APPENDIX: CHYROGLES, OR THE GIRL

WITH TWO HUSBANDS

(translated by M. Alexiou)

Once upon a time there lived a man and wife, very much in love, and
they had a little daughter they loved better than their own two eyes.
The child (παιδί) grew. Time came to send her to school.
Schoolteacher, soon as she went inside their home – they asked her
in all the time because of the child – took a fancy to her dad, such a
good husband as she saw he was. She made eyes at him, but his own
were just for his wife, and she got nowhere.
Teacher decided to get rid of wife so as to get hold of the husband.
She fondled and kissed the child, feeding her must-pies and saying ‘If
only you were my child, I’d give you everything you wanted, never say
no, never tell you off!’ This, that, whatever. She got the child to listen
to every word she said.
One day teacher says, ‘Ask your mum to give you walnuts from the
marble chest. Soon as she bends over, let the lid clamp down on her,
so your dad can marry me, then you’ll be my child, just see how well
we’ll get on!’
Child, just seven years old, goes to her mother, starts on at her,
‘Mum, I want nuts fresh from marble chest!’ Mother replies, ‘Take
these off the shelf, they’re just as good. Who’ll lift the lid, I can’t do
it on my own!’ Child grabs the chance, ‘Give me nuts from marble
chest – I’ll hold the lid!’
Mother opens, bends down to get walnuts. Child drops lid, it chops
off mother’s head, kills her! She goes and tells her teacher, full of
glee (όλο χαρά). Father wept for his wife, now left alone with child.
Not long after, teacher told child to ask her dad to marry her, but he
wouldn’t listen.
Child kept nagging him. One day he got angry, takes a pair of slip-
pers, hangs them off a nail, and tells child, ‘When these slippers rot
and fall from that nail, only then shall I take her as wife!’ Child goes
to teacher upset, tells her. Teacher says, ‘Know what? Every morning,
take slippers down, pee on them, they’ll rot and fall off!’
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Time passed. Child peed and peed. Slippers rotted, fell off nail.
Child says to father, ‘Dad, slippers have rotted, now you can marry
my teacher.’ Father saw child’s obstinacy, he says, ‘OK, since you’re
so fond of her, I’ll marry her. But don’t you ever dare complain, or
say she’s not good. She’ll be my wife now and I won’t stand rows
in my household.’ ‘No,’ says child, ‘I’ll say nothing, just marry her
and see.’
Father marries teacher. First year, all went well. Later, when
stepmother bore her own child, ugly and evil. She got jealous of the
firstborn and started to torment her. The poor child wept and wept,
but how could she speak to her father, she daren’t say a word. Her
stepmother sent her out to wash her new babyclothes (σπάργανα),
and to log forest branches. She sent her out with a single crust of dry
bread, to work from morning to evening.
Child grew up, and began to understand the wrong she had done
(το κρίμα της). She went to Kondylo every Saturday, lit a candle for
her mother, gave incense, then she would sit, weep and beat herself.
With all her tears and cries one evening she hears the tomb heave and
groan. A voice speaks out, ‘Eh, my child, don’t you know you will
be punished for the wrong you’ve done? Not a word – be patient,
perhaps God will forgive you, as I already have forgiven you. If there
is anything on your mind, come here and tell me, and you shall have
my blessing.’
Child leaves, goes home to face stepmother’s shouts and beatings,
‘Where have you been, wretch, to get home at such an hour?’ The girl
(κορίτσι) not a word! One day at dawn stepmother wakes her up gives
her a basket of clothes and a dry crust of bread, and sends her out to
Anavalissa, to do the washing. Girl set off, kept washing till sun went
down. How could she finish so many clothes! At sunset she sits and
eats her bit of crust. Up comes an old man, ‘Give me, too, my child, a
piece of bread,’ he says, ‘I’m hungry and I’ve no bread.’ The girl takes
bread moist out of her mouth, gives it to the old man. He says, ‘Give
me water, I’m thirsty.’ She goes to Anavalissa, washes out her little jar
really well, fills it with cold water, the old man drinks. He says, ‘Won’t
you de-louse me?’ ‘Of course, grandpa’, she replies.
The old man puts his head on her lap, she de-louses him, and combs
right through his hair. He gets up to go, saying, ‘Thank you. I give you
my blessing, my golden girl (χρυσό μου κορίτσι). Whatever you touch,
may it turn to gold!’ The old man goes off.
In a while child says ‘l’ll braid up my hair, get the clothes, and go!’
She touches her hair, and it turns to gold! She puts on an old skirt
from the wash. Clothes and hair turned to gold right on her body as
she went back to the village. Whoever sees her wonders at her beauty.
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 ­ appendix: chyrogles 415

