Talk on “Philhellenes” (the text)

 
In Boston, Massachusetts, in 1824, a young woman broke a young man’s heart. Samuel Howe had just qualified as a doctor. A romantic spirit, he idolized Lord Byron and perhaps he knew of Byron’s death, in April that year, at Mesolongi. Aged 23, he sailed to Greece, offering his services to the revolution as a surgeon. But once there, he acquired an appetite for fighting and became a military commander.
 

Howe returned to America in 1827. He brought back with him Lord Byron's helmet and many Greek orphans. He raised about $60,000 – a huge sum in those days – to alleviate famine and suffering in Greece. He set up orphanages on Aegina and Andros.
 
Afterwards, Howe wrote an account of the revolt, Historical Sketch of the Greek Revolution, which was published in 1828. He described a ‘philhellene’ as
 
‘A man, generally, a young man, who was ready and eager to give up ease,  custom, money-getting and go overseas to fight a savage enemy among savage mountains, all for the love of freedom and of that dear land which was next in his affections to his own, the land of the imperishable Ideal.’
 
the term ‘philhellene’
 
Samuel Howe’s definition of ‘philhellene’ was the original definition. It is the definition of a soldier who was a philhellene and knew philhellenes. The first recorded use of ‘philhellene’ in English was in 1824. It soon came to include anyone who supported the Greek struggle to overthrow the Ottomans, not only by fighting, but also by raising funds for it or raising awareness of it. It may be useful to call these men ‘the original philhellenes’.
 
Before then, however, the members of the Φιλική Εταιρεία, the Friendly Society, the intellectual and spiritual drivers of the Greek revolution, had adopted the term Φιλέλλην to describe like-minded people.
 
Once Greece was established as an independent nation, the need for the word ‘philhellene’, fell away and the word fell largely into disuse. It received a revival in the 1960’s and came to mean, additionally, ‘a lover of Greece or Greek language, art, culture’. I will call these ‘modern philhellenes’. The term recognises the effort they make in really getting to know, not only the places of the Hellenic world, but also its language, history and culture.
 
In English, we also have the word ‘Hellenophile’ – a lover of Greece, which was first used in 1880. I believe it is right to draw a distinction between a ‘modern philhellene’ and a ‘lover of Greece’. Between φιλέλληνας and ελληνόφιλος. Visitors who go to Greece usually have a great time, they return there and will get to know Greece, without necessarily becoming students of it. They might well say ‘I love Greece’. But this does not make them ‘philhellenes’. Rather, they are ‘lovers of Greece’.
 
I shall concentrate in this talk on ‘the original philhellenes’ and will assume we are all familiar, in general terms, with the Greek Revolution that began in 1821 and resulted in the creation of an independent Greek nation in 1830.
 

the original philhellenes
 
what inspired them?
 
The Age of Enlightenment was a philosophical and intellectual movement across Europe, primarily in the 18^th century, which emphasised, among other things, reason, liberty and progress. The American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789 – with its slogan ‘liberté, fraternité, égalité’ – were inspirations for many. If there, why not here, people thought? Supporting the Greeks became a way of signalling one’s disapproval of the status quo in one’s own country. In Germany and Switzerland, for example, the young resented the control of much of Europe by Austria and Russia.
 
In Britain, those who had attended public schools – confusingly, these are the ones you pay to attend – and had studied ancient Greek and ancient history, saw the present struggle of the Greeks as a chance to honour and restore the principles of the democracy of the Golden Age of Athens: Samuel Howe’s ‘imperishable ideal’.
 
In short, the most compelling, romantic and spiritual call was that of Freedom -capital F- Freedom.
 
While others saw the Greek’s struggle in political terms – Democracy versus Tyranny. For some, it was a moral issue: Good versus Bad. For others, their concern was what we would now call ‘a humanitarian crisis’ – a wish to alleviate the suffering of war. At its simplest, it was a David versus Goliath struggle – where we always want ‘the little guy’ to win. The Ottomans had occupied ‘Greece’ for 400 years, their power was weakening: the liberation of these oppressed from this oppressor was an idea whose time had now arrived.
 
