Erotokritos

"Erotokritos" (Greek "Ερωτόκριτος") is a romance composed by Vitsentzos Kornaros in early 17th century Crete. It consists of 10,012 fifteen-syllable rhymed verses.

Its themes are love, honour, friendship and courage. It is written in characteristic Cretan language and rhyme, similar to traditional mantinades.

"Erotokritos" and the Erophili of Georgios Hortatzis constitutes the classic examples of Greek renaissance literature.

"Erotokritos" still remains a popular classic work, largely due to the music that accompanies it.Several groups of (well known) Cretan musicians have put selected parts of the poet to music, resulting in beautiful and extremely Cretan exposures of musical art, often searching the edges of the local musical tradition.

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Vitsentzos Kornaros is the greatest of all the Cretan poets and one of the most significant and influential figures in the entire course of Greek poetry. He was the son of a Venetian - Cretan aristocrat and was born near Sitia, Crete in 1553. Later, when he married, he came to live in Candia (now Heraklion) where he joined the Academia dei Stravaganti. Kornaros died in about 1617, an exact contemporary of William Shakespeare.

"Erotokritos" sets great store by true love, friendship, courage and patriotism, and this is the reason for its later popularity all over Greece. It was a great source of inspiration for Dionysios Solomos and influenced Greek poets as diverse as Kostis Palamas, Kostas Krystallis and George Seferis.