Stepmother watches, ready to burst from evil. She asks her, where
did she find all that gold. She tells her how she came across an old
man, and he blessed her. Stepmother sends out her own daughter next
day, the old man goes there, asks for food, bread, water, but she won’t
give him anything, she turns him away. He curses her so horns would
sprout from her body! Soon as she got back to the village covered with
horns, kids followed and started laughing at her (την αναγελούσαν).
Stepmother didn’t know what to do with her stepdaughter, who
caused this. She beats the life out of her. The girl went back to
Kondylo, and told her mother, saying she will kill herself, she can’t
stand this life any more. Her dead mother speaks from the tomb,
‘Have patience, much time will pass before you can pay for the wrong
you did!’
In a short while the queen of the region, who has no children, prays
to God, saying, ‘Let me have a child, even if it’s a snake (φίδι).’ She
gives birth – it’s a snake. How will they rear it? Who will give suck to
it? The queen took one look and took fright. They sent out the town
crier, to say whoever can give suck to the prince should report to the
king and tell him.
Stepmother hears this, goes straight to the king, and says, ‘I’ve got
just the girl for you but she doesn’t want to go, you’ll have to take her
by force, so she can give suck.’
They go to her house, take the firstborn, bring her to the palace.
She  wept, saying she won’t go. They threaten to kill her. She says,
‘OK, I’ll suckle the thing, but just let me go and take leave of my
mother.’ She goes to Kondylo, to her mother’s tomb; she wept, she
beat herself, she told her all her torments.
The dead woman says, ‘Tell the king to give you two golden breasts
with a hole in the middle, pour milk into it, so Snake can suck milk
without biting you with killer poison!’
She told king, they made the golden breasts, she put them over her
own, the snake-child suckled, and became big and fat as a man. He
treated her as his mother, followed her everywhere, came to love her!
Years passed, Snake grew and grew, time came for him to marry.
What woman would take him? Stepmother goes to the king, and she
says to him, ‘She who suckled him is worthy to take him as husband.’
King summons girl, he says to her, ‘We’ll marry you to Ophis’ -
that’s what they called the prince (learned word for snake).
Girl sets out once more for her mother’s tomb, and tells her, ‘Now
there’s no escape, Snake will eat me, I’ll meet my end’, and she wept.
Her mother speaks to her from the tomb, ‘If you do what I say,
nothing bad will happen. Ask them to build an oven at your thresh-
old, and bring you seven loads of wood. After the wedding, on that
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 ­416 appendix: chyrogles

