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The two sister countries: Italian philhellenism and the Greek Revolution

Item

Title

The two sister countries: Italian philhellenism and the Greek Revolution

Date

19 May 2021

Abstract

"The millennia-long relations between Greece and Italy, the two countries that founded the European culture, adopted a new term in the nineteenth century: philhellenism. The term expressed friendship towards modern Greece, an expression which stems from the admiration for the great values of the historical past and was conducted in moral, political and cultural solidarity in the struggle for the recovery of freedom and national independence. And it was exactly the principles of Hellenism, which the poet Panzini described as 'the youth of the world', those who inspired lyrics to the great poets Foscolo and Leopardi, who led the poet-prophet Carducci to convey in his language the Greek measure and Santorre di Santarosa to sacrifice his life in Sfaktiria for the independence of a kindred people.

The strong friendly feeling of the Italian people, culminating in the Balkan wars and reaching its highest moments in the Struggle of 1821, had deeper roots from 1821, which reached back into the past in the close relations between Crete and Venice. Philhellenism was intense in Italy before the outbreak of the struggle, especially in the cities where Greek communities were based: from Florence to Trieste, Italian liberals and Greek revolutionaries sent money to Tsirigo (Kythira), they corresponded diplomatically but secretly conspired, inciting philhellenes of other countries; Kalvos acted in Livorno, while it was from Pisa that Mavrokordatos called on Byron to hurry to Missolonghi for help and Shelley wrote the poem 'Hellàs', on which Solomos would base his own 'Hymn'.

The talk references the above, as well as Mazzini’s support for the struggle and Tommaseo spreading of Greek ideals throughout Europe with the famous translation of Canti popolari greci."

(Edited description from organiser’s website)

Type specialization

Format

Data sets

Language

Bibliographic Citation

https://youtu.be/Ash-iqpnTAY
https://2021.uoa.gr/anakoinoseis_kai_ekdiloseis/proboli_ekdilosis/21_omilies_gia_to_21/
https://2021.uoa.gr/fileadmin/depts/uoa.gr/2021/uploads/Omilies_23421.pdf

Number Of Pages - Duration

00:55:00

Rights

BY-NC-SA Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

Position: 9319 (17 views)