On Wednesday, March 11, a crowd gathered at the Customs House in Circular Quay, Sydney, to attend a lecture by Professor Will Christie regarding Lord Byron and his contribution to the Greek Independence. It was an incredibly interesting speech that was well received by the public who actively participated in the event during a Q&A after the lecture. The event took place as part of the Greek Sydney Festival.
Christie presented Lord Byron, who gained worldwide fame for his poetry and writings. However, Lord Byron did not accept this fact. His real desire and ambition was to influence political life and become a soldier. He even went as far as to own several helmets made specifically for him.
According to Christie however, these aspirations remained unfulfilled until his death and he was not able to actively contribute to the Greek Independence.
The lecture also included readings of certain Lord Byron poems, with particular emphasis on excerpts referring to Greece. Christie graduated from the University of Sydney and the University of Oxford, while he was a lecturer at the University of Sydney for 35 years, specializing in English Literature.
Lord Byron is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential. He travelled widely across Europe, especially in Italy where he lived for seven years; later, he joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire, for which many Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died one year later at the age of 36 from a fever contracted while in Missolonghi, Greece.
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