The Holy Mother of God in ‘The Virgin’s Lament’, Cypriot religious folk song. Comparison between its versions and with other texts

Abstract

It is analysed Saint Mary’s figure in the religious folk song Saint Mary’s Lament, with the purpose of understanding the saint’s image in different poetic texts written in Greek. To this end, the different versions of the composition are compared between them and with other folk songs (these come from Archangelos in Rhodes and Kato Panagia in Çeşme), as well as The Deipara’s Lament by Ioannis Plousiadinos and The pains of Saint Mary by Kostas Varnalis. Consequently, despite the differences, we obverse that Virgin Mary is constantly depicted as the holy mother that laments, suffers and even wishes to die for her divine son.