Digenis Akritas

<div> <p>Among the epic romances of post-Barbarian Europe such as <i>Roland</i> and <i>El Cid</i> <i>Digenis Akritas</i> has been the least known in the West-outside Greece. It is the story of a half-breed prince who guarded the eastern border of the Roman Empire of Byzantium on the Euphrates in the tenth century. His name and cognomen <i>Basil the Two-Blood Border Lord</i> sum up the curious richness of his heritage: Roman by politics Arab and Cappadocian by birth Greek in language and orthodox by faith.</p> <p>On an incursion into Byzantine territory an Arab Emir captures a Christian woman. Her relatives in raiding to rescue her convert the Emir and his people to Christianity and bring them back to the empire. Basil is born of this union. A prodigy of valor his miraculous strength in hunting and in battle win him an Arab bride and the loyalty of her family. He settles in a splendid garden palace by the Euphrates pacifies the Border fights dragons and bandits only to die young at the same instant as his wife.</p> <p>The poem in English verse translation is full of humor fairytale and a moving religious devotion. It recaptures an urbane vanished civilization.</p> <p>The translator has collated all the known texts and supports the translation with commentary a bibliography and a map.</p> </div>