Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Instrumentation by @Dimitrios_Dallas, daoulaki by Dimitri Papadimitriou, vocals by Farya Faraji and Panagiotis Athanasiou, video by Farya Faraji.
This is a Cretan folk song that praises the valour of the Cretan warriors, specifically the freedom fighters who fought against the Ottoman Empire. I wanted the video to more broadly showcase the fighting spirit of the Cretans at large, and therefore expanded its thematic to include rebels and fighters from across the ages, from those who fought the Venetian occupation to the resistance in WW2. Within the Greek world, the Cretans are notorious for their fiercely independent, warlike character, and that character of them through the ages rendered them unruly rebels that fought against foreign occupation time and time again.
The music is arranged with the traditional parametres of Cretan folk music and instrumentation: the Cretan laouto provides the main rhythmic background with the characteristic Cretan βούρτσα, a harsh, strong strum against the mostly muted chords of the laouto. The Cretan lyra and askomandoura (Dimitrios' is a traditional model with a microtonal second interval equivalent to the Shur or Bayat modes of Maqamic music) provide the main instrumentation, as well as the boulgari, or saz, an instrument that almost went extinct in Crete but is now seeing a resurgence.
The filming locations were mainly around Sfakia, the home of the Sfakiots, a people considered warlike and harsh even by Cretan standards, and a historical home of countless rebellion and resistance shaped by the dry, harsh landscape that yielded warriors for centuries. The palm forest of Preveli is also shown, with the Stagakis museum in Rethymno and Mr. Stagakis himself in the video, playing the modern Cretan lyra that his family ushered forth.
Lyrics in Cretan Greek:
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
Οι άντρες οι φανήσιμοι
κι οι καστροπολεμάρχοι.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
πως είν’ οι μπάλες δανεικές
κατέχουν ντο στη μάχη.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
κι αν πληγωθούν ή σκοτωθούν
δε θέλουν μοιρολόγια.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
θέλουν στεφάνια δάφνινα
τραγούδια για τα `ξόδια.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
Δε θέλουν γι’ άντρες κλάηματα
μήδε και γονοκλίσια.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
Μα θέλουν μνήμα σε κορφή
και σε ψηλά ξωκλήσια.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
Για να θωρούν τσ’ αδερφοχτούς
και τσ’ άλλους συντοπίτες.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
Πώς δεκατίζουν την Τουρκιά
πώς πολεμούν οι Κρήτες.
μια κι άλλη μια
Να βλέπουν και τη λευτεριά
όντε θα ξεπροβάλλει.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
Από τ’ αστάχι του γιαλού
τσ΄αχτίδες τση να βγάλει...
English translation:
Come once, and once again,
The illustrious men,
The castle-fighters.
Come once, and once again,
For the bullets are but borrowed,
They know what awaits in battle.
Come once, and once again,
And if they’re wounded or slain,
They want no laments.
Come once, and once again,
They want laurel wreaths,
Songs for their funerals.
Come once, and once again,
They want no weeping for men,
Nor kneeling prayers.
Come once, and once again,
But they want a grave on a mountaintop,
And at lofty chapels.
Come once, and once again,
So they may watch their brothers-in-arms,
And their fellow countrymen.
Come once, and once again,
How they decimate the Turks,
How the Cretans fight.
Once and once again,
To see Freedom herself,
When she appears,
Come once, and once again,
From the foam of the sea,
To lift her shining rays.
Instrumentation by @Dimitrios_Dallas, daoulaki by Dimitri Papadimitriou, vocals by Farya Faraji and Panagiotis Athanasiou, video by Farya Faraji.
This is a Cretan folk song that praises the valour of the Cretan warriors, specifically the freedom fighters who fought against the Ottoman Empire. I wanted the video to more broadly showcase the fighting spirit of the Cretans at large, and therefore expanded its thematic to include rebels and fighters from across the ages, from those who fought the Venetian occupation to the resistance in WW2. Within the Greek world, the Cretans are notorious for their fiercely independent, warlike character, and that character of them through the ages rendered them unruly rebels that fought against foreign occupation time and time again.
The music is arranged with the traditional parametres of Cretan folk music and instrumentation: the Cretan laouto provides the main rhythmic background with the characteristic Cretan βούρτσα, a harsh, strong strum against the mostly muted chords of the laouto. The Cretan lyra and askomandoura (Dimitrios' is a traditional model with a microtonal second interval equivalent to the Shur or Bayat modes of Maqamic music) provide the main instrumentation, as well as the boulgari, or saz, an instrument that almost went extinct in Crete but is now seeing a resurgence.
The filming locations were mainly around Sfakia, the home of the Sfakiots, a people considered warlike and harsh even by Cretan standards, and a historical home of countless rebellion and resistance shaped by the dry, harsh landscape that yielded warriors for centuries. The palm forest of Preveli is also shown, with the Stagakis museum in Rethymno and Mr. Stagakis himself in the video, playing the modern Cretan lyra that his family ushered forth.
Lyrics in Cretan Greek:
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
Οι άντρες οι φανήσιμοι
κι οι καστροπολεμάρχοι.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
πως είν’ οι μπάλες δανεικές
κατέχουν ντο στη μάχη.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
κι αν πληγωθούν ή σκοτωθούν
δε θέλουν μοιρολόγια.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
θέλουν στεφάνια δάφνινα
τραγούδια για τα `ξόδια.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
Δε θέλουν γι’ άντρες κλάηματα
μήδε και γονοκλίσια.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
Μα θέλουν μνήμα σε κορφή
και σε ψηλά ξωκλήσια.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
Για να θωρούν τσ’ αδερφοχτούς
και τσ’ άλλους συντοπίτες.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
Πώς δεκατίζουν την Τουρκιά
πώς πολεμούν οι Κρήτες.
μια κι άλλη μια
Να βλέπουν και τη λευτεριά
όντε θα ξεπροβάλλει.
Έλα μια κι άλλη μια
Από τ’ αστάχι του γιαλού
τσ΄αχτίδες τση να βγάλει...
English translation:
Come once, and once again,
The illustrious men,
The castle-fighters.
Come once, and once again,
For the bullets are but borrowed,
They know what awaits in battle.
Come once, and once again,
And if they’re wounded or slain,
They want no laments.
Come once, and once again,
They want laurel wreaths,
Songs for their funerals.
Come once, and once again,
They want no weeping for men,
Nor kneeling prayers.
Come once, and once again,
But they want a grave on a mountaintop,
And at lofty chapels.
Come once, and once again,
So they may watch their brothers-in-arms,
And their fellow countrymen.
Come once, and once again,
How they decimate the Turks,
How the Cretans fight.
Once and once again,
To see Freedom herself,
When she appears,
Come once, and once again,
From the foam of the sea,
To lift her shining rays.
