TRANSLATION HELP cretan daggers
 

Hello everyone,

I bought these daggers in crete and am curious to know what the mantinides are about, so it would be very kind if any of you can translate the greek :)

I bet they are something humourus, like mantinades often are

Sorry that I can't show the whole knife, image size gets too large. The last one is very difficult to see clearly because it has a very light engraving and the blade is very reflective so it is hard to get a good photo. I tried sharpening it a bit to make the engraving stand out more hence the noise in the photo

Thank you for your help,

Ayumi

I am afraid that these verses, typical of mass produced Cretan knives intended for the tourist trade are poor excuses for proper mantinades (a Cretan traditional form of verses or stanzas, only sometimes humorous by the way), but here is the translation anyway, from top to bottom :

I am a Cretan knife, a weapon of honour and worth
but I am also a memento of everlasting friendship
Souvenir from Crete

I make my gift to a brave and proud man
to hold in his hand and remember me always
Souvenir from Crete

A knife, sacred symbol of Crete,
I present to thee to say
that I hold you in esteem and set you apart

In Crete they have a custom, a knife
to give as a present, to honour
their friends and those whom they set apart
Regards,
Andreas

Thank you for the translation even if they are typical tourist mantinades.