Philhellenism

Now, of course, those alignments between the great powers are constantly changing, but one of the things that did happen was that the Greek War of Independence in the eighteen twenties resulted, uh, in the creation of a Greek state, which was supported by outside powers, and it was very much, uh, upheld by outside powers to a certain extent.

Now, we mustn't forget that there was a great degree of Philhellenism built into that.

There is this romantic notion that, um, the Greek state emerged not only because of the realities of international politics in Europe, but also because there was this great affinity to supporting the Hellenes, uh, the birthplace of various ideals and philosophies and, uh, and, and, and the romantic notion of struggles of independence against, um, you know, the Ottoman, uh, outsider barbarian in a sense in European times.

So those two things came together and resulted in the creation of a Greek state, um, which was very much limited in terms of territory.

It's for the Greeks.

It's for the Philhellenes.

It's for everybody.

And I think that's one thing that I've realized because there's a dance group here in Vancouver that is Phil Valines and there's all races dancing and they're learning and some of them even speak Greek now.

Now, Hadrian is determined to find out what the truth is.

So, like any good Greek or Philhellene would do, he goes to Apollo's Oracle at Delphi to ask the Oracle where Homer is from.

Now, the priestess Adelphi is known as the Pythia, and the Pythia answers Hadrian in several lines of hexameter verse, which is the like old school way of delivering oracles.

And apparently the Pythia, kind of smartly, decided that she didn't really want to get involved in an argument between a bunch of city-states in Ionia.

His body was returned to Britain and buried in the Byron family vault at the Church of St Mary Magdalene in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.

Greece held public mourning and Byron's death strengthened Philhellenic support across Europe.

His name remains commemorated in Greek streets, monuments and even personal names.

Byron left Don Juan unfinished, but his influence had already spread far beyond Britain.