Talk:Digenes Akritas

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Anthropology: Oral tradition

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Comments

What is the correct pronunciation and correct spelling of the name? I have an academic book, summariazing a symposium about Digenes called "Digenes Akrites" (Robert Beaton and David Ricks, eds. Variorum 1993). Shouldn't there at least be some redirection page?

There's no standard term. Latinization before translation yielding Digenis Acritas or Digenis Acrites seem to be more popular, but Digenes Akritas or Digenis Akrites or others are also widely used. I guess a redirection page would be usefull. Though the weakeness of this page is that its unknown. This article needs to be linked with more Wikipedia pages. Colossus 13:24, 27 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Digenes=Heracles?

Is this "epic" not simply a retelling of the legend of Heracles and his labours, adapted to the context of the Greek/Byzantine/Arab conflicts of the Middle Ages? There are so many parallels that it's hard not to see a connection:

Digenes kills/encounters many of the same animals that Heracles did (lion, hind, dragon/hydra- plus the three warriors/three heads of Cerberus)
Maximu is obviously Hippolyte
Heracles is the son of a god who disguised himself as a mortal man to win over Alcmene, likewise Digenes is the son of an emir who "disguised" himself as a Christian to win over the Byzantine woman
Heracles is "twice-born" (as mortal and god)
The "wrestling with Death". Heracles does eventually die, but not before encountering Hades/Charon when he went to the underworld to rescue Theseus and capture Cerberus

It seems the story of Heracles as a Greek superhero survived in oral tradition, to be written down again centuries later in the guise of a medieval warrior.Walshie79 (talk) 23:54, 16 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]