://libroslibertad.com/2016/11/06/erotokritos-for-collectors-of-rare-books-poetry-vitsentzos-kornaros-transcribed-by-manolis/