evening when you and Snake enter the closed bedchamber, light the
oven seven times, and each time you light it throw in a fresh load of
fuel. Wear seven shirts, and each time the oven is lit, you cast off one,
and tell him, “Snakey, take off one layer, and throw it in the oven to
be burned.” With the last layer Snake will be revealed as a man and
then give him man’s clothes and you will take him in as your husband!’
Everything took place as her mother told. Wedding took place, she
and Snake were shut up for the night in their chamber. She changed
clothes, she took off a shirt from Snake, threw it into the oven, it was
burned. In the end there was Snake, a fine young man, fresh as cold
water!
Next morning, when they went to open up, they expected Snake
would have eaten her, so they opened the door very gently. They find
the prince. Rejoicings! They couldn’t believe it, they thought it must
have been some boyfriend of hers she had sneaked inside and together
they had killed Snakey. But then they noticed that Snake looked
like the queen, so they knew it really was the prince. All rejoicings,
a second wedding took place, renewed vows, and a truly blessed life
they lived.
Time came for the prince to go to war. He left his wife, four months
pregnant. He went away, he fought, and he was near to coming home.
Stepmother had no peace. She writes a letter, as if from the queen,
saying that his wife was shameful, she pities him, but what’s to be
done, it’s his own fault for being away. Snake reads the letter, gets
wild. He writes to his mother at once, get rid of the girl and send her
off, soon as they get this letter, so he can come back home and find
her gone.
The king and queen, who loved her, didn’t know what to do now
their son had written all this. The king writes to ask him why cast her
out? Stepmother steals letter, writes another with heaps of new accusa-
tions. Prince writes back, they are to cast her out at once, he doesn’t
want to find her back home.
She was in bed, about to give birth. When she got up, they tell her
Snake has written you must go. She takes her child, puts on old clothes,
gets up and leaves. She walks on and on, and as evening fell to night
near a deserted church, she goes in to light a candle, nowhere else
to go. There she feels a shadow (σκιά) come near, and hears a voice,
WHOOSH . . . ‘What are you doing, and how did you come here?’
She was afraid. Shadow tells her, ‘Don’t be afraid, I am human too
(άνθρωπος είμαι και γώ).’
She sat down, told her story. She wept (έκλαιγε). Shadow said,
‘Don’t weep, don’t be afraid. You see over there a long way off in that
town that great palace all clothed in black? Go knock at that door,
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 ­ appendix: chyrogles 417

say – On your Chyrogles’ soul, open up, I have nowhere to go. They
will open up and you will stay there, I will come to you every night to
lie with you, because I have fallen in love with you. Just take care never
to tell them, if they ask, where you heard my name or ever saw me.’
The girl leaves, goes down, gets to the palace in the night, sees the
palace steeped and clothed in black, darkened, and on the balcony sits
a woman weeping, and she was the queen. ‘At such an hour,’ she says,
‘we don’t open the door to anyone.’ The girl then says, ‘For the sake
of Chyrogles’ soul, open up for me, for there’s nowhere to stay for
me and my child!’ The queen hears from her balcony, she calls for the
doors to be opened, they give her a place on the threshold, and she lies
down.
Next day, queen summons her (Chyrogles’ mother that is), and
asked where she heard the name of her child? Girl – not a word. Queen
thought, she must be his wife, and the child his. She gave orders, had
a fine chamber prepared for girl and child, sent up lovely dishes. Every
evening Chyrogles would go there, become a man (γινόταν άνθρωπος),
and lie with her.
Every day the queen went out onto the threshold, caressed the child,
kept weeping, and asked the girl where she had heard of her hapless
son, bewitched as he was by an evil woman who had stolen his body
and left it just a shade to wander the whole world, no rest at all.
In the end, one day the girl says, ‘Stop weeping, and I’ll let you see
him. He comes every evening here to lie with me. Come quietly one
evening, and you’ll see him.’ Mother goes, takes a good look at him,
and says, ‘What shall we do to keep him here and not escape?’ ‘That’s
impossible’, says the girl. ‘He comes at dawn before sunrise, leaves,
then he’s gone.’
Queen gives orders for a carpet (χαλί), the sky with stars, has it
hung over the window. Chyrogles wakes up, and asks the girl, ‘How
is it the day breaks so late today!’ He lies down again, sleep takes him.
Sun comes out, it’s day and now he’s awake, ‘Why is day so late to
dawn?’ He gets up, goes to window, sees the hanging, draws it back,
it’s almost midday! He goes inside. ‘Ah, he tells her, what have you
done to me? That’s it, I’m gone, what will become of me?’
In goes his mother, falls into his arms, doors and windows are
opened, in streak light and sun, spells are broken. Chyrogles remains
in his kingdom with his people, his mother and his wife, they lived like
little turtle doves.
Let’s leave the girl to live as queen in the palace with her child and
her new husband, and see what happened to Snake. When he got back
from war, his mother and father started on at him, what was all that
nasty stuff he’d written? What did those letters mean? Why had he
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told them to turn out his wife and child, such a good wife as she was
too! He was shocked, and asked them, ‘Wasn’t it you that wrote me
all those bad things about her?’ King and queen say, ‘No, we didn’t!’
He shows them the letters, and they say, ‘These are not ours!’ They
start enquiries, investigations, and discover the girl’s stepmother had
written them. They arrest her and she is hanged. They send out an
army, town criers all over the kingdom to seek wife and child, but
nowhere is she to be found. Snake nearly died of grief. In a while an
army officer comes from next kingdom, saying ‘The prince’s wife is
now the wife of King Chyrogles, I saw her inside the palace one day.’
Snake goes off, taking an army with him, to get his wife back. When
they got near the frontier, Chyrogles came out with his army to defend
his realm. Two armies met on a plain, near a fountain. Chyrogles
sends messengers to ask Snake what he wants and why has he set foot
on my soil? Snake says, ‘I want my wife and child back!’ Chyrogles
said, ‘She’s my wife now, she saved me from evil spells and made me
man again when I was nothing but a shadow!’ Snake says, ‘No, she’s
mine, didn’t she save me too from death and witchcraft? And didn’t
she bear my child!’
They were ready to fight. Up comes a wise old man, saying ‘Instead
of you and your armies fighting and killing each other, wouldn’t it be
better to call the queen here and let her say for herself which of the two
she wants, and let her choose her own fate?’ They agreed. Chyrogles
sends word to the palace, queen appears, they tell her to choose by
asking whichever of the two she loved best to bring her some water to
drink from the fountain. The other one will understand, and go away.
Then the queen stood between them, and she looked at Snake. She
had nursed him with her own milk. She had made him a man, he was
her first husband. She had loved him so much, yet he fed her poison
(την πότισε φαρμάκι) and turned her out of the palace. She looked
at Chyrogles, whose love for her had made him man again. He had
brought her from street to palace and made her his queen! She didn’t
know what to do, her eyes streamed a fountain (τα μάτια της τρέχανε
βρύση).
They wanted her answer, a decision, but her heart grew faint, she sat
down by the edge, and she sang like this:

