Zeibekikos dance –The dateless sacred dance of Pan-Hellenes

Zeibekikos dance –The dateless sacred dance of Pan-Hellenes

“The relationship between zeibekikos and ancient Greece lies in that it is a war dance preparing the soul by reinforcing the morale of warrior from the inside, like a kind of prayer before entering the battle or before entering the struggle of life in everyday reality.

Because the one who steps up to dance makes a sort of prayer coming from himself without seeking applaud or approval by anyone. It’s like getting isolated and projecting himself in an excitement, a transformation, an elevation to space and time.

He moves his shoulder blades as if they were wings and oscillates. Every now and then he stumps his feet to make sure he’s not dreaming, that this is not in his imagination (although he induces himself to become an out-of-this world being) and from time to time he kneels and strikes the land with his hands or touches it to let its power to go through him, the power from his mother Earth, to continue this challenge in which he gets involved willingly to relax.

So, in the end he returns to his seat feeling relieved from the social depression that besets him. This dance is a motion transcendental meditation, in short a prayer.

Now let’s see the word zeibekos. The word “bekos” (βέκος & μπέκος in Greek) found in the Dictionary by Scarlatos Byzantios (Athens, 1852) as a Phrygian word and means “bread”. It is also found in arvanitic dialect as “bouk” (μπουκ), in modern Greek as “boukia” (μπουκιά), in the English “baker” and in the German “baken” which all have to do with millers and bread. The “zei” is another form of the word “Zeus” which means “Spirit of Life”. This indicates that it is a combination of “spirit” (zei-) and “body” (-bekos), a communion according to church. Spirit and matter together. Man is a coexistence of spirit and matter.”

Thanos Veloudios, collaborator of Angelos Sikelianos in the Delphic Festivities of 1927 and 1930.

© Translation in English, Heliodromion Society, Athens, Greece