Not everyone, of course, was so high-minded. For some, the call was adventure – the prospect of being ‘where it was all happening’, running towards the burning cause of the day in the same way a young man will ‘run a mile to see a fire’; some were simply looking for a fight; others were fleeing their creditors, or the law, or their families, or a broken love, like Samuel Howe, or even themselves. Part of Lord Byron’s decision to sail to Greece was to redeem himself, in his own eyes and the public’s, following a scandal. Among the irregular fighting force, there were, as ever, desperados and chancers. Some knew there was always money to be made in a war and fancied themselves to make it. 
 
And perhaps it is worth saying: for some, an element of their wish to see a new nation of Greece was a desire to see the defeat of Mohammedenism, as Islam was called at the time, and to secure a victory for Christianity.
 
who inspired the original philhellenes?
 
Napoleon Bonaparte died in British custody on the island of Elba on 5 May 1821. It took two months for the news to reach Europe but when it did, it stirred the passions of many young people and intellectuals, especially in France where Louis XVIII was an old and reactionary king. Weeks earlier the Greek Revolution had started. It presented a cause for supporters of libertarian principles.
 
Mark Mazower writes ‘The news of [Napoleon]’s passing was, even more so than Byron’s death three years later, something that unified Europe … it gave the Greek struggle a wider significance.’
 
In 1816, the British government had purchased the Parthenon Marbles from Elgin and placed them in the British Museum. The Venus de Milo was found in 1820 and taken to France. In 1821 it went on display in the Louvre. In 1824 Eugène Delacroix painted a canvas 4 metres high depicting "The Massacre at Chios" where, perhaps, 50,000 Greeks were killed and 45,000 enslaved by the Ottomans. It drew large crowds at a major exhibition, also in the Louvre. Two years later, Delacroix painted "Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi" showing Greece as a mourning woman. It too caused something of a sensation. Together, these various works of art raised the profile of the Greek struggle among the educated classes of Europe.
 
The most beloved Englishman for Greeks is Lord George Byron. Like his contemporaries Shelley and Goethe, he had written with passion about Greece, taking an idealised view of its past glories. It should not be under-estimated how such works were capable of inspiring young men of a romantic inclination, such as Samuel Howe.
 
Byron had visited Greece in 1809, aged 21. He did not return till he sailed to join the Revolution in 1823. His visit in 1809 developed his admiration for Greek culture, philosophy, and history and was one of the inspirations for his most famous works, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, and Don Juan.
 

Don Juan was published in 1821. In Canto 3, Byron acknowledges numerous significant events and individuals in the history and culture of ancient Greece. Here is just one stanza from Canto 3:
 
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 Persians’ grave,
I could not deem myself a slave.
 
Byron saw Freedom as a universal right. It is rare for a poet to recognise, as Byron emphatically did, that ‘actions speak louder than words’.
 
When he died, Byron’s body, apart from his heart which the Greeks kept, was returned to England. He was denied a burial in Westminster Abbey on account of his ‘questionable morality’ but huge crowds queued see his body as it lay in state nearby. His death prompted a surge in volunteers heading to fight in Greece and, if the British government had been only half-listening to the Greek cause before, it was listening with both ears now.
 
Napoleon’s death in 1821 had prompted Shelley, in the same year, to write his poem ‘Written on Hearing the News of the Death of Napoleon’ and a verse drama ‘Hellas’ which was the last work he published. His wife, the writer Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, was also a philhellene and, interestingly, in 1824 a Greek publication described her as φιλελληνίδα.
 
who were the original philhellenes?
 
The largest numbers of philhellene volunteers, who actually went and fought in Greece, came from Germany, France and Switzerland. We in Britain like to imagine we were the closest allies of the Greeks but we were not, in terms of the numbers who joined the fight. Significant numbers also came from America and Russia. I have found references to others who came from Finland, Sweden, Poland, Hungary and Italy.
 
