Philhellenism and Famous Philhellenes – For the Love of Greece

 

In ancient times the term philhellene was used to describe both non-Greeks who were drawn to the culture of the ancient Greeks and Greeks who patriotically supported their own culture.

According to Xenophon, of Athens, c. 355 BC – 354 BC, Greek military leader, philosopher and historian, an honorable Greek should also be a philhellene.

Roman emperors known for their philhellenism include Nero, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius and Julian the Apostate.

 

Philhellenism in Modern Times:

The Grand Tour

 

 

Philhellenism burst onto the European scene during the 18^th century with “The Grand Tour”, a tradition started in around 1660, which came to a head at the turn of the 19^th century, saw young aristocrats touring Europe; France, Switzerland, Italy and Greece.

They stayed for months, sometimes years at a time (depending on how their bank balance was holding up), rather like a modern gap-year, firmly put Greece on the map.

The Grand Tour was a chance, to see and get to know, first-hand, the wonders of Greece and the roots of Western civilization, previously only read about in books and seen in the paintings of the great ancient Greek painters.

 On returning home after “The Grand tour”, the travelers, who were now totally hooked on Greece, wanted to tell the whole world what they had seen and experienced.

 They wrote books, they drew pictures; they painted masterpieces of the mysterious temples, amazing Greek sculpture, and the delightful little Greek islands which seemed to float atop the deep blue Aegean Sea.

 

 

These new ‘philhellenes’ threw quotes from great Greek philosophers into their conversation, they told of the now famous Greek hospitality, philotimo, the strange exotic dishes, the free and easy lifestyle and academics introduced classical studies into the educational system.

The result was, everyone wanted to visit Greece and if that wasn’t possible, then they learned all they could through reading about it, the next best thing!

 

Filomousos Eteria:

The Society of the Friends of the Muses

 

 

The European “Greek frenzy” gained more momentum during the French revolution and the European Enlightenment.

Western-educated Greeks were heartened by the enthusiasm for The French Revolution and hoped for support from Napoleon in their quest for independence from The Ottoman Empire which had ruled Greece for the last four hundred years.

 After the fall of Napoleon, the “society of the friends of the muses” (Filomousos Eteria, Greek: Φιλόμουσος Εταιρείa) was formed.

The nine muses were, in Greek mythology, goddesses of the inspiration of literature, science and the arts, considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, song-lyrics and myths that were related orally for centuries in this ancient culture.

 The “Filomousos Eteria” of Athens, was founded by Athenians in 1813 with the help of the English and the  “The Filomousos Eteria” of Vienna founded by Ioannis Kapodistrias in 1814, under the direction of Tsar Alexander I of Russia.

The purpose of the “Friends of the muse’s society” was to educate Greeks, to make them aware of their heritage, to improve the school system, to protect Greek art treasures from being filched by so-called lovers of Greece and to build up Philhellenism.

 

Filiki Eteria:

Society of Friends

 

 

A year after the formation of the “society of the friends of the muses”, in 1814, a secret organization was founded in Odessa; the Filiki Eteria or Society of Friends.

 Members were mainly young Phanariotes, from Phanari (modern Fener), the Greek quarter of Constantinople, the aim of this secret society was to overthrow Ottoman rule and establish an independent Greek state.

Alexandros Ypsilantis (1792 –1828), a leader of the Filiki Eteria, a secret organization that coordinated the beginning of the Greek War of Independence, declared a revolt against the Ottoman Empire on 8 October 1820, which began with him praising ancient Greece:

“Cast your eyes toward the seas, which are covered by our seafaring cousins, ready to follow the example of Salamis.

 Look to the land, and everywhere you will see Leonidas at the head of the patriotic Spartans“.

On 17 March 1821, war was declared on the Turks by the Maniots of Areopoli, Peloponnese.

