The moment you glance at it it looks a bit out of place.
There, in the southwest corner of the National Garden, on the east side of central Athens, stands a statue of Lord Byron – just minutes from Hadrian’s Arch, the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Acropolis.
Among the gently swaying trees and fragrant leaves are the most English poets; It was carefully crafted by the hands of French sculptors Henri-Michel Chapu and Alexandre Falguiere and installed in the city in 1895, just before the first revived Olympic Games.
An elegant work in white marble, it shows Byron in the arms of a half-nude female figure. But this is not one of the many women who have passed through the life of this man famous for his grocery tendencies. Viewed from above by the poet, she is a feminine embodiment of Greece, a visual metaphor for Byron’s brief but – at least in the Hellenic world – famous role in that same country’s struggle for independence against the Ottoman Empire. It was an escape that would cost him his life; 200 years ago today.
This is a story worth retelling; especially since this aristocratic wordsmith was better known in his native Britain as a lover than a warrior. Born in London on January 22, 1788, George Gordon Byron would grow up to become one of the most admired poets of the Romantic period. He would have friends, allies, rivals and superiors during this surge of creativity in the early 19th century; among them were William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy Shelley, and William Blake; but none of them would be as successful in the bedroom as at the writing desk.
Byron would be best known for: Don Juan – His masterpiece, written in various stages between 1819 and 1824. Here was an epic poem, tongue firmly in cheek, satirizing the Spanish libertine of 17th-century literature, portraying him not as one of the playboys of legend but as a womanizer. a victim of circumstances, easily seduced. There was a fair element of personal experience in this; It’s a nod and a wink to the lascivious lifestyle that would force Byron to flee not only his hometown but various other salubrious addresses as well.
London – where the scandal broke (1812-1816)
Raised in obscurity by a mostly absent father and a mother who loved to spoil him, he grew into a young man with few personal boundaries. At the age of 10 he became Byron, the sixth Baron of Rochdale, and inherited both the title and his ancestral house (Newstead Priory in Nottinghamshire) on the death of his great-uncle. By the time he was in his 20s, he had become a complete peacock; He was not ashamed to use his power and position to gain his way into the hearts and bedrooms of London’s most distinguished – but more often unavailable – women.
Between 1809 and 1811, the poet went on a “Grand Tour” of Europe, as many wealthy young people did at the time, albeit with an unusual route. As the Napoleonic Wars raged in the middle of the continent, Byron rejected the standard route from France to Italy and instead targeted Portugal, passing through Lisbon and Sintra and heading east into Spain towards Seville and Jerez. At Gibraltar he boarded a boat bound for Sardinia and Malta, returned to the mainland in Albania, and reached Athens in 1810. He returned to Britain aboard HMS Volage in July 1811 and within a year published: Childe Harold’s PilgrimageThe four-part narrative poem that made him the literary hero of Regency London. Stardom, success and scandal followed.
In 1812 he became involved with Lady Caroline Lamb. Two years older than him (26 to 24), she was, appropriately enough, his fellow writer. He was improperly married. Their meeting became a hot topic in society; especially when Byron gets fed up with the relationship but not his lover who is in love with him. He was clearly targeting her in his 1816 novel. glenarvon; A book in which the true identity of the titular lord—a cad and a rake—needs little decoding. But it would also grant Byron a more quintessential character assassination; one that survives to this day; describes him as “crazy, evil, and dangerous to know.”
He married Annabella Milbanke on 2 January 1815; Milbanke left him a year later, taking with them their daughter Ada Lovelace, a future mathematician.
Lake Geneva – for things that go bump in the night (1816)
The disintegration of his marriage would send Byron into something of a spiral. He fled Britain in April 1816, vowing never to return. With this began the second chapter of his life; a period of great travels and wanderings. Between June and November 1816, he rented Villa Diodati, a magnificent hideaway in Cologne, at the southwestern end of Lake Geneva. Here he and his traveling companion John Polidori were joined by Percy Shelley and his lover Mary Godwin; the future Mary Shelley.
Their friendship would have a striking impact on literature. It was Mary who wrote about the “incessant rain” in 1831. [which] “He would often lock us up in the house for days.” Three specific days in June proved particularly productive, leading to a storytelling session in which friends read and created scary stories to entertain others. These conversations would lead to two great works of Gothic fiction: Polidori’s Vampirein 1819 and Mary Shelley’s unique mould-breaker Frankenstein – published a year ago.
