Bruce Merry Encyclopedia of Modern Greek Literature 2

22 APOLLONIUS OF TYRE (c. lałe fourteenth century)

word Apokopos ('AftÓKOftoę), drawn from a phrasc in the opcning linę: “Once upon a timc, after work. I became drowsy." It is a sophisticated composition in 490 lines, consisting of rhyming dis-tichs in decapcntasyllable meter on the Byzantine model, willi a strong flavor of demotic song, avoiding anapestic rhythm (    ). It was apparently written

by one Bergadis, of whom nothing surę is known, though he may be from Rc-thymno. The single name, which we mcet in the codex, resembles the Ilellenized form of a well-known Vcnetian surname on Crete, “Bragadin." Lines 301-302, with thcir anti-Papist flavor, led 11. Pernot to surmise that the author w'as a Greek Catholic: “Opposite was the seat of the and gladly departs to the world of the liv-ing, but hc fails to convcy thcse messages from the Undcrworld. The work suggests an aristocratic cnvironment. Nobility and fortunę gained in life ought to be con-served within the family. The text men-tions two princesscs with a father who is “first in the State." There is also an aura of Mcditcrrancan advcnture, hinting at Eastern elements, whcn two young broth-ers in the Undcrworld give the narrator a lively account of a shipwreck. The nar-rative, w ith thcse insertcd scgments, may suggcst a Western litcrary source. Like much literaturę from Crete bcforc its fali to the Turks, Apokopos displays grace of style combined with popular realism.