 

 

 

Philhellenism and the Greek War of Independence 1821

(The Greek Revolution)

 

 

 

By 1821, thanks to The Grand Tour, Greek literature and knowledge of Greece in general, thousands, from all over Europe were in love with Greece and rushed to her aid in The Greek War of Independence against the Turks.

European support for Greece was massive, hundreds left their homes to fight alongside the Greek palikaria.

 Philhellenic societies sprung up like wildfire, the first in Stuttgart, Germany, followed by Greek societies around the country, the French and Swiss rallied, The London Philhellenic Committee was born in 1823.

 

 

Lord Byron:

English Poet

 

 

Lord Byron, English Poet, who reached Missolonghi, Greece in 1884 after paying four thousand pounds of his own money to spruce up the Greek fleet.

Sadly he died of a fever before he had the chance to fight beside the Greeks.

Lord Byron became a national hero for Greeks and a symbol of patriotism

 Byron wrote his poem “The Isles of Greece” in support of the Greek War of Independence:

 

 “The Isles of Greece”

 

The mountains look on Marathon

And Marathon looks on the sea;

And musing there an hour alone,

I dream’d that Greece might yet be free

For, standing on the Persians’ grave,

I could not deem myself a slave.

 

Must we but weep o’er days more blest?

Must we but blush? – Our fathers bled.

Earth! render back from out thy breast

A remnant of our Spartan dead!

Of the three hundred grant but three,

To make a new Thermopylae.

 

Oscar Wilde:

Irish Poet and Playwright 1854 -1900

 

 

Oscar Wilde, an important member of the Aesthetic Movement (late 19th century European arts movement), who won a prize in ancient Greek whilst at Trinity College in Dublin, is known to have stated:

“I was almost sixteen when the wonder and beauty of Greek life began to dawn upon me;

I began to read Greek eagerly and the more I read the more I was enthralled”.

In 1877, Wilde made his first visit to Greece, arriving on the island of Corfu, before sailing to the mainland, where, in the coastal town of Katakolo in the Peloponnese, Wilde wrote his poem:

 

“Impression de Voyage”

 

The sea was sapphire coloured, and the sky

Burned like a heated opal through air,

We hoisted sail; the wind was blowing fair

For the blue lands that to the eastward lie.

From the steep prow I marked with quickening eye

Zakynthos, every olive grove and creek,

Ithaca’s cliff, Lycaon’s snowy peak,

And all the flower-strewn hills of Arcady.

The flapping of the sail against the mast,

The ripple of the water on the side,

The ripple of girls’ laughter at the stern,

The only sounds:—when ’gan the West to burn,

And a red sun upon the seas to ride,

I stood upon the soil of Greece at last!

 

Percy Bysshe Shelley:

  English Romantic Poet

 

 

Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the major English Romantic poets, proclaimed in his famous poem “Hellas”,  which he wrote in 1821whilst living in Pisa, Italy, with the intention of raising money for the Greek War of Independence:

 “We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our religion, our arts have their root in Greece”

 

Jeremy Bentham:

English Philosopher and Political radical

 

 

Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832), English philosopher and political radical, was one of the first members, along with Byron, of the London Philhellenic Committee (1823–1826), established to support the Greek cause by raising funds for the new Greek government.

Bentham was invited by Greek leaders to mediate in Greek affairs with essays and letters, advising the Greek Constitution, of how to avoid the newly formed state becoming an authoritarian state of elected rulers.

 

Frank Abney Hastings:

Hero of the Greek War of Independence and Benefactor of the Hellenic Navy

 

 

Frank Abney Hastings (1794 –1828), a British naval officer who served in the Royal Navy, is one philhellene who was maybe more well-known to the Greeks than to his own countrymen.

Hastings joined the British Navy in 1805 and was active the Battle of Trafalgar and the Battle of New Orleans, however, in 1819, after a disagreement with his seniors, he was discharged.

After returning to England, Hastings in 1820, headed for France with the intention of learning French.