Pisa – for revolutionary rumblings (1821)
After two years in Venice – where he was seduced both by Italy and (briefly) by the young, stormy (and married) Margarita Cogni – Byron fled across the Italian body to Pisa in 1821. The very thing that would kill him had shown that he would not be welcome on the east coast; His wild dreams of an Italy taken from foreign control had led to inconsiderate conversations with local hotheads and unappreciative looks from Austrian powers. The last true love of his life, Teresa Gamba Guiccioli, whom he also met in Venice, traveled with him to Tuscany, as did Shelley, who wrote about dinner parties at the 16th-century Palazzo Toscanelli (now the city archives). Where Byron hosted.
Livorno – for death in water (1822)
Maybe this enthusiasm was so contagious. Fascinated by their new location near the Ligurian Sea, two poets commissioned boats: Bolivar Byron; Shelley, aptly named Don Juan. In the second, on July 8, 1822, Shelley and his friend Edward Williams set out from Livorno with the intention of sailing for Lerici. When they encountered a violent storm on their journey north, Don Juan sank, taking everyone on board with it. Shelley’s badly decomposed body washed ashore in Viareggio 10 days later.
Genoa – for one last heartbreak (1822-1823)
A brawl that attracted the attention of the Pisa police had already sent Byron to Villa Dupouy in Montenero, outside Livorno. Later, a dispute with Teresa’s siblings pushed her back to Albaro on the outskirts of Genoa. The Villa Saluzzo where he settled is still there (in private hands) – a magnificent hilltop estate that testified to the ugly end of his relationship with Teresa.
By now Byron had come into contact with leading members of the Greek independence movement and had become increasingly enamored with the idea of saving an ancient European civilization from Ottoman occupation. He sailed from Genoa to Cephalonia on 16 July 1823, leaving a heartbroken Teresa to cry in the city.
Greece – for an adventure far away (1823-1824)
A vague idea soon turned into a firm conviction. Byron landed on the “Greek” mainland, Missolonghi, on 5 January 1824 and quickly became a popular part of the struggle; A famous figure with a profile and, more importantly, money to make a difference.
Despite his complete lack of military experience, he agreed to lead an attack on the Ottoman-held Lepanto fortress guarding the Gulf of Corinth at (modern-day) Nafpaktos. A show of force or stupidity? Who knows? A man of words never had a chance to become a man of war. On 15 February 1824 Byron fell down with a fever from which he could not save himself, despite, or rather because of, his doctors’ regular bloodletting. He died in his bed in Missolonghi on April 19, 1824. He was 36 years old.
Nottinghamshire – for an unwanted grave
His body was sent back to his country against his will. Large crowds in London viewed his coffin, but Westminster Abbey refused to entomb him on the grounds that he was of “questionable morality”. He lies in the Church of St Mary Magdalene in the Nottinghamshire village of Hucknall, five miles from the old family pile at Newstead Priory. His daughter Ada is also with him.
Three holidays on the way to Byron
Venice
La Serenissima is the obvious place to look for Byron’s ghost. His former home, Palazzo Mocenigo, is open to the public as a museum (textiles, costumes and perfumes; mocenigo.visitmuve.it), and you can wander through the halls where the poet wandered. You can also sit at Caffe Florian, the venerable coffee shop on the south side of St. Mark’s Square, which was a staple of Venetian furnishings in Byron’s time; It first opened its doors in 1720 (caffeflorian.com). A three-night stay at the Hotel London Palace, a historic property five minutes’ walk east, costs £1,098 per person, including flights and transfers, through Kirker Holidays (020 7593 2288; kirkerholidays.com).
Ravenna
Emilia-Romagna also remembers its bohemian guest from two centuries ago. Palazzo Guiccioli, at Via Cavour 54, is open to visitors and currently contains a pair of museums; one of these honors Byron’s stay in the city. At the time of writing, it was closed for renovations but is scheduled to reopen later this year (visit turismo.ra.it for more information). Ravenna is a gorgeous seaside city as it was in 1820, and a short stay means the chance to nap on the Adriatic coast. Flying direct from Heathrow to Bologna (50 miles away) on June 6, a three-night mini break to the three-star Hotel Centrale Byron starts from £431 per person via Expedia (020 3024 8211; expedia.co.uk). ).
(Lake Geneva
Villa Diodati, where Frankenstein and his monster appeared, still haunts the seaside in Cologne, but is privately owned and therefore inaccessible to tourists. But the town and estate are just a three-mile walk along the coast from Geneva, and the lake looks spectacular wherever and whenever you see it. A three-night getaway to the four-star Warwick Geneva, flying from Heathrow on 23 May, starts from £478 per person through British Airways Holidays (0344 493 0787; ba.com/holidays). Spooky stories are optional.