Lord Byron, as George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, is known in our country, was born on 22 January 1788 in London and came from an aristocratic family.
From an early age he loved to study, read many books, studied at senior English colleges, learned to speak Greek and Latin, and travelled extensively. At the age of 21 he became an MP and was often at odds with the other Lords because of his interest in working class issues.
In 1809 he travelled to Greece for the first time. He visited Patras, Preveza, Nicopolis, Arta, Giannina and reached Tepeleni, where Ali Pasha hosted him. He returned to Patras, went to Aegio, Delphi, Livadia, Athens, where he stayed for two months, and then to ancient Troy and Constantinople.
Byron, with his poetic sensibility, was overwhelmed by Greek natural beauties and ancient ruins. While travelling, he wrote wonderful poems that reflected his artistic emotion. In his great work of poetry, entitled 'The Pilgrimage of Child Harold', he gives beautiful descriptions of Epirus. A poem has a special place, where he describes a storm, which found him at Zitsa in Epirus.
At Sounion he inspired the poem "Islands of Greece," in which he describes his impressions of ancient Troy also. The Greek-Latvian poet resented from the depths of his soul the outrage of Elgin, who stole the marble artifacts from the Acropolis and wrote the poem "The Curse of Athena". His other poems included 'The Nymph of Abydos', 'Turkish Tales' and 'Don Juan', perhaps his greatest poetic creation. Byron's poetic works made him famous in England, and his worldwide fame grew and grew.
Byron was a handsome man with thick boxy-blond curly hair and a fine physique, though a little lame on his right leg. His amorous adventures made their mark in London and his disdain for social conventions created scandals large and small. From his brief marriage to Annabella Milbank he had a daughter, Ada Lovelace, later a famous mathematician and considered one of the pioneers of computing. From his relationship with Claire Clemont, he had a second daughter, Clara Allegra, who died at the age of five.
When the Greek Revolution broke out, Byron, who in his poem "Dante's Prophecy" had condemned tyrannical regimes and expressed his sympathy for the liberation struggles of peoples, immediately showed his interest. In 1823 he became a member of the "Philhellenic Committee", an association of English liberals and philhellenes whose purpose was to support the Greek revolutionaries. "I decided to go to Greece. It is the only place where I have tasted real pleasure. If I am a poet, I owe it to the air of Greece," he wrote to a friend.
On 3 August 1823 he arrived in Argostoli. The Greeks were divided at that time and this made the sensitive and ardent young man bitter. He waited for the divisions to cease, but the cacos. Having been appointed representative of the "Philhellenic Committee", he distributed to the revolutionaries the supplies sent to him from London. From his own money he sent 4,000 pounds to Mavrokordatos for the maintenance of the fleet.
On 5 January 1824 he arrived in Messolonghi, where the fighting Greeks greeted him with enthusiasm. There he collaborated with other foreign volunteers and at his own expense organized the army and saw to the fortification of Messolonghi. On 25 January the government recognized him as commander-in-chief. His efforts, however, to organize the army and to reconcile the chieftains, as well as the bad climate, undermined his health.
On April 9 he fell into bed with a strong fever. He rambled on and on, but even then he was still urging the Greeks to reconcile in order to achieve their liberation. At the dawn of April 19, 1824, Easter Monday, he breathed his last in Messolonghi, at the age of 36. His last words were for Greece: "I gave her my time, my health, my fortune, and now I give her my life. What more could I do?"
His death spread a heavy mourning to all struggling Greeks. Men and women wept as a true brother and protector of Byron, who became a symbol of patriotism and was proclaimed a national hero. After his funeral in Messolonghi, his body was transported to London. In those days Dionysios Solomos wrote a great poem ("To the death of Lord Byron") dedicated to this great lover of Greece, beginning with these lines:
After liberation, the Greeks honored Byron and made a statue of him, which stands in the Zappeion, in the corner facing the Acropolis, and represents the philhellene near a woman - Greece - who crowns him. The name of Byron was also given to the refugee settlement, which was founded in Athens, above Pagrati and today is the Municipality of Byron.
Source:sansimera.gr
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