Devheniieve diianiie

Devheniieve diianiie (The Deeds of Digenis). A long colorful narrative about the deeds and loves of Digenis Akritas that was translated into Old Church Slavonic in the Princely era and had an influence on the development of Kyivan Rus’ literature. The translation was done, according to scholars, not later than the 12th–13th century directly from a 10th-century Greek text of a Byzantine epic about the wars between the Greeks and the Saracens that was subsequently lost. The oldest known complete version dates back to the early 16th century and was found in the same collection as the epic Slovo o polku Ihorevi (Tale of Ihor's Campaign), which perished in a fire in 1812. Three translations that remain are incomplete.

[This article was originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]