Poster_LB_Theatre

 

The Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism (SHP – www.eefshp.org) and the Philhellenism Museum in Athens (www.phmus.org), are pleased to invite you to the original theatrical performance entitled “Byron. The Farewell, Messolonghi 1824”.

The play reflects upon the last days of Lord Byron in Messolonghi and will be offered for two (2) unique performances, with free admission, on October 31 and November 1, 2024, at 8:00 p.m., in the Amphitheatre of the War Museum of Athens.

2024 marks the bicentenary from Lord Byron’s death. The major Romantic poet was the greatest Philhellene, who with his untimely death at the age of 36, inspired the movement of Philhellenism internationally and the support of the Greek Revolution, which led to the free Greek state.

Summary of the play

The rebellious British aristocrat in April 1824 is in Messolonghi, defending the liberation of Greece. An unspecified illness afflicts him strongly and the most famous doctors of Europe arrive to assist him in his treatment, a vain attempt. His sudden death caused a global shock, which moved people around Europe and America, while Greece recorded him as a national hero.

Thursday, October 31 & Friday, November 1, 2024, 20:00
Amphitheatre of the War Museum
Rizari 2-4, Athens – Metro Station “Evangelismos”

Free admission by invitation
For reservations: info@eefshp.org

 

Written by: Iordanis Kalesis | Directed by: Vassilis Kontaxis | Original music & piano: Angeliki Della | Cinematography & costumes: Thanos Angelis | Photorgaphy: Pantelis Konsolakis | Research advisor: Dr. Zambia Agrimaki | Lighting: Thodoris Gogos

Cast:
Kostas Gerantonis | Iordanis Kalesis | Dimitris Pneumatikos | Elias Sardellis | special guest: Periklis Lianos | soprano Angeliki Vardaka
Emilianos Stamatakis as Lord Byron

 

 

The naval battle at Navarino successfully seals the liberation struggle of the Greeks, and paves the way for the establishment of the independent Greek state. The driving force behind this great victory is clearly the British Prime Minister Georges Canning, who, before he died in August 1927, gave clear instructions to Admiral Codrington to implement the London treaty even by force of arms.

But how many of us know that Canning was a true Philhellene, and a poet influenced by Lord Byron, with a real interest in the Greeks, who also wrote a poem entitled “the slavery of Greece”? On the occasion of the anniversary of the naval battle of Navarino, we present from the collection of the Philhellenism Museum the translation into French of a book containing George Canning’s poetry collection including the following poem dedicated to Greece.

 

 

The Slavery Of Greece

Unrivall’d Greece! thou ever honor’d name,
Thou nurse of heroes dear to deathless fame!
Though now to worth, to honor all unknown,
Thy lustre faded, and thy glories flown;
Yet still shall Memory, with reverted eye,
Trace thy past worth, and view thee with a sigh.

Thee Freedom cherish’d once with fostering hand,
And breath’d undaunted valour through the land;
Here, the stern spirit of the Spartan soil,
The child of poverty, inur’d to toil.

Here, lov’d by Pallas and the sacred Nine,
Once did fair Athens’ tow’ring glories shine,
To bend the bow, or the bright faulchion wield,
To lift the bulwark of the brazen shield,
To toss the terror of the whizzing spear,
The conqu’ring standard’s glitt’ring glories rear,
And join the mad’ning battle’s loud career.

How skill’d the Greeks; confess what Persians slain
Were strew’d on Marathon’s ensanguin’d plain;
When heaps on heaps the routed squadron fell,
And with their gaudy myriads peopled hell.
What millions bold Leonidas withstood,
And seal’d the Grecian freedom with his blood;
Witness Thermopylæ! how fierce he trod!
How spoke a hero, and how mov’d a God!
The rush of nations could alone sustain,
While half the ravag’d globe was arm’d in vain.
Let Leuctra say, let Mantinea tell,
How great Epaminondas fought and fell!

Nor war’s vast art alone adorn’d thy fame,
“But mild philosophy endear’d thy name.”
Who knows not, sees not with admiring eye,
How Plato thought, how Socrates could die?

To bend the arch to bid the column rise,
And the tall pile aspiring pierce the skies;
The awful scene magnificently great,
With pictur’d pomp to grace, and sculptur’d state,
This science taught; on Greece each science shone:
Here the bold statue started from the stone;
Here, warm with life, the swelling canvass glow’d;
Here, big with life, the poet’s raptures flow’d;
Here Homer’s lip was touch’d with sacred fire,
And wanton Sappho tun’d her am’rous lyre;
Here bold Tyrtæus rous’d th’ enervate throng
Awak’d to glory by th’ inspiring song;
Here Pindar soar’d a nobler, loftier way,
And brave Alcæus, scorn’d a tyrant’s sway;
Here gorgeous Tragedy, with great controul,
Touch’d every feeling of th’ impassion’d soul;
While in soft measure tripping to the song,
Her comic sister lightly danc’d along—

This was thy state! But oh! how chang’d thy fame,
And all thy glories fading into shame.
What! that thy bold, thy freedom-breathing land,
Should crouch beneath a tyrant’s stern command;
That servitude should bind in galling chain;
Whom Asia’s millions once oppos’d in vain,
Who could have thought? Who sees without a groan,
Thy cities mould’ring and thy walls o’erthrown?
That where once tower’d the stately solemn fane,
Now moss-grown ruins strew the ravag’d plain;
And unobserv’d but by the traveller’s eye
Proud vaulted domes in fretted fragments lie;
And thy fall’n column on the dusty ground,
Pale ivy throws its sluggish arms around.

