Byron and the distorted prism
CHP a desire to actively convey a sense Greek modernity to its readers through its various appendages, including, by the 10th edition, 30 extra poems and a Romaic song.
Admittedly, it is easy to understate the influence of Greek modernity on Byron and CHP in that explicit promotion of modern Greek culture is not so pervasive in the body of the epic itself, but rather is discussed in CHP’s ‘Notes’ section. Nonetheless, CHP is the sum of its constituent parts, and this includes its various note sections. An explanation for the ‘brushing under the rug’ of these elements is that readers of CHP might miss some of Byron’s notable if ambivalent modern philhellenism because most recent publications avoid the fullness of the original, therefore omitting the complexities of Murray’s publication (Schoina, 2021) . Byron’s intention was for his work to be a springboard into wider and deeper understanding of the modern reality of Greece, which further explains the epic’s lack of ‘main body’ discussion of modernity. In fact, Byron’s close friend John Hobhouse was him self writing a travelogue considering Greek modernity in detail. As Byron himself told Hobhouse ‘ [ CHP is intended to be] a stepping stone instead of a stumbling block in your way ’ (Byron, 1976, p. 135). Indeed, although modestly described by Byron as a ‘ stepping stone ’ , it is clear just how much Greek contemporary modernity influenced Byron in CHP . In his travels in Ottoman-occupied Greece, Byron was deeply swayed by a growing reverence for modern Greek scholarship, as opposed to his contemporaries’ infatuation with the ancient Greek thinkers. In the appendix to CHP (Byron, 1812, pp. 204-205), Byron provides his readers with an abbreviated list of modern Greek scholars: Eustathios Psalidas, a physician who made a tour of England; Kallinikos Torgearos, a poet and prose writer; Dorotheos of Mytilene, an Aristotelean philosopher whose ‘ Hellenic works are in great repute ’ ; and the translators George Constantine and George Ventote, who published lexicons. Byron felt compelled to demonstrate to his readership that ‘ Greeks … [were] able to produce respectable scholarship and education, despite (in some cases) living under Ottoman rule ’ (Grammatikos, 2018, p. 77). Indeed, aside from demonstrating the scholarly capability of the modern Greeks in spite of their subjugation, Byron does not shy away from becoming more overtly political in his demonstration of modern Greek culture. The two most political works that Byron translates for inclusion in CHP are ‘Δε ῦ τε πα ῖ δες τ ῶ ν Ἑ λλήνων,’ or ‘ Sons of Greeks, Arise! ’ (Byron, 1812, pp. 207-208) and ‘ Rossanglogallos ’ (Byron, 1812, pp. 209-210). Both are patriotic works exhorting Greece to free itself of its chains: the former is a popular oral song about Greeks gaining independence which tells the Greeks to ‘ arise! ’ (line 1) and to fight the Ottomans ‘ Until the blood in purple flood / From the hated foe / Beneath our feet shall flow ’ ; the latter follows a Russian man, a Frenchman, and an Englishman who are condemned for their refusal to fight the Ottomans by a female personification of Greece. Byron does not actually pass any political commentary on these works. Indeed, he thought ‘ Rossanglogallos ’ was ‘ contemptible as a composition ’ (Byron, 1812, p. 210), probably because of its Romaic, though Byron at this stage of his life was notoriously ambivalent about Greek emancipation. However, regardless of Byron’s own personal views of the works, the fact remains that they are works thoroughly imbued with the spirit of modern Greece and the contemporary political landscape; his inclusion of them is therefore seminal in demonstrating Byron’s thorough interactions with modern Greece as opposed to allowing Greek antiquity to colour both his and his readership’s perc eptions of Greece.
Byron’s incorporation of Romaic amatory poems in CHP also provides insights into the Romaic language and Greek culture (Grammatikos, 2018). Transcribing one such poem, ‘ The Garden of Roses ’ ,
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