There he met the poet Yannis Ritsos. In 1960 he adapted his poem “Epitaphios”, a death song of a mother for a striking worker who had been shot, into eight songs. It was striking that he returned to the rebetiko rhythms and the traditional instruments from Greek folk music.
The recipe caught on and left me wanting more. Theodorakis (and not only him by the way) also set to music the poetry of other poets, such as Nobel Prize winners Seferis and Elytis – but later also the Chilean Pablo Neruda.
Thanks to Theodorakis, Seferis’ verse “Arnisi” (“Negatie”) a national anthem throughout Greece. At concerts he often saved it for last, and it was sung along by tens of thousands of people. Also “Axion esti” (“be worthy”), a verse from Elytis, became such a classic.
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