Page 317 - Beholding Liberty!

HALL OF THE TROPHIES
while the poet was on a grand tour of Greece with his friend John Cam Hobhouse, in 1810-11.
During his travels around Greece, Byron heard about the barbaric Ottoman custom of drowning unfaithful women by throwing them into the sea.
The poet weaves the tale of Leila, a member of the despotic Ottoman Hassan’s harem. Hassan kills Leila for loving the Giaour, who is Christian, an infidel. The latter, however, avenges her death by killing Hassan. Byron’s The Giaour is an expression
of Orientalism, that is, the Western view of the Orient, including Greece, as a place of exoticism and eroticism.
It was thanks to these qualities that, after its publication in 1813, The Giaour became extremely popular and enjoyed multiple editions – this is the 14th, published in 1815 – and translations; its impact on the visual arts in particular was key to the evolution of the representation of philhellenic themes in art [cat. nos III.8.B.2-5].
II.8.B.2
Francois de Villain (active about 1820-40) after Théodore Géricault (1791-1824) The Giaour, t.p.q. 1823
lithograph, 25.5 × 36.1 cm
signed: Géricault. (bottom left) chez Gihaut V.ard des Italiens N.o 5. (bottom right) inscribed: Le Giaour. (low centre)
Hellenic Parliament Art Collection, inv. n. 378
SCENES AND FIGURES OF FREEDOM The phenomenon of Philhellenism 317