Lord Snake I love, Chyrogles I desire!

Chyrogles, bring water, and let me expire!

Before Chyrogles could bring water, she fell to the ground and her
soul departed.
Kafantaris 142. From Skyros: Niki Perdika, Athens 1943
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 ­ appendix: chyrogles 419

This tale from Skyros is the latest of four versions recorded from
the Greek-speaking world (others from Thrace, Dodekanese, Asia
Minor). In each, the end is different (girl follows Snake, who takes
child; chooses Snake; just dies). But in none is she permitted to go
with Chyrogles, as is her declared preference here. The reason for her
death is not explicit, but has to do with fateful contact with the ‘other’
world (as in the well-known ballad Του Νεκρού Αδερφού ‘The Dead
Brother’). She killed her own mother by a wilful act, therefore she
must redeem Snake (a mediating creature between worlds of living
and dead) and ‘Chyrogles’ (the name of a Turkic outlaw c. sixteenth
to seventeenth centuries, otherwise unrelated to our tale), who in the
Thracian version is to be punished by eternal damnation by Nereids
for serial rape until he can find a living soul to ransom his.The theme
of Christian redemption is strong, mediated by the power of tears to
penetrate boundaries beyond our world.
Apart from the generic terms ‘Ophis’ (Snake) and ‘Chyrogles’,
none of the characters is named. The protagonist is designated first
as ‘child’, then – as she matures and becomes aware of the wrong she
has done – ‘girl’, and finally, ‘queen’. This feature is common to many
Greek tales and songs.
We cannot record here the version so skilfully performed by Lloyd
Llewellyn-Jones on 7 November 2013, accompanied with voice and
violin by Lucy Macrae. I offer here a bald translation, trying to keep
the spoken voice, in the hope that it may inspire others to reinerpret
and recreate this extraordinary tale, wrung from despair yet somehow
triumphant, as illustrated by Katerina Samara on our cover.

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