There were several points of departure for Greece, many left from Marseille. For the most part, spirited young men, with perhaps some basic military training at school; few had experience of war. Many brought their own weapons and sometimes trouble broke out between them. They caused a headache for the French authorities who were glad to see them set sail. But several of the Italian, German and French philhellenes were veterans of the Napoleonic wars.  Imagine them turning up, wearing their medals on their chests. Imagine the sense of excitement and anticipation on the quay, the bars and coffee shops filling up with volunteers, waiting to embark. The owner of the Café du Parc actually changed its name to Café Ypsilanti.
 
War
 
The first foreign fighters to see action in the Greek revolution took part in the battle of Peta, in Epirus, not far from Arta. This was in July 1822. The Ottomans were 6,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry; the Greeks, under Mavrokordatos – 2,000 Greeks and 93 philhellenes.
 
The philhellenes must soon have asked themselves ‘What have we let ourselves in for?’ A local warlord, Bakolas, really little more than a klepht or bandit, had done a deal with the Ottomans and withdrew his men from the battle, after it had started, and took to the mountains. The battle turned in the Ottomans’ favour. 68 of the Philhellenes were killed. Mavrokordatos retreated to Mesolongi, his reputation badly damaged.
 
what was the philhellenes’ experience of Greece?
 
The passionate, romantic young men who left to fight for Greece had a shock waiting for them: the Greeks of the day were not the Athenians of the Golden Age of Pericles. As Byron acknowledged, the modern Greek was, in part, the product of the long Ottoman age. For the first philhellenes, their first encounter with actual Greeks was usually a disappointment to them. They found the Greeks hopelessly divided among themselves. Local kapetans, in truth, warlords, hated one another every bit as much as they hated their Ottoman masters. They could not be relied upon. Quite different men to the officer classes of Europe.
 
Petrobey Mavromichalis made an appeal for volunteers to come and fight with his ‘Spartan fighters’. It was widely reported across Europe and those who landed, after many days at sea, in Kalamata to join his forces expected to find a well-drilled army. They found, instead, a band of ill-disciplined Maniots. They found mules and camels – a strange sight for many.
 
The southern Peloponnese of the time has been described as being in a state of anarchy. An attempt to form a regular army, independent of the kapetans, was short-lived. The kapetans resented the idea.  Individual philhellenes were liable to be robbed, or killed, by klepts coming from the mountains. Everywhere there were spies of one faction or another; a foreigner was liable, rightly or not, to be accused of spying and to meet a spy’s death. Most volunteers spoke no Greek and could not talk themselves out of trouble. It led to a feeling of isolation and placed a distance between them and those whose cause they had come to support.
 
They often found themselves short of food, accommodation and supplies. They resorted to stealing. They ran out of money. They became weak. They fell ill with malaria, typhus and the plague. They struggled with the heat. In short, many of them quickly became unhappy.
 

Rivalries arose among the philhellenes themselves; a constant reason was that many expected to have the rank of officer and the status that came with it. Many were disappointed to find themselves in the ranks. Men brought with them to Greece the prejudices and resentments their own nation held for other particular nations of Europe. One philhellene wrote’ We are constantly killing each other on the slightest provocation’.
 
Many too were shocked at the hatred the Greeks felt for the Turks and the resulting behaviour of Greeks towards the Turks, particularly so following the occupation of Corinth. When philhellenes intervened to protect Muslim women and children, they risked their own lives.
 
The conclusion of some enlightened commentators was that the Greek character had been degraded by the years of Ottoman occupation and, once liberated, it would be restored.  As a result, magazines and newspapers that had once embraced the Greek cause, now included accounts by those returning from Greece, disillusioned after their bad experiences there.
 
The French authorities made use of fighters returning unhappy from Greece, to address those gathering in Marseille, waiting to go and fight. Many then decided not to go. The great initial rush of those hurrying to Greece had slowed substantially by the end of 1822. Many foreign fighters, though, remained in Greece for several years, like Samuel Howe, and others continued to arrive, although never at the initial rate. The war with the Ottomans dragged on over the next six years, partly as a result of the failure of the Greeks to gather behind a single, charismatic leader.
 