Thy sons (sad change!) in abject bondage sigh;
Unpitied toil, and unlamented die;
Groan at the labours of the galling oar,
Or the dark caverns of the mine explore.
The glitt’ring tyranny of Othman’s sons,
The pomp of horror which surrounds their thrones
Has aw’d their servile spirits into fear;
Spurn’d by the foot, they tremble and revere.

The day of labour, night’s sad sleepless hour,
Th’ inflictive scourge of arbitrary pow’r,
The bloody terror of the pointed steel,
The murd’rous stake, the agonizing wheel,
And (dreadful choice!) the bow-string or the bowl,
Damps their faint vigour, and unmans the soul.

Disastrous fate! still tears will fill the eye,
Still recollection prompt the mournful sigh,
When to thy mind recurs thy former fame,
And all the horrors of thy present shame.

So some tall rock, whose bare broad bosom high,
Tow’rs from th’ earth, and braves th’ inclement sky;
On whose vast top the blackening deluge pours,
At whose wide base the thund’ring ocean roars;
In conscious pride its huge gigantic form
Surveys imperious, and defies the storm.
Till worn by age and mould’ring to decay,
Th’ insidious waters wash its base away;
It falls, and falling cleaves the trembling ground,
And spreads a tempest of destruction round.

 

 

With particular success and great emotion, in a packed Herodeion, on October 10, 2024, the big concert of the Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism (SHP) and the Philhellenism Museum took place, in the presence of the political and military leadership of the country and many diplomats, to celebrate the bicentenary since the death of Lord Byron and the Philhellenes.

The event was prefaced by the president of the SHP, Mr. Constantinos Velentzas, the Minister of National Defense, Mr. Nikos Dendias, and the British Ambassador, Mr. Matthew Lodge.

The concert, the artistic direction of which was assigned to Ms. Lina Nikolakopoulou, began with recitations of poems by Lord Byron and other Greek and Philhellene poets, by herself, the author and journalist Victoria Hislop, and the professor of poetry at the University of Oxford Alicia E. Stallings.

In the first part, the ERT Contemporary Music Orchestra appeared with maestro Mr. Giorgos Aravidis who played works by the British Philhellene composer Tom Smail and songs and music by Greek composers, related to the struggle of the Greeks for freedom.

Throughout the concert, SHP displayed the portraits of 80 emblematic Philhellenes, each with the flag of their country, on the wall of Herodeion.

This was followed by the Dryades quartet, with soprano Katia Paschou and pianist Achilleas Wastor, with philhellenic songs and music that animated the philhellenic movement internationally during the period of the Greek War of Independence.

The concert closed with the Band of the Air Force with chief musician Alexandros Litsardopoulos and the Vrilissia choir with chief musician Giorgos Ziakas, with melodies by the famous Philhellene composer, Gioachino Rossini, and songs from the work Eleftheroi Poliorkmenii by Dionysios Solomos, with music by Yiannis Markopoulos and Christos Leontis, with soprano Sofia Zova and baritone Angelos Moussikas.

The SHP honors the great romantic poet and the Philhellenes with the establishment of the Philhellenism Museum, the construction of the Philhellenes Monument on Vasilissis Sofias (in front of the War Museum), which is a decision of the 4th National Assembly in Argos and the institutionalization as early as 2021 in collaboration with the Academy of Athens, of the international Lord Byron prize awarded annually to three international personalities.

The SHP and the Philhellenism Museum have organized around 20 similar events this year, which include school and sports competitions, speeches, conferences (in Athens and Cambridge), exhibitions (at the Hellenic Parliament, the Academy of Athens, the War Museum), concerts, publications, etc. in Greece, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, etc.

Lord Byron’s contribution to the liberation of Greece

Lord Byron’s contribution to the liberation of Greece was crucial. His name, undoubtedly, is synonymous with Philhellenism internationally for three reasons.

First, with his emblematic work Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, he highlighted Greece as the cradle of Western civilization, familiarized international opinion with this concept-belief and progressively led to the adoption of the demand that “Greece might still be free again!”.

Secondly, from the works of this most famous man in the world, a new romantic hero emerged, the Palikari punisher of brutality (like the Giaour). The particularly popular world-wide Byronic heroes dominated the philological salons, were adored by the public, were depicted in all forms of art, and once the Greek Revolution began, they were identified with Greek fighters, offering impetus to the development of the Philhellenic movement in Europe.

In 1823, the cause of the freedom of Greece was the last noble mission adopted by the great poet and it is on this altar that he sacrificed his life. This was his third and most important contribution to Greece, triggering an activism of unprecedented intensity and effectiveness, the constant sending of financial aid and volunteers, and a series of diplomatic and political actions which culminated in the Battle of Navarino and led, ultimately, to in the establishment of the new independent Greek state. Thus, Lord Byron justly entered the Pantheon of Greek heroes.

For information: Info@eefshp.org, 210.8094750