Whilst in Paris, he met and became friends with a Greek patriot from Russia, Nikolaos Kallergis, who introduced Hastings to many philhellenes and the works of Lord Byron.

The result was that Hastings, after gaining knowledge from his new friends, about the Greeks and their quest for independence; he himself became a philhellene and on March 12, 1822, set sail for Greece, where he enlisted as a volunteer in the Greek Revolutionary Forces.

 

The “Karteria”

The First Ship Owned by the Greek Navy

 

 

For two years he took part in Greek naval battles and after realizing there was a strong possibility of the Greeks being overpowered by the larger, although inferior Turkish navy, Hastings advised the Greeks, that maybe they should consider the use of steam ships rather than sailing ships.

However, the Greeks, who liked the idea, did not have the funds and so, in 1824, Hastings returned to England, where, using his own money, acquired a steam ship.

Hastings was “hands on” with the construction of the ship and he himself designed the state-of-the-art military equipment, all this was said to have set him back by about, £7,000, a huge amount of money in those days.

The ship, originally named “Perseverance”, upon its arrival in Greece, was renamed “Karteria”.

The “Karteria” was the most modern ship in the Mediterranean, the first ship to be owned by the Greek Navy and the first steam-powered warship in history to be used in combat operations.

 

 

The Greek administration appointed Hastings captain of the” Kartería”, which went on to take part in multiple operations against the Ottoman Navy, most famously, the Battle of of Itea, in the Gulf of Corinth, in September 1827, where it sank Nine Ottoman ships.

 

 

After an attempt to reclaim Missolonghi, on 25 May 1828, Hastings was wounded and later died from his injuries, on the island of Zakinthos, on June 1^st.

The news of the death of Hastings, the great philhellene, shocked the whole of Greece.

Greece gave Hastings a national funeral and laid him to rest beneath the arsenal of Poros, today a Hellenic Naval Academy and his heart is preserved in the Anglican Church in Athens.

 

 

Victory For Greece

 

With their sheer courage and determination and much welcome help from European philhellenes, Greece won independence from the Turks after more than eight years of fighting and in July 1832, the Turkish sultan recognized Greek independence (Treaty of Constantinople; July 1832).

 

 

Since becoming an independent state Greece has been through thick and thin; two world wars, German occupation, a civil war and a dictatorship and has come out the other side.

And Greece soldiers on

 

Quotes about Greece from Famous Philhellenes

 

“Without Greek studies there is no education”

Tolstoy -1828 -1910, Russian writer, regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time.

 

 “If in the library of your house you do not have the works of the ancient Greek writers then you have a house with no light”

Bernard Shaw 1856 -1950. Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist.

 

“If the violin is the most perfect musical instrument, the Greek language is the violin of the human thought.”

Helen Keller 1880 – 1968. American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer.

 

 “I have never come across someone who could inspire more respect than the Greek philosophers”

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche 1844 -1900. German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist and composer

 

“Whatever, in fact, is modern in our life we owe to the Greeks? Whatever is an anachronism is due to medievalism.”

Oscar Wilde 1854 -1900. Irish poet and playwright

 

“The world is the expanding Greece and Greece is the shrinking world.”

Victor Hugo 1802 -1885. French Romantic writer and politician

 

“How can any educated person stay away from the Greeks? I have always been far more interested in them than in science”

Albert Einstein1879 – 1955. German-born theoretical physicist – one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time

 

 “Global civilization owes a lot to Greece and we must never forget that”

Stephen Fry 1957 – English actor, broadcaster, director and writer

 

Notable 20th – and 21st-century Philhellenes

 

Dilys Powell, film critic, author of several books about Greece, and President of the Classical Association 1966–1967

Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Gough Whitlam, 21st Prime Minister of Australia.

Daniel Andrews, Premier of Victoria.

 

Related links:

Why Greece is called Hellas and who are the Hellenes?

Why Greece is called Hellas and who are the Hellenes?

25 March Greek Independence Day – Freedom or Death