502 



GREECE. 



Romaic language, yet the whole modern Greek 

 literature must still he considered as a literature 

 of translations. A few names of original merit 

 can here be of no avail ; and, indeed, even most of 

 these are only distinguished as imitators of foreign 

 originality. Thus, then, we may say, without 

 being accused of harshness or rashness, that the 

 modern Greek literature, notwithstanding the 

 greater number of years during which it has ex- 

 isted, is still in an infancy analogous to that of the 

 other institutions of Greece. 



There is only one point of view, only one 

 branch of literature (if we may consider it ns be- 

 longing to literature), in which the modern Greeks 

 appear as perfectly original, and as deserving the 

 highest interest of thinking foreigners. We allude 

 to their Popular Poetry.* 



In respect to locality, two general divisions may 

 be made in the modern Greek songs, namely, the 

 songs of the mountains, and the songs of the 

 coasts and the islands. The first, not always in- 

 deed composed by mountaineers, but even when 

 made in the cities, for instance in Janina, calculated 

 to please the inhabitants of the mountains, 

 are for the most part historical, and indeed mostly 

 devoted to the achievements of the klephts or rob- 

 bers ; but ideal subjects also are not foreign to the 

 mountain bards, and we find that some of the most 

 beautiful and original among the romantic ballads 

 had their origin in the mountains. In their form 

 the mountain songs are mostly rougher, and com- 

 posed with less skill, than those of the coasts and 

 the islands. 



The poetry produced on the Greek coasts, and 

 on the islands, is frequently, but not always, in 

 rhyme. The ballads are comparatively poor in 

 historical interest. Most of their subjects are fic- 

 titious, and lyric songs are more frequent. Quite 

 peculiar to these regions are the Katsakias, viz. a 

 species of short songs in distichs, which remind us 

 in some measure of the Spanish seguidillas ; al- 

 though they have no reference to dancing. Like 

 them they are rather epigrammatic sallies, than 

 expressions of feelings; jests and sighs of a sort of 

 love, of which the imagination knows more than 

 the heart. They are mostly extemporized. 



In respect to character, the Romaic songs are 

 subject to a threefold division. They are either 

 domestic, or historical, or fictitious. Under domes- 

 tic songs we include those which are composed 

 for certain occasions, and are chaunted at weddings, 

 on certain holidays, solemn partings, and the like. 

 In reference to this species of songs, it will be 

 found, that they are in general of more interest in 

 respect to morals and manners, than to poetry. 

 The Greek wedding-songs, like the Slavic, have 

 moreover too close a connection with the cere- 

 monies themselves, to be detached from them. 

 The same is the case with the festival songs, de- 

 voted to St Basil's or New-year's day, and the 

 first of March as the beginning of spring. All 

 Greece resounds on this day with " The lay of the 

 Swallow," a delicate and naive song, lovely like 

 the first breathing of approaching spring. 



There is a certain class of parting-songs, pecu- 

 liar to Greece. Commerce and necessity induce 

 the Greek to leave his beautiful country ; but, not- 

 withstanding the numerous privations to which he 

 must submit at home, and the various ill-treatment 



* The merit of havinjf made the literary world acquainted 

 with the remarkable Romaic popular soni?s, in an extent to 

 enable us to .iudjfe of their character, belongs to the learned 

 Frenchman. Fauriel. 



to which he was exposed during the many cen- 

 turies of Turkish oppression, it is seldom his free 

 choice that calls him away. The popular language 

 designates foreign countries by the term Ittiptt, the 

 desert. The pain of parting is increased by the 

 uncertainty of the fate of those he leaves. The 

 friends and relations of the wanderer's family as- 

 semble, take their last meal together, and join in 

 songs, either such as are before known, or others 

 composed expressly for the occasion. 



More interesting still are the Myriologies, the 

 solemn lamentations, or funeral songs. It is re- 

 markable, that the Slavic nations, who celebrate 

 every important scene of life with song, are defi- 

 cient in this sort of poetry. The myriologies are 

 said to be the most poetical of all the Greek do- 

 mestic songs. They are always composed by fe- 

 males, and are mostly the productions of a moment- 

 ary inspiration, that is, they are improvisations. 

 There are, of course, certain forms, phrases, and 

 images, always employed in them. The Greek 

 women are also in the habit of preparing them- 

 selves for this duty, by singing lamentations on im- 

 aginary deaths, often only occasioned by the loss 

 of a bird, or the withering of a flower; but the 

 whole of the recitation must, of course, always be 

 adapted to the occasion, and thus these prepara- 

 tions can only be incomplete. The myriology is 

 not always pronounced by the chief mourner ; often 

 a neighbour, known to be practised and skilful, is 

 called in, or comes of her own accord, to fulfil 

 that solemn duty. The mere aspect of the house 

 of mourning and of the corpse, puts her in a cer- 

 tain state of inspiration, which gradually rises al- 

 most to phrensy. Exhausted and half fainting 

 after having finished, she can scarcely recollect 

 what she has uttered ; the hearers also are vio- 

 lently affected; and, amidst the general sobbing 

 and groaning, it would be cruelty to sit down and 

 write what would be so curious to read. Thus it 

 seems natural, that hitherto only fragments of my- 

 riologies, remembered by some one of the audience, 

 should have been written down. 



Neither the historical nor the romantic ballads 

 of the modern Greeks are of great antiquity. Of 

 the Greeks, as of other nations, we must suppose 

 that they always have had popular ballads. But 

 their great vivacity, and perhaps their deficiency 

 in that pious feeling so favourable to the preserva- 

 tion of the old, that ancient trait, which causes 

 all classes and ages to take the most lively inte- 

 rest in the present, in the newest affairs, and which 

 now, as of old, is characteristic of the Greek na- 

 tion, together with the facility of making poems 

 in their poetical language ; all these circumstances 

 have been the occasion, that the old ballads, from 

 generation to generation, have been superseded by 

 new ones. M. Fauriel has printed one, after a 

 manuscript of the sixteenth century in the royal 

 library of Paris ; but this old piece, although by no 

 means different in its genius from the modern, is of 

 course no longer current. The oldest hero who 

 appears in any of the present Kleptic ballads, is 

 Christos Milionis, who lived towards the end of 

 the seventeenth century. It is probable that at 

 least the essential portion of the ballad is of the 

 same age. Several others celebrate events at the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century. By far the 

 greater portion celebrate achievements of Klephts 

 of our own time. 



During the long period of the Turkish oppres- 

 sion, all those were called Klephts, or Robbers, 



