‘Nay, I may not, dear father mine and mother deep-beloved,
Yesterday was my marriage-day, late yestere’en my wedding,
Hades I for my husband have, the tomb for my new mother[1371].’
In this dirge, it may be noticed, there is no complaint on the part of the dead girl; the lamentation and the gloomy description of Hades are assigned to her parents. And indeed her reply is, I think, intended to be by way of consolation. It is true that she does not deny their cheerless prognostications nor attempt to paint a brighter picture of the nether world, but she represents her death as no greater breaking of old ties than is marriage; at an actual marriage indeed the same kind of distressful presages are chanted by the girl’s companions, and even the bride herself is bound by propriety to exhibit a sullen and regretful demeanour. Very true of Greek marriages and of Greek funerals is the proverb, μηδ’ ἀπὸ τὴ λύπη λείπουν γέλια μηδ’ ἀπὸ τὴ χαρὰ τὰ κλάμματα[1372], ‘Mourning hath its mirth and joy its tears.’ But the consolatory tone is far more pronounced in some other passages from the same collection. A good example is found in the message which a Klepht—one of those patriot-outlaws who struggled against Turkish domination—is made to send, as he lies dying, to his mother:
‘Go, tell ye now my mother dear, my mother sore-afflicted,
Ne’er to await me home again, ne’er to abide my coming;
Yet tell her not that I am slain, tell her not I am fallen;
Nay, tell her then that I am wed—wed in these wilds so weary.
The black earth for my wife I took, the hard rock my bride’s mother,
And all the little pebbles here I took for my new kindred[1373].’