Two centuries on, Greece loves Byron more than ever
200 years after the revolutionary Romantic poet Lord Byron’s death, Greeks are celebrating his place in their national pantheon
Helena Smith in Athens
Sun 21 Apr 2024 15.00 CEST
On Wednesday 18 August 1880, a sale was held at Sotheby’s in London. Among the items up for grabs were “interesting relics of Lord Byron”. The articles, once the property of Augusta Leigh, the poet’s half-sister, included the crown of Greek laurel placed on the aristocrat’s coffin “when laying in state” in Great George Street.
Joannes Gennadius, a diplomat-cum-scholar born and raised in Athens, ensured he was there. Fifty-six years had elapsed since the great Romantic poet died on 19 April 1824 in Missolonghi, spearheading the Greeks’ revolt against Ottoman rule.
Raised by his patriot father on Byron’s legendary contribution to the cause, Gennadius successfully contrived to outdo his fellow bidders. It would be the start of a formidable collection of Byroniana that today includes a lock of the peer’s distinctly auburn hair – cut by his distraught valet, William Fletcher as his master lay on his deathbed – rare manuscripts, Byron’s gold watch, paintings and a fragment of the Scottish plaid cloak Byron, then Europe’s most celebrated writer, wore in Missolonghi.
Last week, as Greece marked the bicentenary of Byron’s death, the artefacts brought an air of excitement to the august reading room of the library that Gennadius, who would become one of the country’s foremost benefactors, bequeathed to the American School of Classical studies at Athens.
For Alicia E Stallings, Oxford University’s professor of poetry, laying eyes on objects once so intimate to the poet was tantamount to being “at one remove” from him and nothing short of “thrilling”.
“I think it’s very important they’ve ended up in Greece,” said the American who, long based in Athens where she has written several acclaimed books of verse, has found herself “inevitably” thinking about Byron and his relationship with the nation he would ultimately sacrifice his life for. “There’s little sense or understanding [abroad] of how important he was to Greece. I often find myself having to explain that it’s not a celebrity stunt, it’s no joke, that the gravity of the appreciation [for him] is genuine.”
On Friday – exactly 200 years after Byron succumbed to fever barely 100 days after arriving in the land whose liberty he had championed so vociferously – it was an appreciation that the Greeks went out of their way to display. With a pomp usually afforded visiting dignitaries, a brass band performed next to a guard of honour outside the Athens parliament as officials laid wreaths before the tomb of the unknown soldier to commemorate foreign philhellenes, starting with Byron, whose support, courage and influence were key to the war’s eventual success.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... antic-poet 