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A maid from Evripo sought to set sail,
she sought to make passage.
She sought to make the passage to the far shore
and paid a hundred Venetian sequins,
a hundred gold pieces to be taken to her homeland
and four hundred and four to keep her honour on the way.
Till one lad got fresh and grabbed her breast,
and in her fear and in her shame the maid
ran into the mast and her soul flew up to heaven.
Translated by Michael Eleftheriou
Μια κόρη από την Εύριπου
Μια κόρη από την Εύριπου θέλει να ταξιδέψει
ερ, θέλει να κά- ερ, θέλει να κά-
ερ, θέλει να κά- να κάνει πέρασμα,
θέλει να κάνει πέρασμα, πέρα για να περάσει
δίνει ’κατό βενέτικα στον τόπο της να πάει
κι τετρακόσια τέσσιρα να πάει με την τιμή της.
Κι ξαδιαντράπ’1 ένα παιδί, στον κόρφο της απλώνει.
Κι η κόρη από το φόβο της κι από την εντροπή της
πάν’ στο κατάρτι ακούμπησε και βγήκεν η ψυχή της.
1ξαδιαντράπ': ξεθάρρεψε
In most versions of the song, the travelling maid – who is in this case from Evripos, today’s Chalkida, but is usually from Amorgos – faints when her honour is insulted and the sailors, thinking her dead, throw her overboard. Her corpse continues to travel and, washed up on the shore, is found by women who observe their funerary customs and sing dirges over her, praising the beauty of the dead maid so unjustly lost. It has been argued that the song echoes the ancient myth of imprisoned Hippo, who was thrown into the sea from an enemy vessel. Her body was found on the shore near Erythrea, Asia Minor, where tradition would have it a mound marked her grave to preserve her memory. Both stories are part of a large category of narratives in which the sea’s bitter nature is reversed and it tenderly embraces the drowned, saves them from its gloomy depths and carries them respectfully to shore, where Hades’ mythic gates open up to men – the gates through which they will have to pass, but only when they have received due burial honours, and not as unmourned dead who met an evil end. Miranda Terzopoulou (2008)
The rhythm of the song alternates from 4-beats to 3-beats.
Studio recording, 2006.
Based on Simon Karas' recording which belongs to the Association for the Dissemination of Greek National Music.