When it was clear the struggle would be a long one, the emphasis now switched to what could be done in the capitals of Europe to better fund and equip the troops that did remain in Greece, to relieve suffering in Greece, and, crucially, to maintain a high level of support for the Greek cause. This would put pressure on the governments of the Great Powers to ‘sort it all out’. Which is what eventually happened. Once the British and French navies arrived in Navarino Bay in 1827, there was only going to be one outcome. But it must be remembered, the English motive was not so much liberate Greece, but to prevent Russia alone expanding its influence into Greece.
 
financing the Greek struggle
 
A simple view of the position is that the significant sums raised by bank loans or from wealthy donors tended to be spent on military supplies and ships, while monies raised by local Greek Committees was increasingly used to provide humanitarian aid.
 
Byron sold his estate near Manchester and used the proceeds, and some savings, to fund his involvement in the Greek struggle: a fund of £20,000. In today’s terms, he was a multi-millionaire. He raised money across Europe to support the Greek cause. He appealed to European governments and the wealthy donors to donate.
 
Byron had sailed for Greece from Genoa in 1823 and spent the autumn on Kefalonia, in the small village of Metaxata. He paused there and sent emissaries to the various rival Greek leaders, ‘taking the temperature’ of the situation, wondering what he would say if offered the Crown of Greece, and imagining what it would be to fight. He sailed to Mesolongi, arriving there on 5 January 1824 and joined up with the forces of Mavrokordatos. In February he became ill and his health would decline until he died of a fever on 19 April.
 
By the end of March 1824, the "Byron brigade" of 30 philhellene officers and about 200 men had been formed, paid for by Byron. From his £20,000 fund, he spent £4,000 re-equipping the Greek fleet and £6,000 to settle a dispute between the Greek leadership and Suliot fighters who were demanding back-pay. Much of his energy was still being spent trying to reconcile the rival Greek leaders He died without seeing military action.
 
Apart from Lord Byron, which British philhellene made the greatest contribution to the Revolution?
 
First, George Canning, a prominent politician who served as Foreign Secretary during most of the Greek Revolution and as Prime Minister from 1827. In recognition of his support for the Greek Revolution, Canning Square Πλατεία Κάνιγγος in Athens is named after him.
 
Second, Edward Codrington, the commander of the fleet of the Great Powers at the decisive battle of Navarino. His orders were to achieve a peaceful resolution to the situation in Greece: the British government did not want the Ottomans defeated, just that Greece should be allowed more autonomy within in the Ottoman empire. But Codrington, a philhellene, engineered a decisive battle and the defeat of the Ottomans.
 
And third, Frank Hastings, like Codrington – a veteran of the Battle of Trafalgar, who contributed £5,000 pounds for the construction of the Greek Navy’s first warship, the "KARTERIA" – “The Endurance” and was its first captain. With a warship of its own, Greece might start to believe it could become a nation.
 
modern philhellenes
 
Finally, let me say that I am sorry not to have had time to speak of the ‘modern philhellenes’, only of the ‘original philhellenes’. Perhaps another time. As a starting point, I have done something that required little effort: I have simply looked at my bookshelves and noted the names I saw who I regard as modern philhellenes – there are, of course, very many others.
 
artists
Edward Lear and John Craxton
 
writers
Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, Peter Levi, Dilys Powell, Victoria Hislop and Bruce Clark
 
poets
Robert Graves, Ruth Padel and Alicia Stallings
 
translators
Kimon Friar, Edmund Keeley, Rae Delven, Rex Warner and Emily Wilson
 
academics
Maurice Bowra, Roderick Beaton and Mark Mazower
 
soldiers
Patrick Leigh Fermor (also, of course, a writer) and Monty Woodhouse
 
diplomats
Michael Llewellyn-Smith and John Kittmer
 
and last, but no means least, Phillip Sherrard (also a translator of Greek poetry) and Metropolitan Kallistos Ware who together prepared the first full English translation of the φιλοκαλία.
 
For me, it is always an honour when a Greek describes me as φιλέλληνας. I am proud to be a philhellene. Had I been 23 in 1824 like Samuel Howe, I wonder, would I have gone to fight for Greece?
 
NOTE:
A Talk of Mr Richard Devereux, Poet - Lawyer and Philhellene, to the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Bristol, on Sunday 21 September 2025.