Some Birds Deceived Me: A Greek Lament (μοιρολόι)

I was reading Dr. Sasha Chaitow’s indepth and wonderful FAQ page below:

In the the FAQ, Sasha addresses many common questions and or misnomers concerning Greek culture. I wanted to bring attention to the following:

20. So are Greek magical practices just watered-down versions of ancient ones? Are they “real” survivals or just echoes?

Short answer:
Many are direct descendants with documented manuscript trails; some details changed, but core functions and structures remain.

In depth:

In Greece, numerous rituals, healing charms, blessing formulas, and magical practices can be traced from ancient texts (inscriptions, papyri), through Byzantine manuscripts, into modern oral and family tradition.

Not every detail remains, and adaptation is constant, but the structure, purpose, and even many of the words persist.`

This is clearest in:

• Incantations: Many Christian prayers retain phrases or patterns from the magical papyri or earlier hymnography.

• Protective magic: The ritual of xematiasma (removing the evil eye), and incantations/amulets to protect infants use formulas directly paralleling ancient “apotropaic” practices, documented across centuries. Sometimes the wording is the same or derivative of that found in the PGM and similar sources.

• Lament and blessing: Village funerary laments (moiroloi) and seasonal rituals show continuous lines of function and form from Homeric times onward.

It is not “just an echo.” Living tradition is not about frozen replicas, but about continuity of purpose and the ability to adapt. Greek magical and ritual practices are among the best-documented cases of cultural resilience—not as nationalist fantasy, but as historical fact.

This is called functional continuity—the same ritual or magical role, but updated for new times.

I want to draw attention to the laments. I figured it would be a nice time to share a Greek lament so you get a sense of what they are about. In Greek, laments are called μοιρολόι (moiroloi).

• From μοίρα (moira) meaning “fate” or “destiny”

• and λέω (leo) or λόγος meaning “speech” or “word”

So μοιρολόι literally means “speech about fate.”

The lament and exegesis below are from A Weft of Memory: A Greek Mother’s Recollection of Folksongs, Poems, and Proverbs by Vasiliki Scotes and Thomas J. Scotes.

This is a lament or kneeing song, known as a moiroloi. Such songs were sung at the wake before the dead person was taken to the church and at the graveside. Women usually sang them and some were specifically asked to come to the funeral because of their ability to compose and sing such songs.

Death is personified in Greek as Charos (Xápoç), a form of the ancient Charon, the ferryman of the dead in ancient Greek mythology. Despite being Christian for almost two thousand years, the Greeks in their folklore still see death as a bitter and comfortless occurrence imposing a reluctant departure from the beauty and pleasures of life on earth (as described in the song) for the gloom and bleakness of the grave.

A good account of the beliefs of the Homeric Greeks concerning death and fate can be found in Thomas Seton's book, "The Gods Remain"

The Greek and English are below.