Greece was beautiful and full of exciting culture as in older times. But Byron was slightly disappointed by the ruins and the disintegration of the ancient empire. The first time he saw Athens from a pine-clad hill near Fort Phyle ,"it roused Byron's enthusiasm for the living Greece that was a relic of its former self" (Marchand, Byron: A Portrait 75). As he continued his travels, he saw the ruins of Greece's greatness with more sadness than delight. "Strangers only not regardless pass/Lingering like me, perchance, to gaze, and sigh 'Alas!'." The sadness that is heard in the tone of this poem from Childe Harold(II lxxxi) is the sadness that Byron felt upon seeing the destruction (Doherty 55). In one of his poems Byron remembered a village he saw:
Where lone Ultraikey forms its circling cove,
And weary waves retire to gleam at rest,
How brown the foliage of the green hill's grove,
Nodding at midnight o'er the calm boy's breast…
The beauty of the country never ceased to amaze him (Minta 91). The Greece of sun, sea, and the freedom of expression was what Byron loved most and was inspired by. Through the fight for independence, he made Greece his own country (Minta 276).
"The glory that was Greece" seems to be the central theme in the whole body of Childe Harold, but more readily seen in the second canto (Doherty 51). The canto opens with a rhetorical address to the ancient deities of Greece. "Where are thy men of might? grand in soul?/Gone-glimmering though the dream of things that were…"(Doherty 51). He asks the deities of what happened to the beauty and the greatness of the lost empire. "If we may judge from the tone of the sentiments expressed in Childe Harold, Byron was at once buoyed in spirit and depressed by the ruins of columns and the relics of a decaying beauty once perfect" (Marchand Byron: A Portrait 77).
When Byron visited Greece for the second time, in 1824, he came with the hope of helping the people of the country that he loved fight for independence. The Isles of Greece may be seen as one of Byron's most famous poems. In this poem, he incited the people of Greece to join in the revolution. He compared the new enemy, the Ottomans, to the Persians that controlled the Greeks in ancient times. In this canto of Don Juan, George Gordon sends a message to the Greek people that in order to be truly free, they would have to fight (Grosskurth 103).
The mountains look on Marathon-
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
I dream'd that Greece might still be free;
For standing on the Persian's grave,
I could not deem myself a slave.
(Don Juan, III, 86, 701-6)
The mood and theme of some parts of Don Juan (such as the one above) are both very similar to those of the second canto of Childe Harold. "The melancholy of a people living in slavery in the shadow and with the mementos of their glorious past, and the admonition that the Greeks themselves must strike the blow for freedom" (Marchand, A Critical Introduction 125).
Another example of a poem in which Byron refers back to the ancient wars that Greece had to fight in order to achieve independence is "On This Day I Complete My Thirty-sixth Year." In the poem he includes imagery of the Greek battlefield and an illusion of the Spartan warrior fighting for his country's freedom (Minta 259)
The Sword- the Banner- and the Field,
Glory Greece, around us see!
The Spartan, borne upon his shield
Was not more free!
Awake! (not Greece-she is awake!)
Awake, my spirit! Think through whom
Thy Life-blood tracks its parent lake,
And then strike home!
He stirred the people to take action and to fight for what they believe in. "Byron managed to maintain his faith that Greece was awake and present an encouraging face for others" (Raphael 201). He inspired the troops not only to join the fight, but to also keep on going. "Clime of the unforgotten brave!/Whose land, form plain to mountain-cave,-Was Freedom's home or Glory's grave!"(Fallen Greece from The Giaour, Poems of National Spirit 125)
Byron admonished the Greeks by saying that they should stand up for their country and get the foreigners, that are trying to control them, off of their land (Grosskurth 453). He not only spoke but took action. He supplied money and trained the people for the battle. The army had to be made of revolutionaries and he had to make more of those that were scared and uncertain. "Hereditary Bondsmen! know ye not/Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?"(Byron, Marchand, A Critical Introduction 45). "He voiced a political realism that was prophetic and displayed a wisdom far in advance of his day" (Marchand A Critical Introduction 45). The people of Greece had to be inspired and convinced that the movement was a right step. Byron was given the responsibility of a section of the army to control and to recruit more men (Marchand A Critical Introduction 101).
Fair Greece! Sad relic of departed worth!
Immortal, Though no more! Though fallen, great!
Who shall lead thy scatter'd children forth,
And long accustom'd bondage uncreate?
He felt sympathetic towards the destruction that was put upon the land by the fighting and the harsh control of the Ottoman Empire. "It is not difficult to see here a parallel with the conflict that complicated Byron's revolutionary activities and sympathies, though it did not dampen his hatred of tyranny nor his zeal for the cause of freedom" (Marchand critic 101).
The influence that Greece had over Byron was not only the topic of his poetry, but also the literary style that he began to develop. Byron appreciated Greco-Roman culture because of the freedom and relaxed atmosphere that the country possessed (Highet 413). The poetry is a paradox to the attitude of the people. The style of the poetry is formal and restrained and the people are unbridled and lighthearted. Byron respected the intellectual power needed for classical poetry, and those qualities as reproduced in English baroque literature. Highet writes that he himself (Byron) wrote frenetic and often formless poetry, that suffers form its own love for the limitless (413). He also believes that Byron was often happier when he was parodying Greek mythology than when writing seriously about it (Highet 414). "In literature, the poets sighed with relief when they realized that the existence of the Greek tragedians and of Aristotle's little mutilated treatise did not mean that they were bound to write in fixed patterns" (Highet 361). Byron attempted but did not succeed in producing the sense of strong and basic passions leading to inescapable fate that is at the gist of the "regular" or Greek tragedy he was emulating (Marchand 102). A poem that characterizes Byron's attempts of the Greek literary style is the "Maid of Athens":
Maid of Athens! I am gone:
Think of me, sweet! When alone.
Though I fly to Istanbul,
Athens holds my heart and soul:
(Gregory 14)
"A critical eye, detects its weakness as poetry. Aside from the Greek verse, which has musical and exotic connotations for the English reader, it has the faults of singsong rhythm, well-worn poetic diction, and forced imagery" (Marchand 125).
Byron was in love with the country and the people of Greece. The country held a deep and hidden secret of an ancient civilization. With time, the architecture crumbled, but the history survived. Being in that country was a break from the strict rules of European society. "I was happier in Greece-than I have ever been before-or since and if I have ever written [well?] (as the world says I have-but which they will pardon my doubting)-it was in Greece-or off[of] Greece…" (Marchand: Byron: A Portrait 412). From the early days when Byron was just visiting he said, "If I am a poet, the air of Greece has made me one"(Marchand 124). "It is said that the theme that kindled Byron's finest feeling and poetry was the life in death still to be seen in Greece" (Marchand A Critical Introduction 62). The country also kindled his desire to help others and become a hero to people in captivity.