Called variously the 'Byzantine epic', the 'epic of Modern Greece', an 'epic-romance' and 'romance', the poem of Digenes Akrites has, since its rediscovery towards the end of the nineteenth century, exerted a tenacious hold on the imagination of scholars from a wide range of disciplines and from many countries of the world.

Contents: Digenes Akrites and Byzantine literature: the 12th century background to the Grottaferrata version Paul Magdalino; Digenes Akrites: Escorial or Grottaferrata? An overview Stylianos Alexiou; The Grottaferrata version of Digenes Akrites: a reassessment Elizabeth Jeffreys; The primacy of the Escorial Digenes Akrites Catia Galatariotou; An epic in the making? The early versions of Digenes Akrites Roderick Beaton; Digenes Akrites and the Old Spanish epics David Hook; Armenia and Armenians in Byzantine epic Hratch Bartikian; The historian'sDigenes Akrites Anthony Bryer; Digenes = Alexander? The relationships between Digenes Akrites and the Byzantine Alexander Romance in their different versions Ulrich Moennig; Digenes Akrites in prose: the Andros version and its Modern Greek literature George Kechagioglou; The Akritic hero: socio-cultural status in the light of comparative data Theodore Papadopoullos; Is there such a thing as an 'akritic song'? Problems in the classification of the narrative songs Guy Saunier; None but the brave deserve the fair?: abduction elopement, seduction and marriage in the Escorial Digenes Akrites and Greek heroic songs Peter Mackridge; Digenes Akrites as literature David Ricks; Bibliography; Indexes. 14 studies in English