The Byzantine Warrior Hero: Cypriot Folk Songs As History and Myth, 965\_1571

Chrysovalantis Kyriacou examines how memories of the pre-Christian past, Christian militarism, power struggles, and ethnoreligious encounters have left their long-term imprint on Cypriot culture. One of the most impressive examples of this phenomenon is the preservation and transformative adaptation of Byzantine heroic themes, motifs, and symbols in Cypriot folk songs. By combining a variety of written sources and archaeological material in his interdisciplinary examination, the author reconstructs the image of the Byzantine warrior hero in the songs, recovering the mentalities of overshadowed social protagonists and stressing the role of subaltern communities as active agents in the shaping of history. Cover 1 The Byzantine Warrior Hero 2 Series 3 The Byzantine Warrior Hero: Cypriot Folk Songs as History andMyth, 965–1571 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Abbreviations 10 Author’s Note 12 Introduction 14 “Akritic” Songs and Their Historical Stromatography 15 Questions of “Historical Authenticity” 19 Methodology and Structure 21 Notes 26 Chapter 1 38 Warriors and Cultures 38 The Byzantines: Lords of the Sea, Lords of the Mountains 39 The Chivalric Elites of the Latin Period 46 A Cypriot Byzantine Tradition 49 Notes 57 Chapter 2 74 Honor and Shame 74 Honor and Taxis 75 Honor and the Oikos 81 Honor and Andreia 89 Notes 99 Chapter 3 108 The Other 108 Franks 109 Saracens and Turks 113 Gypsies and Jews 126 Christ and the Warrior’s Fury 131 Notes 141 Chapter 4 154 Paganism, Christianity, and the Byzantine Warrior Hero 154 Pre-Christian Culture in Christian Byzantium 155 Cypriot Folk Spirituality and Heroic Traditions 162 Fighting Death: A New Perspective 173 Notes 182 Conclusion 194 Notes 197 Bibliography 200 Index 234 About the Author 242 In this book, Chrysovalantis Kyriacou reconstructs the motif of the Byzantine warrior hero in Cypriot folk songs. Kyriacou uses this motif as a focus in examining Cyprus's memories of the pre-Christian past, Christian militarism, power struggles, and ethnoreligious encounters.