Two of the most traumatic moments in Greek history inspired the great composer Mikis Theodorakis to respectively create two political works of religious form. The 1936 bloody strike in Thessaloniki and Yannis Ritsos' poem of the same title were the raw material for Epitaph, one of the composer's most important and famous works, a truly political and Greek Stabat mater. The civil war conflicts of December 1944 (Dekemvriana) acted as a leaven, prompting the creation of a lesser known but equally masterly work, Dionysus, a long lament for the sacrifice of the adolescent boys and girls who fell in the battle of Makriyannis.
