The songs of the prefecture of Chania, with fifteen syllables of non-rhyming lyrics, are one of the most famous types of Cretan songs. To the locals they are also known as leukoritika (of the White Mountains) songs, since they come from the villages located at the foot of the White Mountains. There they were formed,…

The Mantinades are the most common form of folk song and are a poetic genre widespread throughout Crete. The Cretan mantinada is a couplet with fifteen syllables and rhyming verses in the Cretan dialect. Each mantinada has an independent meaning despite its limited length. However, there are mantinades that are said in response to another…