 "The Dead Brother's Song" was widespread in the Greek-speaking world during the High and Late Middle Ages, as it can be seen by the many variants that have survived in various places of Greece.The song was adopted by the other Balkan literatures, notably by the Bulgarian and Serbian.In 1962, Mikis Theodorakis composed a dramatic synthesis based on "The Dead Brother's Song" named "The Ballad of the Dead Brother" which referred to the Greek Civil War and the then oppressive political situation in Greece.