{"id":33054,"date":"2024-10-13T18:33:31","date_gmt":"2024-10-13T18:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.victoriahislop.com\/?p=33054"},"modified":"2024-10-13T19:09:58","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T19:09:58","slug":"lord-byron-and-philhellenism-in-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.victoriahislop.co.uk\/cms\/lord-byron-and-philhellenism-in-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Lord Byron and philhellenism, in poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Event at Odeon of Herodes Atticus features readings by Lina Nikolakopoulou, Victoria Hislop and Alicia Stallings, music by Tom Smail<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u2018The Reception of Lord Byron at Missolonghi, 1861,\u2019 is captured by Theodoros Vryzakis (1814\/1819-1878). The painting is on display at the National Gallery in Athens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The city\u2019s cannons sounded 37 times in Messolonghi on the day that Lord Byron breathed his last, one for each year of his short life. The news of his death was reported in the Greek Chronicles newspaper, with the announcement being among a selection of texts and poems that acclaimed Greek poet and songwriter Lina Nikolakopoulou will be reading at a concert at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus on Thursday, organized by the Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism and the Philhellenism Museum in Athens to mark the 200th anniversary of the death of the romantic British poet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe announcement in the Messolonghi newspaper captures the shockwaves caused by his death. It is very moving that despite the dire situation in the city at the time, the custom of firing the cannons was observed. This is something we wanted to shine a spotlight on because while we often revisit his poems and actions, it is also nice to refresh our memories about how the Greeks honored him,\u201d says Nikolakopoulou.<\/p>\n

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The Greek songwriter, who is also the artistic director of the performance, will be sharing the stage with British author Victoria Hislop and poet and Oxford University professor Alicia Stallings to recite poems by Lord Byron and other Greek and philhellene poets, such as Alexander Pushkin, Vittorio Sereni, Kostis Palamas and others. The recital will be accompanied with music by another British artist, composer Tom Smail.<\/p>\n

Kathimerini reached out to the Britons taking part in this interesting performance and asked them to comment on the show and Byron. What stands out is how differently he has become imprinted on the collective conscience in the two countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe grew up from our school days with Lord Byron. He\u2019s one of our great poets, he\u2019s very much on the curriculum,\u201d says Hislop.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Greece I think he is known foremost as a hero who drew attention to the country\u2019s needs in the liberation from the Ottomans. But in Britain the two other aspects of his reputation live on too \u2013 he was well known as an infamous seducer, as well as being known as a great poet. It\u2019s almost the first thing that comes up when you look online. He was a very rounded but also very complex human being \u2013 like a superman with flaws. The most famous quote about him was that he was \u2018mad, bad and dangerous to know,\u2019\u201d she adds, quoting a phrase used by Lady Caroline Lamb (1785-1828) to describe her lover Lord Byron.<\/p>\n

\u2018Byron loved Greece, he absolutely adored it, and I think that\u2019s what philhellenism is, it\u2019s a love of somewhere that\u2019s not necessarily rational\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201c\u0399 think we don\u2019t appreciate how famous he was. I mean, he was rock star level famous. He writes that \u2018I awoke one day to find myself famous.\u2019 I think \u2018Childe Harold\u2019s Pilgrimage\u2019 sold out 10,000 copies almost immediately in its first run. A book of poems now, if it sold 10,000 copies, would be the biggest selling poem in a decade. Basically everyone who could read, everyone who was literate, got a copy of this book,\u201d says Stallings.
\n\u201cObviously he also invented the \u00a0sexy author photograph \u2013 with the open shirt, the poet\u2019s blouse \u2013 on book covers,\u201d she adds. \u201cWomen and men found him sexy, I think by our standards, he\u2019s certainly bisexual, and he influences this idea of the romantic hero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hislop agrees on his incredible sex appeal and popularity. \u201cWomen just fell at his feet, you know, fainted. He was like a pop star, like Harry Styles. When he arrived in Messolonghi for the first time, people were just swarming, you know, in this big crowd to try and see this person, and he obviously did have great charisma.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Greece, however, what he is most remembered for is his support for the Greek people and their struggle for liberation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s clearly wrestling with some of the issues of the time, some of them very similar to things we might say today. Take Palestine, for example, where you have people saying: \u2018Are the Palestinians ready to govern themselves? I don\u2019t think they are.\u2019 Byron says the same kind of thing, that any people under occupation can\u2019t be judged for what they would do if they were free,\u201d says Stallings.<\/p>\n

She also notes that Byron was the only British romantic poet who did not try to \u201cmake the Greeks be the ancient Greeks. He sees them for who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byron\u2019s life, words and decisions have elevated him to the status of the ideal philhellene in Greece. To what degree, however, has he influenced modern-day philhellenism?<\/p>\n

\u201cThis very romantic image of classical Greece that he paints, that incorporates the place, the beauty, the landscape, as well as Greek heroism, classical Greek heroism, with battles and gods, those are the key ingredients that to some extent do still define many people\u2019s idea of what Greece is, and that relationship between Britain and Greece is still, you know, to some extent it is sort of romantic with a capital R,\u201d says Hislop. \u201cHe lived in a period where literature could still have such a huge influence on your emotional idea of what a place was, and Byron loved Greece, he absolutely adored it, and I think that\u2019s what philhellenism is, it\u2019s a love of somewhere that\u2019s not necessarily rational.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat feeling, that feeling of going somewhere ancient and modern at the same time and feeling free and feeling at home and feeling happy, I think is what philhellenes feel, which is why there\u2019s such a special place for Byron in our hearts,\u201d says Smail.<\/p>\n

For Stallings, \u201ca modern philhellene would not put their life on the line. You have to give him credit for doing that.\u201d She also believes that Lord Byron \u201cwould enjoy getting to know contemporary Greece in all of its complexity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI expect him to, you know, join protests in the streets in Syntagma. Sure, yeah. He could write some protest slogans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019d probably be more shocked by what\u2019s happened in the country of his birth than Greece,\u201d says Hislop, adding that he would probably be a social media user. \u201cIn some ways, he was an early influencer,\u201d she says, adding, \u201cI think he\u2019d be quite furious that the Parthenon Sculptures were still in the British Museum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Admission to the event is free of charge, by invitation via info@eefshp.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

BY XENIA GEORGIADOU<\/p>\n

Kathimerini<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Event at Odeon of Herodes Atticus features readings by Lina Nikolakopoulou, Victoria Hislop and Alicia Stallings, music by Tom Smail   The city\u2019s cannons sounded 37 times in Messolonghi on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.victoriahislop.co.uk\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.victoriahislop.co.uk\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.victoriahislop.co.uk\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.victoriahislop.co.uk\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.victoriahislop.co.uk\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33054"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.victoriahislop.co.uk\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33073,"href":"https:\/\/www.victoriahislop.co.uk\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33054\/revisions\/33073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.victoriahislop.co.uk\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.victoriahislop.co.uk\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.victoriahislop.co.uk\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}