Byron on Greece and Greeks: Was he a philhellene?
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Byron on Greece and Greeks: Was he a philhellene?
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04 December 2021
Abstract
We take it for granted that the most famous philhellene of all time was captivated by the cause of Greece when he first travelled there in 1809, wrote poems in favour of Greek liberation, and gave his life willingly “in Greece, and for Greece”, in the words of the obituary pronounced by Spyridon Trikoupis in Missolonghi in April 1824. A closer look at what Byron actually wrote about Greece – in verse, in published notes to his poems, in letters, and in conversations written down by contemporaries – reveals that each of these statements is problematic, if not downright wrong. This paper argues that Byron never made any public statement, whether in verse or in prose, that unambiguously supported revolution by the Greeks against their Ottoman masters before the spring of 1823. And even when he did make up his mind to devote his energies, his money, and his person to the “cause” of Greece, his often negative comments about the people for whom he risked so much shocked the friends and acquaintances who heard them and recorded them. So why did Byron risk so much for the freedom of a people whom he apparently despised? The answer to be proposed calls into question the received wisdom that Byron was inspired by “love” for the “Hellenes” whom he went to Greece to serve.
(Edited abstract from organiser’s website)
(Edited abstract from organiser’s website)
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00:20:00
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BY-NC-SA Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
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