NOTES
Reading edition
NOTES FOR “MATTINA”
No. 1, Kyra. A title of respect or a prefix before the name, used to old women of the people. You would say “Kyra Sophoula” or “Kyra Calliope” if the women were old or elderly, instead of plain “Sophoula” or “Calliope.” It corresponds I fancy to “Dame” which was used in England in the middle ages, or even I think they sometimes used “Goody.”
Kyr is the masculine equivalent for old men. Sometimes “Barba” meaning “uncle” colloquially is instead, as it is with you in the South I think for old negroes.
Kyria is simply “Mrs.” or “Madame” and is used either before the name as, “Kyria Dragoumis” for instance; or alone if you do not use the name as, “Yes, Kyria” for “Oui, Madame.”
“Here wrought the strong creator and he laid
The marble on the limestone in the crag,
Morticed the sure foundations line to line
And arc to arc repeating as it grew;
Veiling the secret of its strength in grace,
Till like a marble flower in blue Greek air
Perfect it rose, an afterworld’s despair.”
NOTES FOR “THE FINDING OF THE CAVE.”
The war of 1821 was the war of independence, in which Greece threw off the Turkish yoke.
Palamas, Pappaloukas, Tricoupis, Razikotsikas, Kapsalis, all brave fighters and defenders of Missolonghi.
“Zamana” is an imaginary name.
NOTES FOR “ALEXANDER THE SON OF PHILIP”
“… thus beneath Zalongos side
The mothers and the children died
That Suli ne’er might breed again
A race of less heroic men.”
The word “Suliote” is almost synonymous in Greece with hero or heroine. If anyone is asked to undertake any very daring or desperate deed, the answer often is, “Do you think I am a Suliote?”