„In die Erinnerung an den englischen Dichter, Lord Byron, ein Freund von Armenien, der für die Befreiung Griechenlands starb“: Byron schloss sich dem griechischen Unabhängigkeitskrieg an und nahm aktiv am Kampf gegen das Osmanische Reich teil und kämpfte zusammen mit griechischen Revolutionären. Er starb an diesem Tag 1824

Byron on 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.”

• “If I am a poet… the air of Greece has made me one.”

• ‘The Isles of Greece’ (1819) is considered one of the most inspiring poems Byron wrote about Greek independence — the initial surge of Philelenism across Europe widely attributed to it. In it, Byron pleads with the Greeks to remember their brilliant heritage and unite to fight for independence. The nearly decade-long war against the Ottomans began less than two years after its publication.

Byron on Armenia:

> I learned the language of the Armenians in order to understand how and what language the Gods spoke, for the Armenian language is the language of the Gods, and Armenia is the homeland of the Gods, and the Gods come from the Ararat valley. There is no other country on the globe that would be as full of wonders as the land of the Armenians.

> It would be difficult, perhaps, to find the annals of the people, less stained by crimes than the annals of the Armenians; whose virtues were always peaceful, and whose inequities were the result of oppression.

> Armenians are the clerics of an enslaved, but noble nation, which was subjected to exile and oppression along with the Jews and Greeks. This nation has acquired wealth without resorting to usury, and all the honors that can be bestowed on one who is in bondage without intrigue.

Byron is considered a national hero in Greece.