Is there such a thing as an 'akritic song'? Problems in the classification of Modern Greek narrative songs

The need to find exalted models in the Greek tradition, sufficient on which to ground modern Greek identity and the continuity of the nation, has led historians and folklorists, for about a century, to overvalue every heroic element, and specifically, in the study of the demotic songs, to place undue weight on the akritic element - as has also happened with the kleftic songs. Scholars, following N. G. Politis, have tended to describe as akritic any song text, provided only that it has even the faintest or most indirect connection with the akritic world, or even with another text or motif that they have already classified as akritic. For example, among the variants of the theme of the 'Death of Digenes' published by Politis are a number of songs which have exclusively to do with the cultivation of the vineyard (N.G. Politis 1909: 274-5, nos 69-72), and as recently as 1962 the Folklore Archive of the Academy of Athens could include among akritic themes many ballads equally unconnected either to the akritai or to the epic.