"Twice born border warrior"

Also called DIGENIS AKRITAS BASILEIOS, Byzantine epic hero celebrated in folk ballads (Akritic ballads) and in an epic relating his parentage, boyhood adventures, manhood, and death. Based on a historical character who died about 788, the epic, a blend of Greek, Byzantine, and Oriental motifs, originated in the 10th century and was popularized by itinerant folksingers; it was recorded in several versions from the 12th to the 17th century, the oldest being a linguistic mixture of popular and literary language.
Digenis Akritas, the ideal medieval Greek hero, is a bold warrior of the Euphrates frontier, the son of a Saracen emir converted to Christianity by the daughter of a Byzantine general of Doukas family,the Princess of Cappadocia ; he was a proficient warrior by the age of three and spent the rest of his life defending the Byzantine Empire from frontier invaders. The feeling for nature and strong family affections that permeate the epic anticipate the great Cretan national romance, Erot�kritos (mid-17th century) by Vitz�ntzos Korn�ros, and much modern Greek popular poetry.

By Britannica Online

Relevant article: Here.

It is I, Death, Acritas,
years wont fade me away,
I'm the indestructable soul of Salamis,
bringing to you in Sevenhill, the sword of the Greeks.

The fact is that if you look carefully enough you see the Byzantines often making the tentative first steps in many areas of medieval life. Akritas is your customary Byzantine hero, endowed with so many of the virtues we see later taken up by the ideal chivalric knight yet with features to satisfy the Byzantine mind.

Such popular heroes as this are proof of the vibrance of Byzantine culture, the need for militarist organisation in the Empire throughout her history and her ability to set trends later to be taken up by her European neighbours.